advice for first time home buyer?
Cliftnotes: Semi-newly wed 23yr olds thinking about home buying. Combined income of 72k. Looking at houses in the 110-140 range. I have no credit history. Any suggestions/what should I expect.
Background:
I'm 23. Married 5 months ago. Currently renting. I figure my wife (23) and I are about 6-12 months out from buying a house. Neither one of us knows much about real estate. We both moved to Huntsville, AL when I graduated college for my job. I work in project-management for a defense contractor. Good industry, good future. She works in retail. We have no plans to leave Huntsville in any foreseeable future. The cost of living is pretty low around here. We dont have kids, and plan to wait until we are about 30. Once we have kids, my wife will not be working.
Financials:
I make 42k/yr. I can expect 4-8% raises every year with my current position/job. However, 100k/yr is a extreamly attainable by the time I'm 30 as long as I switch jobs/positions a couple times. There are like a billion defense contractors in this city. My wife makes 30k/yr and it will probably not ever substantially increase.
Our only debt is 15kish in student loans from my wife. We just finished paying off her credit card that had about 5k on it. Her credit score should be pretty good. No late payments ever. I assume I have a credit score of 0. I've never barrowed any money. I just applied for a credit card last week for the first time. I was given a $1000 credit line. In general I hate debt. I plan on using the card and paying it off each month.
We have about 10k spread accross savings/checking. On our current budget we are saving 2k/month(I assume this will end up going towards a down payment.)
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I think (unless someone has some input on this) we will be looking for a house in the 110,000-140,000 range. I also think I would like to do a 15/yr mortgage. We would plan on living in this house until kids time, so a 3/2, 1250-1600 sq/ft house isnt too small, and is what we are looking at.
Any suggestions/input? Anyone have first-time home buying advice?
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