The home doesn’t matter. As far as the money in the bank, it depends on exactly how much it is. http://www.collegeconfidential.com/financial_aid/efc/index.htm the link is to a efc (expected family contribution) calculator. ‘they’ only expect the parents to contribute to the child’s education a small percentage. Whereas your savings, income, investments etc count for a much larger portion. You are expected to contribute at least 20 % of it to your education.

When I started college I was 19. I didn’t work at the time. My family was considered low income although they owned a home, had stocks, property, etc., and I had all of my tuition covered. After I started working I’m earning 125% of the poverty level (for one single person) plus a I have retirement, and a small savings, and some stocks (don’t do this HUGE mistake!) so now theres a good chunk of my school charges that aren’t covered anymore. (See how it works?)

First, remember that the fafsa doesn’t give you any money at all. The fafsa just calculates what your family can afford for your college costs according to a number of formulaes in the system. To answer your question regarding money in the bank – yes, the more money you have in the bank (and investments) the more the fafsa will say that you can contribute to college. It can be as high as 5% of the money your parents have in the bank that will be considered available. So, it’s not a good idea to take the money and put it in a bank account. Use it to pay bills.

If your parents do have low inome then the fafsa will say that you don’t have much to contribute to college. However, here is an important point, a low inome according to the fafsa is a combined income of less that $40,000. They don’t care how much your bills are.

If your parent’s own their house and don’t have a mortgage on the house, that’s great for them AND it won’t affect your financial aid package. Home equity isn’t considered in the FAFSA calculations.

Now, the financial aid package you receive will depend on which school you choose to attend, the cost of that school, and the amount of money they have available for financial aid.

There are many parts to financial aid and the best solution is to call the school you want to attend and ask them about your financial aid package. The financial aid counselors are generally wonderful people who really want to help make college affordable for you.

Boy…You have no idea how much I’ve thought about that question. We bought 22 acres about 7 years ago and built a tiny “mother in laws” house with plans to build a bigger home at a later time. We own two contracting companies, Natural Stone Fabrication and the other w/ a contractor’s license does installations. We also own a nice Italian Restaurant. Need I say what the housing crisis has done to our contracting companies…ditto with the restaurant because NO ONE is spending right now. I would just build a one level three bedroom, three bath home with a huge backyard for the kids. Right now the kids share our bedroom and it’s horrible. Our wood fence blew down during the Santa Ana’s and we don’t have the money to re-build it. I can’t get a break from these kids to save my soul. I even had Mike cut my hair because it’s too much of a hassle to get someone up hear to babysit for an hour to get my hair cut. YOU SHOULD SEE MY HAIR! OH MY LORD! *roflmao* I don’t know if that’s maniacal laughter or the laughter of lost causes!

owning a house does nothing for your qualifications. money in the bank is a different story. it doesn’t matter where the money come from it will count against you if you have it in the bank.

you will most likely still get money. i am in a similar situation. my parents own a house, a trailer and a business. they also got a settlement shortly back… yeah, sounds like we got money eh?

WRONG. we are broke, i applied for FAFSA and received $2,130.00 a semester.

try it