Should I Buy a House Now or Later?

houseI have been thinking about buying a home more and more often recently. I really want to own my own home but I am very up in the air about it. Although I am a long way from making an actual purchase I am considering my options.

Pros to Buying a House Now-

– Home prices are extremely cheap right now in my neighborhood/neighborhoods where I would consider buying a home. I mean really cheap! You can buy a decent house in a decent neighborhood for less than $60,000. I even found a decent one for $23,000. That’s crazy and I know it won’t last for long.

– Our rent is several hundred dollars more a month than a mortgage would be and we would be paying towards owning something not just throwing away rent money. Since I moved out of my parents house at 18 if I spent $500 a month on rent I have probably paid about $35,000-$42,000 in rent alone which could have completely bought a house in today’s market.

– A mass transit train is opening around the corner and I think once it opens home prices will skyrocket, plus a rental property will be even more sought after when it is close to mass transit

– I want to own rental homes in the future, why not buy a home, live in it for a couple of years and then rent it out when we move?

– We are stuck in one place for school for the next couple of years anyways so moving somewhere far away isn’t a realistic possibility

– If we stay near this neighborhood we are very close to family, my job and my doctor

– It takes a while to establish yourself in a new place after a move, we have a great life here and we may not want to move and start over (again) right away

– I want to be able to do all the things you can’t really do when renting- paint my walls any color I want, plant a garden, even getting a dog isn’t practical in our rental home with white carpets

– It would be a good investment down the road

 

Cons to Buying a House Now-

– We currently commute about 30 mins to the university where we will both be in school and soon I will be teaching, this drive could get old quickly and right now we have the flexibility to decide to move closer if we wanted (But right now we want to stay here)

– Buying a home is a huge commitment; we would be making a commitment to stay there for at least a couple of years

– Owning a home can be expensive. It’s thousands of dollars to replace a roof, fix a septic system, or fix electrical problems.

– What if we need to move and can’t rent it out? (Honestly I’m not too worried about this one because we know so many people in this area who rent)

– We don’t look like we make a lot of money on paper right now so I don’t know how difficult it would be to get approved for a mortgage.

– I am not 100% familiar with the home buying process so this will require a lot of self education on my part

– In our price range we will probably be buying a house that has at least a few projects and we don’t have a lot of experience with DIY (although we could learn) so we would either need a lot of help from family or we would need to hire people to help us. I don’t want to live in a construction zone for a long period of time either.

What do you think? What has your experience been with home buying/renting? I will take all of the advice I can get on this subject!

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  1. Very good start on thinking about owning a home. Definetly get as much info as possible and have fun with it!

  2. There are definitely a lot of pros and cons. For us, buying was definitely the best option. If you do buy, make sure the house is what you want and try not to feel rushed with the process.

  3. After living in an apartment for almost a year now I can see the appeal of owning either my own house or townhouse. It is a great time to invest but like you said you don’t want to get stuck without having someone to rent to. You could also look into duplexes. I don’t know if they are as cheap as traditional houses right now, but they seem like a great investment.

    • ShopaholicSavers

      I did find one that was actually a decent price but it wasn’t really where we were looking. I do like the idea of living in half and renting out half. 🙂

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