I really need some advice here. My lease will be up on my house in Oct, I had really planed on buying at that time but the money for the down($1500)didnt come through like I expected. I dont qualify for no down payment. I can eaisly make the monthly payments, Im paying 750.00 a month now not by choice but thats a different storey. I have excellent rental history. I live a frugal lifestyle I dont eat out, dont go to movies, dont have a tv by choice, I have tried to live as close to a homestead lifestyle as possible in this house but I really want my oun place out a little ways from town. Im looking for a small house or mobile with a large lot. When I have applied for a loan they want to know why I dont have a down payment, there is no way with this much rent. I am open to all advice or sugesstions.If anybody out there in Buckeye, Phoenix, Youngtown or surrounding areas in Az that would be intrested in carrying a mortgage so your property will be well taken care of please e-mail me. Thanks in advance for your help. Roxanne

-- Roxanne (Roxanne@143webtv.net), June 05, 2001

Answers

You didn't explain why your rent is $750 a month but that really seems high for a house they would sell for as small a down as $1500. You said the reason you could not come up with the down is the cost of the rent. When your lease is up consider moving to a place with lower rent so you can save up a down payment. Here in Ala. $750 per month will buy a good size farm with a house. I know things are higher in other areas but you are doing all the right things to accomplish what you want except for the cost of the rent. Its just too high.

-- David (bluewaterfarm@mindspring.com), June 05, 2001.

David, Roxanne obviously lives in the Phoenix area and rent there is getting very high. My son lives there now and was telling me how high rent has gotten in the past couple of years. We used to live there and found rent to be comparably to most good sized cities at that time - much less than CA though.

Roxanne, take part of your pay check each week and immediately put it in a savings account and then don't touch it. It might take some time to save up the money, but you would be amazed at how quickly your savings grows. Consider taking a second part-time job for a while - work is good in the valley right now from what my son tells me.

I would be cautious about land contracts in AZ. There are a lot of scammers out there that buy up foreclosed houses and then re-sell them with high mortgages and then they never make the payments on the underlying mortgages and your place is foreclosed on and all of the payments you have made are gone. You can check on foreclosed housing yourself and there are programs that help first time buyers - call some local realtors in the area you are looking. There are some that deal in the foreclosed market.

Good luck.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), June 06, 2001.

You may want to ask around about a lease/option, where they put away a part of your lease payment for the downpayment and at the end of the lease period you can opt to buy with your "saved" down or walk away leaving the down amount to the seller. Do a search for you area under lease option.

-- Stacia in OK (oneclassycowgirl@aol.com), June 06, 2001.

Roxanne- Not sure what your situation is, but I find it hard to believe that in at least 4 months' time you cannot come up with a $1500 down payment. If you can "easily" make a $750/month rent payment then it does not sound as if you are strapped financially. Isn't there some room in your budget to put aside a few hundred dollars a month? Take Beckie's advice and start SAVING now. Also, could you not get a part time job to supplement your current income? With 4 months left on your lease, you would only need to bring home around $93.75/week to save up $1500 by the time Oct rolls around. Surely you could bite the bullet and work extra hard for a short period of time if it meant getting the house that you want. Here's another idea- when one of my sisters died from epilepsy another sister and I wanted to sponser seizure alert dogs for epileptics who could not afford them. But, I had quit my job to stay home and care for my late sister's kids, and although I had some money saved, I was reluctant to spend it for charitable causes at the time- I was afraid if I did, I would wind up being the next charitable cause! What we did was start a little fund raiser called "Cans For Canines". We had a lot of my sister's pool cleaning customers save their aluminum cans, and other scrap aluminum for us. My sister would have her employees collect the cans while doing their routes; my nephews and I would crush and bag all the cans; and whenever we had a pickup load we would take them to the recycling center. At the time I think we were averaging about $80/week. I also had a few area merchants save scrap for us- like the store that installs window blinds. We got the old aluminum blinds and all the aluminum strips and tracks, etc. You would not think of it as a source of income, but there is huge potential. We stopped doing it when I went back to work- I just did not have time to "process" all the cans- there is still a mountain of them behind the barn which I need to clear out this summer. But, I swear, when I quit my job for good, (soon, I hope), I am going to start a scrap route for myself. I am an avid recycler, and this helps satisfy my need to "clean things up". This is just one idea- there are an infinite number of ways to make extra money when you want or need to.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), June 06, 2001.

Roxanne,

If you are working for wages and are NOT self-employed you can "get more money" by filing a new W-4 with your employer and raise the number of withholding exemptions. If you are single, your employer probably has you down for "zero" exemptions. That means the IRS is taking the maximum from your pay. By claiming more exemptions on the W-4, you get a "pay raise" (hey, it's your own money!). You can claim up to 9 exemptions legally without an explanation. This is perfectly legal and ethical! My wife and I do it as do friends and family members. Why should the Government keep your money for a year interest free? It's better to owe the IRS a little or possibly nothing next April 15th, than to let the buggers hold a big chunk of your money when you obviously need it a lot more than they do. In a few weeks you'll have your $1500. Good luck! Mike in Mich.

-- Mike (md49307@yahoo.com), June 09, 2001.