Buying Your First Home
When Dave and I were looking for a home to rent in 1989, I suggested we find something nice and enjoy it because when we did by a place, it was for sure going to be a dump. We scored an affordable, plush 1960 version of the neglected 1957 house we eventually bought that was only three blocks away. We knew we could live in it because we had already been in our relatively luxurious rental with identical floor plan for nearly a year, and we knew and liked the neighborhood as well.
The story of the first home Dave and I bought isn't much different from Eddie and David's, other than price and size. We closed on our place in June of 1990 for $245K. It was a 3 BR/2 BA, 1300 sf tract home on the border of upscale Los Gatos with a large back yard, and it needed work inside and out. The worst of it was the original drab, uninspired kitchen and utilitarian bathrooms.
We put 5% down after scrounging up money, including cashing in a small insurance policy I had, plus the seller's agent carried a second mortgage for $5K that we couldn't come up with (she also acted as our agent -- big mistake but as first-timers we didn't know any better, and bottom line is, she got us into a house). The only type of loan we could qualify for was an adjustable. Not much more than a year later, we were already underwater. Even though the market had gone flat, we were able to refinance with a fixed rate and pay off the agent's second mortgage. We still had to pay PMI (private mortgage insurance) and had an escrow account for homeowner's insurance and property taxes, but at least our balance would decrease each month instead of increase. We refinanced again after the market picked up, got a better rate and we were able to start paying extra each month to apply to the principal.
We suspended any major travel and most improvements were DIY. Dave got a big settlement for unpaid child support, and that paid for a complete kitchen gutting and remodel that we did ourselves except for plumbing alterations, flooring, and tiling of countertops. The bathrooms were spruced up, with the master bath getting new fixtures, but we kept the original tile work in both. We re-landscaped the front and back yards ourselves over the years and gave the front of the house some much-needed cosmetic treatments, which provided curb appeal for the first time in 40+ years.
In 2008 we sold that house for $739K and paid off all credit card debt we had accumulated making improvements everywhere besides the kitchen. We were lucky to get in when we did, but it was well worth the sacrifices. It's much harder for first-timers today due to sky-high home prices. Homes in that neighborhood are now selling for twice what ours went for, and that is in the low range. Parts of the SF Bay Area are among the most expensive real estate markets in the nation, so ours are fantastically bad examples, but there are many parts of the country and even California where affordable options can be found for first time buyers. If you can swing it, do it.