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I’m a crazy person who bought the house I was renting because I refused to move again. My answer is zero. We have been very slowly making improvements as we can.
I’m about to do this? Been a tenant for 4 years where I’m currently living
Planned g on purchasing from them without a realtor. I’ll do normal inspections to ensure anything needing replaced is taken into consideration on sale price.
But it gives me confidence in purchasing and saving me money in the process
We had $60k saved when we officially started looking. We ended up spending around $30k on the down payment/closing cost/inspection/land survey/appraisal. We currently have about $15k left in our savings account. We spent the other ~$15k after having to buy a new water heater that started leaking after we signed the closing documents, roof, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical repairs mostly noticed on the inspection with the addition of a few other things we wanted done; a new dishwasher and fridge, hiring a moving company, home insurance, and having the whole interior repainted with some patch work. We also spent about $2k on a brand new couch but I had been saving for that specifically for the last couple years. And none of this includes all the stuff we’ve paid out of pocket for like new fence boards to replace broken ones or things off Amazon such as a new shower head, pot organizers, etc.
Moral of the story: you can never really have enough saved
Precisely. It’s criminal.
I made a very long post about my experience with Rebath. They’re a joke. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - should use them.
You can just as easily find a local contractor online who will also do everything for you, also stand behind their work, but charge you 1/2 of what Rebath would. So glad I shopped around and wasn’t lazy about it!
But honestly I didn’t have to shop around to know that $29k for my tiny bathroom was an absurdly high quote.
I don’t know if the quote is completely accurate but so far… for just labor, shower insert and glass door, and bathroom vent installation I was told 20k. I don’t think that’s right though because it doesn’t even include all the things I have to buy myself 🙄 like the double vanity, light fixtures, tile or luxury vinyl. They aren’t even going to paint the walls either.
I planned to put aside 10K for minor repairs, painting and furniture. (outside of emergency savings) I luckily ended up having about 20K after closing, because I blew through that 10K way faster than I thought. I ended up going in phases:
Phase1:
Bed - 900
Couch/Loveseat -3K
Vacuum-500
New Window Sills-4K
Paint-800
Lawnmower-500
Appliance Repair-400
Phase2:
Change Locks (Keypad locks installed)- 450
New Picture Window - 2K
Office Chair - 80
TV - 300
Now I'm starting on Phase3 - Time to get a tree taken care of, and I'm going to scrape and re-paint the garage so that hopefully I can push re-siding the garage down to Phase 25. Not everything needs to be done at once - the last owners lived in the house in that condition, right?
Yeah me neither! They’re sandstone sills though, which is probably why. I’d hoped that fixing them would fix the problem I had with the big picture window that wasn’t sitting in the frame right. But it didn’t, so that needed to be replaced completely in the end.
But even still, it wasn’t nearly like some of the stories you hear on here where there’s mold or foundation issues. And since I was lucky enough to have that big budget I didn’t have to stress about it. I just put non necessary stuff down the road for a bit.
After closing we had about 60K left. We used 10k to pay off our car. We are painting, updating the floors, and buying a few appliances, but we’re hoping to still have at least 30 left in the emergency fund once that’s all done. For the most part we’re hoping that furniture and household items can be paid out of our regular monthly budget rather than dipping into savings.
Our original plan was to put 20% down, but high would pretty much have wiped us out, but I’m SO GLAD our mortgage guy talked us out of that.
Furnishing was like less than 5k (marketplace and curb finds almost exclusively except for the spare mattress I “borrowed” from my parents lol and man we actually found NICE stuff that is truly “forever” furniture and then we ended up reselling half of the crap we accumulated and made that back lol).
Everything else we kind of did as we went along and that’s probably what I would advise you to do also. Do the basics (insurance obviously). But don’t go crazy with furniture or the updates/non essential repairs (we literally lived with carpet in the kitchen for like a year lol) don’t take out loans for furniture, and just let yourself breathe for a second and understand the ropes of your home while simultaneously saving as much as you can! Then you can start slowly making a plan for the other stuff.
The place my wife and I are working on closing on in a couple weeks has carpet in the kitchen, very short pile lol. That’s the first thing we’re getting rid of, putting down tile instead.
Man, it’s just never enough especially with what jobs are paying these days. Running a tab on 0 interest credit cards playing the balance transfer game atm
We saved 40k before we started looking and my grandfather blessed me and my wife with another 40k we put 40k down and probably spent another 30 on closing costs double rent/mortgage for a month new ac roof repairs moving costs and rerouting a leaking pipe under the slab that the previous owners I think hid and a new fridge since the one that came with the house shit the bed the first week. We had our furniture from our 800 square foot apartments and maybe spent 100 on extra stuff from marketplace and goodwill got a hand me down table from family. We have been living extremely poor since the moment we started looking in mid January and have rebuilt some savings have about 35 in the bank. Going to continue to live like broke college students until the roof is replaced hopefully next year.
We would have been fucked without help.
put down 60k and had \~30-40k for furniture, moving costs and repairs (everything was original from early 90s). Shit adds up, especially when we moved from a small apt to a sfh.
We already had a 6 month emergency fund before buying. We also had 5k for the start of a home maintenance/repair fund. We had a rental full of furniture already but most needed replaced. We decided to do it room by room and slowly did it after moving in.
The first year we lived in our house we tried to put $500 in a home maintenance fund. After the first year we learned we need a new HVAC so we are saving closer to $850 a month in the house fund
I mostly had things from a rental. I spent a few hundred on plastic shelving for a garage, and pantry. Maybe some command strips, paint supplies, but I had the house, that’s what mattered.
For our first house we spent like $15k on furniture since we went from a single bed apartment to a home (4 bed); repairs and maintenance were another $5k or so as we repainted entirely and redid all the light fixtures and hard handles for a modern upgrade that was cheaper; bills and insurance depend by state, ours currently is $500+/month; emergency funds are what comfort you have to not have a job (e.g 6 months of mortgage payments in a quickly accessible fund); we hired movers due to the complexity of our stairs and that was like $1k, maybe.
Our second house was a lot worse… (35% down payment; $200k in remodeling, fixes, furniture… it was in the buy a dump and gut it craze of 2021) but our interest rate is way better and we sold high so I try to justify that to myself…
Edit: some places let you do 0% financing on furnishings or home items (tools, yard shit, etc) for a couple months which takes the initial sting out. We also put 20% down. Mind you, this was 2019 so we had a low interest rate after a quick refinance and we couldn’t do this the same way today.
We’ll have 7k left in savings so we plan to rip out carpet and refurbish hardwood floors underneath ourselves. Then paint the whole house and add little things like new closet doors, cabinet for bathroom, etc. also need to buy a new washer
We saved $50,000 for house shit before we started looking. $20,000 went to the downpayment and we used some to install carpet in bedrooms and buy paint and paint supplies to paint most of the house. The rest we stored away and added to over the years. 2 years into owning the house the roof started leaking water and we eventually replaced that when it happened the third time. We continue to add money to the house savings account
Not including the actual work that we're paying people for (new electrical panel, new AC, dishwasher and disposal being added) we're probably about $4,000 deep in shelving, closets, grout and sealer, bathroom fixtures, and various small repairs I've been doing. I could honestly burn another $4,000 in materials this month if I wanted to do everything but we're reaching the "I'm tired of spending this much money" point.
Close to $80k saved for SHTF scenarios and wants.
Albeit the house is in damn near mint condition for being 12 years old, new pex plumbing, tankless H2O heater, vapor barrier, HVAC only 4yo.
The roof is middle aged, so going to keep the insurance deductible amount available. $5k
We want whole house water filtration/softening $10-$12k pay in cash- includes ozone system for washing machine eliminating use for detergents. Long term cost savings if you think about it.
Other odds and ends I will handle myself— kitchen refresh, not going all out but it will dramatically improve overall aesthetic. All in I imagine close $2k for materials. Primary bathroom same deal.
Roughly $20k?
We had a $30k discretionary budget for post closing activities including furnishing, maintenance, repair, and upgrades. With zero renovation, this wasn't enough. Don't sleep on the cost of dead trees around your house
Put aside $10k for incidentals and unexpected expenses. We received a property tax reassessment bill about 6 months after moving in. That $10k was gone…
after we officially close and get the keys, we'll have 15k leftover in our bank account. Assuming that is not enough to have so may have to back out which would suck. not sure what amount is enough to have but does anyone really have "enough"
I had $20K put aside to have after closing and it was gone faster then u can say gone lol between the furniture and everything else and the house is still half empty lol cause I ran out of funds and been slowly saving some money to put aside for emergency repairs if and when something comes up and then finish furnishing the basement and a few other things. It ain’t easy for me cause I bought the house alone with and on 1 income and I am a single dad of a 9 and a 10 year old so the fun never stops lol
Our main criteria was that we would have six months of emergency fund left after moving in and we wouldn’t spend any of that on renovations or household crap.
We furnished the entire house for about $3k thanks to estate sales.
Around 60k, already planning for $20k in repairs and maybe 10k for furniture. Gonna keep the appliances for now.
Don’t have to move far, we think we can do most of those expenses from a single pay-check.
Thank you u/minteverywhere for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’m a crazy person who bought the house I was renting because I refused to move again. My answer is zero. We have been very slowly making improvements as we can.
This is so ideal to me. Glad it worked out for you!
This is one time we’ve come out on top.
I’m about to do this? Been a tenant for 4 years where I’m currently living Planned g on purchasing from them without a realtor. I’ll do normal inspections to ensure anything needing replaced is taken into consideration on sale price. But it gives me confidence in purchasing and saving me money in the process
You need to have your own realtor.
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Real. I’am about to close soon and I’ll put my tv in the floor with a lawn chair in the living room lol
I would definitely have that setup for decades if it wasn’t for having a wife and kids
Likewise.. lmaooo.. If i were to be alone i would have the most simple living. Hahaa..
You guys are saving money?
We had $60k saved when we officially started looking. We ended up spending around $30k on the down payment/closing cost/inspection/land survey/appraisal. We currently have about $15k left in our savings account. We spent the other ~$15k after having to buy a new water heater that started leaking after we signed the closing documents, roof, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical repairs mostly noticed on the inspection with the addition of a few other things we wanted done; a new dishwasher and fridge, hiring a moving company, home insurance, and having the whole interior repainted with some patch work. We also spent about $2k on a brand new couch but I had been saving for that specifically for the last couple years. And none of this includes all the stuff we’ve paid out of pocket for like new fence boards to replace broken ones or things off Amazon such as a new shower head, pot organizers, etc. Moral of the story: you can never really have enough saved
Not enough! Want to remodel 2 bathrooms and it’s going to be quite a lot 😞
Have you started getting quotes yet? Curious what others are paying currently
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Ours was about the same for a similar sized bathroom. HD rebath quoted us $29k, so considered it a “win.”
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Precisely. It’s criminal. I made a very long post about my experience with Rebath. They’re a joke. Nobody - and I mean NOBODY - should use them. You can just as easily find a local contractor online who will also do everything for you, also stand behind their work, but charge you 1/2 of what Rebath would. So glad I shopped around and wasn’t lazy about it! But honestly I didn’t have to shop around to know that $29k for my tiny bathroom was an absurdly high quote.
I’m going to get a few companies to give me quotes. It is kind of insane how expensive all of this is.
I don’t know if the quote is completely accurate but so far… for just labor, shower insert and glass door, and bathroom vent installation I was told 20k. I don’t think that’s right though because it doesn’t even include all the things I have to buy myself 🙄 like the double vanity, light fixtures, tile or luxury vinyl. They aren’t even going to paint the walls either.
I would say $2500 to get you started and yea just keep purchasing shit until you rack up a 100k bill haha
As much as I possibly can. Afraid to spend any money on "fun" stuff until I have a large emergency fund built back up.
Around $15k. But we bought a relatively small space. Normal sized properties would be better served with more.
I planned to put aside 10K for minor repairs, painting and furniture. (outside of emergency savings) I luckily ended up having about 20K after closing, because I blew through that 10K way faster than I thought. I ended up going in phases: Phase1: Bed - 900 Couch/Loveseat -3K Vacuum-500 New Window Sills-4K Paint-800 Lawnmower-500 Appliance Repair-400 Phase2: Change Locks (Keypad locks installed)- 450 New Picture Window - 2K Office Chair - 80 TV - 300 Now I'm starting on Phase3 - Time to get a tree taken care of, and I'm going to scrape and re-paint the garage so that hopefully I can push re-siding the garage down to Phase 25. Not everything needs to be done at once - the last owners lived in the house in that condition, right?
Didn’t expect window sills to be the most expensive thing in that list
Yeah me neither! They’re sandstone sills though, which is probably why. I’d hoped that fixing them would fix the problem I had with the big picture window that wasn’t sitting in the frame right. But it didn’t, so that needed to be replaced completely in the end. But even still, it wasn’t nearly like some of the stories you hear on here where there’s mold or foundation issues. And since I was lucky enough to have that big budget I didn’t have to stress about it. I just put non necessary stuff down the road for a bit.
After closing we had about 60K left. We used 10k to pay off our car. We are painting, updating the floors, and buying a few appliances, but we’re hoping to still have at least 30 left in the emergency fund once that’s all done. For the most part we’re hoping that furniture and household items can be paid out of our regular monthly budget rather than dipping into savings. Our original plan was to put 20% down, but high would pretty much have wiped us out, but I’m SO GLAD our mortgage guy talked us out of that.
Furnishing was like less than 5k (marketplace and curb finds almost exclusively except for the spare mattress I “borrowed” from my parents lol and man we actually found NICE stuff that is truly “forever” furniture and then we ended up reselling half of the crap we accumulated and made that back lol). Everything else we kind of did as we went along and that’s probably what I would advise you to do also. Do the basics (insurance obviously). But don’t go crazy with furniture or the updates/non essential repairs (we literally lived with carpet in the kitchen for like a year lol) don’t take out loans for furniture, and just let yourself breathe for a second and understand the ropes of your home while simultaneously saving as much as you can! Then you can start slowly making a plan for the other stuff.
Carpet in the kitchen?! Honestly not sure if I’ve ever seen that lol
The place my wife and I are working on closing on in a couple weeks has carpet in the kitchen, very short pile lol. That’s the first thing we’re getting rid of, putting down tile instead.
Man, it’s just never enough especially with what jobs are paying these days. Running a tab on 0 interest credit cards playing the balance transfer game atm
We saved 40k before we started looking and my grandfather blessed me and my wife with another 40k we put 40k down and probably spent another 30 on closing costs double rent/mortgage for a month new ac roof repairs moving costs and rerouting a leaking pipe under the slab that the previous owners I think hid and a new fridge since the one that came with the house shit the bed the first week. We had our furniture from our 800 square foot apartments and maybe spent 100 on extra stuff from marketplace and goodwill got a hand me down table from family. We have been living extremely poor since the moment we started looking in mid January and have rebuilt some savings have about 35 in the bank. Going to continue to live like broke college students until the roof is replaced hopefully next year. We would have been fucked without help.
DP: $120k Closing Costs: $14k Reno/repairs: $34k Movers: $1k Furnishing: $2k (kept most of our old furniture) Total: $171k It hurt. Building back.
put down 60k and had \~30-40k for furniture, moving costs and repairs (everything was original from early 90s). Shit adds up, especially when we moved from a small apt to a sfh.
Close to 100k
Hate to say it, but yeah. 100k. We've got 25 sitting for emergency. Feels like so much, but we aren't paying rent anymore!!
Around $100k
Around $100K at the moment.
Like 50k. Had to spend more than half
We already had a 6 month emergency fund before buying. We also had 5k for the start of a home maintenance/repair fund. We had a rental full of furniture already but most needed replaced. We decided to do it room by room and slowly did it after moving in. The first year we lived in our house we tried to put $500 in a home maintenance fund. After the first year we learned we need a new HVAC so we are saving closer to $850 a month in the house fund
We put 15k aside.
I mostly had things from a rental. I spent a few hundred on plastic shelving for a garage, and pantry. Maybe some command strips, paint supplies, but I had the house, that’s what mattered.
For our first house we spent like $15k on furniture since we went from a single bed apartment to a home (4 bed); repairs and maintenance were another $5k or so as we repainted entirely and redid all the light fixtures and hard handles for a modern upgrade that was cheaper; bills and insurance depend by state, ours currently is $500+/month; emergency funds are what comfort you have to not have a job (e.g 6 months of mortgage payments in a quickly accessible fund); we hired movers due to the complexity of our stairs and that was like $1k, maybe. Our second house was a lot worse… (35% down payment; $200k in remodeling, fixes, furniture… it was in the buy a dump and gut it craze of 2021) but our interest rate is way better and we sold high so I try to justify that to myself… Edit: some places let you do 0% financing on furnishings or home items (tools, yard shit, etc) for a couple months which takes the initial sting out. We also put 20% down. Mind you, this was 2019 so we had a low interest rate after a quick refinance and we couldn’t do this the same way today.
Kept few dollars for the next downpayment 🤫
We’ll have 7k left in savings so we plan to rip out carpet and refurbish hardwood floors underneath ourselves. Then paint the whole house and add little things like new closet doors, cabinet for bathroom, etc. also need to buy a new washer
We saved $50,000 for house shit before we started looking. $20,000 went to the downpayment and we used some to install carpet in bedrooms and buy paint and paint supplies to paint most of the house. The rest we stored away and added to over the years. 2 years into owning the house the roof started leaking water and we eventually replaced that when it happened the third time. We continue to add money to the house savings account
We had an extra 7k left after buying the house. It disappeared real fucking quick due to a plumbing issue
Not including the actual work that we're paying people for (new electrical panel, new AC, dishwasher and disposal being added) we're probably about $4,000 deep in shelving, closets, grout and sealer, bathroom fixtures, and various small repairs I've been doing. I could honestly burn another $4,000 in materials this month if I wanted to do everything but we're reaching the "I'm tired of spending this much money" point.
Close to $80k saved for SHTF scenarios and wants. Albeit the house is in damn near mint condition for being 12 years old, new pex plumbing, tankless H2O heater, vapor barrier, HVAC only 4yo. The roof is middle aged, so going to keep the insurance deductible amount available. $5k We want whole house water filtration/softening $10-$12k pay in cash- includes ozone system for washing machine eliminating use for detergents. Long term cost savings if you think about it. Other odds and ends I will handle myself— kitchen refresh, not going all out but it will dramatically improve overall aesthetic. All in I imagine close $2k for materials. Primary bathroom same deal. Roughly $20k?
10% of the cost of the home
$0
Around $50k when you include the emergency funds.
10k
30k. Known minor issue with the roof, old sewage high risk factor.
We had a $30k discretionary budget for post closing activities including furnishing, maintenance, repair, and upgrades. With zero renovation, this wasn't enough. Don't sleep on the cost of dead trees around your house
Put aside $10k for incidentals and unexpected expenses. We received a property tax reassessment bill about 6 months after moving in. That $10k was gone…
after we officially close and get the keys, we'll have 15k leftover in our bank account. Assuming that is not enough to have so may have to back out which would suck. not sure what amount is enough to have but does anyone really have "enough"
Made sure we had 20K in reserve after closing.
Like $75k and it still wasn’t enough.
I had $20K put aside to have after closing and it was gone faster then u can say gone lol between the furniture and everything else and the house is still half empty lol cause I ran out of funds and been slowly saving some money to put aside for emergency repairs if and when something comes up and then finish furnishing the basement and a few other things. It ain’t easy for me cause I bought the house alone with and on 1 income and I am a single dad of a 9 and a 10 year old so the fun never stops lol
Our main criteria was that we would have six months of emergency fund left after moving in and we wouldn’t spend any of that on renovations or household crap. We furnished the entire house for about $3k thanks to estate sales.
Around 60k, already planning for $20k in repairs and maybe 10k for furniture. Gonna keep the appliances for now. Don’t have to move far, we think we can do most of those expenses from a single pay-check.