Feasible first mortgage? HELP!

Anonymous · ‎12-07-2014

Hi everyone,

I'm 29 years old, currently living at home and my goal for 2015 is to aggressively save money and purchase home. I am an engineer and I have several hobbies that require extra space (think workshop, audio studio, etc.) so, I'm looking for a house with some room, most likely an acre+. With that being said, here are some stats...

Credit. Recent free reports show 788 from TransUnion and 703 from Equifax.
Income. $101,000 annual salary.
Source of income. Engineering employment.
Monthly debt payments. Currently have about $11,000 in student loan debt which I could totally pay off or strategically lower to some value. Roughly $650 monthly payments for student loan plus car insurance, phone bill, etc. No rent, no other loans.
Employment (for those who are employed). Steady employment for over 6 years, income has risen every year.
Assets/Reserves. 401k has roughly $35,000. By the end of 2015 if I saved aggressively instead of paying off student loan debt, I could have over $40,000 cash on hand.
Location. Maryland. Mainly Howard and Carroll counties. Possibly Baltimore County.
Property. Only interested in single family homes. Would love to buy a lot and design my own home, but that's probably too lofty for a first home buy.
Value. $250,000 - $340,000 seems like a reasonable value currently for the homes on zillow with acreage. By the end of 2015, perhaps they will have fallen in price.
Occupancy. Primary residence.
Transaction Type. Looking to do a 30 year loan. I think I will stay away from FHA unless there is a really good reason. I am planning to stay in the home for some time, so I would prefer fixed rates.

Anonymous · ‎12-07-2014

Im not sure what type of help you are asking about? It seems like you have the situation well in hand. Good luck finding your dream home!

Anonymous · ‎12-08-2014

haha sorry, i guess i didn't actually write a question.

i just wanted to see if that is a reasonable range to be looking at. I want to be realistic about what I can afford.

more specifically, I am curious about how long it might take to raise my credit upto an 'above average' range and how much that would actually impact the mortgage i could qualify for.

Gunnar419 · ‎12-08-2014

You're looking very good from what you've described. Nice work.

What's your credit card picture? Do you have at least three cards and is your util on them good?

edcampbell613 · ‎12-08-2014

There are some great payment calculators out there ofr your mobile phone that will calculate PITI and give you a better idea.

You just need to know the county/state tax rate and a guesstimate on HOI

Anonymous · ‎12-08-2014

thanks!

I have three credit cards with an average age of 6 years+, but until now I never paid close attention to my utilization. I was always under the impression that as long as you never carried a balance it would result in great credit. So a lot of my monthly reportings show 50% high utilization or 0%... I never realized how to play that game of keeping it consistently at 10%.

Anonymous · ‎12-09-2014

UTI has no 'memory', so previous months percentage do not impact the current month. In effect, its not something you have to maintain consistently. Just get it below ten percent before doing a lender pull.