Opinions on debt before buying another home

[Melanie Moore]

Hello everyone,

Please share your opinion on my plan or tell me if I'm wasting time waiting to pay down some debt.

I currently live in my home and owe around $79,000.00 with 4.000% interest in Arkansas. I plan to move to the city leaning towards DFW area. Looking for a duplex or some other multiunit that I can afford. I do plan on renting my current home out when i leave. Im just now starting to really pay attention to real estate after working as a nurse for almost 10 years now and I see myself in the same spot. (I have about 15,000.00 worth of credit card debt I need to eliminate before I get ready to purchase my next home.) I have 10,000.00 on the way held up by IRS due any day now. I plan to take all of that cash and eliminate the credit card debt first before negotiating a deal on a property because i believe it will effect the interest rate of future loans. After doing that I will still have a little under 5,000.00 credit card debt and only 1,000.00 in savings and 1,000.00 i can use for down payment or closing costs.

I guess my question is, do you believe this is the best way to proceed?

Thank you for taking your time to read this and i appreciate any knowledge you give me.

[Drew Sygit]

Sit down with a loan officer and have them show you how DTI is calculated.

Then figure out how much of your debt you need to pay off to qualify for a new purchase loan. Use the rest of your funds for the down payment.

Would advise you to be VERY careful about having rental homes without a decent amount of savings to cover mortgage payments during vacancies & use for emergencies.