First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit

Filed Under ( , ) by Joe Somebody on Friday, March 4, 2011

I was unforntuante to find a house in time for the governemnt tax credit. It sure would have been nice to get an extra $8,000 USD to renovate with. Overall I still think I came out ahead. If I would have purchased the same property I am in now, I would have paid almost $43,000 more!!! Yes, thats not a typo. Thats how much the bank has slowly taken off the price, since it went on the market. I am much hapier now. I would have been looking for first time home buyer grants if that was the case. I would have become house poor if the purchase was made last year. And for those who dont know. House Poor is when you have a mortgage and almost all your money goes towards it. You barely have enough money to do anything else. So you end up stuck in your home.

With my current situation I am not house poor. I am paying a little bit more a month but its worth it. Every payment I make, a portion of that goes into my pocket. When you are paying rent, that does not happen. You are lining someone elses pockets.

So if I were to have any tips for a first time home buyer, it would only be one. Be patient. I saw a number of houses that I thought was perfect in every way. Some I bid on and lost. Some were just to far out of my price range. All I did was get frustrated about it but in the end I knew it would work out. And trust me it did. I was able to get a steal on this house. I already have about $30,000 USD in equity and thats only going to go up as improvments are made to the home. Who knows what the housing market trend will do. But right now I think we are close to the bottom. It should start going up over the next 2-5 years.

Now you may be thinking. I got lucky. I dont feel it was luck. I did a lot of research and a lot of looking. I knew I wanted to have prebuilt equity in the home. This made me feel safer making a huge purchase like this. Everyday I still look at houses. Deals like this are still out there. You just have to look for them. Learn what areas are popular. Read about school districts. Look at how longs houses take to sell in a particular area. Watch was houses actually sell for. All of these will give you a better understanding of what houses are worth.

(12) Comments

Comments:

12 Responses to “First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit”

  1. Siphil on March 4, 2011 at 5:30 AM #

    This is excellent advice, buying a home is not something you want to jump the gun on, or it could come back to bite you in the ass.

  2. Anonymous on March 4, 2011 at 10:16 AM #

    Well it's always good to save money.

  3. Tasos on March 4, 2011 at 12:04 PM #

    be patient and keep searching. you'll eventually find a good deal that suits you

  4. S.S. on March 4, 2011 at 4:29 PM #

    Thanks for the tips :]

  5. MacAttack on March 5, 2011 at 3:56 AM #

    Reading your blog every other day really interests me. I'm excited to buy my own home in the future..

  6. Patwa on March 5, 2011 at 4:16 AM #

    thanks for advice ^^

  7. Armenia the Finest on March 5, 2011 at 9:14 AM #

    Great advice! keep it up

  8. Meltedsnowgirl on March 5, 2011 at 12:55 PM #

    We're still gonna try for ours! Nova Scotia gives one.

    Mmmm Would be nice things are starting to hurt here.

  9. -inastateofblue on March 5, 2011 at 3:48 PM #

    Yeah just keep searching. Good luck!

  10. Jorge on March 5, 2011 at 5:12 PM #

    My brother and his fiancée are currently looking for a house. I'll be sure to give them this advice.

  11. A on March 5, 2011 at 5:24 PM #

    Oh man you got it good, here house prices are ridiculously high, it makes it hard for people that don't have a career, weren't born here or that weren't born with a lot of money hard to get one...

    I'm happy for you man!

  12. Neuro on March 5, 2011 at 6:09 PM #

    They have first time homebuyer grants over here in Aus but they've slowly deteriorated to the point where they're next to useless now.

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