Recently, we've I've been obsessed with looking at houses for sale.
There are a lot of foreclosures, which is sad, but good for a buyer willing to invest some time and money. The interest rates are awesome right now (about 3.6%), which is very enticing. And in Ohio, you can get a 3-4BR house, 1500-1800sq/ft for about $120,000 (total payment of about $750-$850/month). We contemplated "flipping" a house - or some version of this. Basically the plan was to buy a house that needed work, fix it up, live in it for a few years, sell it for more, and make a profit.
Here's a few we liked in our price range:
I really loved them all.
We walked through some of these (both virtually and physically), met with a real estate agent, met with a loan counselor at Chase Bank, and learned a lot about mortgages, taxes, insurance, loans, etc. throughout this whole process.
And I also learned something else.
If you want your dream house, you need a down payment. (3.5% at least, 5% would be nice, 10% would be great, 20% would be ideal.)
Yes, there are USDA "rural development" loans which allow you to buy a house with 0% down... but when it comes to actually closing on a house, especially an already "foreclosed" house, it's basically impossible (unless you're really lucky).
You need that down payment... and it's A LOT of money. Like $5,000 - $20,000.
When I calculated out how many amazing vacations we could go on, or what that chunk of money could do for my business, I started rethinking my plan.
Images of Thailand, Africa, Australia, Maldives, Hawaii & Egypt started flooding my mind...along with shiny new professional camera equipment and a giant iMac... suddenly it all started to seem a lot more important than a nice house.
Okay, you get the idea. Traveling > Business > House.
Financial decisions just got prioritized.
I guess this means I'm not a grown up yet.
Or maybe it means I am, because I'm making important choices?
Someday it will be fun to triple our amount of space, have big walls to paint, decorate a guest bedroom for friends and family to stay in, and watch a puppy run around in our fenced-in yard....
But for now, our little 2BR apartment will do just fine.
There are a lot of foreclosures, which is sad, but good for a buyer willing to invest some time and money. The interest rates are awesome right now (about 3.6%), which is very enticing. And in Ohio, you can get a 3-4BR house, 1500-1800sq/ft for about $120,000 (total payment of about $750-$850/month). We contemplated "flipping" a house - or some version of this. Basically the plan was to buy a house that needed work, fix it up, live in it for a few years, sell it for more, and make a profit.
Here's a few we liked in our price range:
I really loved them all.
We walked through some of these (both virtually and physically), met with a real estate agent, met with a loan counselor at Chase Bank, and learned a lot about mortgages, taxes, insurance, loans, etc. throughout this whole process.
And I also learned something else.
If you want your dream house, you need a down payment. (3.5% at least, 5% would be nice, 10% would be great, 20% would be ideal.)
Yes, there are USDA "rural development" loans which allow you to buy a house with 0% down... but when it comes to actually closing on a house, especially an already "foreclosed" house, it's basically impossible (unless you're really lucky).
You need that down payment... and it's A LOT of money. Like $5,000 - $20,000.
When I calculated out how many amazing vacations we could go on, or what that chunk of money could do for my business, I started rethinking my plan.
Images of Thailand, Africa, Australia, Maldives, Hawaii & Egypt started flooding my mind...along with shiny new professional camera equipment and a giant iMac... suddenly it all started to seem a lot more important than a nice house.
Okay, you get the idea. Traveling > Business > House.
Financial decisions just got prioritized.
I guess this means I'm not a grown up yet.
Or maybe it means I am, because I'm making important choices?
Someday it will be fun to triple our amount of space, have big walls to paint, decorate a guest bedroom for friends and family to stay in, and watch a puppy run around in our fenced-in yard....
But for now, our little 2BR apartment will do just fine.
I'm glad I'm not the only person who is staying off of the "buy a home" band wagon. I'm just not ready to settle down and say that I've found a place I want to live for the next 3 to 5 years.
ReplyDeleteYes, Val - I'm totally with you! There is comfort in knowing you could just pick up and move somewhere else.
DeleteWe've been on that path before. Only we would love to own a home but $400,000 is the price tag of any reasonably priced home in our area so obviously that's not happening.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness!! I knew it was expensive out there but wow, that's insane. Well yes... we would love to own a home AND all of the above, but for now we can't have both. But someday we'll get there!!
DeleteI'm right there with you!!
ReplyDelete