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I am SO glad I bought at a young age. When I first purchased, the market was in a slump and a New York City apartment cost below $100k. Seven years later, sold that apartment for more than 3x. Got married, moved to Texas. First joint purchase was a new construction house. It was ok. Sold that at a profit ten years later. We never buy houses on the premise of making money, but we are fortunate in that selling real estate enabled us to have nice sums of money in our pockets.
I didn't really want to own a home being single and on the road all the time. In 1975 (I was 29) I bought a new home when the TAX LAW gave a 5% tax credit if you bought a new home and kept it for three years. Since I had two younger sisters and my Nephew needed a place to live I bought. I just wish I still owned it but I sold it after three years. It is ten times nicer than the house I own now. Oh well.
At 22 ,we started looking. Put a down payment..And proceeded to look at a mortgage that would be 15 years.. so...
Mathematically at 37 we would 'own' the home. We paid it off though in seven since we had boarders (graduate students) residing. It was a 5 bed,2 bath with a lower level apartment that we also rented out. So 3 boarders and an apartment more then doubled out mortgage payoff time frame
With most folks requiring a mortgage..It's rare to find a home 'owner' in their 20's..Usually the bank owns it til paid off.
Buying a cottage facing condemnation turned out to be my saving grace... paid cash and sold everything to make it happen including my fully restored to original 1968 Z28 Camaro... sad to see it go after painstakingly making it as new but it was just one of many sacrifices...
The good thing is even though the home was real bad... it still had the utilities on and quick work on my part with several 30 yard dumpsters to clean the place up, fix the broken windows, paint the outside and clean up the landscaping was enough to satisfy code inspection.
Being tapped out at 22 it took me a year to finish the renovations... paying for materials as I could afford it.
Having a paid off and finished home at 23 then gave me rental income to tackle the next fixer in a little better area...
Scarsdale, NY was my fantasy! It was only like 30 min away from where I grew up and I remembered loving the houses. Now I don't even live in the same state though.
We never buy houses on the premise of making money, but we are fortunate in that selling real estate enabled us to have nice sums of money in our pockets.
Good for you! I'm going to stalk you around the forums, so some of your good luck rubs off on me!
I neve had a target age, but I but my first home when I was 26.
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