Buying a house at a young age and how to buy a house at a young age is a topic I am often asked. Whether you are planning on buying a house at 18, buying a house at 19, buying a house at 21, or any other age, it is a big deal.
We bought a house at the age of 20 – there I said it. Most people think we are crazy and either think the house is something dumpy, that someone in my family pays for it, or that I’m lying (yes, I’ve been told that). I am often asked how I bought a house so young and what I learned from it.
I am especially asked a lot of questions now about what I learned from it since a lot of my friends are buying their first homes right now.
So, I’ll start off with a little background: Why did we buy our house at the age of 20? I was still in college, and we both didn’t have the greatest jobs. However, we were both working full-time and made slightly enough money. There are sooo many things to learn and know about before you buy a house.
We started living together straight out of high school (yes, I know I will be judged by some for this, but oh well, I am happy 🙂 ) and had lived together for a little over 2 years when we finally started looking at houses.
Now, why were we in a rush to buy a house? Well, we were really outgrowing the house that we were renting. The rent was super cheap since we were renting it from one of Wes’ relatives.
The house wasn’t bad and there was a huge backyard for our dog (we had just one at the time, but now we have two). However, the house was super small (there was no legitimate bedroom, our bed was in the basement) and then of course our neighbor turned out to be a psychopath.
Long story short, we moved just in time. Sadly, the person who rented the house after us ended up being murdered by the psychopath (our old landlord is Wes’ cousin, and he told us this). Probably too much information to put on the blog so I won’t say too much more. I will just say that we moved out at the perfect time.
We left the rental house as soon as we could because things were getting out of hand with the neighbor. We moved in with Wes’ brother and sister-in-law. We couldn’t live with them for too long, though, mainly because they had two kids (they have three now), and we had a dog with us! We just wanted to find a house quickly, and moving into an apartment and signing a lease didn’t seem worth it.
We gave his brother and his wife a couple hundred in rent, so we weren’t freeloading (we lived in the basement bedroom).
So there we were, on the hunt for a house. We knew we didn’t want to rent anymore, and at the time we kept being told that the housing market had bottomed and that prices would never be this cheap (oh boy they were wrong!). So, we found great deals on houses and there were a lot that we loved.
We found a house. It was a little above our budget, but still well below what we were approved for.
Recommended reading: How To Move Out At 18
How to buy a house in your 20s.
Should you buy a house in your early 20s?
Not everyone is the same, but if you are interested in buying a house in your 20s, it is possible.
In fact, many of my friends bought their first house in their 20s as well.
Granted, we did live in a more affordable area (the midwest), so it was easier there.
I recommend reading Home Buying Tips You Need To Know Before You Buy so that you can be more informed with your first home purchase.
What is the best age to buy a house?
I don’t know if there’s a best age to buy a house – it all depends on you and your individual circumstances.
Should you buy a cheap house first?
Some say that your first house should be a “starter home” but again, I think this is different for each person. Your whole life can change in just a year, so it’s hard to decide from Day 1 that you will be moving into a bigger house in a few years.
You may end up living in your “starter home” your whole life!
Is it smart to buy a house in your 20s?
Just like with any age, it can be smart of dumb, haha. You’ll simply want to be smart with your decision and all of the factors that go along with your decision (such as, can you afford the house!?).
Here’s what I would have changed with our home purchase and how to buy a house in your 20s:
1. The timing of buying a house young.
Even though everything worked out great for us, I’m not sure if I would have bought a house so young. We probably should have found another rental house so that we could have saved money.
Also, even though we are still together, I do realize that a TON of relationships at the age of 20 do not last, I am happy that ours is still going strong, of course.
2. Being more realistic.
I’m definitely not going to say that I made NO mistakes. We bought our house with the thinking that I would get a job straight out of college (I graduated with my undergraduate degrees around 7 months later, still at the age of 20).
However, what if I WOULDN’T have gotten this job? We most likely would have not been able to afford it forever. We had enough saved to hold us over for awhile, but we definitely couldn’t enjoy ourselves on the income that we were making (we had enough for expenses, but not if we wanted to hang out with friends or buy clothes).
3. Waited so that I could travel.
This isn’t a huge regret of mine, but I do always have this little inkling that maybe I would have traveled extensively if I wouldn’t have been tied down to a house.
Related: Mistakes I Made When I Bought My First House At The Age of 20
What decisions would you have changed with your house purchase? Tips? Do you already have a second house in mind like I do?
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We are looking to buy our first house in a year. I'm already thinking about it. 🙂 LOL
Haha I'm already looking also!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
I can't believe that story of the next tenant being murdered. wow! Well, I have never owned anything and I'm 42. But I have no regrets and I have, in my own mind, have experienced living in multiple places where I could experience different things, and different experiences living with people and on my own. I think I would like to own something someday, but in LA it's pretty tough, especially under my current financial circumstances. If I lived in the Midwest, I'm sure I would have bought a house a long time ago. That's quite an achievement at 20!
I think it's totally different between LA and the Midwest of course. Everything here is super affordable.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
I think it’s great! If you are responsible and can financially and emotionally handle it, age should not be a deciding factor.
Thanks! And I agree.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
I may have missed this but was it easy to save up for the downpayment or did you have it already when you turned 20? By me a downpayment for a decent house is about 50K. Nice redesign by the way!
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We didn't have a very large downpayment. That was one of our mistakes. Luckily that didn't hurt the interest rate we got at all, since we were first time homebuyers and got FHA.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
That's great that you were able to purchase a home at the age of 20! I think back to when I was 20, and there is no way I was mature enough to buy a home.
OMG, the murdered part of your story is creeping me out!
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I know it's so scary!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
20 years old is impressive! I was 23 when I bought my house, all on my own. My dad bought his first house at 21 so my family didn't think I was too young, but I think some of my friends did. I'm glad home ownership has worked for you and that you weren't murdered!
I'm glad it worked out for you as well.
And yes, I'm glad I wasn't murdered!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Screw all of the details about finances, being too young, whatever…..if you didn't move, you wouldn't be here. HOLY MOLY!
I would gladly "buy a house too young" than hang around and get murdered…WOW!
AGREED!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
High school sweethearts! That is so cute. It's nice to know that some of those relationships actually work out. I can't believe you escaped a murderer! As for the whole house thing. I'm on my 2nd one and I'm still on the fence about how good of a choice it is to buy! My one word of advise is to buy one that you can grow into or don't buy at all. Don't buy a 1BR bungalow that you'll grow out of in 2 seconds and find it hard to sell. It just doesn't make sense unless you know for certain that you will live alone for the rest of your life. I thought I would…but apparently I was wrong so my 1st one did not work out for me which became US at all.
Haha I am in a group of about 6 close friends and ALL of us are still with our high school sweet hearts. One girl is 28 and they've been together since they were 15!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
My boyfriend was 21 when he bought his house that we currently have. When I met him, he was still living in it. Then the market crashed and we tried to put it up for sale. It didn't sell so we did extensive renovations and put it up for sale again. No luck in selling it a second time. Then we smartened up and started renting it out and its been (mostly) a good experience ever since. If a house was something you could and still can afford, then it can be a great investment even at such a young age. Don't let people bring you down just because you were young. It seems like it worked out well for you.
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Glad renting it out has worked for you guys so far 🙂
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Murdered huh? Holy crap. Glad you got out in time!
My recent post Has Your Boss Been Naughty or Nice?
Ha I like how that's the main part everyone read! 🙂
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Yeah, I know it's a bit shallow to take that away from a post where you talk about your decision to buy your first house, but you just don't read that sort of thing about someone's real life! Sounds like it's out of a movie.
My recent post Has Your Boss Been Naughty or Nice?
Ugh yeah when I found out, I was shocked. We always knew that our neighbor and his mom (they lived together) were nuts. His mom was always at our house giving us flamingo related items. I'm not even joking, she was NUTS also.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Thanks!
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Oh I love this! Wow you were ambitious. I bought my condo at at 26. I did it before I was married and solely on my own. It was a goal of mine, having been raised by the most amazing single mom ever. Anyhow, I bought just about the only place in my hometown that I could afford and that wasn't totally pee stained and nasty by the foreclosed owners. Mine was an easy short sale. ( I say that seriously.) And it is of course now way too small. But I don't regret the purchase. I will keep it always and am starting in January to save up for house #2! I just have about, oh, um, three years to go. If I'm lucky! Hahaha.
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Haha good luck! We need to start saving as well.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
We bought our house about a year ago. I think we made a good decision but it is a bit small sometimes but I'm OK with that. We've had a second house in mind but it is 5-10 years down the road. We might buy sooner and rent it out before we move into it so we'll see.
I wish we didn't have a second house on our minds so soon, but we do want to make the next house our final house. Scary to say since we are 23.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
Thankfully the midwest has good housing prices, I am definitely thankful for that.
My recent post Buying a House at 20 (How I did it)
What's with all the stories of murder on the blogosphere today? Holy cow!
I'm glad it worked out for you, but at 20 I was still struggling to figure out my place in the world. I'm glad that we waited until we were about to be married to buy our first house.