First of all, buying a house is our last option. My wife and I want to rent a home(not apartment). We are working poor and the extra money included in renting more than offsets the cost of future home repairs that we could never afford and would absolutely have to finance.
We've been in our house 5 years paying $750/month for rent, utilities not included. I don't know much about home improvements or construction, but even to my untrained eye this is a money pit for the owners. The foundation is literally crumbling. One side of the house has sank measurably in the time we've been here. The floor around the toilet is rotting all the way down to the basement. There is visible mold on the paint above the shower. The bathroom needs gutting and rebuilt from the ground up. You might ask why we would live here in the first place, but frankly, we were lucky to get it. It's a house with a garage(also shitty) but the neighborhood isn't terrible. We live and work in a small, rural community and we actually do love our little town so a house in town is must. I walk to work and love it. Problem is, the rental market for single family homes is atrocious.
A few nights ago our landlords showed up and told us that they had the house appraised. We knew this, they have been good landlords. They said it appraised way higher than they thought and they want to put it on the market, but they wanted to give us a chance to buy it.
We've been perfect renters so I thought that was why. They asked why we don't buy and I said it was because we have no savings. We live paycheck to paycheck. He gave me info on a place that does USDA no money down loans and I said I'd look into it. As soon as they left I told my wife I'd sooner bulldoze this place than buy it, but I'd look into it. My instinct tells me two things:
- Buying a home with no money down and no savings is financial suicide and...
- These guys bought a shit house at the right time(probably 08-10) and now got it appraised for way more than anyone would pay for it so they're trying to get out from underneath a money pit at our expense.
Questions:
We're renters right? Buying a house in our situation seems stupid.
If no rentals worth a damn pop up in the next couple months we might be forced to buy a house. There are many in our area on the market. Is a USDA no money down loan an absolute no-go? Our entire county is considered rural so houses in town are available.
Fears:
I'm afraid of going "under water"
I'm afraid we will have a major repair(roofing, heating, structural damage, etc) that we will have to finance and tack on to our mortgage, thus burying us in payments we could've easily avoided by renting.
I'm afraid we get forced to buy and there's no way out of crippling debt. We're already poor, we don't need any more payments.
Edit: WE ARE NOT BUYING THIS HOUSE! The loan would be for another, presumably decent house that doesn't need a ton of repairs.
Submitted August 14, 2019 at 07:32PM by zoomzilla https://ift.tt/2Z2XCzg
