First Time Home Buying Expenses

[Alexander Camacho]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I, will be moving to the Orlando area in roughly a year. We want to start our journey in real estate investing once we move. Right now, our focus is cash reserves for two potential options.

1. Single family residence- get the roof over head and then move forward.

2. Multi-Family residence- live in one and rent the other.

For those familiar with the area, what are some expenses we don’t want to overlook regarding these two options?

Down- 20-25%
Closing- 5-10%
Maintenance/Repairs- 10% 

Thank you for the advice!

[Andrew Postell]

@Alexander Camacho buying your own primary home is good way to get started for many people.  Downpayments can be 3%-5% and then you have downpayment assistance programs (or sometimes called First Time Homebuyer Programs) too.  So, the costs can be even lower.  You can certainly save more but 3%-5% is fine and 3%-5% of the purchase price in closing costs would be fine as well.  Maybe it won't be that high but those are good targets.  

When you buy your own primary home you pledge to occupy it for 1 year.  So, you can buy another primary home after 12 months.  There's some tax advantages to living in it for 2 years but lots of people move every so often into another primary home.

Hope everything works out for you in your move.  Feel free to ask anything else here.  Thanks!