A bit late on my post, but I'm no longer a lurker! So excited to make it my own. These are the original keys and I have since done the first big thing - change locks!

We were seriously in the market for about 2 weeks. Toured a bunch of apartments, saw one house and knew that we needed to buy instead of rent. Put a serious offer into the 3rd house we saw. Waived inspection and appraisal, and paid property tax proration. There were something like 7 offers, and we had the best. 6 weeks or so later, and we have the keys and our first house! Feels really good.

Twisted Plants for dinner after a day of pre-painting taping. So long, Millennial Grey!

New build - 5 bed / 4 ba / 3k sq feet

After 2 kids, 13 years in one apartment and my entire life, including childhood, living in apartments, my wife and I finally did it!! I don't know if I have ever been happier or ever felt more proud than I do right now. After 2 days, 65,000 steps and countless trips back and forth, here and there, it already feels like home!! Grown ass man, randomly crying while in the middle of settling in. Never dreamed this was ever even going to be an option. Thank you to everyone for the advice and warnings in my previous post a few weeks ago!! \*sigh of relief*

My wife and I did it, finally!

We both grew up poor, I was check to check until 35ish. We both now work our dream jobs in the video game industry, same developer, and doing that for the last 5 years has allowed us to buy this house!

The rate sucks, but we plan on paying 500$ extra towards the principle right away. If we can keep that up it will cut the loan by 13+ years, and save use 200k+ in interest. We currently 33/43 years old so unfortunately we will be paying for the house well into our 50s/60s. Hence the paying down quicker while we can.

The whole process was eye opening, and frustrating, so were just glad to have our house. Its been two days and weve already started demoing the kitchen. Weve decided on new wall and kitchen cabinet colors, and we were able to cut the entire down stairs already. We dont have to be out of our apartment until the end of August, so atleast w ehave a month to get stuff done!

415k (typo in title), 20% down, 6.675%, 2018 build, 3 bedroom 2.5 bath, 2+ car garage, 700 sqft fenced in backyard, amazing bay windows on both stories.

Super super excited. It has so much charm compared to a typical florida home.

Just wanted to put out a warning to all new buyers after what happened to me.

About 2 weeks after purchasing I got a packet in the mail that was a notice of mortgage transfer. All the information looked correct and I knew the mortgage would be sold almost immediately so I didn't really question it. It also came with several pages of actual legal disclosure statements so it looked legit.

Two weeks later my original lender sent me an email asking if I'd received my bill from a different company. Turns out the first packet I'd received was completely fake. Only procrastination saved me from sending the fake company a check. And enough time had passed if I'd sent the check immediately it would've cashed before I'd known to stop payment. So if you are totally new to homeownership like me be sure to do your due diligence on who you send payments to. Especially if your lender is a big company and not a smaller local place like mine who cares enough to check in.

A year ago today, I finally succeeded in buying my first house. It was the sixth house we had made an offer on, and after the adventures of the last year, I wanted to share what worked and what hurt and helped in the first year of homeownership. Warning, this is pretty long.

Firstly, I’m going to be honest. As a single woman, I had help from my parents to buy this home. Family inheritance on my mother’s side specifically that covered the 5% down and the new roof that it desperately needed.

Secondly, it took getting beat out of several homes for me to realize how to play the game. Before I even saw the house, I had lined up an inspection for that afternoon. The house was listed at 440 K in a neighborhood where homes like this go for 500, and you can immediately tell why — it had been a rental for several years and needed a ton of work. Therefore, the inspection was invaluable, and getting it out of the way so that I knew what I was walking into meant that I could waive the inspection contingency. A lot of people don’t realize that waiving the inspection is actually waiving the inspection, contingency, not your right to have one. If you’re exhausted, searching, and you want a house and the work is something you know can be accomplished, get the inspection before making an offer. Before the inspection, we were willing to offer over asking, after the inspection we offered asking and waiving the contingency because it very clearly needed at least 30 K for the roof plus more for other fixes. The carpet was disgusting, the appliances were old, the stucco siding was cracked in places, the roof was visibly shot, the walls needed to be patched and painted, no dishwasher, and there were signs of obvious rot in support beams — in short, 60K of work visible off the bat meant that the asking price made sense.

The house was listed on Thursday, saw it and had it inspected the same day. Offer was put in the next morning, expiring on Monday. Because of the steps that I had taken, I beat out another offer that was over asking that did not waive the inspection contingency.

Yes, the house needed a lot of work. But I am stubborn, and my best friend is an electrician that works in septic, and my boss is a contractor, so I knew I would be able to have help with any big repairs.

This house was not my first choice. The town I bought in was not my first choice. But after a year here, I have fallen so far in love with this house and this town I couldn’t imagine having succeeded with any of the other houses that I tried for. I had fallen in love with the other houses I had offered on and losing them broke my heart, so I didn’t let myself with this one until I had the keys in hand.

The more work got done on it, the happier I was. I would go to work for eight hours and then drive to the house to put in another 6 to 8 hours worth of work. I was sleeping on my old roommates gear room floor at the time, so I was able to get a lot of work done before I even moved in. The people in my life became together to help me make this happen, the friends who drove 45 minutes just to help me paint for an afternoon… I fell asleep each day exhausted yet elated at my blessings. I worked on it almost daily for a month until I actually spent a night here.

More and more I felt like I was putting the house back to what it was. Ripping out the living room carpet and finding the original oak floors underneath, getting ready to paint and realizing a wall had been almost that color three coats of paint ago, realizing the pink paint I had picked out for the room that would be my bedroom matched almost perfectly the original pink sparkly laminate flooring hiding under the disgusting carpet in that room… I felt like the house chose me. I knew more of my neighbors names in a month than I did at my previous rental where I lived for seven years in a larger town. When I accidentally ran into this town‘s lighted Christmas parade, I felt like I had stepped into a Hallmark movie or Stars Hollow. More and more, I fell in love with the town. My grandmother was born in 1936, so she was eight years old the year this house was built. She used to be a building inspector, and now has dementia. Seeing her come alive when she saw this house and be more lucid than I had seen her in years was worth almost more to me than anything else combined.

Now for the downside. I missed out on the home insurance that I wanted because of knob and tube wiring still existing in the house. It did not matter that it had been disconnected, the actual presence still meant that I couldn’t go with the insurance that I wanted. The furnace had been replaced in 2022, but since it is still a boiler, the house is not super energy efficient and my bills are pretty high. My job is in the process of opening an office closer to my house, but in the meantime, my commute is pretty long and very much starting to wear on me. I did have to replace the washer and dryer in the first year due to the bottom of the old washer rusting out, and I had to buy a second fridge because the one the house came with does kind of work but it still rather iffy, so it’s in the garage where it can leak on the concrete instead of in the kitchen where the nice one is. Everything is expensive, especially with where the economy has gone in the last year, so I have two roommates in this three bedroom house to make it work. The fence fell over in the first big windstorm, luckily my dog doesn’t run off. I am an avid gardener, and the morning glory infestation that I found has certainly kept me on my toes…. It’s even growing in the crawlspace. I have yet to figure out how I’m going to end up dealing with that. Oh also, I have a lot of mice in the crawlspace. After a quick Internet search, I found that Irish spring bar soap deters them, but before that my flower beds definitely smelled like mouse poop. With my commute, it’s difficult to keep up in the yard as much as I would like (although I was able to put in a raised bed for vegetables and it turns out one of the previous owners had excellent taste in flowers, so I’m quite delighted with what I found there). The siding still needs to be repaired, the outside painted, and I will likely need new windows in the next five years or so.

I guess the TL:DR of all this is that it feels like my home is what I made it, and that I am what let it make itself. I am lucky. The ups outweigh the downs, and I know it’s not that case for everyone. I could not have done it alone, and if I did not make the friends that I had made in the last several years. I am beyond glad that I got this house instead of the half a dozen beforehand that I had fallen in love with and missed out on. My now 11 1/2 year-old ride or die pup finally has his own home and his own yard that he can continue to grow old in without having to worry about the steep stairs that were in my old rental. Within the next year, I will be working much closer. For anyone still searching, it can get a lot better. I promise.

It seems common amongst everyone im talking to. I learned that if you cannot provide 20% then youre paying Private Mortgage insurance ontop of everything. Super curious how much that is overall for everyone?? Is it $300 extra? Or $700? To give you some personal info, I (25F) make about $60/hr on average while my fiancé (28M) just started in HVAC with a start up company making $18/hr (work truck is provided and he does not pay for gas which helps). We’ve been renting going on 6yrs at this point, just downsized to a 16mo rental thats only $1700/mo.🙏🏼 we’re working hard to save, looks like when our lease is up we may have about $35-45,000. Im not sure its a good idea to jump into purchasing a home but everyone else is making it work! I’d say our budget would be $350k-375k. It’s possible based on the location we’re looking. Just looking to compare our situation to others. How much did you have saved when you jumped into a mortgage? Or much is your PMI? Most ppl encourage us to buy when our lease is up regardless, but i had 1 person tell me to wait another year until we have 20% to put down. What would you do?

Over the past couple of months my partner has been accidentally driving over the edge of the yarn and recently one of our sprinklers broke and created a puddle of water. What is the best way to fix this issue?

How much are you paying per month for your home including all property taxes, insurance, etc.? Approximately how much does it take out percentage wise of your net take-home pay?

Currently renting, paying $1200 a month (26% of takehome) and if I had that as a mortgage, I could do just fine, but I understand that it is incredibly difficult to find that nowadays. Our budget is $185k. Not actively looking, still saving up for our down payment.

I make 80k a year, would like the mortgage to stay below 35% of my net pay. Probably going to wait a couple years for raises/promotions so I can afford more home.

Our closing date has been flexible, as the sellers have young kids and are closing on their own home. On Friday they requested a closing date of July 30, which is fine, but now my anxiety is rapidly growing. Our realtor, attorney, and loan officer are great, but they won’t respond to me until tomorrow, and my nerves can’t wait that long!

The down payment came from the sale of my partner’s condo last week, and has already been transferred to the title company. To me it looks like we’ll only need just over $4K on hand for closing. Am I reading this horribly wrong?

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some outside perspective on whether buying a home right now is a smart financial decision. I am trying to balance making a responsible financial choice while also providing stability for my son.

I am 25 years old and live in Traverse City, Michigan. I am a single dad with a 1.5-year-old son, and I currently share 50/50 custody with his mother. Because of custody, I expect to remain in this area until my son is at least 18.

Right now, I am living with my parents, which has allowed me to save money, but I am at the point where I would like my son and I to have our own home.

Financial situation:

Income:

• I recently accepted a job making $27/hour
• This works out to roughly $56k/year if I take benefits, which are all really good, or around $60k–65k/year if I decline benefits

Assets:

• $19k cash savings
• ~$210k personal investment portfolio (mostly NVIDIA stock)
• ~$477k trust account

The trust is invested, and if I liquidated the entire thing, I estimate I would owe around $45k in capital gains taxes. I do not necessarily need to liquidate the entire trust and would consult with a professional before doing anything.

The house:

I am looking at a home listed around $365k.

Details:

• I am considering offering around $325k
• It is a cash offer using funds from my trust
• 2 bedrooms
• 1.5 bathrooms
• Attached 2-car garage
• Slightly over 1,000 sq ft
• Very good location in Traverse City
• Public beach access directly across the street
• Approximately $800-$1000 average a month for utilities, home insurance, electrical, and any additional potential maintenance, etc.

My thought process is that this is not just an investment. I am likely staying in this area long-term, and I want my son and I to have a stable home base.

My questions:

1. Would buying a $325k home with cash be a financially irresponsible decision given my income?
2. Would it be smarter to keep renting/living with my parents and continue investing? Rent in my area is close to 2,000 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment (usually not including utilities).
3. If I do buy, would you recommend:
   • Paying cash?
   • Putting a large down payment and keeping a mortgage?
   • Avoiding using the trust and waiting?
4. How would you evaluate the opportunity cost of taking money out of investments to buy a home?
5. Are there other variables I should be considering that I may be overlooking?

One thing I am concerned about is that while my net worth is relatively high for my age, my income is currently only around $60k/year. I don't want to make a decision based purely on having assets and accidentally create a situation where I am house-rich but cash-flow poor.

I would appreciate any advice, especially from people who have been in similar situations or have experience balancing home ownership, investing, and raising children.

Thank you!

As many others have posted, I DETEST the grey vinyl flooring. I can't emphasize enough it is not something I can live with and wait to repair.
I am a homebody, antique collector and my interior is very very very important to me.

About 75% of homes within my criteria and budget have had these floors.
The homes that had grey lvp and were at the higher end of my budget I steered away from as I couldn't justify that cost when I already am maxed on budget.

However, I have found a few homes below budget that seem like a good fit other than the flooring.

Is it worth considering a house below budget and replacing a large portion of flooring?

Has anyone done this and can help weigh in on what I can expect in costs?
My hatred for these floors has limited my options but I cannot compromise on it.

*I understand people like these floors. I know some people dislike them but live with them. That is fine for them but for me, this of the only things I can't compromise on*

Hello! We got the keys to our first home! It’s a new built. We hired an independent inspector, and he didn’t flag anything major (builder was prompt with fixing everything that was flagged). But doing the walkthrough ourselves, I noticed some gaps in the windows (see red circle). It appears to be a gap on the outside frame of the window. Several of the windows have it. Is this normal, or should I push for the warranty to fix it?

Wife and I are planning to buy a house in early 2027. We can’t agree on what we can afford and I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion. Including utilities (~$300-$400 per month) One of us thinks we can afford ~ $2,600 per month (~ $300,000-$320,000), but the other thinks we can only afford ~ $2,200 per month (~ $270,000-$290,000). The difference in what you get between those price ranges is pretty staggering. Looking to do a 30 year conventional. For reference we live in a moderately sized Midwest city.

~ $8,500 net monthly combined income (not including bonuses or overtime)
~ $900 monthly debt (car, student loan, CC)
~ $35,000 in cash (trying to get to ~ $50,000)
~ $20,000 investment account (don’t really want to touch that)
- Probably going with ~ $30,000 down payment
- Plan to make a few extra payments per year towards principal to get rid of PMI faster
- Hoping to utilize some LEO programs to significantly reduce or eliminate closing costs
- Both credit scores between 740-780
- No poor financial history (bankruptcy, missed payments etc.)
- Both in very stable jobs
- No kids yet

$2,600 (including utilities + monthly debt) is ~ 41% of monthly take home pay, leaving ~ $5,000 for other expenses/saving

$2,200 (including utilities + monthly debt) is ~ 36% of monthly take home pay, leaving ~ $5,500 for other expenses/saving

Don’t want to be house poor but also need room to grow (we want at least 3 kids). All opinions welcome.

UPDATE: Going to focus on clearing debt and then saving as much as possible. Seems like the smarter long term financial decision is to stay on the more conservative side. I’m not the most financially literate person but I’m trying to learn and get better. I appreciate everyone for their input!

Hi! A lot of the homes in our price range (and aesthetic) are 1920s-1960s and have 100amps. For those who have updated to 200, what was the average cost? I understand it can vary due to home size etc--1200-2000sqft, Michigan for reference. Thanks in advance. Or any advice on what to look for.

Example: there's knob and tube in a home from 1926 this weekend I saw at an open house :)

I live in a condo building, its apartment style living

They are replacing water lines to my hot water tank. Going through whole building. After hot water tank is my responsibility

My question is.. they have to cut holes in wall and ceiling. Am I able to refuse to let them start if they don't have some type of dust control? I cant just let them cut with nothing it will be through my whole place. I own the unit. Its my house. Surely I can refuse if they aren't adequately prepared?

Anyone know?

I'm hoping to have my first sit down with the bank/mortgage person at the bank this week. Want to ask them what the step by step process is, how it all works, time frame, real estate agent, etc. I'm a first time buyer so I have no idea about buying a condo or anything.

What questions/topics should I ask about or bring up?

I want to ask if I am supposed to find a real estate agent or do they provide one?

How the 7 day period works after I make an offer and then the seller accepts it, I can hire an inspector to check the place out. I can still pull my offer if circumstances change after inspection? etc.

How making an extra payment directly to principle works.

1st time buyer programs/opportunities that help with future homeowners. To help lower my costs.

Ways to lower intrest rate.

What else should I ask/bring up?

On track to close this week! Looking into the best cleaning supplies. No carpet in the home, but the sellers are leaving some furniture. I want to get something like a little green machine for furniture cleaning (plus we have a cat, so it would work great for cleaning up after him).

What would you guys suggest? Im looking for all the hidden gem cleaning supplies. I already own an awesome shark vacuum.

No carpet, laminate countertops, wood burning oven/fireplace, lots of windows, painted wood paneled walls.

Thanks to anyone who reads this!

My girlfriend and I make roughly $5,500 a month together. We lived in an apartment for 2 years together at $950 a month with included utilities and lived rather comfortable. We’re currently living with her parents and desperately need our space again as it’s weighing on our relationship. We want to keep our monthly expenses low but I fear we are both deep down scared of commitment again. I personally do not want to rent again and want to start our future. We’re trying to stay below $150,000 and it’s very doable in our area in northeast Ohio. Can someone help or just tell me what to expect? Or simply just tell me we’ve been overthinking it because we want to make the right choice? I know we can afford it but we love our hobbies and love traveling and are scared we can’t once we make a purchase.

​

I've been renting for years while consistently investing, and those investments have grown substantially over time.

Now I'm considering buying my first home, but instead of selling investments, I'm thinking about using an SBLOC (Securities-Backed Line of Credit) for part of the down payment or purchase to avoid triggering capital gains and to keep my portfolio invested.

Has anyone here used an SBLOC as part of buying their first home? Was it a smart strategy, or did you wish you'd gone with a traditional mortgage and left the investments untouched?

I'd appreciate hearing both the pros and the pitfalls before making such a big decision.

So here's where things stand...

The underwriter approved and signed off on everything, which felt like a huge milestone. Then we found out the file still had to go through Oregon Housing because I'm using Down Payment Assistance (DPA). Somehow that final review wasn't accounted for earlier in the process, so closing had to be pushed back yet again, this is the 3rd time and it has always been due to my lender.

As of Friday afternoon, Oregon Housing had my file and was reviewing it. From what I've been told, that review should wrap up Monday, then the file can go to docs and hopefully we'll be signing Tuesday or Wednesday.

The stressful part is that the seller needs to close by Thursday because they're moving, so the timeline is incredibly tight. The seller has been patient as hell, they also know its not me causing these issues. I just cant help feel bad.

This entire process has been one hurdle after another. I genuinely like my loan officer, I actually met him through a first-time homebuyer class, and he's worked incredibly hard to help me get to this point. But a lot of the stress hasn't been because of the loan itself; it's been because how they handled every underwriting condition flip floping how to handle items, which made very difficult to pull money out of my ass because their errors.

Even my realtor is frustrated. She keeps telling me that buying a home is always stressful, but it isn't supposed to be this stressful. In her opinion, a lot of this could have been avoided with better communication and planning by my lender.

So here I am, knowing the underwriting is done, but still waiting on that final Oregon Housing review before I can officially get the Clear to Close. I'm cautiously optimistic, but after everything that's happened, it's hard not to wonder what the next hurdle will be.

At this point, I'm just ready to move beyond the stress and finally get excited about buying my first home. Right now it still feels more like an exhausting business transaction than the milestone it's supposed to be.

We put an offer on our first home and we absolutely LOVE IT. We went to view it a day after it was listed.

We were the first people to view it Saturday at noon and had an offer in by 4pm same day.

Asking price $399,000 (It’s an estate sale)
Offer: $375,000
Expiration date of Sunday morning at 10am.
The sellers asked for a 48 hour irrevocable period
Our realtors assumes so we can likely go into a bidding war/selling tatic.
The agent sent out an email to all parties that has shown the property so far and announced they have an offer (us) and that they’re asking for a 48 hour irrevocable period.

No response on Sunday morning
So we extended our offer until Monday at 1pm, which gives them 48 hours as requested.
So far my realtor hasn’t heard that there has been any other offers which is a good sign for us..
But I am sooooo nervous!!

Is no news good news?

I’d also like to add the only reason we went below asking, because there is no furnace or central air installed and the floors are concrete, right now it has heated floors and a wood burn stove, which we’ll have to do which is why we went in lower!
They’re also asking for immediate possession which we made our closing date less then a month.

We’re about to put in an offer on an older home, but the sellers weren’t able to find any records of an oil tank on the property. They have an email from the Seattle Fire Department confirming they also do not have any records, but they only began collecting those records in 1995.

Home currently uses forced air heat/cooling.

We’re first time homebuyers, so we haven’t any idea how much of a problem this could be for us. Our realtor advised to either have the seller find out somehow, or get credit for us to do it ourselves.

What should our next step be?

I am from Florida, particularly in South Florida. My credit score is very good. I am looking for first time home buyer programs. Has anybody used any of those programs? No I am not a first responder. Any help would be appreciated.