We bought a house!
Neither Diego nor I ever thought we'd be homeowners. First of all we weren't mentally or financially prepared for such a thing. How do people ever save up enough for a 20% down payment?... But somewhere in December, we both starting thinking, "We should buy a house". So by Christmas we were working on mortgages and by New Years we were looking at houses. (Note to others who may be looking: We qualified for WAY more than we could afford to pay back so be careful and know your limits before you make these decisions!) We probably saw at least 80 houses and thought we might get 2 of them but in talking with our Realtor we never even made offers. You see since we were getting a FHA loan (for first time home buyers) we used our tax return as the 3.5% down payment and had nothing left for closing costs. And those other houses would still need money for repairs. The house we ended up buying Diego saved from my discard pile. Turns out, it is right down the street from where he lived when I met and married him. We paid list price for it but they paid for closing cost and for the refrigerator and the blinds throughout the house.
