might be buying a house

hey man, I'd recommend getting a fixed rate on your mortgage...that's the GOOD thing about low interest rates now...get it fixed so that it doesn't vary if the rates go up in the future.

With your current figures ($30,000 total price, 10 year mortgage, monthly loan of $308, and assuming nothing down), I found your interest rate to be around 4.3%. Not bad, but it's probably a variable rate. There are two ways to look at it (which are rather unique to this situation, as it would have a more drastic effect on a larger, more typical mortgage:

1) A fixed interest rate would "lock in" the current rate (probably a couple full percentage points higher than your variable), which would keep your payments the same no matter what the market does. A rate of 6.5% (depends on your credit and other variables, you may be able to get closer to 6.0, or it may be over 7%). However, with a 6.5% interest rate, your payments would only go up to $340/month or so, but your rate would be fixed and not change, which is usually preferred.

2) A variable interest rate will give you an initial lower payment, which will help you out now. If you make more money in the future, you could better stand a little higher interest rate (thus higher payment), hopefully. Rates are likely to move around a bit in the next 10 years. Even if it went as high as 10%, though, your payments would still be about $396 w/ the other fixed assumptions (loan amount=$30,000, length of loan=10 years).

If you're still awake, I'd like to say that many counties around here STILL do not have established building codes. The county I live in does probably mostly because we have a decent sized city located in this county, but many of the outlying counties still don't have building codes, so anyone can throw together a house and sell it. It's crazy and very stupid.

Good luck w/ everything.

30k for a house is an awesome deal, a 2 story house at that. I got my house for 57k with a 2 car carport, 2 buildings, and 5 lots, a deal that i couldn't pass on. My mortgage rate isn't fixed either but if you pay it ON TIME you won't see it change much. Good luck with it

Wow, I lived in an apartment with that exact same heater and it works good if you want to just live in that one room the heater is in. And the gas bill wasnt cheap either.

yeah, that one small vent in the rooms upstairs will not heat the rooms very well, but if you're gonna get central heat/air then that's cool.

I mean, for 30, it's probably worth it. Dump another 20 grand into it fixing the stuff you're talking about (central heat/ac, roof, siding, deck, etc). If your dad and father in law are both construction guys then that will help a bit.

Doesn't sound like you have a very big family, so I personally think the two story house is a bit overkill, which will make your heating bills higher. If there are bedrooms downstairs, I guess you could block off the upstairs during the winter and just not use it or just use it for storage.