The Super Official Homeowners Thread

[Tyler.M]

Also don't buy a house while you are young and not married. You'll spend your free time maintaining the house and limit your relocation abilities dramatically. Rushing into home ownership is something I see all the time. My roommate from jmu bought a house a few years ago, I told him not, and he just sold it. Too much maintenance and house for a single guy. Doesn't help he's not handy.

I even think Emily and I rushed to buy our first townhouse. I wish we rented longer so we could have moved around a bit. Building equity isn't the end all be all. Renting has many benefits.

There are lots of options for less than 20% down now and no PMI. SHOP YOUR LENDERS. Although 2 years out is too early to do so. Rates and products will change between now and then.

I did this my junior year of college. The man's not wrong. I would have been a lot more willing to move out of the area if I didn't have my house but I was also living with my parents and hated the idea of paying for rent. The pragmatist won out in the end but looking back, I definitely have mixed feelings. It pushed me into a loop of always working to afford my mortgage, even when having renters living in my little space with me. It turned out well for me now but I also locked myself into always needing a particular salary level when I probably could have been a bit more adventurous and took some time off to figure out what I wanted to do in my 20's.  Mortgages don't make a lot of sense if you're in a career building phase, unless you plan to rent it out once you move for a new job and use it to build your net worth. That's my reasoning to keep the property long term but I wouldn't recommend it to most people.