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I know it's been a while since I've stopped by.....miss you guys.....hope everyone is doing well. I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.......I'm thinking of purchasing a new home, but the banks will only approve me for the amount of money that I want if I sell the Hummer. I guesss they don't want me to have the added expense of the payment (which really isn't that high). The problem is house prices have skyrocketed to the point where you have to spend over $300K to get a decent house....and we are not talking fancy folks. Also, I am looking to purchase a house in North Carolina (house prices are lower)and commute to VA Beach to work (about 35 miles one way - 70 miles round trip). The best gas mileage I have gotten out of the Hummer since I purchased it is 16.8 mpg....I know I know....people don't by Hummers for the gas mileage, but folks we're talking about 4 gallons of gas per trip to work...YIKES.[:@][:@][:@] I absolutley love my Hummer and I just don't know what to do. AND NO I WON'T BY A TOYOTA PRIUS!!!! [:'(][:'(][:'(]Yuck..... What should I do? I would especially like advice from those who own Hummers and drive a far distance to work everyday?Is there any way (other than the magnets) to get better fuel milage. Any advice?[][]

 

Become a Ho... The world always needs more He-bitches...

Seriously... I understand your problem. If I didn't get hired at the Sheriffs Office this past week, I was looking to have to sell my H3.

We are looking to buy a new home in the next year and the H3 might be on the chopping block too.. But I will do most everything I can to save the Hummer.

Good luck bro.. keep us updated!

 

If there's a will, there's a way. If you can afford both, then go somewhere else for the loan.

Or you can ask for a company car

 

First, regardless of what the lender is telling you, can you afford the mortgage, car payment, fuel and insurance on top of your other expenses? If so, then as blackstangs281 indicated, see if there is another lender available. If you can't cover the costs or you can't get a mortgage with the Hummer, this should be an easy decision. The house is more important than the Hummer. You canbuild equity in the home, not the vehicle. If you live in a hot market, prices will at least stay the same, but more likely will continue to rise-you just need to have a feel for how much room for price growth there is in your area. If you wait too long on the house, you might not be able to get the same house for what you would pay today. Vehicle prices don't tend to rise as fast as property values, so you can always get back into the Hummer (either own or lease) in the future once your expenses are stabilized.

 

I'm with Black on this one ... If I can get approved for a 310K mortgage while maintaining two car loans then by gawd you can with one vehicle loan!

Not sure what bank you are trying to go through but I'd suggest you look for another one. I've NEVER heard anyone being recommended getting rid of a car when trying to get a mortgage unless they make like 900/month and trying to purchase a 350K home. Shop the loan and shop it hard!

 

I have to agree with blackstang..before making any decisions..check all possibilities..good luck.

 

Knotts Island has some nice property...Spent my shore duty there while I was stationed at Oceana

 

While I dont disagree with the idea of shopping around for the loan, I do not necissarily agree with saying that is all you should do. Not everyone can afford the same things as thier friends even though they gross the same annual income. Things like student loans, kid payments, and other long term financial agreements can hamper ones ability to buy. I recommend looking at your financial situation from a open-minded neutral perspective, i.e. if a friend asked you the question you are asking us, and make the best decision for your family. If this means getting rid of the H3, your wife's splurge shopping, and the kid's piano lessons, and these are acceptable sacrafices to your family to buy the house, then do it. If not, look for a different house, or stay wher you are. In the end, you have to live with the payments, and if they areso tight that you must cut back on your lifestyle to squeeze it in they might be too big and cause stress in your life. I went through this a couple of months ago myself. My girlfriend was being evicted because her landlord sold the house her apartment was in and the new owners didn't want her there. We considered buying a house together, but the payments for afixer-upper house were just barely what we could afford together. Tight enough that if either of us lost a couple of hours at work, the payments might get tight. We ultimately decided to just move into my one bedroom apartment until we can save up more down payment to get the payments into a more managable point, and I am out of college. It will be tight for the next couple of years or so, but we should be able to manage, and the knowledge of having a bigger, better house later is the light at the end of the tunnel.

As far as better gas mileage, about the best way to do that is with a seperate vehicle. My commuter car is a Toyota Corolla. I average about 34MPG with it. Granted, it is an '07 and I have payments on it, but if it was ever totalled, or if someone gave me a ligitimate offer for it, I would sell it in a heart beat and buy an older one, like from the '70's for something like $900. I'd put it in the shop and rebuild or replace everything that holds a fluid or is made of rubber. $2000-$3000 for all of this and I have a car that will last for another 20 years or so for less than $5000, and no car payments.

 

I agree with two points made so far:Not everyone can afford the same things, but you should definitely check around for mortgages because like you said, the car note is not that much compared to a 20 or 30 year mortgage. It should not be something that puts you over the top. It's probably more of an excuse on the lender's part to squeeze more points out of you.

I commute about 45 miles to work daily (90 mile round trip). I've taken the train many times, but between my work schedule being variable and the train taking forever to get me home at night, I find myself driving almost all the time. The biggest thing I did to save money was to slow down (gas mileage in the H3 is SO much better around 65 than around 80 mph) and to leave earlier in the morning when I'm not sitting in so much stop and go traffic. I've kicked up my mileage from around 15 mpg to almost 19, which is really a big difference - 280 miles on a tank to about 360, assuming you don't drive until it's bone dry.

I've considered getting a commuter car and probably will after we move. Diesel Jetta is the way to go, it seems - pick up an '03 for about $12 in Jersey and you'll get 45+ mpg, I'm told. But, like I said, waiting until AFTER the move for that.

 

I agree with Linus Gump. You must look at your budget and honestly say to yourself "can we afford it".

I am a bank manager here in Canada and although rates may vary from bank to bank, they all fall under a debt ratio that will likely not change where you are applying.

It is common that a bank will say you qualify for an absorbent amount of money, but common sense should tell you if it is affordable within YOUR budget. As mentioned it depends on the lifestyle you currently enjoy and any other monthly living costs not factored in to a debt ratio. ie. babysitting etc.

I suggest you sit down with your spouse and determine what you deem is a realistic affordable monthly payment that includes heat & taxes. A good ratio to use is 40%. Which means you would take in to consideration all your loans & credit card debt. Add your mtg pmt and heating and taxes and then divide that by your gross annual income. This will give you a snapshot if you are in line or not.

There are several mortgage calculators to be found on the net and you can work some figures with it to detrmine the amount of house you can once again comfortably afford.

Another option may to be to extend the amortization out further, this will in turn reduce the pmt amount.

As much as it may pain you to sell the Hummer, you can always get another one down the road..

Good luck with your decision.