Looking to buy our first house

[E.intheC]

Hello all

My wife and I are looking to buy our first house together. We are in our late 20's and don't have kids yet, although kids are in our "five year plan". We both work in Northern Nassau County.

We currently live in Roslyn Heights but are looking to move out East, a bit. We like where we are, but you just dont get enough house for your money here.. Not to mention the school is good but there's a lot of money in this town, and we'd rather not send our kids to a school like that. Also, we'd like to move closer to my sister and brother and law, who live on the south shore in Suffolk (exit 68 on the LIE).

We are looking at the greater Smithtown area preferably, but would consider other areas. We'd like to stay relatively close to the LIE (or the north/south highways) and to be frank, the closer to Nassau the better.

Our budget is admittedly low, relative to the area. We are looking to spend less than $300K and should have a downpayment of Aprx $40K around closing.

Any tips on neighborhoods and towns in general would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[thirty6]

Best of luck, im getting set to close this month. Not easy process but exciting none the less

 

[E.intheC]

Thanks, I'm going to need it!

Good luck with your new house as well

 

[cbrsorlo]

good luck.

 

[yesjenks]

Great time to buy!

Check out zillow.com It gives you listings of any house that ever sold. you can compare what's for sale in which area's and determine if the asking price is too high based on other sales in your area. They list taxes and what school district the property is in . . . you can pretty much determine to the $ what your mortgage payment will be.

Good luck!

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

You should have told me bro ,you know I been doing this for the last 2 years lol Patchogue is good,selden,lake ronk, places around that area you can def get a nice house under 300 w/ decent taxes. I didn't want anything over 7k in taxes so I was looking around there. You are going to need around 10 grand for closing costs and you want to make sure you put down 20% because if not it's going to cost you thousands more in the long run paying mortgage insurance plus add about 200-300 a month to your payment. If you can wait then try to get at least 60k in the war chest the more you can put down the better and lower your payments will be. Def watch for taxes because even at 6000 it's 500 a month on top of your mortgage plus homeowners insurance. For example to give you an idea let's say you had a house that was 250k and you put 20% being 50 k and your taxes are let's say 6000 which they will definitely be more you're looking at around 1200-1300 for the loan itself plus 500 for taxes plus homeowners insurance it will probably be around 1800 a month if you don't put 20% you're looking at just about or a little over 2 grand. If the house costs more and taxes are higher obviously that # will increase accordingly. Since I don't know what you guys make I don't know how affordable that is for you but it's definitely not that cheap plus you have to factor all your bills and other expenses on top of it. I have a great realtor that I was using when I was looking out there that I can recommend she is amazing, very attentive,super sweet and very patient. The best realtor I ever had and I have been through MANY! I have an awesome mortgage person as well just give me a call if you need their info.

Oh P.S. Make sure everything is PERFECT with your credit because that is the main deciding factor on your interest rate.

 

[fishman1069]

Good lick pm the house hunt. I live in sound beach, which is on the north shore at the top off exit 63 off the L.I.E. Its a nice town and very close to the beach. Taxes are anywhere from 6k to 12k depending on the neighborhood ( there are several private communities that have the higher taxes.)The east side of town is Rocky Point school district, (which my son goes to and I think they are great! )and the west side is Miller Place school district (also a good school but there's alot of money there) Its about 15 mins to the L.I.E and 20 mins to Smith's Point Beach on the south shore. There are alot of 2-3 bedroom houses for sale in the area. Hth

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

Rocky point is a really nice area with great schools I looked at some houses over there as well.

 

[reefprobe]

Put down as little as possible theres no reason to put down 20-30 k (20-30%)when the rates are so low? Hold on to your money the colsing costs are going to cost you enuf out of pocket expense. All those areas are great if you want to be closer to the nassau border with a good school and close to the LIE think about Commack my relatives live there and they love it but theres a million choices
Take in all in stride

 

[44santababy]

i grew up in ronkonkoma and now most of my friends live there or lake ronkonkoma. Sachem and Connetqout are great school districts. Sadly most of them are underwater...