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Need Help....Can I buy land with little or no money down?

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TheISHT

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My wife and I have really good credit. I want to buy some land but I'm not sure how to go about it. Do I have to put 20% down? Are there places that will let you put no money down?

Do you people have any friends that are loan officers?

Any info is appreciated.
 
Most banks don't do land loans, so your biggest obstacle is finding somebody to finance land.

Down payment will probably factor on your debt to income as well as credit score. If you are in great shape in both of those departments, they may be willing to work with you. However, since the real estate market is in a dump, you would also have to find somebody to give you a deal under fair market value since the lender is probably not willing to take the risk. When my bank did lend on land, the would only go 75% LTV. So not putting money down is going to be a long shot.
 
Do you plan on building right away? That could help with financing because you get a construction loan which you pay on until the project is complete and then you transfer that to a normal mortgage.

Banks will lend for land purchases, but your specific conditions will determine your terms.
 
I wanna buy property now and build later.

1. Right now I'm still trying to find a job, Wife has had the same job for 7 years making 65-75k.
2. I've never paid interest on Credit card debt in my life. So no credit card debt.
Only Debt I have:
House (small condo)
1 Car (almost paid off)
1 student load for 17K that hasn't started yet
Normal monthly bills, gas, electric, phone, and cable.
 
my guess is no, but im not positive.

I just made an offer on a house and have applied to 3 places to see who can give me the best rate for a mortgage. I am 26, salary in the mid 50s, have a credit score at 770, have 1 car paid off, one car loan for 20k, and about 12 K in student loans. The absolute biggest factor I keep running into is down payment and I am looking to put down 10% (closing costs and 5% covered by parents)

Everyone I talk to says I have great credit, they arent worried about the loans, but my options are very limited. I have been told my options for a mortgage are either a government backed one (those require having a house on the property) or my credit union which has a special program running for first time home buyers (has to be a livable house) and both options require putting down at least 5%.
 
From what I heard, if you buy land and then build a house on it, the land (which you have to pay cash for) counts as your down payment. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
my guess is no, but im not positive.

I just made an offer on a house and have applied to 3 places to see who can give me the best rate for a mortgage. I am 26, salary in the mid 50s, have a credit score at 770, have 1 car paid off, one car loan for 20k, and about 12 K in student loans. The absolute biggest factor I keep running into is down payment and I am looking to put down 10% (closing costs and 5% covered by parents)

Everyone I talk to says I have great credit, they arent worried about the loans, but my options are very limited. I have been told my options for a mortgage are either a government backed one (those require having a house on the property) or my credit union which has a special program running for first time home buyers (has to be a livable house) and both options require putting down at least 5%.

The days of 0 down are done and gone. I used to get first time home buyers in a house and have them leave with a check at closing instead of having to invest one penny.

You're looking at a minimum of 5% conventional, or 3% FHA. Go with the conventional whenever possible because your costs are typically higher by going FHA and you can even find programs with no mortgage insurance at 5%. Although this is not as big a deal as it used to be as those fees are now tax deductable just like your interest.

When I was 21 I bought my first house with really nothing down. You said you have one car paid off, try using that to obtain a loan toward the 5% you need down.

I leveraged a Honda Accord I had at the time to get a loan that would cover my 5% needed for the down payment.
 
From what I heard, if you buy land and then build a house on it, the land (which you have to pay cash for) counts as your down payment. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

You don't have to pay cash for the land. If you have said equity in the land, the bank may use that as collateral to secure the loan.

I've done a lot more with builders who owned the land that my purchasers were buying, but when the owner owned the land it went a little different.

When I've dealt with this in the past, my client would have to obtain a loan on the land and then submit for a construction loan to build. The construction loan is usually doled out in phases of the construction process and you're paying on it the whole time you build.

After that, you get a bank to give you a mortgage, which covers the entire process by combining the construction loan and land loan into one normal home mortgage.

A big problem that is occuring now is that people will get the construction loan, but then can't get the bank to mortgage the property. You see that a lot with odd houses that the bank can't prove value for underwriting.
 
The days of 0 down are done and gone. I used to get first time home buyers in a house and have them leave with a check at closing instead of having to invest one penny.

You're looking at a minimum of 5% conventional, or 3% FHA. Go with the conventional whenever possible because your costs are typically higher by going FHA and you can even find programs with no mortgage insurance at 5%. Although this is not as big a deal as it used to be as those fees are now tax deductable just like your interest.

When I was 21 I bought my first house with really nothing down. You said you have one car paid off, try using that to obtain a loan toward the 5% you need down.

I leveraged a Honda Accord I had at the time to get a loan that would cover my 5% needed for the down payment.

Oh Im fine, I was just trying to explain to the poster he probably wont be able to get the land without money down.

Im looking at a 5/1 ARM, and basically I know I wont be in the house for anymore than 2 years max (probably just 1-its a foreclosure that needs work that I would fix up and look to resell if the money was right) so Im not too worried about long term costs just what the APR is going to be. that said the 2 mortgage places Im not affiliated with said it would just be a lot easier to go FHA, though i did qualify for a conventional but at a much higher interest rate. my credit union is going to give me an 80% loan, with a 10% home equity loan. the 80% ARM 5/1 is going to be around 3.4%, and the other 10% is tied to the wall street journal rate +.75 re-adjusted quarterly. Im not ecstatic about that second part but whatever.
 
Owner financing is the best way here. Lot's of land is up for sale with owner financing.
 
Not really relevant to this thread, but, we bought Alaska for 2.3 cents per acre
 

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