Buying my first home...

[Franco]

Now we can call you a HOMO______________________________________________ wner!

[cfelton]

Congratulations, hope all works out well for you an yours! Theres nothing like owning your own home. Had mine for 19 years and rebuilt it and added on , did it all myself. It was built in 1917. Its kept me busy!

[bcmarinamanager]

Congrats!! I just bought my 2nd about 4 months ago really close to where I launch my boat when I take it out of the water. It may get stressful, but it is well worth it. Let the life long work begin. They always need fixin' or upgrading, it gets addictive, kinda like working on my boat.....

[Blue_Runner]

way to go, now you have a place to leave the boat, drink beer, piss outside without the neighbors complaining, have bonfires.

GarageNC - you just described my pad

[phatdaddy]

Not sure of your financial situation, but adding something extra to the payment will dramatically decrease the life of the note and the amount you ultimately pay. I added 200 a month to a 550 a month payment on a 30 yr note & paid it off in 11 years. I bought in 1990 & was mine in 2001. best of luck

[randlemanboater]

Good advise P-Diddy. I have paid $100 extra per mo. on my 15 year note and it looks like it will be done in about 9 years.

[nipper]

Good advice, Phat. Even if you cannot add an extra amount as large as yours ($200/$550 = 36.36% more), simply paying 1/2 of the monthly mortgage payment every two weeks can reduce the term of a 30 year note down to about 21. By doing that, you actually make an extra monthly payment every year, and every time you can reduce principal it helps. For example, if mortgage payment is $1000 a month, you would pay $12,000 per year via traditional method, or $500 x 26 bi-weekly payments = $13,000 per year, with most of that extra $1000 per year going toward reduction of principal balance.

[phatdaddy]

Yeah, i realize that a 550 monthly payment now days is unrealistic. i'm paying almost 200 a month now in proptaxes & homeowners & i own the house, thats almost half of when i was paying P&I + taxes & ins.
also make sure you are directing the extra money go to the principal..I had a friend who was just sending in an extra payment with the coupon and they were applying it to principal & interest, not principal only...

[Hammerhead]

Congrats Bro. I live close to the ramp I use so I know the drill.

"Honey,...I'm going to check the ramp out,...be back in a bit ".... < didn't tell'r I'm taking the V with me >

[jjjtronics]

THANKS FOR ALL THE + + + + SUPPORT AND GOOD ADVISE !!!
Well, being 45, I have to think carefully about this.
First, the Bank is not going to allow me too much time to pay it off.
Second, I don`t want to be paying until the day I die, I plan to retire someday.
So, the budget for this, is not much. I have to be realistic, and play it smartly. I will be happy with anything that is close to the water anyways, fancy or not. And, I will still have to put gas/maintenance on the V20 ( $$$$$$$ ), and beer/food on my belly, so I have to be carefull.
I am shooting for 15 years max, which will put me @ 60 y.o. when I finish payments, and that concerns me a lot, but I`m going for it anyways.
I is VERY interesting, that by lowering the amount of years from 30 to 20, the payment diference is around $100.oo, and that is not much, and down to 15 from 30, the diference is about $160.oo, not much still. WHAT A DIFERENCE !!!

As soon as I get home this week, I will start the process, and I promise I will post many pictures. And hopefully I will be living on it this summer.

JT