Parents assisting children with first house

[MarchHare]

In 2011 my mom provided me with a "gift" down payment which I immediately returned once the mortgage went through by taking out the money on a line of credit.
I had zero savings.

Isn't that illegal?

[Bill Bumface]

My parents let me live rent free in University and for one year when I was done to save up for a place.

It let me come out of school debt free and save up $36K for my first place.

[bubbsy]

i didn't take/receive any money from my folks for our first home purchase.

That being said, i think it would have been smart to have pushed my dad to invest in a property with me (condo downtown toronto) when i started worked after uni, instead of renting for so many years. i would have paid the mortgage, and if we split the value when i would have sold, he/we would have walked away with a pretty little lump sum that i could have used to increase the downpayment i eventually used to buy my first place.

woulda/coulda/shoulda. I am annoyed at the fact i threw over 50k or so out into rent over a course of 5 or so years.

[MoneyGuy]

Thanks for all the responses so quickly. I've received some PMs also, which I'll acknowledge later by PM. Useful info; keep the comments coming.

[photon]

I did this backwards I guess. I didn't get any money from my parents when I got my first place (wife and I did it), but I helped my parents buy a house by providing the down payment, they just had to qualify and they hold the mortgage and make payments.

I figured I was going to have to pay for somewhere for them to live eventually as they got older (or have them move in!), so might as well get it over with

[rohara66]

My parents made me start paying $500/month rent as soon as I finished college. I worked my ass off and saved up $25k for a down payment (my parents told me all along that I was on my own for buying a place). Right as I was doing my final financing they surprised me that they were giving me back all my rent money to help drop my monthly payments which was awesome.

[V]

My parents gave my brother a 40k interest free loan. Don't know much of the terms, but I'm sure it was an unwritten agreement with loose payment terms.

When my kids are older I'll probably help them somehow, though I'm thinking of buying a property with each of them and then over time divesting myself.

[GGG]

My parents didnt help out with our house but after I was done school my dad wrote me a check for half of my student loans. So that was about 12k.

[Muta]

My rents purchased a place, I took out a homeowner's line of credit, 'bought' the place off them. Didn't need a down payment. Downside - higher initial payments than a mortgage. Upside - I can put down as much as I want, and there is no penalty / fee for selling.

[Northendzone]

My dad gave me some goggles.....they did nothing!!!

[prarieboy]

My parents matched my $10,000 down payment so I ended up putting around 18% on my first house. I was under the impression that this would be a loan. About a year later when I talked to my dad about making some regular payments to start paying off the loan he said don't worry about it. It took about five minutes of talking before I realized he meant I didn't need to pay him back. I thought he meant it wasn't required right away. LOL!

Cool Story Bro!

[FlamesKickAss]

Nothing from either of our parents but my wife's uncle matched everything we had saves for a down payment, it was a gift.

[Engine09]

My folks would help with a down payment if they could, but they just don't have any extra money. I'll just keep on saving what I can every month.

Out of all my friends, the only guy who has his own house had $30K given to him by family. The other friends have small condos and a duplex.

[steve9981]

My parents helped me with a down payment on my place. It was close to 25k but I also worked for my parents business during my summers for zero pay so it kind of worked out.

[Flash Walken]

Lester Freamon refers to this as 'The Headshot'.

[Sylvanfan]

My parents set me up with a life insurance policy when I was an infant. When I turned 20 I took over the policy myself. Eventually I took the cash surrender value on that policy and invested that...but the key thing was that the policy was with Manulife financial and as a result I was entitled to 594 shares in the company when they went public. I held the shares for a couple years and sold them for about $44 a share. That essentially gave me my down payment for my first house. Granted in those days I had enough I still could have found a way to buy a house, but those shares gave me a huge advantage. My Dad also helped me build a fence and deck too. So haha to all those who had to go it on your own, your parents suck!

I'm sure I will help my son out some day. One of the best things parents can do for their children is teach them about money, and how to be responsible with it.

[photon]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

So haha to all those who had to go it on your own, your parents suck!

Well in some cases it's not about desire, it's about ability.

I do hope to help my kid when the time comes, but in a way that as you say teaches him rather than just giving stuff.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Isn't that illegal?

When you put it in the context he did.... yes. It is a very grey area though. He could re-word that statement 20 other ways to make it perfectly legal.

[bagofpucks]

No help from our parents, but my girlfriend (wife now) had her tuition paid for by her mom's work so she graduated with no debt, which was a huge help.

Cool story bro time...

We moved in together when I started my undergrad. We were both totally scared of "failing" with money and having to move back in with our parents so we were extremely tight with money. During this time, I also started my own business and even though I was diligent with the accounting I was very conservative with what I would be able to pay myself. One day we sat down to do some financial planning and we realized between the two of us that we had saved up more than enough for a down payment and that our mortgage payments would be almost identical to our current rent. A lot of our family were very surprised to hear we were buying a house while I was still in my second year of university!

[calgarywinning]

I have very generous parents, but for my first house purchase they did not approve. I had a 20% downpayment at the time, and if I had another 6700$ I could have avoided a CHMC fee of 4800 for not having 25% down. (numbers could be slightly wrong)

I remember sitting on the street, listening to my Dad say how I shouldn't being doing this, it was the wrong move and that he didn't support it. I just decided to go ahead without him and my investment has more than doubled while I have lived in for the last 12 years and will serve to be a substantial down payment on my new house.