Weddingbee Blog

me and my fiance are just beginning this in nyc right now too. fortunately he owns his studio now so we’re hoping with the money from that we can buy a decent 1BR. but it’s sooo expensive… :/ we’re also working through a broker that we just met and like a lot. hopefully it all works out and we have a place to stay after we’re married~!!

I moved into the condo my husband owned when we got married in August (we live about 30 miles outside of Milwaukee, WI). We recently put in a bid on a “dream” home but ended up walking away from the owner’s final counteroffer after going back and forth for a bit. Lesson: don’t try to stretch yourself!

Our condo is HUGE (1800 sq.ft.!) and we don’t want to have kids for awhile, so we’re going to stay here for a bit and save up some serious bucks for a down payment on a home. We call this our “5-year House” and we really want our next dwelling to be our “20-year House.” Still, putting the [failed] bid in was a great exercise — we now know that we’re absolutely on the same financial page.

Hahaha, Mrs. Onion, I love your reaction. I’ve lived in big cities all my life until now so I’m still getting used to it. My girlfriend from NYC almost fainted when she came into our place for the first time.

The tradeoff? There is one, count it, ONE sushi restaurant in town.

I live in a horrifically expensive area as well - Vancouver is not quite as bad as NYC from what I’ve heard, but it’s the most expensive market in Canada. I know how much we’re flushing down the drain on rent, but how on earth do you just decide to buy a place rather than spend on rent, if you don’t have the money saved up for a downpayment? My fiance and I are terrified that with the ridiculous rate at which prices are escalating, that by the time we have enough saved up for a downpayment, we’ll need a higher amount and will never be able to catch up to the market. I would happily move to the middle of nowhere and buy a place for a fraction of the cost, but my fiance’s line of work currently is dependent upon us living in Vancouver.

for our downpayment, we scrounged every last penny we had saved. we werent engaged yet though and living at home so we did end up saving a bit. but once you actually move in, here comes the “fun” part. our co-op needed some renovations - not even major. we re-painted, re-did the floors and got new kitchen cabinets. sounds easy, but it wasnt. we then had to think about furniture - what matched the wall color, how did the furniture match up with each color. Then we had to figure out how to turn on our electricity, gas and such. then we had to incur our first mortgage bill (you dont really know the exact amount until you get that first bill). then you had to think about getting even the littlest things - forks, cleaning supplies, light bulbs, asprin. all the things mom has ready for you at home. we dsicussed how the bed was to be arranged, where to put the TV, where to hang the painting. we started from scratch. it was fun, but rough at the same time. nobody tells you these things and you dont think about them until you have to do it. just something to look forward too

We’ve owned (first time for both of us) our house for 10 months now. For both of us, buying a house was the scariest thing we ever. I can go on and on about purchasing a house, but I find that most people only think about mortgage payments and down payment. Granted, that’s the two biggest concerns with the purchase but there are many many more financial aspects. Closing costs, taxes, home inspector (don’t ever use a realtor’s inspector), etc etc. Anyone see the movie Money Pit? That goes for old or new homes. I was lucky that my sister has been very good about giving me financial education (ie credit cards and owning a home), so I knew that there will be many issues to buying and owning a home. But it still was a very trying and a learning experience. Still is after all these months. One thing I didn’t even think about is minor stuff. Since neither of us owned a house before and I’ve lived with my family most of my life and my husband was a typical bachelor but worse since he traveled so much for work, we owned very little household items. Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Best Buy LOVE us. Costco should give us free life time membership. From big (many major appliances) to small (push broom), we’ve spent all our money on the house. Sadly, we’ve just barely scratched the surface and most of the money went to the big big yard we loved so much when we first looked at the lot. I can’t remember the last time I went shopping for myself. It’s a shock to me that I can’t even let myself buy a shirt because my brain immediately conjures up many other things the house can use for that amount. I now understand when someone told me long time ago that they spend more on the house than anything else. I thought they were crazy weird at the time. :p

i say condo, condo, condo (lower down payment) and look for new construction where your carrying costs will be less for the first 10-15 years due to tax abatements.

Mr. Daisy and i just bought a bigger place, but we were very lucky that we already had a one-bedroom to use as our base $ to buy the next one. we definitely considered an off-the-island move to Brooklyn (loved the new construction in DUMBO particularly), but a great larger space opened up in our current building so we pounced and decided to stay in Manhattan.

we definitely saved on the new place b/c it is in full-on estate condition and needs a gut renovation. if you and/or Mr. Onion are at all handy, i think buying a needs-TLC place is a great way to save for sure. of course, there’s the cost of renovation, but sometimes you can do pieces of it over time and then not get hit with one lump payment, where you would if you bought a place with everything in mint condition…