Know your House Payment Comfort Zone - Fort Hood Real Estate
#2 of the Seven Things you Should Do Before Buying Fort Hood Real Estate
It's exciting news when your lender tells you that you qualify for a much larger and more expensive home than you ever dreamed, but the reality is that lenders don't know how you live and how you like to spend your disposable income.
There's nothing worse than buying too much house, so before you sign on the dotted line to buy your piece of Fort Hood real estate, spend some time working on a realistic budget that includes the expenses involved in owning a home.
You'll find as you work on your budget that expenses can be classified as either fixed or variable.
Your monthly house payment is a fixed expense, usually structured to cover the principle, interest, taxes and insurance for one month. More fixed expenses of owning Fort Hood real estate include utilities (water, electricity, gas, trash and sewer). Some variable costs associated with home ownership would be maintenance costs such as yard care and home repairs.
An example of other fixed expenses are car payments, credit card payments and bills for cable TV, internet services, telephone, student loan payments and other regularly recurring bills.
Variable expenses are the expenses you can usually control, like groceries, gas, recreation, entertainment, interior decorating, clothing and pocket money . If you like to indulge in eating out, going out for entertainment or if you have a hobby you like to spend money on, a big house payment can really cut into your "fun budget!"
Try keeping your income and expenses on an electronic budget worksheet for a couple of months. This analysis will give you a good insight into how much Fort Hood real estate you can comfortably afford based on your actual spending habits.
You'll be glad you know your comfort zone for a house payment BEFORE you sign on the dotted line!
