Oh, Fly, thank you so much for posting that for us! How sad, and beautiful, and happy, and poignant and inspiring. Heaven has it's first super hero now that Erik has arrived. Bless him and his too short but special life! Lynn

Hi Kristin, Dave, I'd appreciate it if you could talk some more about zero down loans. I've had a vague idea that they're not especially financially responsible, but I read on another thread where you advocate for them because it keeps liquid assets liquid. I can appreciate this consideration. Don't buy anybody's malarky about one kind of loan structure or another being "irresponsible" or "risky" or "preferred" or "conservative." Mortgage strategies are simply financial agreements between 2 (or more) parties, and in any particular situation one strategy may work better than some other. It is PEOPLE who are risky... and therefor you really need to "know thyself." Zero Down financing can be pure wealth-building, home-aquisition magic for financially mature and responsible adults. It can also be misery for people who irresponsibly consume and mismanage their personal finances. I recommend you have a minimum of 3 months' worth of projected total monthly living costs (including housing, food, work expenses, travel expenses, insurance, clothing, etc.) before you put a single dollar of down-payment into a home purchase. If you're thinking of tapping into your 3-month cash reserves for any down payment, you need to use less down payment. If you have enough ABOVE & BEYOND your minimum reserves, THEN you can responsibly look at how a down payment may benefit your strategic mortgage & equity plans. Is it going to take really excellent credit to qualify for one? 100% financing is currently available for borrowers with credit scores from 620 and higher. The better your credit, of course, the better the rates & terms you'll qualify for. How hard do you think it's going to be to find them, say, two years down the road? Actually... 2 years from now (ironically) it may likely be a little easier than it is today. We've just currently been going through a very bloody withdrawal of lender flexibility the last 3 months, and the market has likely over-reacted a bit. I expect to see a little bit more flexibility return by next summer. The only disadvantage to one that I can see now that I really think about it is that the monthly payments would be higher, and we'd have to qualify for the entire amount of purchase rather than 90% of it; is this correct? Pretty much, yeah... Some people argue that using 100% financing is bad because any drop in value, and a subsequent forced sale (due to a job transfer, or lost job, or whatever,) would force you to bring money to the table in order to "escape" with your credit intact. The fact is, for responsible buyers, if you are protecting your emergency reserve cash, and diligently adding to it the best you can as you go, you will be in a far safer position to handle any distresses that come your way than had you trapped that cash into the equity of your real estate as a down payment. Cheers, Dave Donhoff Strategic Equity & Mortgage Planner

No one can give you a ballpark. Will you be using custom wood clad windows or off the shelf vinyl windows? Will you be putting in a Christopher Peacock kitchen or the builder's bargain basement kitchen? Will you be putting in sight finished hardwood floors or inexpensive carpet or vinyl floors? Will you be putting in Kalista plumbing fixtures or Price Phister? Will you be putting in elaborate crown and base molding, or 3" clamshell molding? A LaCanche stove or a Maytag stove? Even if a builder gives you a price, it means nothing until you have actual plans and actual appliances, flooring, cabinets, etc.

I agree this is not something where we can really have any helpful input . I have no experience with slab foundation as I live where we all have basements. Usually the first step is to find out if your first floor can support a 2nd storey and that only happens with an architect and maybe even an engineer. What are you planning for the additional space? Are you at max sq footage for the lot already ? Too many questions you need to have answered by pros in your area.