Thanks, I'll definately take you up on inspecting it when we find one. I'll definately do the legwork and I'm patient. We plan to get a steal on whatever we get or we'll go to the next. Now that I'm paying attention it's crazy how many houses are empty. Country idea sounds best to me as well. I grew up outsideof town and I hate living in town. No neighbors=good neighbor to me.

First house I bought I bought without a realtor found it myself made a offer what I was willing to pay the owner they accepted it went to their lawyer, paid them the money for the house, they did all the paperwork I had no lawyer and no realator was like buying a car they about shit when I offered to bring cash for the purchase they made me pay them with a check lmao

That purchase was pretty simple it was a standard lot in the city, the house had been paid for about 50 years prior to the sale so no bank was involved, bought the title insurance and am pretty sure that was all for closing cost.

If you let them they (house selling and buying industry) will over complicate things and play games and have cost for everything NEVER make a offer on a home you "have to have" because your in love with it they will sense this then you will over pay out the ass I have a long list of friends that learned this lesson only cost them about 8 more years in house payments, ONLY make offers on homes you can walk away from if they wont meet your terms.

Most important leave the female at home or duct tape her mouth shut every time she says "oh I really like this" or similar they sense just how much money they are going to extract from you.

don't live beyond your means plan on being unemployed for at least 12 months without a income 5 years from now and still be able to make your payments IMO if you cant make payments for at least 12 months when you have NO INCOME you have no business buying a home, however some people are ok with paying for a house for 5-10 years then just giving it to the bank or walking away personally I consider them an investment and want to double my investment every 10 years not just give it all away.

I'm not sure if you've heard of a guy name Dave Ramsey but we kinda go along with his ideas. We have 6 months put away for rainy day. We both do 15% into retirement. Doesn't leave much money for the toys but we pay cash for everything. I had planned on doing the 100% down plan on the first home but I think it's just time to own our own place. I hate seeing how much interest you have to pay on a mortgage over the full term. We'll be buying a cheap home and working away at that quickly. We're not lazy, we have no problems fixing a place up if it saves money. She even likes that kind of stuff. Lots of big decisions.

Just stumbled onto this post, must of missed it, you still around, you ever find a home?