Real Estate Search Direct

Are you interested in buying  a home, and wondering “How much mortgage can I afford?”

Ivana Newhouse and her fiancé, Homer Buyer were planning to buy a house.  They started looking for a house by driving around looking for “Open House” and “For Sale” signs on houses.  They saw several the first day out and they looked at houses at various prices.

They quickly discovered that they would waste a lot of time if they looked at every house on the market.  They had to find a way to narrow down the list of prospects and the first thing they needed to do was eliminate those that were too expensive.

But exactly how much is too expensive?  How much mortgage could they afford?  That is the first question that most first time home buyers struggle with.

They wanted to determine what kind of monthly payment would be affordable and from that they could calculate what  purchase price they could afford when buying a home.

Homer and Ivana consulted a loan officer at their bank to find out what loan they would qualify for. The loan office pre-approved them for a loan of up to $480,000.00.  He told them that the monthly payment would be about $2500.

When Homer and Ivana purchased their home for $479,000 and then started making their monthly payments, they found that they were running short of cash at the end of each month.

They had considered that their monthly rent had come to practically the same amount as the mortgage payment, so they should be able to afford the payments.   What they didn’t take into consideration were the property taxes, insurance, and how much more their utility bills would be as home owners.  When they turned on the air conditioning in the summer, their monthly electricity bill came  to almost $200 each month.

What do you think they did about this problem?

Homer felt a bit guilty about all the energy they were consuming and their contribution to global warming and the depletion of natural resources.  He believed in renewable energy sources.

Actually, that was one of the reasons they decided to buy a home.  While they were renting an apartment, they didn’t have much choice about where they got their energy from.  Now they had options to build their own alternative energy sources.

Homer received a first time home buyer tax credit check for $8000 from the IRS a couple of months after
they bought their house.  He thought, “This could pay the energy bills for a few years or could pay for solar and wind energy systems that would fill all our energy needs for decades.”

Homer started looking into buying solar panels, batteries, windmills, solar water heating systems.  When he added it all up it came to more than the $8000 he had available.

Homer knew he would save money in the long run if he generated his own energy.  He could even sell excess energy back to the power company.  He just had to figure out how to afford the equipment.

Then Homer found a group called Earth4Energy.com.  They were able to show him ways to save on setting up renewable energy sources.  He ended up with several thousand dollars left from his tax credit.  Homer and Ivana were able to run their air conditioner during the hot summer months and still get paid for excess energy they sold to the power company.

They also had power when there was a power outage in their neighborhood when a transformer blew out.   They were the only house in the neighborhood with lights.

If you are interested in setting up your own alternative energy sources you need to check out Earth4Energy.com.  It can be a lot more affordable to generate your own energy than you expect.  And if you are wondering “How much mortgage can I afford?” this could help you afford more.

Allen Davis

Realestatesearchdirect.com