How long did it take you to save for a house downpayment?

krwell

Senior member
Feb 11, 2001
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Hey for you ATers with houses, how long did it take you to save the money for the downpayment? how much did you put down?
 

Evadman

Administrator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Feb 18, 2001
30,990
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2 years for my brother, not sure how much he put down as he has not told me yet ( the asshat ) he bought the flucker this morning. haven't even built it yet.
 

PsychoAndy

Lifer
Dec 31, 2000
10,735
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18 years. I could buy a 2 bedroom 2 bath in the ****iest part of town with 25% down, but under the advice of several people, I'm not.

-PAB

EDIT: 25% is like $11k, and I dont own a house yet but i'm looking!
 

d33pt

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2001
5,654
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been saving for about 3 years..still saving... i'd like to get about a 20% down on a 250-300k home... the sad thing is that the longer i save the more the houses go up.. you just can't win
 

Sluggo

Lifer
Jun 12, 2000
15,488
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Didnt take long, I put down a small down payment on a small starter house. I have moved about every 3-5 years always moving up, and making money on the house I sold.
 

kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
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Originally posted by: bunker
About a week..........stock options :D

How long did you have those stock options?

Took me 3 years of savings for the down payment. The down for the house was $55k.
 

kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,032
1,348
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Originally posted by: d33pt
been saving for about 3 years..still saving... i'd like to get about a 20% down on a 250-300k home... the sad thing is that the longer i save the more the houses go up.. you just can't win

If you see a house that you really like go for it.. if you can't make the 20% down, do a second loan w/o prepayment penalty. That way if the price of the house go up, you got nothing to worry about and you can always pay off the second loan at once whenever you have enough saved up.
 

Maetryx

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2001
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I hit up my sister and an uncle for "gifts". I then decided they needed a "gift" from my credit line account at the bank right after signing for the house.

So I didn't really save. I did the same thing with my second house (after I turned the first one into a rental), only I saved some of the down payment, and got smaller "gifts".
 

DaveJ

Platinum Member
Oct 9, 1999
2,337
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I put down $3600 when I bought my house last year... that plus closing costs put me at about $5K ($86K loan). The house will likely be paid for in 10 years at the rate I'm going... :)

Dave
 

Maetryx

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2001
4,849
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I should also mention that I took out FHA loans that only required a 3% down payment (and $36/month in mortgage insurance). I've already refinanced the first house to a lower, fixed interest rate and no mortgage insurance. My second house has a clause where the mortgage insurance goes away on its own after I build enough equity. Since this is a 15 year mortgage, I'm building equity fast enough to be rid of the mortgage insurance in 4 years, I think.