Thinking About Buying Houses

I was thinking about each of my brothers and their house buying experiences – or rather, their relatively soon to be experiences.

My baby brother seems dead set on buying a house that he will live in for the rest of his life. A house that has exactly what he and his wife are looking for – a yard, fenced in of course, at least two bathrooms, at least three bedrooms – and he wants to move in and never leave. His plan is to buy a house in the next three years. He feels that he needs to wait at least a year to build up his credit – apparently his score is in the 700s but he doesn’t have a history that the bank likes. He was told his because they wouldn’t give him a car loan. That doesn’t make sense to me, but I wasn’t there.

On the other hand my other brother wants a house big enough for his family. Mind you, he has five kids and I know he isn’t banking on getting a six bedroom house. He is thinking a four bedroom would be nice, but has said a three would be better then what they are in now (which is a two bedroom apt).  He isn’t thinking of a “I have to have this” list – not yet anyway. I’m sure he has some sort of a list but for now is just happy he was approved.

This is huge for my family. While my Mom’s family (my Grandma, my Aunts and Uncles) all have good jobs and own their homes, a good majority of the people where we are from do not. We grew up in a place that is in the top five poorest counties in the US. When my husband and I bought the house we are living in, everyone back home talked about it as though we owned a mansion. And I suppose to many people, we do. This home is huge.

Of course this is also a big deal because though my Mom owned the home we grew up in (and still does) my Dad didn’t buy his home until last year. My husband and I are considering renting this house when we move simply based on the amount of contruction in our area and the fact that we don’t want to lose thousands of dollars when we sell. We know we would have to sell for a lot less then we would prefer because someone could buy a brand new home for just a little less.

I’m proud of my brothers for taking the steps necessary to becoming homeowners. Both of them only have car payments – no credit card debt, no student loans, etc – and it is almost just a matter of finding a house. I’m going to call and remind them that it’s okay to find something that is a starter home, I think they need the reassurance.

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