Today I had an aha! moment and I’m very excited about it!
Let me give some background…my favorite channel is HGTV and has been since I discovered it when I came to college and was introduced back to cable tv. I’ve always wanted to be a homeowner. I wanted to be able to paint my walls, etc right? So I’ve always had the dream of home ownership and planned to be able to by my first house by age 30. Well let’s fast forward to reality, two kids and marriage later…I’m in no position to buy a home. I need to repair my credit, save some money…so I had pushed it back in my mind to about age 34 or so.
In the past few months, other people have brought up the notion of buying a house. My mom keeps telling me about all of these first time home buyer programs. Why pay the rent? they say. You would be surprised what you can buy, they say. My response has been: I’m not ready, I’m in no position to buy right now. We’re still paycheck to paycheck at this point. Last week I was having a convo with my co-worker who is a homeowner. And she said, she didn’t have good credit, she just took a shot at it, called up Bank of America and got pre-approved, had no money down…and she did it during the whole first-time homebuyer credit last year. I really wanted to buy then, but I definitely wasn’t there yet. So she says, just check it out Aria, you would be surprised what you can find even with bad credit.
So I told her I would look into next year and didn’t think much else of it. Then last night, idk why but I decided to look at houses. So I pulled up Realtor.com and decided to look in my preferred area, and I was pleasantly surprised! Idk if you’ve ever actually experienced an “aha!” moment, but I have before, and I swear it came to me last night! So I decided to open my mouth…and share my thoughts with my hubby…and he’s on board too!!! Super exciting!!! I was totally expecting him to shoot my down, but he didn’t! I was plugging around with the mortgage calculator, looking at both single family homes and townhouses/duplexes and imagine my shock when I saw that we can realistically get a 3 bedroom house, with yard space, nice kitchen, storage space, etc for slightly above, right at and below what we pay in rent!!!! Praise JESUS!!! This can really happen!!!
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I don’t know if I’m a bit spoiled, but I always had my own room as a kid and I’ve always wanted my kids to have their own rooms. We’ve been making it work on 2 bedrooms for all this time, but we’re in desperate need of more space! Currently, we live in a 2 bedroom duplex, and if you know me, you know we can’t stand it here. We wouldn’t have picked this place on our own, but at the time, it was what we needed and could afford. But we have no space. There are two storage sheds in the backyard (backyard that can’t be used bc it’s the worst ant-infested land, so I don’t let the kids play out there) and the sheds are both full of my aunt-in-law’s things (she’s our neighbor and landlord). So this house might could work if we had access to one of the storage sheds, but we’re busting at the seams in this old, poorly laid out, non-energy efficient house. And I’m beyond fed up. So instead of trying to rent a 3 bedroom place and paying more than $750 a month, I can buy one and can possibly pay $450 a month!!!
Just like that my mindset has changed and now I’m on a Mission to Save. I was in Target yesterday and saw something that would be perfect for this! That post will be up soon because I will be back in Target today to get it before it’s gone! Now I’m focused and have to find more ways to become frugal. I’ve read blogs on people who saved up money to be able to buy things like a home, with cash. Idk if we can do all of that, but we can sure rise to the challenge!!! So that’s added to my long list of things I’m working on, but I’m happy to accept the challenge. It’s time to take my couponing and savings to the next level!!!
Are you a homeowner? If not, and want to be, did the idea of not being able to afford it keep you from looking into it like me? Idk about you, but just riding around looking at houses used to be exciting for me, but then became depressing as I realized that was a dream that wouldn’t come true for me unless I won the lottery or something. Honestly I’ve felt stuck in this city and without the real prospect of bringing in more income. But that feeling has been replaced with motivation, hope, excitedness and many more adjectives that I can’t even think about right now because I have two kids talking in my ears at the same time 🙂
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