Should we buy a house at 20

Question

Me and my girlfriend are trying to decide whether to rent or buy a house in the spring of next year, she will be 18 and I'll be 20. Our combined income is about 40,000. We will have a car payment of 250$ a month and no debts other than that. We would like to buy in the suburbs of North Carolina in the outskirts of wake county if we buy. Average rent in our area starts at 800-900$ for a studio apartment. Would it be smarter to rent or buy? We are fine with settling if we buy but we don't want to take on something we couldn't handle. I was thinking we should set our budget to  140-160,000$ if we buy. I'm new here and just looking for advice. Thanks everyone!

Tiffany Alexy · Answer

@Trey Bailey, where are you living now? My team is hosting a home buying seminar  coming up in a few weeks at our office in Cary.  It's free to attend and we're happy to chat with you regarding buying vs. renting.  Let me know if that's something you'd be interested in!

Mark Christopher Javier · Answer

@Trey Bailey What are your goals? It's hard to advise someone when we don't know exactly what your plans and visions are. Not knowing your goals i'd first look at house-hacking if you're familiar with the term. Live in one unit and off set mortgage/expenses by renting the other unit. If you buy a duplex, what would each one rent for? How much down payment would you have for a property? So many variables to consider. Hopefully I helped a little.

Jennifer Soelberg · Answer

@Trey Bailey Yeah, Mark is right. It is hard to know without more information. House hacking is always a great way to get into real estate. Not knowing what your goals are, I would also look into getting into some kind of partnership/mentorship. At least get plugged into the local real estate group(s) so that you can get knowledge and experience. If you are hesitant to buy a deal of your own, there are a lot of seasoned investors out there who would love to partner up on a deal if you have something to bring to the table (the deal itself, time, money). Like Brandon always says, 50% of a good deal is better than 0% of no deal.

But, if you are interested in investing in the future, I would highly suggest focusing on educating yourself as much as you can. There are so many resources. I personally really enjoy listening to the BP podcast, there's always something new to learn.

I hope this was helpful.

Chad Kastel · Answer

Agreed. I'm not exactly sure what your goals are. But in general if you can afford to put a down payment plus have 6 months worth of expenses for the property and 3-6 month worth of living expenses then it probably is correct.

You should also consider looking in to an FHA loan. Also are you planning on staying in the area long term?

Trey Bailey · Answer

Thank you Will! I would like no more than 2 kids in my future if that, and whichever home I buy I would like to keep for the long term, or at least for the entirety of the 20-30 yr mortgage. Do you think the northern outskirts of Harnet county would yield better buying results? It would only increase my commute to work by 10 minutes. Rent to own sounds like a great idea but i don't know if there are many options in that area

Will Kaufmann · Answer

Trey:

There are a ton of variables here as the other replies noted, and I think the ultimate question is what do you want to do with your money and your life? For example, if you are looking for an appreciating investment, Wake County may not be ideal given the continuous price increases over the last few years. If you want to stop throwing money at a lease, then buying may make sense.

Next question - How big of a family do you want to raise? Your current down payment situation may not get you a very large house in Wake County today. If you have to buy, sell, and buy another house in a few years, you will be in for roughly (really, really, roughly) 10% in transaction fees on each deal. Hypothetically speaking, that would be $20,000 on the first property and, say, $30,000 on the next. How does $50,000 in transaction fees compare to renting for another few years until you can buy that second non-starter home that will suffice for longer? These estimates are off the cuff and meant to capture moving costs, time, lending fees, realtor fees, etc. They may not be completely accurate but are worth the consideration.

I think a rent to own arrangement may help you. I encourage you to do some additional research into how that works, there are a ton of YouTube videos explaining how they work.

Will

Trey Bailey · Answer

My goals are to have a place soon in to the future for me and my future wife to live in and support each other and a possible family. I'm fine with living in this area for a very long amount of time. If I was to rent I would only want to do it long enough to save to buy a better house or for a bigger down payment. Next spring I would have about 12,000 available for a down payment, obviously not the 20% needed. However I bank with the government credit union which offers a first time home buyers loan which from what I read doesn't require 20% to avoid a mortgage insurance.  I live in southern wake county, thank you for the invite. And thanks for all of the replies!

Should we buy a house at 20

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