Hellobee Boards

I thought I was done with school at the time (I didn't plan to get a master's...but work also paid for my master's). And I wasn't married.

It was sort of like magic...in that the market crashed, things became affordable, and my grandmother left my mom an inheritance she wanted to pass on to us. So while I didn't save up a down payment, I had one.

But I also searched for about a year until I found something that I could afford, enjoy, and that was a good investment. During that year, I worked on saving, paying debt, and improving my credit (I didn't get the inheritance until the day I bought the house. There was no option to use it for anything else)

When we bought our second house, we found out I was pregnant, I graduated from grad school, and we moved in all in about one month.

We do major life changes in multiples a lot of the time.

The only things that I wanted to make sure was the following:
1. Paid off all major CC debt
2. Working in my job for at least one year
3. Hit a certain $$ in the bank account

We started looking a bit before items 1 & 3 were taken care of, but by the time we closed we had hit both goals. I'm glad we no longer have that CC debt, but it will be a looong time before I see that balance in our bank account again

We just wanted to stop paying rent since we knew we could get into a mortgage payment for less than our monthly rent and start earning some equity. We were out of college and recently married when we bought our first home, a townhouse. We def had some debt. But I had a good steady job. DH didn't, but we knew he would eventually haha.

Our first purchased home did kind of fall into our lap! We were married and had saved up about 20% and I was pregnant with our first, when we started looking for a condo to buy. We couldn't find anything that was right or got out of, so we found a good rental that worked well. A year later the landlord told us he was going to sell and basically made us an offer to buy it before he put it on the market. We already knew we liked it, price was fair, and it was a good investment so things just fell into place. We were 33 at the time.

Bought our first house after we had the second baby and the condo was just way too small. Again We had steady income and down payment, had to find the right house.

We were married, both finished grad school and in good full-time jobs, and we saved 15% for a down payment. The market had bottomed and we wanted to get in while prices were still (relatively) low in this crazy area.

I finished grad school and got married before buying a house for the first time.

If I could do it all over and convince my husband of the same I would rent forever...in a spacious garden apartment.

We had finished our schooling, started careers, moved to a new city for other jobs, and were in an apartment we hated. The lease was going to be up in a few months so we started looking, and ended up getting one of the houses we saw the very first day we went out looking. The market here was already tight but wasn't yet as insane as it is now, but we were super lucky to get this house as quickly and easily as we did. Still, if we hadn't had 20% to put down, we definitely would have lost out to another buyer who did!

Have changed my views on this. I now have much less desire to own. The convenience and affordability and freedom of renting near downtown (townhouse) make sense for us. If we ever purchase it'll be further down the road, kids lil older, us lil more established. Cannot even imagine yardwork right now. Our rental is newer, nicer than what we could buy.

We bought after we were married, DH cleaned up his credit score and we were planning to start a family.

I bought a town house when I was 29, and single. DH bought his first house when we were dating and we lived together there until just after our wedding. We bought our first house together the day after I found out I was pregnant with our first, right after our wedding.

Still renting

We are married, have (almost) 2 kids, are settled into our careers, have very minimal debt and have a decent amount of savings for a down payment, but we live in an extremely expensive city with high taxes and cost of living. The house that we rent is massive compared to what we could afford to buy. We can very comfortably afford to rent this home and enjoy life. As soon as we buy, we will see our expenses climb astronomically, so I keep saying to my husband that I'm happy to rent long-term, especially while we continue to have child care payments taking up a huge chunk of our income. I love that I can just call my landlord and say "Hey! The sink is leaking!" and he foots the bill for the repair. Lol.

We bought a house about a year and a half after we got married. We were out of school, no student loan debt, settled careers, but only put down 3.5%. We were relatively young when we bought (25 and 24) but we live in an affordable housing market. Oh and I was pregnant (barely).

haha, I voted "The house just plopped into our laps like magic", because that's kiiiind of what happened.

I bought my first house basically on a whim and it all happened very quickly. I was probably having a quarter life crisis, too. haha. But I'd had a very long term dating relationship all through my 20's and we broke up about 6 months before I turned 30. I think I was starting to feel ready for home ownership and kids, but knew that relationship wasn't "the one" and didn't want to have to "settle" for the wrong guy to make those things happen.

Anyway, right after our break up, I read an article in the local paper about a state grant program for first-time homebuyers that were police officers, teachers, or firefighters. The grant program gave 3.5% for a downpayment--free--to people in those professions who met the requirements of the grant (good credit, money for closing costs, income requirements, etc). I googled and found the grant program and called--and they said there were limited funds each year and all the grants had already been given out. Then they asked if I wanted to be added to an email list that would update me IF grant funds ever became available again. I added myself to the email list.

Right after that, then-president Obama announced the stimulus package for first-time homeowners--first time home owners would get an $8k tax rebate if they had an FHA loan.

Just a few months later, I got an email saying more funds were available for the grant. Then I started reading the fine print of the grant application--you had to have an FHA loan, and FHA-loan approved house that you already wanted to buy. The submission deadline was in less than a month, and the Obama stimulus deadline was in only 5 weeks.

I called a realtor immediately, just to see if anything in my price range was on the market. In 1 weekend, I found a place that I loved, that fit all the grant requirements for an FHA loan, and I made an offer and submitted the grant application. Within a week, I found out I got the grant and they paid for my down payment. I closed within 4 weeks and literally the day I closed, I went from my closing to the tax office and submitted my tax amendment to apply for the Obama stimulus program. I got the 8k in direct deposit just 10 days later.

TL:DR: Basically out of nowhere in a period of 5 weeks, I found a house, got a grant program to pay the down payment, closed, and got 8k free from the government. All by myself. With basically no money down of my own.

Eta: I didn't have kids, wasn't married, worked full time but was also in part time grad school and was paying for grad school without loans. So I basically met - milestones before buying.

I live in an expensive area, and I was always afraid to get a mortgage on my own. I wanted a second income from a partner so that in case I ever lost my job there would be some "insurance". But I had most of a downpayment saved.

I didn't get married til I was 34. We bought our condo about a year later. My husband had some residual student loans that he finished paying off around the time that we got married. We used a combination of my savings and our shared savings account for a downpayment.

I didn't vote because our situation is a little different. DH and I lived on family property (12acers)in an old 1970's trailer rent free and saved all our money for 4 years to pay cash for our modular home. So technically our big milestone was save up ALL the money so we'd never have a mortgage. The original plan was to build a barndominium, but unlike the rest of the housing market, in this areas they are very popular and had almost doubled in price per sq. Ft. we know that where we are is where we will live for the rest of our lives. The land is paid off, my MIL and fIL live next door and my SIL and BIL and thier kids live across the dirt road. I should mention I got pregnant the month we moved into our home . So I'm sure y'all can guess what the milestone was I wanted to hit before having kids.

Ours was magic / fell in our lap / we weren't planning for it or accomplishing any goals! We'd planned to wait to buy until I was 30 (I'm 31 now) and actually bought when I was 26. We weren't seriously looking or ready to buy AT ALL but I always looked at the houses in our town just for fun, and found one that had an open house that looked great. We went to the open house because we were bored that day and fell in love with it, called a realtor and put an offer in within a couple of days (while scrambling to find enough for a 5% down payment). Luckily we live in a market where the seller paid closing costs and we got an FHA loan so didn't need a huge down payment, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to swing it!

We live in NYC and don't plan on buying in the city, we'll buy in the burbs eventually. But we also don't plan on leaving any time soon.
We have/will probably meet almost every milestone imaginable before buying a home and it doesn't bother me at all. We are financially able to buy whatever we want at this point. It's just not a desire we have right now.
We are passively looking at buying a 2nd/vacation home at the shore though. But I'm not sure if that counts.

DH and I were newly engaged, had no debt, and steady jobs. We had Obama's $8000 rebate coming and I tapped a small Roth with enough to get started on 3% down FHA. We got our house within a few months and had just enough. It happened quickly and it is definitely a blessing but no magic!

The only milestone we really hit was that we saved enough for a 20% down payment. We started looking at houses 5 months after we got married since I was so sick of living in the city and wanted to go back to the suburbs.

We've been in our house for 1.5 years now. We both work full time and have stable jobs, but my husband is getting his PhD and I'm getting my master's. He still has student loans as well. We both wanted to wait to start trying for a baby until after we were settled into our house.