[Porsche-O-Phile]

20% is onerous for a first-time buyer and I completely agree with Hugh as a seller; all I care is that the buyer gets his or her loan and buys the place. I could care less whether it's bank funds backing the check or their own cash backing the check I get at closing. A dollar is a dollar. Frankly I'd be more likely to sell to someone who I knew was putting down a little less as a first time buyer than someone bringing 75% cash to the table. In the former situation I'm really helping someone buy a home. In the latter situation I'm probably just selling to some house-flipper or investor.

As I said above, a dollar is a dollar and I'll sell to whomever, but given a choice I'd like to think I'm actually helping out a human being to realize their hopes and dreams, not a soulless entity that only cares about profits or doing a turn-and-burn.

When I bought my place it was ridiculous to put down 20%. I did the long-term projections and it was far more sensible to put down less and buy down the rate with what I had left to spend. IIRC you can get loans with as little as 3.5% down now. I put down 12.5% and after three years I'm just about ready to call for the appraisal to dump PMI. I haven't liked having to pay it for the last few years but it's a tax write-off anyway. It's not all that bad in that regard and even factoring that in, it was better to go that route than dump everything into making the 20% threshold and leaving myself spread thin and poor once I got the keys. No thanks. I bought a lower rate, got the same house and had a few dollars left in my pocket for contingencies once I moved in - thank God because in the first 2-3 months I had to add a water treatment system, replace a few locks, do some painting, etc. Came to around $3k that I wouldn't have had if I played the lender's game (20% down).