My partner and I are in the process of selling our first house right now. We barely were able to buy a fixer standing on our tiptoes, but we were really motivated to get a house. ‘Fixer’ ended up being a bit of an understatement, and we blew all of our leftover money almost immediately on major systems (heat, electrical panel, sewer line, full replumb, etc). Tens of thousands of dollars in debt later, we were left with the same ugly interior that we resented.
I totally agree with the people advocating home ownership in this thread. It’s super rad to be able to do whatever to your house. Need a hole? Make one. Want to run speaker cables behind the wall for some cool floating speakers? Go buck wild.
On the other hand, I’d caution first time homebuyers in this thread that, unless you’re independently wealthy and can truly afford to buy a home and still have a lump of cash, be careful with fixers. We’re lucky enough to probably squeak out from under this house and pay all the debts back, but if we would have waited even a couple years more it probably would have been a net loss in exchange for 3 years of living in a shitty house that was a source of constant stress and pressure.
My partner and I are in the process of selling our first house right now. We barely were able to buy a fixer standing on our tiptoes, but we were really motivated to get a house. ‘Fixer’ ended up being a bit of an understatement, and we blew all of our leftover money almost immediately on major systems (heat, electrical panel, sewer line, full replumb, etc). Tens of thousands of dollars in debt later, we were left with the same ugly interior that we resented.
I totally agree with the people advocating home ownership in this thread. It’s super rad to be able to do whatever to your house. Need a hole? Make one. Want to run speaker cables behind the wall for some cool floating speakers? Go buck wild.
On the other hand, I’d caution first time homebuyers in this thread that, unless you’re independently wealthy and can truly afford to buy a home and still have a lump of cash, be careful with fixers. We’re lucky enough to probably squeak out from under this house and pay all the debts back, but if we would have waited even a couple years more it probably would have been a net loss in exchange for 3 years of living in a shitty house that was a source of constant stress and pressure.