Well one house is new construction with a builder and home warranty, the other house has a brand new roof, hvac, and AC. So I'm sort of being strategic in that regard. I know a major repair could be rough, so I'm sort of hedging those bets.

The CC debt is old debt, a lot of it from a layoff years ago, supporting myself thru college, and 1-2 bad choices. It's down a lot from 13-15k. I'm not adding any new debt. At most, I might would use my Best Buy card for like a 18 months no interest type purchase on refrigerator, but I've sworn off carrying high interest debt. In fact, paying down the debt caused me to miss pre-2022 prices and interest rates. I started a job making 60k in Oct 2020, houses were there for 150k with 2-3% interest, but I was like "I'll pay off my truck and cards first" and I did, just in time for everything to go insane.

I could pay it off before I moved in easily, but I'm just trying to keep all my cash liquid for now until I have a clear picture.

Other than that, I have about $90/mo truck insurance, I have a few streaming services, yearly amazon prime, and a cellphone bill for my daughter and I. All could be cut back if necessary, except the insurance. Well technically even it could be cut back but I like carrying full coverage.

That's inclusive of property tax, PMI, home insurance, etc.

My old job has trouble filling positions because they pay a little below private sector and the old fuddy leadership doesn't like remote work. As such, my old position and countless others are sitting open, even all these months later. I feel like in the worst case scenario, I could likely get rehired, but I'd be more in the 75k-80k range than 95k, though they even have a cybersecurity position they can't fill that pays about 100k, but that 5k isn't worth 4 days in office to me right now.

The main thing is I'll just have to live tight and keep saving/building funds to be a safety net until I get a few raises or bonuses in. But living tight will be easy compared to the mental suffering of being 34m living at home.

Yeah you're right. Like both of the small towns near me have apartments for like $600-700/mo but the parking lot and breeze ways smell like weed 24/7, drug deals in the parking lot, etc. I wouldn't want to leave my daughter or my valuables home alone. Jump to the closest real city and apartments start turning into $1500+ real quick. Home rentals are absurd.

And yeah that's why I never mentioned in my post a goal to refi. Sure, it will be great if I can, but nothing I would bank on or build my budget around.

I've got about 15k that I've saved over the last year (5k of that in the last 2 months). By the time we close I might could be up to 20k. The new build is appealing because of the builder incentives. I can use their money to pay closing costs and maybe buy down some points, and hang on to more of my money to keep in reserve. Maybe I can negotiate even more.

I only plan to buy the absolute basics (beds, fridge, washer, dryer) and fill the rest in over time. I can put my socks and underwear in plastic drawers for a while.

Job doesn't have a probationary period. I'm finishing up the tail end of a 2 week Christmas vacation. It was highly encouraged that I take it, since the company has a year end change freeze anyway and no patch changes could be made.

I've been consistently employed since 2019. I've changed roles or jobs 3 times, but I haven't missed a day of work.

The house actually has blinds on every window already. I'd probably buy some curtains too for our two respective bedrooms, but yeah that's the plan. 2 beds, a fridge, washer, dryer, and a sofa. Anything else can come over time.

The rural house does have a new roof, new AC, and new hot water heater. The wood in the attic looked good from the ladder, and the wood/vapor barrier in the crawl space looked good too. But it definitely has a cheaper feel build quality. I'd be confident in it, but the other house definitely feels more solid and feels more well made. But yeah I just can't get excited about the area, even though it is much closer to family.

The new one comes with "builder warranty and RWC home warranty". I don't have a ton of faith in builders but if the other is 3rd party and an actual warranty company, that would help.

Everything for rent is either for college students, in a rough neighborhood, or $1700 for a 1300 sqft house. If I'm gonna pay $1700/mo for a 1300sqft house, I'd rather just buy the 2500 sqft one for $300/mo more.

Problem is, I'm 34yo, my daughter and mother get in fights, then I get pulled into the fights, and chronically single because I've been at my parents for >7 years. If I keep "One more yearing it" all my youth will be gone before I leave my parents again.

I'm submitting a bid on another house that's in a small town that would be $213k or $1500/mo inclusive of tax, etc. But the bank that owns it is trying to fish out the max they can and spark bidding wars. I know for a fact they have at least one offer over list (mine, 3k over) but they pushed back their deadline to get offers in. Even though it's less per month, I'm still not gonna overpay for it, so I'm not raising my bid.

So if that one falls thru, my next pick is a bigger, brand new construction, with builder incentives like 10k towards closing and point buy, 4k lender credit, etc.

I live in a low COL state. $4600 is after me contributing 8% to 401k (for a combined 15% between my employer and I). I feel like $2000 + $200ish for power + $80 for internet + $80 for water/sewer/trash for a combined $2360 with $2300 left over leaves me in a decent spot, considering 2.5 years ago I didn't even bring home that much.

I do have a teenage daughter who will turn 16 next year, she'll dent the budget a little, but I feel like we could make due and hopefully in 2-3 years rates will be down again. My truck is paid off and I work from home, so she could drive mine some, or I could spend $10,000 or so on her a good used sedan. We'll just have to eat in and stuff more than we do now while we're at my parents.

I dunno what piti is but that’s inclusive of tax, insurance, etc.

I'm not OP, but what do you think about a 2k mortgage making 95k+ 5k bonus and net monthly being around 4600?

They mentioned Alabama. Our summers are HOT. Our winters are mild but do sometimes get down low for a week or two at a time. Especially in the northern Alabama which is a little cooler and more prone to snow than central (where I am). So I guess it would be fair to say it’ll be hot or warm most often, but potential to totally flip

Maybe double check the area for cheaper installs, etc.

Places like Sam's Club have pretty good prices.

Most of the cheap tires are chinese made, which isn't necessarily bad, but do some research on them for sure. I personally do run Hankook (Korean) Dynapro All Terrains. They are great on my truck and originally I was getting them for about $600-650 mounted and balanced, now with all the inflation I expect to pay $800 next time.

Lol yeah if I got a 30k bond, there would be no loved ones bailing me out. I’d have to direct the bail bondsman to my own savings account or credit card.

Bond money gets refunded. That's why a bail bondsman will bail you out for 10%. Your bond is $30k, so you give them 3k, they front the 30k. They get the 30k, and keep your 3k.

Sure, you're out 3k, but you didn't have to put up 30k either.

No this guy is just stuck in a year old circle jerk. I had CP2077 running on a 3080 and an i5-9600k with 16gb ram AT LAUNCH, 4k on max settings and DLSS, getting 50-75ish FPS.