RE: To Finance or Not to Finance
My husband and I are in a similar spot. Completley debt free, even own our cars outright and are really not excited about taking out a loan to buy a house. I recently got my real estate license and learned all about how much you pay to borrow money. It's criminal in my mind but anyways, we applied for a loan and were denied, it's a long story. We've both gone back to work so that it "looks good" to the bank and maybe they'll loan us money but we kinda feel like saying "F-U" to them and just finding something that we can afford outright or can do owner financing. I really like the idea of owner financing and have spoken to a few people about their experiences which have been amazing. Our area is really expensive though so for now we're just stacking the savings and waiting for cryptos to go up (;
Owner financing is almost never done here - I've never heard of anyone who did it. We would love to avoid the bank, but not at all costs. We would rather live our lives making payments to them (and getting rid of the debt asap) than live our version of the 'just-outside-Hell' for the next 10-20 years and have our child(ren) be almost grown and gone by the time we can afford a place outright. Land is very cheap comparatively where we want to buy, it's just not affordable for most people anyway.
Interesting to hear about the differences here and there. I get you about the mortgage and buying land so you can have it for longer. Makes total sense to me. Can't wait to see what you find!