https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 01 May 2026 02:31:13 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2708043 Thu, 09 Mar 2017 17:23:58 +0000 Mrs. Toad 2708043@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We haven't bought yet. We have no debt (never had any school debt, have two kids, have a decent amount in savings, and I am settled into my career. However, I will probably retire before we buy a house. I am active duty military and we will probably rent unless I get stationed where we want to settle down. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707714 Thu, 09 Mar 2017 08:37:21 +0000 Marfi 2707714@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hubby and I bought our house about 6 months before we were married. The only real requirement that we had was that we could afford the mortgage and all other bills (credit card, car loan, utilities, etc) with just my husbands income so if I ever wound up not working we wouldn't have to struggle to pay it! We pay off our credit cards monthly so that wasn't a factor. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707687 Thu, 09 Mar 2017 06:41:48 +0000 mrsbookworm 2707687@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH owned a townhouse when we met and I was renting. I moved in with him and after getting married, we sold the townhouse and bought a house. We bought with the intention of starting a family. Right now, we're renting in another country, but we still own the house in the US. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707680 Thu, 09 Mar 2017 02:01:21 +0000 SugarplumsMom 2707680@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was over 30 when we bought our house (first and only). We had just gotten engaged. We both saved up a little (DH more) for a home and put a little over 20% down. I thought I was done with school, but ended up going back for my masters a few years later. </p> <p>We wanted a house because we wanted a big yard. Thank goodness we had the foresight to not buy a house in the middle of nowhere with a huge lot. Our yard isn't particularly big, but maintaining it is a ton of work. Every little renovation is a ton of work! I totally see why people would choose to rent. It would make life so much easier. In the end, it all depends on the lifestyle (and location) you want to live. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707641 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 21:39:14 +0000 caterw 2707641@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Don't feel bad!! We are done having kids, done with school, settled into a career/ I am comfortable as a SAHM, paid off most of our debt except a bit of car loan and student loan, saved about 3% for a down payment so far... and we still haven't started looking. I like our apartment- it is pretty spacious yet rent is cheap, schools are good, neighbors are nice. We wanna save more money and figure out where we want to live exactly since we wouldn't be able to afford a single family home in this school district. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707636 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 21:29:06 +0000 Goldengirl 2707636@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Still renting! I think this must really depend where you live. The housing market is craaaazy right now in our city and we'd pretty much be broke if we bought a house. We can afford and save way more by renting and have a better quality of life. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707553 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 16:30:34 +0000 cascademom 2707553@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Engagement. We had been living together for awhile and about to get engaged. My husband wanted to look for a condo together without an engagement ring. It was a dealbreaker for me. I would only start looking at condos when we were engaged and planning a life together. </p> <p>Literally days after getting engaged, we picked out a venue and started meeting with a realtor. It took 6 months to find our condo even though it was one of the first ones we looked at. We gave our earnest money to our realtor a couple of days after the wedding. We lived there for 6 years on a 15 year mortgage and sold it about 6 months after the birth of our second kiddo. We ran out of room and desire to live in the city and moved to the burbs about 1.5 years ago. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707419 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:55:23 +0000 muffinsmuffins 2707419@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Like others, we had reached the point where the rent was the same or more as a mortgage. I still had some student loan debt, we weren't married/engaged yet but knew we would be together, no kids yet, finished school and settled into jobs. We bought a town home and stayed there for 7 years, just bought our forever home this year. </p> <p>The only thing I regret is putting money into the starter home, because I honestly thought we might have stayed there longer (new bathroom, new backyard patio/fence, etc.) I kick myself for the fact that we could have used that money in the forever home and now have daycare payments, higher mortgage, etc. So renos are not possible, but I couldn't have known that at the time...and our starter home might not have sold for what it did if we hadn't done the upgrades of course. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707387 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:21:04 +0000 gingerbebe 2707387@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH and I didn't get married until we were 30 and we both had law school loans. And we needed to get settled into our jobs and build DH's business. So we lived ultra cheap trying to pay off as much of our student loans as possible, paid off any small credit cards, and took on no other debt. I couponed, drove a 12 year old car, lived in a tore up duplex, the works.</p> <p>We had DS1 in our dumpy rental and we were starting to outgrow it. Then the landlord wanted to renovate the townhouse, displace us for several weeks, and then jack up our rent, which had gone up every year. At that point DS1 was becoming mobile so we knew we had to move but we thought we would rent again. But when we looked at the market we realized that we hit the tipping point where owning was going to be the same or cheaper renting. And luckily we ended up finding exactly what we wanted in a starter home very quickly. We started looking casually in Feb, made an offer mid-March, and we had keys in April.</p> <p>We bought when we were both 34 and DS1 was 9 months old. While we would have preferred to pay off all our student loans first, the total amount was almost the cost of our house so I didn't feel that bad about it. We were six months shy of paying off my loans and we had paid down half of DH's loans in about 4 years time so we felt good buying the house. </p> <p>We bought a fairly modest house that we could afford on DH's income alone so that also helped.</p> <p>There's nothing wrong with renting. If it's helping your family move your goals forward, who cares? Since we bought our home 2 years ago (which was in very very good shape when we bought it), we've spent thousands of dollars on interior paint and updates, suddenly had to reinsulate our attic for $5000, and we've spent like $1000 in tree trimming. We also spend money regularly on landscapers, pest control, garbage and water, and appliance repair. All things our landlord would have handled. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707386 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:20:38 +0000 MrsBrewer 2707386@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ha!! None of the above! We had just gotten married, and I HATED the fact that our rent checks were just going out the window. We both knew we wanted to buy a house, so we found one in our budget and bought it! We were able to get a 15 yr mortgage, and We've been there for 5 years now, and paid off a huge portion of the house. Right now our house is work 3x what we owe on it. We when we go to sell, we will be in a very good position! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707380 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:15:06 +0000 Pollywog 2707380@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We got married and ran out of space for wedding gifts. At that point we were done with school, had no consumer debt (just forgivable student loans) , and 25% down-payment which was needed not to have PMI for a condo. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707374 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 12:08:31 +0000 psw27 2707374@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were both finally done with school and working full time. The market was pretty depressed so it was a good time to buy and our mortgage was significantly less than our rent. We were lucky and it ended up being a great investment that allowed us to easily purchase a bigger home once LO came along. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home/page/2#post-2707357 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 11:48:35 +0000 2littlepumpkins 2707357@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We're working on it now. I work PT but in a field I would like to stay in long term, and dh is setttled into a career and has been at his job for 6 years. We have two kids and we aren't sure if we are done. Neither of us paid for our own college education (state school in a cheaper school, my parents were determined for me to not take out loans and I am so thankful for that having graduated in the recession!) and we didn't have any other big debt. So hopefully it works out, fingers crossed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707351 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 11:38:32 +0000 PeaceLily 2707351@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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. </p> <p>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. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707347 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 11:33:58 +0000 daisyfay 2707347@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ha! We're both 33, have long since finished school (grad school in my husband's case), settled in our careers, married, had one kid, paid off all debt but one student loan, and saved up a down payment...then we decided to start a business with that down payment. So more than likely by the time we buy a house we'll have had a second kid too. We've only ever lived in crazy expensive areas, though - we just moved out of San Francisco, where I'm not sure we'd ever have been able to buy, but we'd be living high on the hog a lot of places. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707317 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 10:40:40 +0000 808love 2707317@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707309 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 10:33:27 +0000 Mrs D 2707309@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I said done with school and 3-5% saved for DP.</p> <p>I also checked "it fell into our laps"...</p> <p>DH and I were testing the waters when the market was perfect (Summer 2010) so our first house was just too good of a deal to pass up... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707226 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 08:21:35 +0000 SweetiePie 2707226@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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.<br /> 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.<br /> We are passively looking at buying a 2nd/vacation home at the shore though. But I'm not sure if that counts. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707220 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 07:58:45 +0000 Mrs.Pinecone316 2707220@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We moved from a very expensive area across the country to an affordable place to live so we could buy a home and I could work less. We were settled in our careers, no debt except student loans and had 20% down. If we hadn't moved we would probably still be renting and I would still be working full time. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707215 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 07:46:37 +0000 HappyBaker 2707215@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707214 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 07:42:32 +0000 Mrs. Champagne 2707214@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We finished university and 2 days later dh and I (boyfriend at the time!) moved 3 hours away from our family for dhs job offer. After being there for 5 months we bought a new build. It was ready 6 months later. We had 5% saved and were done school. Dh had a great job. I had two semi crappy part time jobs. The day we moved in I got the phone call that I got my job that was my "career" for 3 years before I had kids. </p> <p>After we lived there for a few months we got engaged. Married the next year. Baby 2 years later... now we moved on to our second home where we had all those goals checked off plus 20% down. </p> <p>Neither of us had any debt or student loan debt. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707213 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 07:37:46 +0000 arosebyany 2707213@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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 :silly: . So I'm sure y'all can guess what the milestone was I wanted to hit before having kids. :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2707202 Wed, 08 Mar 2017 03:14:38 +0000 Pinkberrry 2707202@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We got married and lived with my parents for a year until we had enough saved up to qualify for an FHA loan..I worked two jobs and we literally never left the house for "fun" expenses during that entire time but I don't regret it at all. Finally after putting in 30 + offers on properties we snagged our current home for an impossibly low amount in our area (so cal). Had we started looking now there's no way we could ever afford to buy in this area..and while this isn't our forever home, it's good for us to live somewhere way more affordable than renting and it's our own space. Also the market here is awful so it'll probably take another recession for us to be able to afford to move again. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695491 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:43:50 +0000 ElbieKay 2695491@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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.</p> <p>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. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695482 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:33:41 +0000 Anagram 2695482@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Comparing my 1st home buying experience to my husband's 1st home buying experience, in terms of Milestones:</p> <p>I met no milestones. DH waited until he finished grad school, had saved more than 20%, until after he got married, and until we had our first baby on the way. He had 0 debt of any kind--no car loans, no school loans, no credit card debt. Then he decided he was ready to buy, and we bought the place we currently live in. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695477 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 10:28:26 +0000 Anagram 2695477@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>haha, I voted "The house just plopped into our laps like magic", because that's kiiiind of what happened.</p> <p>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. </p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695438 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:54:58 +0000 oliviaoblivia 2695438@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were married, 32, parents of one with one on the way, we had more than 20% saved, and had long out grown our rental.<br /> We looked off and on for three years and after 12 offers finally came out on top.</p> <p>I'm so glad we bought when we did. Our house had gone up ~$350k in price and we wouldn't be able to buy our house now if we were still looking. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695431 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:43:24 +0000 skinnycow 2695431@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>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). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695399 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 09:08:26 +0000 brownepiano 2695399@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We got married, payed off all debt, had one kid, another kid just barely on the way. The only reason we were able to buy was DH got a raise and we figured we should start putting money into a house instead of rent. In-laws helped with the down payment though we had some saved. And with#2 in the works we were really outgrowing our one bedroom apartment! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/what-milestones-didwill-you-hit-before-buying-your-first-home#post-2695375 Fri, 10 Feb 2017 08:37:35 +0000 gentlelunette 2695375@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Still renting 🙋🏻</p> <p>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. </p>