In article , user says...

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 10:03:54 -0800, Bill wrote:
Prior to buying my house, the realtors kept telling me I was "qualified" for
much more expensive homes than the homes I was looking at. They almost
refused to show me the less expensive homes. I had to say "bye!" and start
to walk out before they got the hint.

Anyway I stuck to my guns and bought something which I could afford *and*
have extra money left over each month. Also I insisted on a fixed rate
mortgage.

I can see where people with little will power (being polite to realtor, not
wanting to "offend" them, etc.) could get themselves in a heap of trouble!


Oh boy, tell me about it. We didn't get pushed at all by our buyer's agent,
but the banks were insane. All we wanted was a $100K loan. The banks kept
pushing back with "But you can qualify for a $200K loan! You should do it!
Real Estate is a solid investment - come on, you can afford it!"

So here we are 12 years later, house almost all paid off, plenty of
money going into retirement and college savings, with enough left over
that we can pretty much do any fun thing we want. Meanwhile, the people
we know who *did* end up getting those larger loans... well, I guess you
can learn to like eating beans and spaghetti almost every night.

Yeah. When I went househunting 13 years ago, I gave the agent my price range
and requirements, told her which requirements were really important and which
were "nice to have's", and that I would be putting 20% down.

Sure, she asked me about what I could qualify for, but I told her I had done the
numbers. I wouldn't talk to her about what I was supposed to be able to qualify
for.

Bascially, I had taken my savings amount and subtracted about three grand on the
advice of a friend as to what I should have on hand for immediate issues. Then
I multiplied that remainder by five. Then I looked in the paper to see what was
on the market for that, if there were a sizable number of 3 br. 2 bath houses
for that. The first year I did that, I didn't like what I saw in the paper.
Rented another year. The next year, a little more savings and big layoffs in
the area where I planned to buy, brought the numbers together.

And financed fixed rate. And knew what that payment was vs. what I'd be renting
for and what I can afford.

It's not rocket surgery
It does take some common sense and restraint.

However, I *have* lived in the California bay area market, and there are some
realities there that make sensible people stretch themselves just to even get
into the market at all. As in, majorly ridiculous prices after decades of
speculative runup. When I was there ('80s), this hadn't extended quite to
Sacramento, though. At any rate, that is why I didn't take any of the zillions
of job opportunities for me in that area.

Cheers,
Banty