First Home

[urban dreamer]

I hope this doesn't sound rude....are you doing everything for yourselves as if you didn't live with mom? All the cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc? If not, be sure to do it all or at least contribute a LOT so you get used to it.

I say this because I didn't and it made life much more stressful, having to learn to manage all that stuff all of a sudden.

It's not rude. I understand your concern. MIL is very opinionated. Everything is fine as long as it's her way. That and she has to be invloved in every decision we make. (That's what's getting old). We already cook for ourselves, we (me and SO) take turns every week doing our own laundry, and keep our room clean. And we have household chores we are responsible for so I'm not worried about keeping a good house. We pay our bills (car insurance, phone, ect.) and we pay the water bill as part of our rent. Me and SO do the dishes for the household three nights a week (usually together). We've been together for 6 years, lived together for 3.

 

[elijahboy]

add another 500-600 a month for rent then decide

 

[MsPony]

Free, where were you when I first started my relationship? I would go back and start over.

I have no real advice, everyones covered it

 

[TanksHill]

Great advice Free!!!

I say put up a tent in MIL back yard. Rough it a bit do everything you can for yourself there. Like camping but don't go home. Save as much money as you can for the next year then move. It will ALWAYS cost more than you think. Besides when you move the new place might be a bit like roughing it.



g

 

[urban dreamer]

I've thought about moving in with the chickens. After doing a little more looking and digging around, I have found several house with land for less than 75,000. It is kinda silly to waste all that money renting an apartment that I will never own, and I'd get to keep my chickens and garden. We both have good credit scores and if we could get up a few grand for a down payment, we could go ahead with a house. Now my house warming party plans are far away again.

 

[DrakeMaiden]

I wonder if you could encourage your friends and family to throw money in a hat, for your wedding gift, to try to make a down payment? I don't know if you have anything saved up already, but it might be more practical than some of the other gifts that they may give you.

But you might also want to look into these houses that are under 75,000, just to make sure they are livable.

I agree, though, throwing money toward rent is kind of a waste, IMO.

 

[hwillm1977]

Hubby and I bought our first house for $10,000 (it was a trailer, on rented land)... fixed it up and sold it for $12,000... then bought our current house for $25,000... it's 3 beds, 2 baths and 1 acre of land.

Buying a 'fixer-upper' you REALLY need to think about what you are willing to work with. Our house had NO insulation, NO electricity, and NO plumbing (someone had stolen the copper pipes) when we moved in here. Hubby was on the road then, so I was on my own but if he had been here for the initial fix-ups I can easily see us wanting to strangle each other

It depends on where you are for house prices... here you could get a 4 bedroom house on 65 acres for $75K if you are willing to cosmetically fixup a house.

I think if you have the opportunity to buy rather than rent, it's worth the extra wait to get into a house... BUT be aware of things that can go wrong. Always try to have an emergency fund of a couple thousand dollars in case you have an emergency fix (our hot water heater exploded in our first house... not fun). There are no landlords to fix anything when you're the owner

As far as moving out together, I think you've already gotten great advice!

 

[Thriftymom]

Best advice I can give is...Live below your wages. When Hubby and I got married 10 years ago and were looking to buy our first home, banks told us we could afford to purchase a home 3 times are income, There was no way I was going to spend 250,000. We decided to look for a home that we could afford to live in if we both had to live on minimum wages. We found a smaller fixer upper in the best neighborhood with a nice size yard for around 70,000. Smartest thing we ever did, We ended up with a lovely home, had plenty of money left over to put in bank, and plenty to fix up the house how we wanted. I feel bad for so many of the people out there who bought way to much house, just to impress the jone's who are now in a lot of trouble with payments.

 

[urban dreamer]

Until he gets a reliable job, we are just looking right now. Our goal is next summer-if he has a job and we have the down payment saved up, we will consider actually purchasing a house. I don't want a big, perfect house. Just a two bedroom house that we could add on to if nessesary with a nice kitchen. And land is a must. I want just enough so that we could have our garden, chickens, and someday goats comfortably. There are lots of places for sale here. I really appreciate the advice guys!