Buying a house and attending school

Specialties CRNA

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I have been accepted to school, and was in the town I will be living. My wife and I were looking at houses to rent, and decided we would rather buy a house, considering rent and a mortgage are the same cost. Besides, to me it only makes sense to come out with something instead of throwing that money away. My wife will be the main source of income for us, along with the Montgomery GI Bill and of course loans. Has anyone done this? Is it a good idea or a bad idea? The way I see it, I will have this cost one way or another. Will having a mortgage affect my ability to get student loans? I have known several residents that buy houses while attending medical school, and having very little income except student loans. Any information or advice will be much appreciated.

I'm in an apartment during the transition since we sold our house. When I move in two weeks, I would rather sleep in my car than rent another apartment.

We are probably going to rent a house because we most likely will move after school, otherwise we would have looked to buy (it took a lot of weighing to get to the rent decision). It sounds scary to use student loan $$ to pay a mortgage, but that same money would be paying your landlord's mortgage.

Good Luck!

Does your wife work or will you be relying completely on fin aid? My husband works, but his job is 100% commission and he is only in his second year of his business. I am very concerned about the amount of hours he puts in a week(at least 70) and his ability to manage the finances and home while I am in school. Would owning a home be too much?

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I bought my house back in October through FHA. I was a first time buyer. The only out of pocket expense I paid was for the appraisal. I'm starting nursing school in the spring. I also bought a home warranty for next to nothing so if anything goes wrong ex: boiler goes out, stove breaks, etc all I have to pay is $50 and it will be replaced. I wouldn't have gone any other way.

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Who did you get your home warranty through, and how old is your house?

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Who did you get your home warranty through, and how old is your house?

HMS. My house was built in the late 60's.

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Does your wife work or will you be relying completely on fin aid? My husband works, but his job is 100% commission and he is only in his second year of his business. I am very concerned about the amount of hours he puts in a week(at least 70) and his ability to manage the finances and home while I am in school. Would owning a home be too much?

No I told my wife (a dietician) not to start working again. We'll have money coming in (my military retirement and GI bill will get about $2600/month), but school ($30K) and everything else is from my savings account and loans.

Your situation is difficult. I think he is out there too far to be able to assist you much around the house and you'll be too busy as well...besides never having time together. Is there any way that he can scale back his business, or hire someone to assist while you are in school? Then use financial aid to make up the difference?

As far as buying the house goes, if you are staying in the same area it may be a viable option. But if the business falters or your money situation changes, you'll have to regroup. Try getting out a big piece of paper and chart every situation that you can see arising and ways to make it work. If you are bulletproof on all fronts...well you have your answer!

Good luck!

I thought of one more thing, a home may be larger with a yard=more time to clean/upkeep.

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Who did you get your home warranty through, and how old is your house?

When we bought our house in 2001, the seller paid for one year of warranty. When we just sold it, we did the same for the new owner. The warranty costs around $400/year. We used American Home Shield. http://www.americanhomeshield.com/

When we first moved into the house (a 14 year old dwelling), we had to replace the outside A/C unit and had the dishwasher rebuilt (motor rusted out/leaked).

Overall, the warranty issue depends on what you can do yourself (a lot in my case) and how old the house/appliances are. Then it is just a gamble. We did good that first year repairwise, but I did not renew for the other 3 years and saved $1200 on warranty payments.

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The most recent Time Magazine has a nice article about the recent trends in home buying with some nice stats and information.

Hope this helps,

Mike

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Your situation is difficult. I think he is out there too far to be able to assist you much around the house and you'll be too busy as well...besides never having time together. Is there any way that he can scale back his business, or hire someone to assist while you are in school? Then use financial aid to make up the difference?

As far as buying the house goes, if you are staying in the same area it may be a viable option. But if the business falters or your money situation changes, you'll have to regroup. Try getting out a big piece of paper and chart every situation that you can see arising and ways to make it work. If you are bulletproof on all fronts...well you have your answer!

Good luck!

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Unfortunately, no he can't cut back or hire in help. He works for Ed Jones and has his own office, and in order to keep up he must increase his numbers of contacts and accounts. They subsidize a portion of his office costs, but that gives them free reign to hammer down on him when the numbers don't look good. Fortunately for him, he has continued to improve with short months here and there. I want to transition to school with as little extra stress as possible for both of us. I would really like a townhome as I think that might be a better option. No yardwork, minimal maintenance and less than five miles from school. You have certainly brought up some good points. I will bring it up to my husband and find out what he thinks.

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Best of luck to you both!

I guess I have it pretty easy...is is shameful that I even find room to whine sometimes! This forum is full of folks that go through all kinds of hell to reach their goals and dreams. My hat's off to you all!

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