How Home Ownership Sped Up My $575,000 Student Loan Repayment

Now that we have moved into our new space, I have a moment to write down a few words on home ownership as a tool to facilitate student loan repayment. If you haven’t been following along on my journey thus far, first, welcome to my little pocket on the internet!

My name is Sam and I graduated dental school at 26 years old with $575,000 of student debt. You can listen to my story in this interview. It was a crippling number and instead of waiting 25 years for loan forgiveness (which would put me at slightly over 50 years old), I decided to pay it back as fast as I can. I experimented with non-traditional ways of living, which included small space living, finding a roommate to live with my married husband and I, scrounging for hand-me-downs, living a minimalist life, and delving into side-hustles. However, one of the more traditional decisions we made was to buy a home. And it paid us back tremendously!

Why We Decided to Buy a Home

We live in Southern California, which is a fairly expensive place to call home. When we first rented a space, it was costing us $2,800 a month to live in a 1500 square foot live/work loft. Even after we negotiated with the landlord to lower the lease to $2,600 a month, we still felt like it was a big chunk to throw into someone else’s pocket. We decided it would be better to funnel that money into equity of our own. That way, we would be paying the same amount of money to put a roof over our head, but still be growing our wealth.

After a year of renting, we knew the next move would be to buy a home. I advise any young person to get their foot into real estate as soon as they can. Even if it is the tiniest home. If you can afford to pay the mortgage, put that renter’s money back into your own pocket.

How We Bought Our First Home with $575,000 of Student Debt

The first thing we did was negotiate with our current landlord a lower monthly fee. The second thing we did was get a roommate, to further reduce the monthly rent. The extra money we saved went directly into a savings account. I recommend a Marcus High Yield Savings Account to hold short-term savings. Meanwhile, we implemented the strategies of frugality (here is a list of Frugal life hacks) to save even more. We shopped for a good deal on a mortgage loan and within six months, we were signing documents for a live/work loft of our own. This was early on in my loan repayment journey, before I delved into side hustles. I probably could have sped up the process by earning more income with side hustles (here is my list of side-hustles).

How to Find a Deal on a Home

We chose a live/work loft that was similar to the one we were currently living in. It had 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 stories, a 2 car garage and 1500 square feet of space. It was built in 2004. As a live/work loft, the property was commercially zoned, and the downstairs faced the heart of downtown. The exact same loft in the community we were renting from was going for $650,000. We found one that was in a more central location, listed at $499,000. In California, that is a steal.

My first tip is to be patient. Look for a long time and don’t jump on the very first opportunity. To be honest, I scoured the listing for 6 months while we were saving money. 6 months is a very long time if you already have the funds, but the best deals come to those who wait.

My second tip is to keep the search well-focused. I limited my search to live/work lofts because of the lifestyle we wanted. I knew I wanted two bedrooms because we wanted to keep our roommate (which we ended up having for 3 years). Having a roommate was great because it helped us pay for our mortgage. At the same time, we knew we wanted a minimalist space. A small space meant we could spend less to own a home. If I wasn’t this focused on what I wanted, I could have easily gotten carried away with buying a bigger, more expensive home. I made sure that the home fit our needs, and nothing more.

My third tip is to not let emotions get the better of you. Buy with your head, not your heart. Society sells us the idea of a dream home. But a dream home won’t make you free from student loans. A dream home will end up being a money pit. And dreams change. I mean, we sold our live/work loft and moved to a ranch community, and it has only been three years. I just remind myself, having a dream house is not my goal. It is a means to reach an end. You can read more about my thoughts on why property ownership is not about finding your dream home here.

How Much It Cost to Buy Our Home

You may be wondering how much it cost to get one’s foot in the real-estate-door. That depends on a whole bunch of factors, such as where you live, or what you are willing to live in. Our first home cost us $499,000. We put down 5%, which was $25,000. Added to that would be closing costs which was an additional $10,000. Total, we needed $36,000 to close the deal on our home.

We chose an online lending company that gave us better deals than a well-known bank could. I would definitely do some shopping around! At first, we thought the Doctor Loan would be the best move. But after doing the math (which you should always do!), we found that the Doctor Loan had a higher interest rate than a conventional loan, which made the monthly payments pretty high. It ended up being cheaper to do a conventional loan with 5% down (which is available for first-time home buyers) plus the added PMI. Moral of the story: do price comparisons.

How Much It Cost to Own a Home

Our monthly mortgage was about $3,000 a month. We had HOA fees that cost $222 per month. Utilities cost about $175 per month. We had a roommate that we charged $700 a month to have her own bedroom and full bathroom. Our total portion per month without utilities was $2,522, which is cheaper than when we were renting under a negotiated price. After two years, we refinanced and brought the monthly mortgage down to $2,500. After another five months, I refinanced a second time and got the monthly mortgage payment down to $1,900! I did the back-to-back refinancing because we were losing our roommate. It was all about bringing that monthly number down as much as possible. However, we ended up pivoting when the market took a turn for the better.

How Much Value The Home Accrued

To our lovely surprise, 2020 and 2021 ended up being pivotal years for us home owners. 2021 alone saw a 20% increase in home value in Southern California. To put it into perspective, in March of 2020, the value of our home was around $510,000. By October 2021, we were able to sell our home at $660,000. We had bought our loft in September of 2018. In three years, the value of our home increased by $160,000!

Why We Sold Our Home and Bought A Second One

We decided to sell our live/work loft and realize the earnings while the market was hot. So as not to miss out on the possibility of continual market increase, we purchased a townhome with half of the revenue from the first loft, and are funneling the other half of the revenue into student loans come February. Our townhome is newer (2018) and is five minutes from my job which nixes my commute. It is also in a much nicer community, down the street from my parent’s house, and within 5 miles of where I grew up. Since we lost our roommate, we bought a townhome that is smaller, but still has 2 bedroom, 2 and a half baths, 2 stories and a 2 car garage. We are using the second bedroom as Mike’s office now that he is WFH.

With the revenue we received, we were able to put 10% down into a $670,000 home. That’s right! We traded our first home for one with the same value. Both homes increased the same amount over the last two years. We gave up 200 square feet of space for a nicer neighborhood and no commute. And with 10% down, we placed more initial equity in this home ($67,000) than our initial home ($25,000). This is without us having to save money or anything. This is just half of what we earned from our daily living expense of putting a roof over our head. For this reason alone, I would definitely recommend buying a home.

How Home Ownership Sped Up My $575,000 Student Loan Repayment

Back to the original title of this post: How did home ownership help with my loans? It gave us an extra $75,000 to funnel into my student loans come February. (The discrepancy between the $160k earned and the amount used for the home and loans is attributed to the closing costs of the sale and the purchase of a home.) This additional $75k towards student loans reduces my student loan repayment timeline by one whole year! And to think, this money would have just gone into some other person’s pocket if we continued to rent.

The Moral of the Story

My advice for young people who are broke but want to own a home is to do what it takes to save the money. Buy the smallest home possible for yourself to start. Consider the possibility of having a roommate for the first few years. Stay determined to live frugally, and reap the benefits a few years down the road. Good things come to those who are patient and wait.

Photo by MinuteKEY on Unsplash

How We Made Our Home Cash Flow Positive

Most of the time, I feel that the advice I write in this space comes in the telling of my personal story. I could have titled this article, “What You Need to Have a Cash Positive Home”, but decided to take a more narrative approach, since what worked for me may not work for others. Since starting my road to financial independence in 2017, we have acquired a property that has potential to be a source of income. While I hesitate to insinuate that real estate is a good “investment”, I do have to say that this particular one worked out for us, despite living in the Golden State (Orange County, no less). If you want to know how we got here, read on to hear about the process.

Our story begins in 2017, when I decided to pay off $575k+ in student debt, and suddenly realized that the beautiful live-work loft that we were renting was absolutely and horrific-ly expensive. Even though it fell within the average cost of an OC rental ($2,800 a month for a two bedroom, two bathroom, 1,500 sq. ft. live-work loft with a 2-car tandem parking garage), it became apparent that it could not support my goals. So I went down a rabbit-hole of considering my options.

First, we looked for cheaper rentals. We almost pulled the trigger on renting out a 500-square foot apartment in Huntington Beach for $1,900, but voted against it because it had no garage, was farther from work, and would have likely caused marital issues due to cramped quarters. As much as I loved Mike, we were still growing accustomed to being around each other 24/7. Little did we know a pandemic was written in our futures. Either way, we nixed the idea of moving into a tiny box, although now, I think I could handle it.

Next, I wrote to our current landlord to ask her to reduce the rent. We had a great relationship with our landlord and she was so grateful to our on-time rent payments and our care for her home, that she did reduce the rent from $2,800 a month to $2,600 a month (a savings of $2,400 per year). Okay, so now we were getting somewhere.

Then, I thought of renting out the bottom floor (which had its own entrance, bathroom, and floor). The living space was on the second floor and the bedroom was on the third floor. I told people around me that I was thinking of renting it out and luckily, my brother’s newly graduated girlfriend happened to find a job in Orange County. At the time, my brother was living in my parent’s two bedroom home and she was living with her sister in San Diego, where her internship was located. Her new job in OC meant that she needed a new home, and apartments, like I said, would have likely cost her anywhere from $1,800-$2,400 monthly.

So, we offered her a place to live, for a mere $700 per month. Liiiiiiiiiike, a really nice place to live for any new college grad. Lucky for us, she said YES! That cut down our living expenses to $1,900 per month, the same number we would have had to pay for that tiny room by the beach. By house-hacking, we saved $900 per month, which saved us $10,800 per year. This brought down our yearly cost of rent from $33,600 to $22,800 – quite an amazing feat.

But still!

It killed me to know that $22,800 of our hard-earned, post-tax dollars was going into someone else’s pocket, without increasing our wealth. So I became obsessed with buying a live-work loft of our own. I must have searched Zillow for an entire year straight. I was so in love with our current one and our location, but when one was listed on the market, I couldn’t stomach the $650,000 price tag. It was for 1,500 sq. ft., one bedroom, one bath, and a downstairs office. It was street facing which brought up it’s property value, but after stalking Zillow for a year, I felt that the right price for that loft was about $100,000 cheaper.

The most important thing about the home searching process is this:

We knew what we wanted. A turn-key live-work loft that allowed us to keep Kirsten and that is fairly new for a fair price that will not wipe out our bank accounts. We wanted one in between Los Angeles and South OC, and we wanted a property that can become a rental, a business storefront, or our home. Essentially, I wanted options. Our lives were open-ended at the time, so we wanted our housing situation to be, too. We decided to put the smallest down payment we can (about 5% of the asking price) so that we can get in on the market sooner.

(PS: The loan we did was a traditional loan which included a PMI for only putting 5% down. We also looked into a physicians loan which allowed 5% down without PMI. However, the physician’s loan increased the interest rate, and when we ran the numbers, one ends up paying more for the physician loan over the course of 30 years than a traditional loan. As far as putting more than 5%, we just did not have the cash at hand especially since we were making $6,500/mo payments to my loans. So we decided to put in the least we could, and this kept us from being house broke. We had extra cash to cover the fees and still keep a nice chunk for an emergency fund!)

We were sitting at Bruxie’s waiting for our chicken and waffles, disappointed at deciding to let go our “dream” loft, but also proud of not allowing emotion to make our home purchase decision for us. It was then that I saw it for the first time listed on Zillow. A loft in the heart of downtown Santa Ana, maybe about 2.5 miles from where we currently lived. It was listed at $499,900 and had the same number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and parking spaces as the loft we lived in. Also, it was street-facing. The seller was under contract previously, but for some reason, the contract fell through and he decreased the asking price by about $15k. This gave us a clue: He was motivated to sell. He listed it only a few hours before our seeing it, and the next day, we had done a walk-through and placed an offer.

Some might call this an emotional decision but that it was not. We just happened to know what we wanted and did not want. We happened to know the current market. We also happened to know a stellar agent who was a friend of a friend’s, and we happened to know the person who lived next door to the loft we bought. We have done the research, the thinking, and the networking – and everything just kind of fell into place, which is great if you’re a believer in fate.

So we bought the house with a 5% down at 4.6% interest rate (which happened to be more than 2% less than my loan interest rate!) and our monthly mortgage, (plus PMI, plus HOA, plus property tax) was about $3,300 a month. We kept our roomie on for $700 a month and gave her a garage spot for the inconvenience of moving her butt to downtown, so this made our portion of the payment $2,600 – the price we were at before we started house hacking. This was at the end of 2018.

During the pandemic in 2020, we refinanced in the summer, reducing our interest rate from 4.6% to $3.5%, and our monthly payment from $3,300 to $3,000. We even gave our roommate a $100 discount, reducing her rent to $600 a month, for being such a stellar, long-term roommate. Unfortunately, our living situation with her is coming to an end this year, so we decided in January of 2021 to refinance a second time.

This second refinance (5 months after our first) reduced our rate even further from 3.5% to 2.85%! It also reduced our monthly payment down to $2,700 (HOA, property tax, and mortgage insurance included). With our roommate still on board until July/August, we are paying $2,100 for a roof over our heads. Unfortunately, she will leave at the end of summer, and we will have to face a few rental options. However, since we treat her (and charge her) like family, the rental price of that downstairs room will likely increase to a going rate of $1k/month. At that price, our housing cost will go down to $1,700 a month – not bad for OC and more than $1k cheaper than where we originally started.

The refinance put us at a fantastic place to be since our unit has a rental value of about $2,800 – $3,000 per month back when we originally bought it. However, just recently, lofts that were built over the pandemic down the street are now being leased. These 500-800 square foot lofts go for $2,800-$3,000 / month. The proximity to our place will, we hope, drive the value of our unit above $3,000/month as a rental. Either way, it is safe to say that our place is now cash flow positive shall we decide to move on from here after “things return back to normal.”

Both our jobs are taking us south, so if remote work doesn’t remain a thing, we may rent this space out and get a second property. Shall we choose to stay, we can continue to house-hack and rent the bottom floor as either an office space for a WFH parent that needs their “work away from home”, or as a bedroom for someone we know. This will lower our living expense to under $2k/month.

In the meantime, the value of the property is estimated to be at $550k according to our appraisal, and $565k according to Redfin. We are earning equity and when we move on, will also earn rental income on top of that.

The following are the tips that worked for us when buying a property:

Know your market. I stalked Zillow for a year for a very particular type of home in a small area.
Know your numbers. Don’t accept loans at face value – actually map out the dollar amount over time.
Know your must-haves and cant-live-without. For Mike, that was a garage. For me, it was natural light.
Know an emotional decision when you feel one. This is why we did not buy the loft “of our dreams”.
Know your financial limits. I knew I had my student debt to worry about. I also knew I wanted an emergency fund and to not be house-broke.
Know your future goals. I knew this wasn’t going to be our forever home. Our lives are so open-ended, there was no pressure to buy a home that we would live in forever.
Don’t ascribe to the “dream home” and all that HGTV stuff.
Take Renovations Slowly or not at all.
Don’t just buy a home and forget. Continually re-evaluate and find ways to save. That’s why we thought of refinancing.
Be open to non-traditional ways of living. House hacking and living with a roommate is the best decision we ever made.
Be creative in your solutions. Not only did we house hack, but I also built a bakery out of my kitchen. I operated my own bakery for a year. My house also acts as my WFH blog space, my ROVER dog-sitting space, and now, it is my husband and roommate’s work-office. It is more than a home or a rental property – it is where we work and earn a living, too.

I know this narrative is extremely personal and number heavy, but I also hope it’s been of help.

Thanks for reading along.

Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash

Property Ownership: Refinancing a Home

With the extra time on our hands these past few weeks, we’ve had time to mull through our current finances and see where improvements can be made. We are generally good at frugality (see how you can stretch frugal muscles here), we have mastered a budget (and I’ve written a free course walking you through the process here), and have been very good at paying back out student loans so far. However, this does not mean there aren’t places where we can improve.

Since Mike has been without a job since February and since the dental offices have been open only a few days a week, our income has undoubtedly diminished over the last few months. With the lowering interest rates of mortgages, we decided, perhaps now is the time to refinance our home.

Refinance Can Save $$$

We purchased our home in 2018 and was given a locked rate of 4.875% at the time. After shopping around, we found rates offered to us today to be as low as 3.625%. I was alerted by the drop in interest rates by a colleague who was refinancing her home, and another who was in the process of closing on his first house purchase. The latter also informed me that he knew of someone who has refinanced their home twice in the last two years.

At first I was skeptical as to the efficiency of refinancing a home. Of course, there are closing costs to consider, and is that offset by the monthly savings due to a lower interest rate? After running some numbers, we have decided that yes, it is worthwhile.

We were able to rope in our closing costs into the total cost of the loan which made the appraisal fee our only up-front cost. After calculating using the new loan amount (with the closing cost added in), we found our monthly payment reduced by $500+ a month. Multiplied over the course of 30 years, this saves us $180,000, assuming we do not pay off the home early.

How to Refinance

The process was fairly easy, since we were sticking with the same mortgage company and they already had our mortgage details. We simply filled out an application form and Docu-signed necessary documents. You may need to provide additional documents such as proof of income in the form of paystubs, which you’re lender will specifically ask for.

Of course, you can always shop around with other lenders. I would recommend asking for referrals from friends and family members until you find one you like. The closing costs can always be negotiated, and you can shop for some services on your own which may end up being cheaper than going with the lender’s recommended vendors. Do not be afraid to ask which services you are allowed to shop for. We did shop around and entertained two other lenders, however, all three options gave us a similar interest rate. Since we already like our current lender and we try to do all things in simple ways (simple does matter), we decided to stick with our current one.

Potential Problems

Of course, with the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19, you may run into a myriad of potential problems such as, but not limited to:

Delayed processing due to an influx of multiple home-owners also trying to reduce their monthly payments.
Volatile interest rates which are daily changing due to multiple people not being able to make their home payments, people losing their homes, and alternatively, people trying to buy homes at the low rate.
Delayed services such as appraisals due to social distancing and stay-at-home protocols currently in place.
Reduced income, depending on whether work-at-home is an available option for you, which can then affect your ability to refinance at all. If possible, keep your job so that you can prove that you have a solid income that can support the refinance.
Increasing debts as the jobless try to stay afloat. My advice is to try to keep debts at a minimum so that credit scores are not greatly affected by this recession to come.

Despite these potential problems, I would still prompt you to pursue refinancing your home. There will likely be a recession post COVID-19 and house prices may not stay at their current rates. In fact, we may see something similar to 2008 when house prices drop drastically and when that’s the case, refinance would be a difficult thing to swing. I would refinance while the value of your home can still be appraised highly, and while you can get in on these low interest rates.

Property Ownership: Happiness Does Not Lie in Double Vanity Sinks

I never thought there would come a day where I would have to write about double vanity sinks. I guess that is just the space this blog is taking me to. Excuse my short interlude amongst my usual property ownership writing, but I am seeking respite from a thought that refuses to leave my mind. I turn to writing it all out, and (hopefully) letting it go. It has something to do with double vanity sinks, and everything to do with people’s concepts of what makes this life worth living.

We looked at two properties (this time around) before we decided on the one to buy. The first time we were looking at a live work loft, our agent was walking through the home with us, while the seller’s agent awkwardly stood downstairs. We were exploring the third floor where the bedroom and bathroom resided, a floor plan quite similar to the one we were renting. I walked into the newly renovated bathroom and commented, or rather, exclaimed, how nicely done it was. Our super rad real estate agent, who we love, flippantly added to the appraisal with what I presume she thought all prospective buyers wanted to hear.

She said, “The nice thing about the bathroom is that it has a double vanity.” She looked at us expectantly and then followed up with, “Do you have a double vanity in the bathroom you currently rent?” When we said we didn’t, she said, “That’ll be a nice upgrade then!”

I was quite confused by her comment, but smiled and continued asking questions about the home and moved on with the rest of the tour. It stuck with me as nothing but a funny comment, and it was pushed to the recesses of my mind.

Until our dear friend helped us move in to our new place (the one we actually picked) two Sundays ago. (How time flies! Was it already two Sundays ago??) After all the lifting, sweating, scuffling, and off course, gorging on food to replenish depleted energy stores, we were sitting on the couch catching up on each other’s lives. A thing that used to be an everyday occurrence in college but that you miss once everyone finds their place in the world. He excused himself to use the restroom and returned to the couch with a big smile on his face. “I like how you have double vanities. So nice!”

Mike and I kind of did this super obnoxious look that we give each other sometimes, at the risk of being borderline rude, and we smiled. We then proceeded to explain how we didn’t think it mattered how many sinks were in the bathroom, as long as there was a sink in the house. Our friend assured us that it’s because we have not experienced “double sink life” just yet, and that we would soon change our minds.

So I asked, “What is so special about double sinks?!” Quite in a similar intonation as the text implies.

He kindly informed me that it was nicer to have one’s own. He said that we each have our own stuff that we want around the sink, and it would be nice to have our own place to store them. He alluded to the stereotype that women want to keep a ton of products around their sinks, and men have shaving supplies to worry about. Plus, it would be such a convenience now that we don’t have to share a sink in order to brush our teeth.

After one week of living in this space, I still don’t get it.

First off, let me show you a picture of our sinks.

As you can see, the only thing on it is a pump for hand soap, and Mike’s toothbrush. There is absolutely no other thing on the sink.

Secondly, what’s wrong with sharing? We can take turns brushing our teeth. Or, as is more often case, brush at the same time, but take turns using the sink. We tend to roam around the home while brushing anyway, and old habits die hard. Usually, I’ll accumulate my drool much more quickly than Mr. Debtist does, and I am using the sink before him. If anything, it makes for good laughs, moving each other aside in order to expectorate. It’s even funnier when we don’t quite make it.

Ultimately, I think I know what bothers me most. It circles back to when our real estate agent assumed that double vanity sinks is what buying a home is about. Or the inclination that double vanity sinks lead to a happier life. It relates to the concept that “more is better”. And it still implies that convenience is key to happiness. I kinda miss our single sink. I miss pushing each other out of the way, and trying to steal water from over each other’s hands. I talk a lot about “less is more” but in doing so, I am feeding into this idea that more is better. Less is definitely LESS, but that can be a good thing, too.

Deciding whether a home is the right home for you does not depend on double vanity sinks. Sinks do not even define “an upgrade”. What’s the point of “upgrading” to double vanity sinks if, say, the mortgage is too much for you to comfortably pay. Doesn’t that downgrade you to a more stressful life? Why do people use sinks as a measure of how nice a home is. Shouldn’t we comment on other things? Like, how kind the neighbors are, for example. Or how it cuts your commute to a mere three blocks (yes, that’s my commute to one of my offices now. It’s glorious). I do admit, I may be bent-out-of-shape and hung-up on some small, insignificant thing. But I have got to say that as long as people are measuring worth in terms of double vanity sinks, there’s going to be a lot of happiness-searching without actually any happiness-reaching in this world.

Property Ownership: Overcoming Buyer’s Remorse

I was lying in bed on a Sunday night, exhausted from a grueling week of spending every spare moment readying the house into a home. My heart won’t seem to slow down, my mind won’t seem to shut up. We’ve moved every big piece of furniture and a majority of our few belongings that morning with the help of a brother and a close friend, yet there’s still a million things to think of. My brain couldn’t help but tick through the to-do list on repeat, as I try to clear my mind and get some shut eye. Then, it started to turn onto a bleak subject.

I turned to Mr. Debtist and asked, “What have we done?”

As the city street lamps glared into our upstairs window, and I heard the shuffling downstairs from an equally unsettled roommate, I started to miss the curtained windows at our previous place. I looked outside to the main street below, and I started to miss the buildings that I frequently stared at. I sat up in bed and set my feet down on the cold cement floors, and missed the tufts of carpet.

I’ve moved ten times before turning thirteen, and I’ve moved a total of sixteen times in my life. Each time, I go through this phase of longing for what once was. The first night is always the most difficult, and I knew that. However, this was different. As if settling into a new environment wasn’t emotionally draining enough, there is the added mental weight of knowing just how much we’ve put into this new home. Invested wouldn’t be the correct word. Gambled might be a better term. On the first night, I feel like the most appropriate way to describe the feeling is a feeling that you just lost it all.

Here’s something every new home-owner experiences. Buyer’s remorse. And it was coming over me like grey skies, gathering for a downpour. If it wasn’t for Mr. Debtist reaching out a hand and telling me “It’ll be okay”, who knows what kind of tumultuous storm might have been unleashed that night.

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When a deal closes on the home, the seller tends to feel like their house was taken away from them at a bargain rate, and the buyer may feel like they were jipped of their money’s worth. It is normal for both sides to feel this way. However, whereas seller’s remorse will likely dissipate in the upcoming month, buyer’s remorse will have the audacity to do its best to linger. Buyer’s remorse is way more complicated, since it is being compounded by other anxieties, most of which have nothing to do with the actual home. Anxieties that involve job stability and its correlation with the ability to pay a mortgage. Anxieties about someone’s health failing, and the complications of trying to balance a home loan with medical bills. Anxieties about the market crashing, or a natural disaster striking. Anxieties about the world collapsing.

While everyone may suffer from a momentary panic attack about their most recent home purchase, it will be unfortunate to have these same worries follow you forever. In the mildest of cases, the remorse is nothing a few aspirin tablets can’t handle. Or in my case, a good night’s sleep. But for others, the thought is so ravaging that they try to break the contract.

Amidst all of this, we center on one single fact: you’re buyer’s remorse at its core is nothing but raw, naked fear. This fear comes from your perception of the value of the home. How do you know if this is you? The symptoms are pretty common, and very easy to spot. Are you doing any of the following?

Reading real estate listings more intently than you did before signing the contract. You spend your days searching for similar or nicer homes with lower asking prices.
Continue to tour open homes. Don’t be surprised if you see remorseful sellers at these same open homes.
Endlessly discuss your purchase with your friends, neighbors, business associates, and any being with two ears. You want to probe other people for their opinions on your home-buying actions. You will likely take anyone who confirms your suspicions as telling you the truth, when in reality, they likely have no idea about anything regarding the current market.

Physically and emotionally drained yet? Because you will be, if you keep this up. It’s enough to make any human go bonkers. Hopefully, you discover soon enough that your fears are groundless. Here’s the real truth.

Facts defeat fear.

The faster you get to the facts, the less you’ll suffer. Overcoming buyer’s remorse relies heavily on your trust in the decisions you’ve made when purchasing your home.

As explained here, a home can have more than one correct price. Pricing and negotiating are arts, not sciences. Never mind the asking price. As long as the purchase price is in line with the sale prices of comparable homes, you’re in the clear! Read up on how to know a home’s market value.

To learn more about home buying, use the book we used.

When I woke up Monday morning, I turned to my side of the bed and stared outside the windows to a crazy skyline, and clear skies, thinking to myself how much I love our new home.

Property Ownership: Taking Renovations Nice and Slow

Buying a home comes with so many strings attached to your emotions, and its got you moving in all sorts of directions. One of which is this desire to create your fantasy dream home, RIGHT AWAY. In this post, I am going to avoid digging into the recesses of our social upbringings to address how we are shaped to want such a thing (*cough* HGTV *cough*) for the sake of time, which I am admittedly currently short on amidst all the property fixes, the packing, the moving and student loan tackling. Rather, what I am going to say is this: Take renovations nice and slow.

First off, Congratulations! You have a new home! Have you even taken the time to celebrate that? We are trained to seek more, more, more, that few of us take the time to be grateful for what we have. I know I am much the same. It isn’t long after I’ve accomplished something that the following words are out of my mouth: “Okay, what next?” How about stopping, taking a breath, and seeking the NOW? As cliche as it sounds, take time to smell the roses.

Now, if you’re like most people, you likely had to take out a mortgage for your newfound space. Which also means you likely spent a good chunk of change for the down payment. Dare I say that for a number of people, the down payment makes up a majority of your life savings, especially if you are young and just out of college like me. I can attest. We took 100% of our emergency fund, and spent it ALL to make a 5% down payment on a $499,900 home in Orange County, CA. While you judge us however way you wish in the way we spent that money, we are now starting from where we were two years ago, when I graduated with $575,000+ in student debt while owing my then boyfriend, now husband, an additional $20,000. Except we have paid down $100,000 towards that debt and we now have a home. I have faith that we will be just fine.

If you could get over the judgement, here is what I have to say. The focus is not to renovate the space into a dream home. It’s to build your life around something that makes you ultimately happy. Comforts of an emergency fund included, digging yourself further into financial debt is not. Rebuilding our emergency fund is where a majority of our focus will be for now. So what if the counters are cheaply made of wood, and have minor signs of water damage? So what if the sink does not properly fit into the counter-tops and caulk was used to seal it up? Never mind that the cabinets have multiple holes in them from the handlebars that were there previous to the current ones. Or that the bathroom stall has glue stuck to the walls. Yes I want a brand new couch to replace the hand-me-down that I received from my college roommate in dental school. But I’ve lived with it for five years, and looking back and seeing what I’ve done with my life says maybe it’s worth sitting on that couch a few years more.

I can tell you that most buyers, myself included, can find unlimited furniture upgrades, faulty appliances, and remodeling projects, all of which will quickly deplete the incomes of even the rich and famous. In the voice of Admiral Ackbar, “It’s a trap!” These temptations will prevent the most frugal among us from saving their hard-earned incomes. Some even rack up high interest credit card consumer debt! Feeling a squeeze in the budget is normal, but you have control over that constriction. I would recommend taking a very lean approach to your budget, and take renovations nice and slow. Personally, my goal is to go ham with the student loan debt while rebuilding that emergency fund (substitute your important financial goal here). I assure you that you will be able to transform your place into something beautiful, in time. Meanwhile, be glad that you have a comfortable place to sleep, a functioning stove, a roof over your head – all things that many people around the world can only dream about.

If you are at the point where you want to take on renovations, you may be asking, where to start? Surely, not with the cosmetics. We are fixing only those that require most attention. For example, the bathroom in our roommates space only emits hot showers. And while hot showers are nice, we do need to add cold water for fine tuning. Additionally, the fridge that’s included with the space has no water filter. So we’ve installed a water filter under the sink, to avoid plastic bottles. Lastly, we spent our entire weekend taking off the shelving and wooden floorboards that the previous owner left behind. With that comes wall spaces that needed patching and re-painting. There was a closet door on the first floor which they’ve cut a hole into, so we bought a piece of wood and cut it to create a new door. I then painted it to match the rest of the house. A majority of the work we did on our own, with the help of a cousin and uncle. Someone quoted us $500 to remove the floorboards, so we did it for free instead. Alas, here is the “nice” part to the “nice and slow”. Doing the work ourselves saved us a lot of money, taught us a few things about property maintenance, and strengthened us as a team.

Meanwhile … we have started the re-financing process!!

Property Ownership: 5 Things to Avoid During Mortgage Application (Travel Hacking Included!)

We are extremely open about how we are able to travel on a tight budget. Our dream to explore Earth is not to be deterred by things such as massive student loans. I have already outlined how we travel hack our way to achieving our adventurous dreams. As much as we love travel hacking, we needed to put a complete stop on our strategies, at least for the time being. While we have proven to ourselves that travel hacking does not negatively affect our credit scores in the long run (how to understand your credit score, here), we also are very aware that it will affect our mortgage application short-term! Travel hacking violates a lot on the “Don’t list” of Mortgage lenders, so in order to understand why we should put travel hacking to a halt, let’s review what NOT to do when applying for a mortgage loan.

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1. Don’t allow tardy payments.

Missing a payment (or worse, adding judgements to a credit report) can surely tank any chances you have of getting a mortgage loan approved. It may seem as if a small missed payment won’t matter much, but your score can lower by more than 100 points if a 30-day late payment occurs on any type of credit account! After spending all this time being reliable and building up good credit, the last thing you want to do is give the lenders any indication that you are a risky borrower.

Be very wary of what you owe. Even missed payments for medical bills or court judgements can weasel their way, uninvited, and interrupt, delay, or all together annihilate the entire mortgage lending process. Even utility bills, parking tickets and library fines can cause damage. I would simply be hyper-aware about all payments that need to be made.

2. Don’t have revolving credit.

As I mentioned in my post, Understanding and Improving Credit Scores, the second most important factor in determining your credit score is how much you owe. Therefore, it is important to avoid revolving credit as much as possible and to pay off all credit cards in full. I mean, you should be doing that anyway, but now isn’t the time to slip. I know that during the entire mortgage process, you are likely thinking of so many other things, however, you want to make sure your credit report is at the forefront of your mind. You can lose as much as 45 points on your overall score just by maxing out one low-limit credit card!

Sometimes, travel hackers have that push to hit minimum spend within a certain time period, but they do so unwisely by spending more on their credit card than they can pay back by the end of the month, thus creating revolving credit. Live below your means, an advice that should be heeded at all times, independent of a mortgage application.

3. Don’t open any new credit cards! (Travel hackers, I am talking to you!)

Here is where travel hackers need to beware. You want to be approved for the mortgage but you also want to snag a credit card offer that’s pretty much handing you 80,000 points FREE. Your fingers are itching to pull the trigger and sending in that online application with just one click more. Don’t do it!

Unless, off course, your okay with risking mortgage approval. But if you are applying for a mortgage in the first place, I am assuming it’s because you don’t have the money to buy your house in cash. AKA, there is no alternative. Other sign-up bonuses will be there in the near future. The mortgage lender may not.

Here’s the thing: Mike and I have not seen our credit scores go down since we started travel hacking in November 2017. Within 6 months, we had opened 5 credit cards between us, and our credit scores have actually increased. They say that your credit score may go down 5 points with each credit card inquiry. If you have a really good credit score (800+), then I would consider your argument that one additional card will not reduce your score to a low enough point that a lender would deny you a mortgage loan. However, I like think we are better off safe than sorry. A recent inquiry will indicate to the lender that you may be a high risk candidate for a loan, let alone multiple recent inquiries. And if I am being honest, every time you do a credit pull, it will give you the top reasons why your score is the way it is. Me and Mike’s top reasons? “Recent Credit Card Inquiries”. Then again, our scores were around the 800’s. You may take that with a grain of salt, a dash of pepper, or however way you want to, but we chose not to open cards during this 45 day period.

The day after you close on the house, feel free to apply for whatever card you want. Just make sure not to max it out on home improvement stuff! (More on that, later.)

4. Don’t close unused accounts. (This too, applies to travel hacking.)

Many people believe in the fallacy that closing accounts will improve their credit score. Some believe in an even worse falsehood, and that is, closing credit accounts will wipe off bad credit history from their credit report. Sadly, no and nope.

The truth is that closing accounts can lower your credit score. Why? Because your credit history makes up a large part of your score. If you close an account that’s been open for ten years, that maybe you haven’t kept active in a long time, that will cut your credit history. Additionally, they will always consider the credit utilization percentage, which is the amount of credit being used versus the amount available. When it comes to closing cards, apply the same practice as with opening cards: wait until after escrow closes!

As far as travel hacking is concerned, there comes a time when credit cards need to be closed to avoid the annual fee. Mike and I were lucky in that we were not even close to any of our one year anniversaries for our credit cards. If you are planning to apply for a mortgage, it would be absolutely wise to plan ahead.

5. Don’t use this time to dispute anything in your credit report.

Which isn’t to say, don’t try to fix any inaccuracies with your score. Right away, if you see an accuracy, the best action to take is to notify your potential lender of the mistake. Current rules dictate that a single dispute under investigation by the credit bureau is enough reason to delay or nix the loan, in order to avoid consumers trying to improve their loan last minute by disputing negative (and possibly, accurate) information.

Property Ownership: Understanding and Improving Credit Scores

It would be nice to buy a home entirely with cash. The transaction would be simple, and there’s only one dotted line to sign. Unfortunately, for many in California, this just isn’t feasible … at least, not any time soon. We debated waiting to buy a home until we can pay for it in cash (mostly because of the fact that I get sweaty palms every time I think about loans) but the trade-off was too great. Waiting to buy a home for cash would have taken us more than fifteen years, since we had to focus on paying down $500,000 student loans as well, which is equivalent in price to our most recent home purchase. That would be fifteen years of paying for monthly rent, which could be equivalent to fifteen years of paying down the mortgage. I ended up wiping the sweaty palms on my jeans, taking a deep breath, and choosing the latter. Meaning, I had to take on a new loan, at the exact same price as my student debt. *Deep breath* If it wasn’t for my husband, I am not sure I could cope with the thought. Reassuring hugs and “we-got-this” fist bumps go a long way.

While I can ignore the nervous sweat and the anxious breathing, there is one thing a buyer applying for a mortgage cannot ignore: their credit score. Credit scores can be supplied by different companies, the most commonly used being FICO, which stands for Fair Isaac Corporation. Each score is calculated by an elusive mathematical equation that evaluates many types of information with the patterns in hundreds of thousands of past credit reports. Simply put, they are trying to evaluate the risk that comes with loaning you money.

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Things to note:

There are several categories that the FICO score considers, including your payment history, the amount you currently owe, the length of your credit history, any new credits you acquired, the types of credit in use, and the number of credit queries. Here are a few things to note, and then we will go in dept into each category.

A FICO score requires that at least one account has been open for six months of more, and at least one account has been updated in the last six months.
Although a score can quickly be lowered, it takes time to improve your score. If you are planning to buy a home, and your score is lower than 750, I would recommend starting to improve your credit score NOW. There is no quick fix to improving credit. In fact, quick-fix attempts may backfire. The best thing you can do is to manage your credit responsibly over a long period of time.
A score considers all categories mentioned above, not just one.
Everyone’s score is calculated a little differently. One category may have more emphasis when determining my score whereas another category may weigh more heavily in calculating someone else’s. It’s impossible to say how important each category is, because it differs from person to person, depending on the overall picture. Therefore, it is important to work on each of the categories. With that being said, the general rule for a majority of people is that the categories are listed in the order of importance, with the payment history usually being the most important and the number of new queries being least important.

With that, let’s get right into it!

Payment History

A good payment history shows the lenders that you will be reliable in paying back the loan. Your score will take into account:

Payment history on many types of accounts, including credit cards, installment loans, and finance-company accounts.
Public record and collection items, including bankruptcies, suits, wage attachments, liens, and judgements. Bankruptcies stay on your credit report for 7-10 years. A foreclosure, short sale, or deed in lieu of a foreclosure lower your score by about the same amount. These are considered serious delinquencies, so don’t expect to get a new mortgage loan with favorable terms for 5-7 years.
Details on late payments: Your score considers how late payments were, how much was owed, how recently they occurred and how many there are. For example, a 60 day late payment is not as damaging as a 90 day late payment. However, a 60 day late payment made one month ago affects your score more than a 90 day late payment made five years ago.
How many accounts show no late payments, which will help increase your credit score.

How to improve your score:

Pay your bills on time.
If you’ve missed payment, get current and stay current.
If you are having a difficult time making ends meet, get help. May I suggest a financial planner?

The Amount You Owe

Using credit accounts does not mean that you’ll be a bad borrower. However, using many credit accounts and owing a great deal in each one indicates to the lender that a person may be overextended and is more likely to make some payments late or not at all. Your score will take into account:

The amount owed on all accounts and on different types of accounts. The total balance on your last statement is generally the amount that is shown on the report. The score will also consider what types of accounts are being used.
How many accounts have balances. A large number can indicate overextension.
How much of the total credit line is revolving credit, meaning carrying a debt balance month to month. Those who are closer to maxing out on many credit cards may hold greater risk.
How much of the installment loan accounts is still owed compared with the original amount. Car payments are a great example. Even if you’ve been paying the monthly dues on a $10k car loan, if the majority has been going to interest, then you may still owe 80% of the car loan when you apply for a mortgage. Paying down installment loans at a quicker rate obviously looks good.

How to improve your score:

Keep balances low on all credit cards.
Pay off debt as close to 100% as you can.
Don’t close unused credit cards as a short-term strategy to raise your score. It won’t work, and it may even lower your score! Long established accounts show that you have a long history, which is good in the eyes of a lender.
Don’t open new credit card accounts that you don’t need. I am talking to you travel hackers out there. Put it on pause.

The Length of Credit History

In general, a longer credit history looks good to lenders. I remember when Mike was trying to apply for a car loan. He had no credit history, and had difficulty getting it. It blows my mind that being financially responsible and not having credit history is considered a bad thing by lenders. What a backwards world we live in. Unfortunately, when it comes to borrowing money, a credit history is considered a good thing. Your score will take a look at:

How long credit accounts have been established – the longer “the better”. Also, the more diverse types of credits you’ve been managing, the more responsible you seem.
How long it’s been since you used certain revolving credit. For example, an inactive credit-card is given less weight in your credit score than active ones.

How to improve your score:

Don’t open a lot of new credit cards. Remember that new accounts will lower your credit score, even if it is temporarily.

New Credit You’ve Acquired

Any credit less than a year old is considered “new”. The score will consider:

How many accounts you have. It will especially look at how many of those accounts are new.
How long it has been since the most recent account was opened.
How many requests have been submitted for credits. Typically, inquiries remain on your credit report for two years, although FICO only considers inquiries from the last year.
The length of time since lenders made credit report inquiries. FICO will ignore inquiries that are more than a year old.
Whether your recent credit history is good following past payment problems. Off course, your score will be improved after getting current and staying current.

How to improve your score:

When you search for multiple loans, do them all within a certain time period.

Types of Credit in Use

Usually, this category does not bear much weight in the score, however, it can if there is not much other information on which to base a score. This score looks at:

The different types of credit accounts you have. They look to see if you have a mix of credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, finance company accounts and mortgage loans. Off course, this does not mean you should go out and get one of each!

How to improve your score.

You can open new credit cards but ONLY AS NEEDED. You don’t need one of every type. Plus you have to remember to manage them responsibly. Meaning, pay each credit card in full at the end of the month. Note that closing credit accounts does not erase them from your report.

Number of Credit Inquiries

Credit inquiries are defined as the requests that a lender makes for your credit score or report each time you try to apply for a new credit line. FICO takes this number into account. Here’s what you need to know:

Inquiries do not have a large effect on your score. Typically, this lowers the score by less than five points. That being said, there is a larger impact if you have a short credit history or if you have few accounts. Also, people with six inquiries or more on their credit reports are 8 times more likely to declare bankruptcy, something worth considering.
Many inquiries are not counted at all. The following are not counted, although they may appear on your credit report: orders made by you from a credit reporting agency, lender requests for your score in order to make you a pre-approved credit offer, and requests from employers.
The score looks for rate shopping. This is why I mentioned before that shopping around for a mortgage or an autoloan should be done at the same time. Multiple potential lenders may pull your credit report, even though you are only looking for one loan. The score counts multiple inquiries in a 45-day period as one single inquiry. Also, the score ignores all inquiries made in the 30 days prior to the scoring.

So there you have it! Trying to understand your credit score can be overwhelming. Score determination is muddled by the fact that each individual’s scores bear different weights for different categories. The most important thing to remember is that you want to prove that you have little risk for defaulting on a loan. So pay back debt, stay current, be responsible, and do this over the course of a long time period. And the best day to start is today.

Good luck!