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OwlPuzzleheaded6152 t1_iya6bat wrote

A little different of a response: but maybe aim to purchase a “just livable” house. As in nothing structurally wrong with it, but it can have atrocious bathrooms and a terribly outdated kitchen that you can spend the next couple years renovating. My thinking is keep the mortgage payment low, and use my discretionary income for the house. Basically instead of getting a house for $3000/mo that will be my forever home (or like 10yrs) I’m instead looking at $1500/mo homes that I can slowly fix up as my cash flow grows. Currently saving for DP is my largest expense so once that is done, I’ll have about 50% play money each month that could in theory go to pure renovations but in the event I lose my job or daycare costs are incurred I’ll be better off than stuck with such a high monthly payment.

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ProspectiveHomeBuye OP t1_iya8995 wrote

I appreciate the response, and we are looking to get something that is a fixer-upper partly so we can increase value with improvements but mainly because that is all that’s available. So far, everything under 400k (with very few exceptions, and those exceptions stay on the market for maybe a day tops) has serious damage that would require a large investment to fix. This could be bentonite damage in the foundation, or all walls and floors need to be redone, or it’s intended to be a complete scrape and being sold for the lot. We would prefer to buy something cheaper and are constantly on the lookout for something, but so far all we’ve seen are houses that need serious repairs.

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OwlPuzzleheaded6152 t1_iyab6y1 wrote

Oh that hurts to hear, lol! I’m lucky to be in a LCOL area where 200k gets you something old but no damage. Think you’re stuck with that higher payment but I think you’re perfectly fine at that amount especially since in 5-10 years your income will be much greater as well and it’ll balance out with any extra costs like part time daycare whatnot

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