When did you buy your first house?

[Sawin]

I was 23 and bought it when I was single. 0 down, and after a refi, i have a 1.25% rate. Not the biggest house out there, but can't beat a $406 mortgage.

How in the world? I want a 1.25% loan and $406 mortgage.

[Bailey Guns]

How in the world? I want a 1.25% loan and $406 mortgage.

No shit! That's awesome. I hope to be mortgage free by this time next year. If not, I'm hoping it's a loan that's more like a car loan term than a 30 year mortgage.

[Irving]

You are missing my point. You can't put a down payment on them, you need cash or finance from a non gov loan. Which not many lenders do that. I know for a fact that there are 50K units out there. You need to get in good with a Realtor that does short sales, or be prepared to buy at auctions.

I see what you are saying now. Even without a standard loan they should be easy enough to pick up.

[asmo]

How old were you, and did you do it alone? I'm at a point in life where I'd really like to purchase my first house, but with prices continually rising, I feel like I'm back on the east coast and will never be able to afford one

I was 18.
Did it on my own. It hurt and was very painful. But I made every payment until I sold it a couple of years later for a decent profit.

Best thing I ever did and set me up for much better things in the future. I should have my current house paid off by the time I am 40 (42 at a stretch).

[asmo]

Any of you potential home-buyers looking for a nice place with some acreage and a 1200 sq ft shop/garage? Mine will be going on the market soon at a "bargain" pre-listing price of $465K. 16 acres and you can shoot in your front (or back) yard!

I'm currently in the market for something with some acreage. But I was hoping to stay in Douglas county.

[Dave_L]

19 years old here. It was a good/bad thing. It's working out pretty good now but putting a 19 year old in a house with friends with no supervision=lots of memories. However, I basically ended up redoing my entire house because of all the partying. But I learned a lot of carpentry skills.

[Inconel710]

Eh, it was 2004, we were 31 and we used the VA loan program. I forget the interest rate, but we paying about $1100 for a 30yr mortgage on a $122K house in Georgia. Luckily, we sold it in 2007 for $156K then watched the bottom drop out. Most of that gain was used to pay off the equity loan for siding and other improvements to the house.

Best advice I ever took was to buy LESS house than you want, get a 15 yr mortgage on it, and put 20% down on it. You get the best rates that way and giving the bank much less money in the long haul. Oh, and NEVER buy a house in an HOA. I've let my yard go to crap this year thanks to the water restrictions, while friends in HOAs are spending hundreds of dollars on water to avoid the HOA fines. A few tons of rock is starting to look like a good deal in comparison.

[BigNick73]

29, married, but got the loan on my credit only FHA 5% down. Was early 2010 in Louisiana. Got word that I was being transferred to CO exactly 1 year later. Sold the house, and broke even, thank you realtor fees (Kind of hard to sell it yourself when you live 1200 miles away). Didn't owe but didn't get anything back including some $15K worth of improvements. Basically spent between $30-$40K to live in a house for a year. I'm renting until I can pay cash for something. I figure it'll be a huge hit all at once to savings but how much money do you really have to make a year if your house is paid for and in a low property tax area?

[strm_trpr]

Bought my house in 2009 about a month before my wife and I married. The house was a foreclosure and a HUD home. Got it for a steal!

[ChunkyMonkey]

Word of advice for anyone, unless you are paying cash, don't buy a condo. There was a law passed a little while back that is causing all condos to plummet in price. Basically if a certain percentage of condos in a complex are not owner occupied, then any unit in that complex no longer qualifies for federal loans. Which means that it restricts the buyers for that unit. Which drives down prices and then makes the units more attractive to investors. Which makes it impossible to fix that situation. Buy a condo to rent it. But do not buy one and expect it to rise in value at all. Well that is until the rescind that law.

It's been like that for long time. But there is a way around it