Know What You Want

Before ever starting to seriously look at houses with the purpose of finding one to purchase, I highly advise doing casual browsing and knowing what you want. Your budget will always narrow your choices for you, but it will help you to know what you can and cannot live without. Or if you are a DIYer: what you will and will not renovate for yourself. Personally, I know that I can and will do most household repairs and renovations, but I refuse to do electrical work and I don't really like plumbing. With electrical and plumbing there's a larger margin of error. However, I will be living close enough to my father and brothers who are close enough to help and can do those repairs. My goal, though, is to find a house as close to move-in ready as possible within my budget.

Here's my list of things you need to know where you stand before looking to buy a house:

1) Yards - Just how much do you like yard work and if you hate it can you afford to pay someone to do it. Is a pool or is the space for a pool a must-have? What about a workshop or storage space?

2) How many rooms do you want and how many do you really need? More rooms mean more money, and that isn't just for the home's price. Costs in heating and cooling also increase.

3) How many bathrooms do you want or need? For a couple that maybe has 1 kid, then one bedroom is fine. But for any household larger than 3, I would suggest at least 2. The more bathrooms the less fighting over people needing to use one that is occupied. However, bathrooms add cost.

4) The Kitchen - What do you need for your kitchen: How much space? Upgraded appliances? Eat-in? A pantry? Know exactly what you want or need in your kitchen and be prepared to settle for less and/or do renovations yourself. Kitchens add the greatest value to a house, so the nicer/fancier the kitchen, the more money the house.

5) The "Extras" - Are you looking for a house that has a master suite? Does the house -have- to have a den/family room? A laundry room? Finished basement? Useable attic?

My advice is to browse sites like Zillow, Trulia, or Realtor and look at all the houses in your area to make the list of exactly what you want in a house.

My desire is as follows:

A 4-5 bedroom house with master suite (master bedroom included in room count)

At least 2 bathrooms.

A sizeable eat-in kitchen, dining room unnecessary. I do a lot of cooking and baking and the kitchen is really the gathering point for people, so why bother having a dining room?

A den/family room

A small yard with room for a pool if I want one.

A laundry room

For the most part I could care less about a finished basement or useable attic. I'm not picky on carpet/hardwood or paint colors because those can be changed.

Just about move-in ready.

It sounds like a lot, it looks like a lot, but in my area I can still find houses that have almost everything I want well within my budget. Since I'm also planning on housemates it does make my budget a little larger than if it was just me moving into a house on my own.

Current State of the Local Market

In the Roanoke area the average rent for a one bedroom apartment is about $650 a month, not including utilities. In contrast, you can purchase a 3-4 bedroom house for around $150K, which has an approximate mortgage of $550, not including utilities, insurance, etc. SO you are getting more room for about the same price as a one bedroom apartment, which looks like a good deal.

However, as always there a different strokes for different folks.

Apartments are great if you don't want to pay for maintenance or have the skills to do it yourself. There's no lawn to mow and anything that needs fixing will be done by a maintenance person. But, you can't pick paint colors and for many you can't put any holes in the wall; you also cannot do any upgrades. Your rent price is not guaranteed to remain the same every year and it may go up every time you renew the lease. Apartments are wonderful if you don't plan on staying in the area for more than 2-3 years.

In a house, you have to do and pay for all the maintenence, the mowing of the lawn, and any upgrades. But, provided you pay regularly into the escrow, your payments will remain constant. Obviously, that will not be the case for utilities, but both apartments and houses are in the same boat. However, you can paint your house any color you'd like and hang up whatever you want. That is not the case for houses in a HomeOwner's Association area, which I highly advocate against doing. The big difference on houses is that you can claim your house on your taxes and as you pay the mortgage you are gaining equity on the house, 2 things that you cannot do with an apartment. Houses are the best if you plan on staying in an area for 5+ years.

For myself, I plan on staying in the area for another 5 years and I want a larger house that I will make into a veritable nerd utopia. I will possibly purchase a really big house that I will rent out a room or two to people of similar disposition.

The Beginning of a Journey

Did you know that according to Gallup Polls approximately 14% of adults aged 24-34 live at home with their parents? Now, I could go into a rant about the socioeconomic conditions and the inflating costs of college that make increasingly more difficult for "millennials" to own their own homes or rent apartments, let alone pay off their student loan debt; however that isn't what this blog is about.

This blog is about my personal journey in paying off debt and buying my own home. The parents bit is relevant because that is where I live, with my parents. I had been living with my (now ex) boyfriend but was unceremoniously kicked out and then dumped; so I definitely miss the freedom of living on my own. More than that I realized how well suited I was for owning a home. With my ex I did all the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and most of the fixing up. I found that I really loved it and now that I'm living with my parents it drives me crazy because I can't do things how -I- liked them to be done.

So right now I'm paying of the debt I racked up living with my ex, along with a car payment (because of course my car couldn't wait to break down until debt was paid off), and ever ubiquitous student loans, all the while saving for a house. I'm giving myself a year and a half to get all the debt sans student loans and maybe a bit of the car paid off and then I will begin to seriously house hunting.

In the meantime, I've quite become addicted to Zillow and learning about real estate and mortgages. I'm finding it all pretty fascinating, which is what will become part of the primary source of material for this blog.

I'm not the typical lifestyle kind of person, so this won't be the typical type of lifestyle blog. So come on and follow me on my path to become quite the irregular homemaker.