Related topics
- - Why a Down Payment?
- - Calculate Your Down Payment
- - Alternatives to Paying 20 Percent Down
- - Mortgage Basics
- - The Mortgage Process
- - Types of Mortgages
- - Choose the Term of Your Mortgage
- - Government Financing Programs
- - Creative Financing Options
- - Find the Right Lender
- - Get the Best Mortgage
- - Gather Documents and Information
- - Do the Paperwork
- - Kinds of Closing Costs
- - Add It All Up
- - How Much Will You Pay?
- - Reduce Your Closing Costs
How and where you get the money to buy your house? Find your way through the financing maze.
The variety and number of fees you have to pay when you buy a home can set your head spinning. They run the gamut from your lender's $35 credit-check fee to several hundred dollars for a home inspection to thousands of dollars in loan administration fees. But by far the biggest chunk of cash you need to come up with is the down payment, a percentage of your home's purchase price - usually in the range of 3.5 to 20 percent.
For many homebuyers, coming up with the down payment is the biggest obstacle to buying a home. Unless you're independently wealthy, you've had a recent windfall (an inheritance or a lucky horse, for example), or you're selling a home in which you've built up some equity, you probably don't have tens of thousands of dollars lying around to invest in a new home.
