I just wanted some advice, I'd like to know what else I could be doing to prepare to buy another home 2 years from now.
Current info:
We own our home here in California, after the mortgage meltdown it went from being valued at $240k to now being worth $145-149 approx. That's better then it was at the height of the crisis, it was worth $60k. I think one of our biggest hurdles will be selling this house for what we owe on it which is $155k, but we're slowly seeing home values rise here. It's not a hot market here, our town is tiny, as in they built our second stoplight last year and are now building a third. Not exactly a bustling metropolis.A short sell is not appealing so we're hoping that within 2 years the value of our home will go up 10k so we can break even.
As far as our credit hubby and I both have clean reports, his score is right around 760-780 depending on when you ask, mine fluctuates between 799-808 , my all time high was early 2014 at 842. (though I have 2 inquiries that fall off this year, those are my only inquiries). He just paid off a loan and his score dropped a few points, mine stays pretty steady. We have no current loans other then the mortgage. We have no current debt (well I owe about $100 on one card and hubby has a balance of around $2000 on a card). We have no medical debt. Hubby makes $95k a year and I am a home maker. He will be retiring in December after 30 year at his job and starting another job immediately.
We currently have about 20k saved up, most of it is for moving expenses since we will be moving 2 states away and will need to pay travel costs, moving truck and closing costs. We will also need to put probably around 5k into this house to spruce it up for sale.
My question is am I missing anything we should be doing to get ready for the next house other then saving money? We pay all our bills/cards on time and generally in full. Our loan will be a VA loan. The only thing I am doing credit wise is using my cards, paying them in full and waiting for my 2 inquiries to fall off, should I be doing anything else?
I like to plan ahead, especially when there are so many variables that can come up, so any advice you can give would be great. This will be my first house, hubby's second. I am on the mortgage paperwork for this house but I only signed refinance paperwork when that was done in 2007.
So in short my plan:
Wait for home value to go up
Spruce up the house to prepapre to sell
Keep using credit regularly but frugally
Don't apply for any credit over the next 2 years
Save money
Am I missing anything?
