How to estimate home costs?

[AutoEuphoria]

For the past few years I have been renting our current place from my mother. She lives in AZ, and gave us a good deal to rent out the place from her while she is out there. Now that I'm married, we obviously want to get our own place, however our financial situation is a little tight, so we want to make sure that we are looking only at things that we can afford 100%. Problem is, the way my mom was renting to us was basically a flat fee, since all of the bills were still in her name. Our rent covered most of those bills, but I never saw the actual amounts (like I said, she was really working out a very good deal for us).

My issue is that I have no way to figure out what a normal electrical bill, water bill, tax bill, insurance, etc would cost...all that extra stuff on top of normal rent. Are there any good figures out there that might help us with this? I know it's going to vary a lot from situation to situation depending on a number of factors, but any sort of estimation would be helpful. I honestly don't even know where to start, and my biggest fear would be getting into a place and finding out that we can't afford to keep the lights on.

Thanks for any help!

 

[SVTSINR]

Why don't you just ask your mom what she pays for utilities? It will be more accurate then the responses you will get from here.

 

[jhilla68]

Square footage and types of appliances are going to be a huge driver on the utilities. You can look up the tax assessments for any properties you're currently interested in through the city/town assessor's office. Also, most real estate listings will have estimated property taxes.

When/if you do go out on your own, I'd recommend getting on the utility budget plan so your bills are consistent each month (gas/electric). You won't have the wild fluctuations for cold winters and hot summers. When establishing your budget, always tack on a few extra bucks so you're not stressing yourself over paying your monthly bills. Doesn't hurt to be realistic/conservative.

 

[Anthony]

Ask a neighbor, most likely the houses are pretty similar.

 

[MentalMisfit]

I'd say ask what your current bills are from your mom everyones usage is different. I get away with a $33 a month waterbill my sisters is closer to $65. I have my electricity and gas on budget plans. I dont like having $20 gas bills in summer then first time the heat is on for a bit get hit with a $150+ bill so I pay like $68 a month for gas and about 80 a month for electricity. Also on the budget plan due to the A/C. They adjust it for usage so it will move up and down a bit with usage.

And as far as houses go the 10% rule is fairly close usually if not a little over. So if your looking at a 100k house your house payment with taxes and insurance will be pretty close to 1000 a month.

 

[Justindwright]

I live in a 1100sq ft brick ranch in allen park (2 people living in the house that take showers once, sometimes twice a day).. we get our water from detroit, I pay about 17-18 bucks a month for water. Gas/electric is about 115/month on the DTE budget plan where they average it as mentioned above. My house is insured for 150k or something like that and its about 600 bucks a year.

 

[POPPAJ]

Start poppin out those grand kids, you'll be able to stay there forever!

 

[braxx]

Here are the averages of what I pay a month with a 1,800 sq ft home plus a finished basement
House Payment with taxes and insurance $925
DTE Energy (Gas and Electric) $206
Sprint (5 lines) $205
W.O.W.(TV, Internet & Phone) $188
Water Bill $70
Car Insurance $143
GYM $40
Netflix $8

 

[sidewayscoupe]

Why don't you just ask your mom what she pays for utilities? It will be more accurate then the responses you will get from here.

X2

Im with stupid!

 

[SVTSINR]

X2

Im with stupid!

I don't want to list what I pay, it will only make me wanna cry..

 

[Anthony]

Mo money
Mo problems

 

[ReiKo]

Mo money
Mo problems

:werd:

 

[Killjoy]

Square footage and types of appliances are going to be a huge driver on the utilities.

+1. Plus age of the house and where it is (your profile says Midland). Propane is a LOT more expensive than NG. You're looking at buying something similar to your current place, or are you going bigger or a diff location?

we get our water from detroit, I pay about 17-18 bucks a month for water.

How? I'm single, 1 shower per day, 2 loads of laundry per week, and my bill is easily > $100 per quarter, ~$33/month.


And not to be a Debbie Downer, but assuming you care about your mom, you may want to think about what impact it's going to have on her if you move out. Is she going to have to sell it in very down market? Renting it out has it's own set of problems too. Just something to consider, although I do "get" wanting to be 100% on your own.

 

[81z28]

These are just round about off the top of my head. Our house is 1850 sqft ranch with 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs.

Electric 60-90 mo
Propane 135 mo (add electric and propane together and it should be a little higher than natural gas for a consumers combined bill, you can do budget pay as well where you just pay the same every month.)
phone 29.99 mo
internet 29.99 mo
Cable 39.99 mo
house ins for a 265k replacement value 650 a year
Property taxes 3k per year

I have septic and well water so I cant even guess at that.

Live well below your means and you will always be able to make due, never know when you or your wife might lose a job and take a 20k pay cut. LOL
always have a couple grand for emergency repairs, hot water heater, furnace, oven and so on.

 

[ReiKo]

For the past few years I have been renting our current place from my mother. She lives in AZ, and gave us a good deal to rent out the place from her while she is out there. Now that I'm married, we obviously want to get our own place, however our financial situation is a little tight, so we want to make sure that we are looking only at things that we can afford 100%. Problem is, the way my mom was renting to us was basically a flat fee, since all of the bills were still in her name. Our rent covered most of those bills, but I never saw the actual amounts (like I said, she was really working out a very good deal for us).

My issue is that I have no way to figure out what a normal electrical bill, water bill, tax bill, insurance, etc would cost...all that extra stuff on top of normal rent. Are there any good figures out there that might help us with this? I know it's going to vary a lot from situation to situation depending on a number of factors, but any sort of estimation would be helpful. I honestly don't even know where to start, and my biggest fear would be getting into a place and finding out that we can't afford to keep the lights on.

Thanks for any help!

Best bet is to ask your mom for eletric and gas... And go on a budget plan.. I don't have one for the simple fact it's the same in the end regardless $$$ wise...

It can flucate very... Pass few monthes of mine posted below... August was $350 for the simple fact I kept my a/c at 68* without telling my g/f cause I love to come to a cold house after a long day at work...


$113.57 Sept
$342.41 August
$108.65 July
$116.96 June
$82.56 May

 

[Stalker]

And as far as houses go the 10% rule is fairly close usually if not a little over. So if your looking at a 100k house your house payment with taxes and insurance will be pretty close to 1000 a month.

I don't think that applies at all. $1000/month with good credit should get you about 150k house if not more. My house was 200k and I pay 1264 for PITI (including PMI). Granted PMI rates have gone up quite a bit, but there's ways around them if you want to.

As for utilities. There are a billion factors that play into that. My house is 2300 sq ft. I budget $250/month for utilities with 3 people. It's a new construction, so everything is pretty energy efficient. I'm rarely ever close to that 250. My true payments are

water - $40/month with 1 hour of watering every day. When I'm not watering, it's around 20.
Gas - during the summer this is pretty non existent, though all of my appliances are gas. So it usually works out to about 40 - 50 every month. For the 3 cold months that we get, that goes up to about 120
Electric. Usually around 100 - 150 depending on how hot it is. My house is dual zoned, so I can control the temp better than an older house may be able to. in the winter, my electric drops to almost nothing.

As has been said, just ask. When I was house shopping, one of the questions I had the agent ask any owner that I was seriously interested in was what their average utility cost was.

 

[Justindwright]

+1. Plus age of the house and where it is (your profile says Midland). Propane is a LOT more expensive than NG. You're looking at buying something similar to your current place, or are you going bigger or a diff location?



How? I'm single, 1 shower per day, 2 loads of laundry per week, and my bill is easily > $100 per quarter, ~$33/month.


And not to be a Debbie Downer, but assuming you care about your mom, you may want to think about what impact it's going to have on her if you move out. Is she going to have to sell it in very down market? Renting it out has it's own set of problems too. Just something to consider, although I do "get" wanting to be 100% on your own.

Dunno? We get out water from Detroit.. I do at least 2 loads per week. I rarely water the lawn (and it still looks good! lol) It has always been between 45-50$ every 3 months.

 

[MentalMisfit]

I don't think that applies at all. $1000/month with good credit should get you about 150k house if not more. My house was 200k and I pay 1264 for PITI (including PMI). Granted PMI rates have gone up quite a bit, but there's ways around them if you want to.

I dunno every house i've ever lived in has been about 10% but I havent owned a house over 100k yet so maybe it changes a bit on better homes. First house I bought for 70k my payment with property taxes and insurance was about 650 new house now still owe like 60k on 80k loan I think and the payment with property taxes and insurance is about $770. Either way if you plan your budget around the 10% rule you won't end up over housing yourself. And the extra money can go towards other things.
I make sure I can cover just about all my bills in 2 weeks pay if i'm only on 40 hours it will take 3 weeks.

 

[igotaneed4speed]

My house is brick and its prob the most insulated house you've ever seen next to a foam insulated one, energy bills might be a lil lower in comp. to a similar size house.

I have two guys who rent rooms from me, all three of us used window shaker units for a/c thru the summer due to no-central air in the house yet. Lots of computer stuff plugged in and on all the time as one of my roommates runs a web site from the house. I am the light antichrist always making sure they are off, no fancy bulbs all standard 60 watt stuff etc. appliances are new and higher energy star ratings, all gas appliances (stove top, oven, dryer and water heater.)


1700 sq foot ranch, 2 car attached garage, finished basement on 2 1/2 lots.
Mortgage is 580 month
Taxes are 4200 a year
Insurance is 1100 a year (insured for 165k this is prob high for most but house has some exotic materials in it, real slate floors, marble window wills n trim, etc...)
Gas electric has averaged 115 a month thru the summer pretty consistently. Winter I'd expect it to be about the same maybe a touch more.
Water is around 90-100 every three months
Comcrap is 80 a month

 

[AutoEuphoria]

Thank you all for the replies...I'll definitely take your suggestions and will ask around, and be sure to ask when we talk to the realtor. Thanks again!