Hello! If you are new here and wondering how to buy a house at a young age, please take a look at my about page. Here on MakingSenseofCents, I talk a little about everything. My more popular posts are usually about how I quit my day job to pursue full-time freelancing. I now make over $75,000 a month online, which I fully detail in my monthly business income reports.
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. 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.
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.
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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Jennifer says
October 12, 2015 at 6:57 pmI am so inspired. I’m 21 and want to buy my own house soooo badly. I’ve got my down payment already just working on closing costs now. I can’t tell you how many people I try to get advise from tell me I’m crazy and well sometimes I feel like maybe I should take this plunge but stories like yours make me not care at all. Thank you so much ! Wish me luck!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
October 12, 2015 at 7:28 pmGood luck!
plt002 says
December 13, 2015 at 9:52 pmWhoa! I’d say you had perfect timing, what with that psychopath and all!
I bought my first home in 2012 at age 21, partly because in my particular situation, renting was more expensive than buying. I found a 4br, 2bath foreclosure after a long year of searching, and my mortgage has turned out to be cheaper than any decent 1br rental I could find! Many of my friends poke fun at me for living in a small town, but with the lower cost of living, I’m able to pay off my undergrad student loans this month! Now I get to put more money back for retirement and have extra “fun money” for travel!
The big thing I learned from this experience was to set pride aside and take advantage of living with your family, if it allows you to save your money. You give up some independence for a while, but it’s worth it!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
December 13, 2015 at 9:54 pmGreat job!
Amie George says
January 15, 2016 at 6:50 amThis is great. At 20 I was definitely not thinking about things like this and that’s when I should have been. Now that I have a daughter almost this age I hope she keeps the right mindset to help her maintain a happy, healthy, successful life.
Sheridan says
March 29, 2016 at 7:50 pmI’ve been thinking lately… If at the age of 20 me and my partner are still together that It would be a wise move to get a loan and buy a house, then rent it for five years or how ever long and live with family members paying a much lower rent than if I was to rent a house elsewhere. After the five years move in and start a family.. What are people’s thoughts on this .. Wise move or not?
Deanna says
June 1, 2016 at 5:37 pmGood read! I bought my house when I was 19, just about to turn 20! And the biggest thing for us was that we were willing to look around all locations I always had a goal of buying a house before 25 so I’d been saving up for a long time, and with both myself and my husband working we were able to afford our dream house.
It’s a little bit different than our friends, because we are focused on paying it off ASAP and don’t want to go out- we’ve even been called boring because we don’t drink, but it’s been well worth it for us!
Sahin Oral says
July 8, 2016 at 6:59 amWow quite motivational & you have an interesting journey.
Not many people can achieve this. You should give yourslf more credit.
Cheers! 🙂
Jasmine Vanasselt says
August 28, 2016 at 2:50 amWell done! Very inspirational to a lot of young people! Great story as for the murder side of things… Speechless there.
Living Free says
November 17, 2016 at 7:44 amI’m totally inspired by your blog and what you are doing. We are planning to purchase an apartment and get the rental cash flow going. Remarkable blog!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
November 17, 2016 at 11:51 amThanks!
Deanna Castro says
January 18, 2017 at 6:34 amThank God you got out of there! You did the right thing buying the house, especially now looking back because you are getting to travel anyway.
Young and Finance says
May 3, 2017 at 1:29 pmDefinitely a good idea to buy young and it looks like it paid off for you in the end. Instead of paying a landlord’s mortgage, you paid your own…smart way to go!
Ashley Williams says
May 24, 2017 at 1:22 ami appreciate your confidence which took you very high in young age. its really difficult to take 1st step which is your final decision then fulfill it as you want. Home buying process not so easy but your better research or knowledge can make it easy no matter in what age you have i have read your article which inspires me a lot
Ella says
July 25, 2017 at 11:23 amCongratulations on buying a house so early. I bought mine when I was 21. Like you, I sometimes wonder if I should have travelled first as travelling is something I definitely want to pursue more of 🙂
Ashley Maxwell says
October 25, 2017 at 7:18 pmMichelle, thanks for your comment about how you should buy a house when the prices are generally lower. I like how you said that you should choose a place that is realistic for your family. My husband and I are looking into houses for sale near us that is a good price for our needs.
Ari says
February 14, 2018 at 3:12 pmMy question is in what city and state did you buy your first home? And where do you guys reside now?
I think this is doable based on the following:
1.) Live with relatives or rent a room from one(like you did). It will be less than what most pay for in the rental market
2.) If you are making above minimum wage, it is easier to save money if step no.1 is happening
3.) You are buying a home that’s not in LA,NY,SF or any other expensive metropolitan place.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
February 14, 2018 at 4:28 pmOur house was in a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. We have since sold it and we now travel full-time.
MyEarlyRetirementJourney says
February 25, 2018 at 7:58 pmI like getting parts of the implicit struggle that somehow focused and motivated you. I remember reading somewhere on here where you wrote you had to move out at 17 or something like that. What I’ve read so far from this blog is inspiring in a lot of ways, namely a lot of adversity that would have crushed a lesser person or at least sidelined them for awhile. Kudos to you!
Burt Silver says
April 30, 2018 at 1:27 pmI like what you said about the timing of buying your house and how you may be a bit young. I’m turning 20 soon and already thinking of buying my own house. I’m not entirely sure yet, but I’m looking into getting a real estate agent that could help me to find something within my budget that I can realistically afford this large investment.
Jon Wegner says
May 2, 2018 at 5:11 pmMichelle,
My name is Jon “Scooterjon” Wegner from North Dakota. I am a disabled guy with progressive Multiple Sclerosis. I was diagnosed in 1991. My MS made me a paraplegic six years ago hence my nickname. Nothing works below my waist anymore but I still have my head, arms and hands working. I’m reading your makingsenseofcents and I’m so glad to hear people can make money blogging. I have a blog at scooterjons.blogspot.com. I’ve had that site for awhile and what a piece of crap but I didn’t know any better. I’m joining Bluehost.com later this week under your link.
My blog is about Multiple Sclerosis and I have alot of personal information. MS affects cognitive thinking in some people. In me, I have the attention span of a 3rd grader and sometimes I’ll have trouble figuring something out. I was trying to figure out some moneymaking ways today for my blog but I have a couple of questions.
1. What I would like to do is get paid for people clicking on a link or filling out a capture page. Do I want to put CPA, CPL, PPA or PPL on my blog? 2. Is MaxBounty a good spot to look at for potential moneymakers? If you have any suggestions I’m all ears.
Thanks alot,
Scooterjon
Paul says
September 5, 2018 at 9:28 pmmaybe my reading comprehension skills are declining but. . . how did you buy the house at 20?
how much down? how did you get that together? how much mortgage? did you have a co-signer?
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
September 6, 2018 at 12:06 amWe both had jobs. We only put around 5% down – so we paid PMI. No cosigner.