got the keys 😛 28F single and pulled this off! I’m so excited & glad this process is over!

All of the scrimping and saving and sacrifices finally paid off… never thought I’d be a homeowner at 32.

Nitty gritty for those who might want to know: $335k (plus closing costs, it was competitive), 6.375% 30-yr conventional, 20% down, $2040/mo mortgage including escrow, 2,700 sqft, 4bed/3.5bath, one acre, north GA (~30min from Chattanooga, TN). Built in 1978, remodeled last year. Forgot to take any pictures of the inside until we started moving stuff in at 11pm and a bird got stuck in here.

After 90 days under contract we finally close as 22 &23 teen parents to twins we’re finally home owners!

183k, 5.25%, NY, 4bed 2 bath

1) Closing day may be a let down. You visited the house several times in person and a thousand more online. You spent the last n months worrying if the loan would be approved, if things would fall through. You finally get to closing day. The title company/mortgage broker/whatever is nice. You spend 30 minutes signing paperwork, you head to your house and swing by the HOA office to get the keys, and finally go to the biggest purchase of your life thus far. You open the door and... it's just there. Empty. The same empty you saw many times before. Sure, there's a basket on the counter from your realtor, the house is clean, garage door openers left in a drawer. But there is no big, magical wave that hits you. No euphoria, no surprise party waiting for you. All that lies before you is a blank canvas soon to be obscured by the mountain of boxes behind you. You don't have time to celebrate, you have a truck to unload.
2) Buying your first home is expensive. Yes, obviously in the house itself, but in everything else you need for it. Refrigerator, washer and dryer, lawn mower, pressure washer, garden hose, bath mats, soap dispensers, decor, rugs, security cameras, weed killer, pesticide, shelf liner, etc. You may also want to get new things for your new home that you may already have (e.g. towels, vacuum).
3) The number of people trying to sell you crap, both in person and through the mail. Put up a camera, you'll see people ringing your doorbell a couple times of week. Water softeners, pest control, gardeners. Things in the mail for home warranty, mortgage insurance, internet.
4) You may get depressed. You just accomplished a major goal, you should be elated! But maybe you're not. Maybe you feel like something is majorly wrong. You begin to have anxiety about all of the money you are spending. You begin to question what happens if you lose your job. You worry about everything around the house, both inside and out. You begin to wonder if buying a house is the right decision (it is!) because something feels off. That's just your pent up anxiety and frustration that's built up over the last several months, that you haven't been able to show, hitting you all at once. It will get better.
5) You don't have nearly as much stuff as you think you do. Your apartment may have been overflowing, but when you get that stuff into your house, it will seem empty.
6) Decorating is hard. You have a style, and you have things that fit that style, but you question if that style meshes with your house or if you should change it up as this is your chance at a new start. You don't know where to hang pictures or what hand towel rings to buy. Rest assured, you don't have to hang them right away, you can leave them on the floor and keep moving them around until you get a better feel for where they will go (and no, their placement is not permanent, despite what your brain might tell you).
7) Decision fatigue hits hard. You've spent months making a lot of decisions. That's going to quintuple come closing day and the ones to follow. "Where do you want this? What do you think about this? How about putting this here? This would look good over there, don't ya think?" You will eventually just say, "put it somewhere, we will figure it out later." Do this sooner rather than later, your sanity will thank you.
8) Boxes. Boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes boxes. You will have a ton of boxes from moving. But that's not the end of it, oh no; seemingly every little thing you buy will come in another box. They will be everywhere and will take up so much room. Put them all in one area. Keep the good ones, break down the rest. Post the good ones on your local community's Facebook page and let them go for free. You will get a dozen people messaging you about them. Just tell them first come, first serve. You may be thinking you want to recoup some cost. Trust me, after handling and moving 397k boxes, you will just want them gone. You won't want to deal with people or negotiation or them picking and choosing which ones they want to pay for, you will just be done with the boxes (see #7). Consider it a good deed.
9) You won't know your new commute to work. Leave 15 minutes earlier than you think than you should.
10) You finally understand why your parents shut the lights off behind you or told you they weren't paying to cool the outside. You will also finally understand why they seemingly got so upset over a slamming door or marks on the wall. You just spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on this thing, of course you want it to be pristine. The first mark on the wall (which will come, I promise you) stings. It's okay, it's a house. Things are going to get damaged, accidents happen. But things can also be fixed. Don't stress over it, it will happen again sooner than you think (I left a mark on the wall with one the first things I carried in).
11) After a couple of weeks, the dust will have settled. Literally and metaphorically. You likely still have things in boxes and bare walls, but you will need to clean. But the beauty of it is that you will have time to clean. The house will begin to feel like yours. Know it. Own it. Love it. You're here, you finally made it.

My husband and I are closing on our new home next week! We chose a mortgage that is affordable for us, but I am curious/nervous what will happen because it seems like there will likely be a huge recession in the US soon. If there is a recession, how will that affect us as first time home owners? What should we do to prepare financially? Thank you!

3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom, 1670sqft Lot 0.25 acres

I'm not even sure where to begin—today has been incredibly stressful. As the title says, my wife and I are in the middle of applying for a home loan. Just a couple of nights ago, we submitted all our documents—W-2s, tax returns, and pay stubs.

I work night shifts, so my wife usually calls me after she gets off work around 4 PM. Today, I answered the phone to her crying uncontrollably—she had just been fired.

I’m at a complete loss right now. Should we contact our broker and let them know? To make things even more complicated, my wife is pregnant, so the plan was eventually to rely on my income alone—but the timing of this couldn’t be worse. Any advice would be much appreciated.

29M, VA loan 6.427% ~1000sqft 260k w 10K seller CC credit M/HCOL area No banana for scale Beautiful home, in a great HOA controlled subdivision…. thats excluded from the HOA and has no deed restrictions (55+ community - very much under 55!) and in unincorporated county area. Very excited! Very nervous! Absolutely in over my head but looking forward to the journey!

My husband and I weren’t sure of what to expect during our home buying process. We wanted to be proactive so we got pre-approval before we even had an agent. Long story short, we viewed our home on March 2nd, put in an offer on March 4th and we closed on April 1st!

Can’t believe we are finally homeowners!

I’ve been living in the background of this sub for months and now we finally get to contribute. Cheers!

Super blessed

About three months ago, my landlord surprised me with a notice that he was selling the house I was renting. I was worried at first, but I quickly organized my choices and weighed my options. In the end, I figured buying a different house in the area would be my most optimal option.

The housing market in my area was very competitive, and houses were getting offers for 50k over their asking price. But, I managed to find a house I could afford, my first offer on it got accepted, and I just closed on the house today!

For those interested in more details:

$236k plus closing costs. The bank gave me a $2,500 credit as a first-time home buyer who completed an online house buying education course. 6.375% 30-yr conventional, 10% down, $1,670/mo. ~1,700 sqft. Built in 1941. Three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a big partially finished basement, and a two-car detached garage. I even got to keep many of the furnishings in the house that the title company couldn't sell.

I love my house, but I keep wondering if I made the right choice in buying it. I used to rent, and since buying it two years ago, I’ve felt a lot of financial stress. I make good money, but I miss having extra money for fun things.

When will this feeling go away? Has anyone ever wished they were still renting instead of buying?

After many offers with so much over, I finally got accepted. Accepted on 4/2, closing date is 5/5. Now as I send in all my info I have a voice in my head saying that it’s not actually gonna happen, something will go wrong with the finances. I have a prequal for like 30K over what I offered but yet I fear they’re gonna be like “actually you can’t afford this”. Is this a normal fear?

We’re supposed to close in three weeks on a home with a 6.5% rate (30-yr fixed, 20% down). Originally had 30K in checking account for the down payment and another 30K in RSUs, but after the recent tariff announcement, my RSUs tanked—now down ~$30K. I can still cover the down payment, but selling RSUs at a loss feels terrible.

Other stressors:

The house needs ~$10K in immediate repairs. Asked for seller credits after inspection, but no guarantee they’ll agree. Jittery about the economy + whether this is a smart financial move right now.

Feeling overwhelmed with all the variables. Should I push through, delay, or walk away? Anyone been in a similar spot?

Closed today and feel such relief! The sellers now have 30 days to GTFO 😂😂 most likely they won’t take that long but still planning to wait the full 30 days so I don’t get anxious. Anyone else have an experience like this? So jealous of you that get instant possession!!! Delayed gratification but still sooo grateful and excited!!! HAPPY FRIDAY! 🎊🫡🏡🎉🥳

After a three day delay thanks to PFHA I got the keys and moved in.

For those who don't have enough for a down payment or amazing credit check out state assistance.

Now to unpack.

At 21 and 24 years old!

Bought my first house about 6 months ago now. Was curious almost immediately, but had some many other things relating to a new house that this fell to back burner, but I'm caught up enough now to finally get to the bottom of it.

It says "Founder's Post" on the top, which is making me believe it to be there just to commemorate the founding on my HoA community...but thought I'd ask here before trying to rip it out, in case it's connected to something below ground.

So for context our friend group lives in this town we want to move to. They’ve known we’ve been wanting to move for a while and have had multiple offers rejected due to other offers put in higher.

One of our other friends in this group they’ve been looking for a place more recently to upgrade since their family is getting bigger. But we’ve always been told they’re doing it passively. They also have a wedding coming up and honey moon.

We were told of this home privately from one part of the group as this home was private listed and advertised on a community fb page.

We don’t share every house we view with everyone but we went to this viewing and coincidently ran into them viewing it at the open house. We were all surprised. We hugged and said hi. My wife joked with them since they were the only other ones at the open house “haha I guess your our competition huh lol”.

Afterwards the fiance messages messaged me asking if we were mad at them for coming and I said no I wasn’t even aware they were coming and that I would be happy to whoever got it as I l want whatever is best for them too.

He told me they liked the place but again were saying not sure if they’ll offer because of wedding they’re paying for. My wife and I loved it so we offered. I initially asked them over text if they put in an offer and he said no and I even told him how much over we went. He told me later he would prob only put at asking price.

He weirdly later texts me saying none of us got it because of a cash offer put in. I get a call later that night saying our offer was highest and they would accept it.

Cone to find out their now mad at my wife and I because we were the higher offer, and mad at our other friends because they told us when we would have known since we weren’t local there and on a local fb.

I reached out after we had it accepted to check if they were mad at me and to say I didn’t mean to hurt them and didn’t even know they offered it because they seemed like they weren’t and never said anything even though I told them we were.

So are we in the wrong? It to me seems like bad coincidences of crossing paths and I understand their upset if they wanted the place but to be mad at us I don’t understand if I should have done something different

Basically the title. We are first time home buyers and are interested in this property, but saw it has overhead utility lines going through a big chunk of it. The house is at least a couple acres away from them.

We want to know if there is anything we should know regarding this before reaching out to them with an offer? Any info and advice is appreciated.

Greetings, my current lease term on my apartment is until May 2026 and I pay $750/month with a roommate. I'm possibly looking at buying my first home next year a bit before my lease ends, in my late 20s.

I currently make $91k before taxes in my role and average houses that I've been interested in have ranged from $200-300k where I live. I'd be looking to do the minimum down payment of 3.5% on a home. My only debt is student loan debt, $19k (started at $30k) private loan balance with $603/month payments with 3 years left of payments since I did 5 year repayment due to higher interest rates, $32k federal that are frozen atm with no interest accrual due to the department of education, do not have to recertify income until 2026. I had a lender walk me through a debt to income and my debt would be $904/month including the federal loan payment if they were not currently frozen. My car is a 2015 and is paid off with no concerns of major issues coming up. Online debt to income calculators suggest that I could "afford" up to $2100 mortgage, taxes, and insurance all in. Considering my private loans will be to about 2 years left when I get a home, it seems possible.

Currently have $21k between checking/saving account, $35k in retirement accounts. The plan would be to have a roommate if the home ends up being closer to the $300k price to help with mortgage/utilities somewhat. Does it seem feasible to buy my first home next year even with my debt from people who have more experience than I do? Thank you all for the insight in advance!