r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer

After starting our search for our first home last August, we found the right one for us and closed officially! Our agent and lender were phenomenal resources and helping us understand every step of the process. We changed agents after a few months and it was night and day in terms of our experience and comfort level.

We got lucky with a local lending program that offers no PMI and locked our rate.

Enjoyed our favorite Andy’s pizza as our first meal in the home 🍕

My first own apartment, only 25 square meters, but that's what I could afford after 8 years of hard work, finally was able to save up cash, now is crazy mortgage 20-30%, so path to a free life is take for cash 😄

After renting the same multifamily for 19 years, no issues, pipes burst during our horrific winter and the landlady evicted us, as her son lives on the other side and she was having marital issues.

She wanted space for herself and to be next to her son. Which we understand, but we had no choice but to look for somewhere else to live.

Decided hey… why not us? Was always afraid of the rejection. Didn’t think we could afford a house.

Put our fears aside and asked.

We easily qualified and 2 months later here we are. I can’t even believe we sleep here every night and get to park in the driveway.

Don’t be afraid. Just go ask. My uncle always said “you have not, because you ask not.” Always thought that was mumbo-jumbo. He was right.

Go get yours

43F, single foreign immigrant in Japan.

New build, $81k in incentives including closing costs covered, rate buy down and upgrades. We just had a little one 3 weeks ago, so excited to have the space coming from a 1 bdrm apt.

Only issue during closing was appraisal came in $28k under purchase price. Lender lowered sale price and also gave us the oppty to pre pay pmi at closing… so also no pmi even though we only put down 10%..

We got the keys!! Today, thanks to my partners hard work and my paperwork ability lol, we closed and got the keys to our new home!! We went from a 1-bedroom 600sq ft rental to a beautiful 4 bedroom (5 with the finished attic!) 2700 sq ft. No more broken rotting windows, no more ice cold water, hello space for my (4!) children to run and grow!

Here it is how it’s looking right now since many of you were curious. House has about 7 bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen and two attic spaces.
The last 3 pictures are from the top floor and that will be what I fix first. The rest as you can see is pretty usable (I’ve lived here for the past two years)
I am valencian since many of you were assuming I was an expat. These houses used to be forgotten for so long since everyone wanted to live as close to the city centre as possible.

The sellers left me the nicest note on the counter. I’m crying rn. I’m a 37 year old man crying in an empty room 😭😭😭😭

So I finally did it guys, closed on a 1 bed 1 bath in Manhattan yesterday for just over 700k. It's only 600 square feet but honestly I'm just happy to have something that's mine in this crazy market. Been saving for like 6 years and putting every penny toward this moment. The whole process was absolutely insane - bidding wars, inspections falling through, mortgage drama, you name it. My realtor kept telling me I was nuts for even trying in this price range but somehow we made it work. Yeah it's tiny and yeah I'm basically house poor now but walking into MY apartment with MY keys feels pretty incredible. Anyone else go through this rollercoaster recently?? Can share notes!

After years of saving we’ve done it! We swooped in for a good rate during the supposed ceasefire mortgage drop in April and bought down the rate from 5.99% for an extra $5k with some help from our lender.

It’s been a few weeks now and we are just realizing how much everything else is! But somehow, I feel like I can relax again.

First time callers, long time listeners.

Just closed in Indianapolis.

Celebratory cherry coke and pizza.

The bourbon is in a box somewhere and we are le tired.

Have a good one kids. Thanks for all the inspirational posts over the years!

Our dream home. 3 bed, 3 bath, a cozy rec room and a nice backyard perfect for a little garden 🤗. We have been here for a week now, and everyone is settling in so well. Feeling so lucky and thankful and blessed!

We are so excited. Husband and I have always wanted a historic home and she turns 100 this year! Yes, the pizza has pineapple and black olives. It’s the toddlers favorite lol. I sprained my ankle the morning of closing while packing, I’ll take it as our rental telling us to get the heck out!

3 years ago I didn’t have a cent to my name. Unemployed and living with my parents, fighting hard for a career change. Little old me would never dream of this day.

It’s a 19 year old apartment, and it was a rental since it was built. It was still owned by the constructor.

These are some photos after I decided to get the walls painted. I officially signed the deed on the 8th 🥰

PS: don’t worry about the key, I already changed the secret in the door. You’re looking at the old key ;)

Holy smokes! My Wife and I finally did it!

It finally happened after looking for months in the area we wanted because we would be close to our parents!

We knew as soon as we walked in and moved fast on it. We are so glad we did because we were able to lock in at 6.3% right before more of the crazy and bought down to 5.99%.

The seller “accidently” came home to soon during the inspection and met us. She was wonderful and absolutely adored us and we even bought some of the furniture from her because it fit in the house so well. She left us this note on the kitchen counter and was so heart warming!

Definitely a dream home for us and can’t wait for the next stage of life in this home!

We drove over an hour to see a house we’d been so excited about ever since we scheduled the showing a few days ago. On paper, it had almost everything we wanted. It wasn’t too rural, but it still had some space from neighbors. Room for my WFH husband to have an office, enough space for my family. The house itself was a little ugly - definitely needed paint and some remodeling - but it looked totally livable. The kind of place you could move into right away and slowly make your own.

So we pile into the van and make the drive, talking about all the possibilities the whole way there.

Eventually we turn off the highway onto the gravel road that leads to the property… and immediately hit some impressive ruts. The kind that rocks your whole car no matter how slowly you go.

“Well,” we tell ourselves, “that won’t be fun in the winter… but we can figure it out.” Maybe this was just the rough entrance. Maybe there was another way in.

The road continues.

And continues.

And somehow… gets worse.

The house is near a lake — a lot closer to the lake than it appeared on the map — and it becomes pretty clear that sections of this road have been underwater not too long ago. And we haven’t even hit the worst of the rainy season. My husband slows down to under 10 mph as he carefully zigzags around giant divots in the road that would absolutely bottom out our van. The kids are getting tossed around in the back like popcorn while I keep telling them to hold on. We cross an area where a creek seems to just run across the road, rain or shine.

Meanwhile, we’re passing houses that all look… a little rough. Lots of junk in the yards. A few places that seem like they may have been nice once upon a time but are now firmly in their “after” era.

We’re starting to feel a little less optimistic.

But hey - maybe our road is better! Maybe this is just the unfortunate approach road and once we turn off it’ll smooth right out. We keep telling ourselves things like this as we creep along.

Finally, I look at the map and say, “I think our road is just over this hill.”

We slowly climb the hill.

Crest the top.

And are immediately greeted by a giant red sign planted on the roadside that says, in enormous letters:

PEDOPHILE

With a big arrow pointing… somewhere.

Unfortunately, there are two or three different little roads branching off right there, so it’s not entirely clear which direction the sign is referring to. One of those roads are the one leading to the house we’re supposed to see.

That particular road also looks like it recently lost a fight with a flood. There’s a large washed-out section followed by what can only be described as a respectable mud pit.

At that point we all kind of sit there for a moment, looking at the road… looking at the sign… thinking about the van… thinking about the drive home.

And we collectively decide we’ve seen enough.

We called the realtor, apologized for not making it to the showing but we’ve seen enough to know that this isn’t for us, turned the van around as carefully as possible, and headed back down the world’s most aggressive gravel road.

Pretty confident that this one was not our future home.

I’ve waited long enough for the next 2008 that everyone said was coming. There is never a “good” time to buy a house. The economy is never “right.” But my career is in the right place, and I don’t want to wait any longer. Time in the market beats timing the market, and it’s time for me to get into the market. Hooray! 🎉

Reposted cause I forgot to blur my house number 😅