Author Topic: 1 year time frame financial advice  (Read 2054 times)

rugorak

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1 year time frame financial advice
« on: June 21, 2015, 04:46:41 PM »
First the background. My girlfriend and I are living together. House is hers. She has a mortgage and a private loan with a family member. We would like to move to another house. Many reasons including location, land, something that would be ours rather than hers, etc. The 1 year time frame is so that she can finish paying back her family loan and the fact that there are 4 other houses for sale on the street. Plus although we have been dating a while the living together is new and neither of us is so blind to want to rush into anything. But we also are both old enough that we want a long term direction. Right now she is paying the loan back (it is for house repairs, roof, etc.) We are splitting the mortgage. I am putting quite a bit in savings towards a down payment. If/when we bought another house I would have the down payment and anything from this house would roll over into that which in the end would work out to be as much or more than I would have saved.

So my real question is all financial. We are trying to figure out the math on the best way to allocate funds and/or pursue other options. Refinance has been talked about in case we have trouble selling this place. But if we don't have any trouble selling it we could be throwing money away due to costs involved with refinancing. Also we could put a little extra towards the mortgage. Any place I can find some way to crunch the numbers on the refi? Anything I/we might be overlooking? I am thinking the best bet would just be to pay the mortgage as is and save whatever else we can. From what I have seen on refi costs vs savings it takes on average 2+years to break even.

Anyway any advice/direction would be much appreciated.

forummm

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Re: 1 year time frame financial advice
« Reply #1 on: June 21, 2015, 04:52:26 PM »
A red flag goes off for me about buying a property together without being married. You can do it, but do it carefully. I don't have great advice on how to do it, since I never went through it myself. But I have heard a lot of stories where the relationship ended and things didn't go as planned regarding the property. So put some care and thought into that. And others here probably have some good thoughts to share.

NoNonsenseLandlord

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Re: 1 year time frame financial advice
« Reply #2 on: June 21, 2015, 08:17:34 PM »
Move into the current house for a year+.  It will be the cheapest, and if it doesn't work, you have not made her homeless.

fishnfool

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Re: 1 year time frame financial advice
« Reply #3 on: June 21, 2015, 08:33:28 PM »
You say you don't want to rush into anything and then say you want a long term direction. I wouldn't buy anything together until your both ready to make a full commitment. Buying a house together will just make things a lot more complicated. Maybe you guys should stay where your at, see how things go. She could still put her house up for sale and you could both rent a place where you think you want to be, keep saving for a possible investment in the future together if it works out.

Another option if you both still feel strongly about buying something together is she could take out a HELOC and match what you save for a down payment. Keep her house and rent it out and down the road if things work out you guys will have a nice house plus a investment property.

money_bunny

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Re: 1 year time frame financial advice
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2015, 05:37:12 AM »
Move in with her. You two are going to learn a great deal about each other co-habitating for 1-2 years.

If the relationship does not survive that then you move out. Your scenario if it does not work out is one of you will have to buy the other out or sell the asset. Part of that will then mean as a team that is no longer dating what the sales price will be, what offers to accept, and so forth with then all the emotions of being "The Ex."



rugorak

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Re: 1 year time frame financial advice
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2015, 05:09:15 PM »
Already moved in. It is going to be 1+ years of living together when we potentially start looking. We have been dating for almost 4 years so it isn't like this a new relationship. I get all the warnings but I am asking for financial advice. We are keeping things separate enough that should things not work out it won't be an issue if we go our own ways. But assuming we don't and we decide to marry or whatever wouldn't it make sense to have all the financial stuff in order? That is what I(we) are asking for help on.

So when does it make sense to refi and when doesn't it? If it makes you feel better pretend we are already married or it is just one of us. We are just trying to figure out how to save the most amount of money so what ever we decide in 1-2 years we are in the best position financially.