Hi all - thanks in advance for any feedback related to my situation.
Personal
I'm a single, 25 year old, with a stable job in the central NJ area. For the last couple years I've been renting, paying ~$1,500 / mo, and I just can't stomach it anymore. I understand that buying has its own drawbacks, but I think I'm ready at this point. I'm happy with my current job and my employer has multiple locations in the area, so its likely I'll remain where I'm at for the foreseeable future. I'm entertaining the idea of purchasing a condo (~$150-200K) 6-7 months from now when my current lease expires. I think I'm in a decent position to comfortably put 20% down, but I'm looking for further advice on that front.
Financial
- $80K gross income
- $5K (after taxes) year-end bonus expected Q1 2018
- $35K in savings
- $20K in retirement accounts ($10K Roth IRA/$10K Roth 401K)
- $10K in HSA
My credit score is around 800, but I do have nearly 20 credit cards. I'll confess I churn to take advantage of sign-up bonuses. However, I'm not utilizing a significant % of my available balance (1-2%). Hard inquiries in the last year probably total around 5 at the moment. I'm a little bit concerned about this affecting my ability to secure an attractive mortgage rate.
Side Note
My employer offers legal insurance for about $200/yr. One of the services covered is buying/selling real estate. I'm not sure how much attorney's fees typically amount to and if it might be worth purchasing this insurance given that I'm interested in buying in the next year.
Thanks!
Submitted October 20, 2017 at 06:00PM by zkreflex http://ift.tt/2xUb0Ur
