Buying & Owning Home

An online listing for a house is a lot like an online dating profile. You wouldn’t ever lie — better to set honest expectations — but you sure as hell are going to make your situation look as good as possible. That means flattering angles, ruthless editing and, yep, maybe a little Photoshop. If you’re browsing home listings to find your dream home, here are a few things to be wary of when it comes to real estate photography.

Lately, social media is abuzz with Toronto’s insane real estate offerings: undesirable homes (in serious need of renovation and lacking ordinary amenities) selling at unbelievably high prices. Properties lacking everything from parking spaces to proper bathrooms have been selling at double and triple the asking price—with no signs of the area’s inflated costs slowing down anytime soon.

Have you ever dreamed of what it’s like to live in a tiny home? I hadn’t before, because living in a cramped Brooklyn apartment feels challenging enough. But, after combing through listings to see what the tiny house market is like, I feel like I get the tiny homes thing now. These houses are the cutest, plus they seem totally functional in terms of space and storage, and they’re way more affordable than a regular home.

A (sort-of-serious) theory: The ease with which you can get around your city without a car is inversely proportional to how easy it will be to get your hands on real estate. When you live in a massive metropolis with a few million other people, trains can be easy to come by, but affordable starter homes are not. But if you know that homeownership is something you want for yourself—and you’re not willing to move out of the city to do it—all hope isn’t lost.

Finding an affordable rental anywhere in New York City is a struggle, so it may feel like buying a home in the Big Apple for less than a fortune is near-impossible, if not completely. The truth is, you can find apartments in the city that are more on the affordable side, you just have to do a bit of searching to find them. These apartments are all $300,000 (or just below in price) and give you a taste of what’s out there and what buying in New York City is really like.

You might rent an apartment in a big city and you love it, but that doesn’t bar you from imagining yourself in all sorts of alternate timelines. Maybe there’s one where you’re living abroad, one where you’re living in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, one living on a your own private island — big and small, you’ve entertained thoughts about all of them.

Older generations always seem to think millennials are doing it all wrong, but the truth is, millennials aren’t all that different from their grandparents—especially when it comes to buying their first homes.

Twenty-somethings are often under the impression that they’ll never be able to own a home, but, of course, that’s not always the case. A lot can change in a few years, so while you may not be in the market to buy a home this year or next, the (slightly) more distant future is still a possibility if homeownership is what you want. If you’re hoping to be a buy down the road, here are a few things you can do now to make the process easier when the time comes.

If you lustfully dream about getting out of the rental game—to have creative control over your space or just to stop “throwing away money” every month—you’ve no doubt given some thought to whether it’s cheaper to rent or to buy where you live. It’s easy enough to search out a couple of listings on Zillow to give yourself a quick answer, but the truth is there are lots of unexpected financial effects to weigh—on both sides.

The reality of owning a home isn’t as simple as it used to be decades ago. Many first-time home buyers are now waiting longer than they ever have, around six years, before shifting from being a renter to being a home owner. (And rates of homeownership are down further than they have been in nearly fifty years.) For many potential home buyers, unsurprisingly, the down payment is their biggest obstacle. Housing prices have gone up while household income has remained relatively stagnant.

Before you’ve done something, it’s pretty hard to know what you don’t know. When it comes to the complicated, terrifying steps required to buy your first home, there’s a lot of opportunity to not know. First-time home buyers Tiffany and Alan Goldstein bought a cute, chic Austin bungalow — and learned a few things about buying a home in the process. Build a budget so you can set goals. If you can’t afford a home right now, don’t force it.

If you’ve ever searched for an apartment in New York City, you’ve probably heard the term “pre-war” before, but are you familiar with what it means? Pre-war apartments refer to buildings that were constructed before 1939 (AKA those that were built before World War II began). Pre-war style came about during a population boom in the city in the 1880s, according to Street Easy.

Anybody else terrified of the prospect of buying and owning their own home? (Or is it just me?) If it’s not just me, you might find some comfort in facing fears. Specifically, the things that scared Tiffany and Alan Goldstein, first-time home buyers, when they went through the buying process. Taking your own home-buying plunge may be a little less terrifying knowing what’s ahead. The scariest part of the process was fearing we were making the wrong decision.

Anastassia Nelson recently purchased a 925 square foot 1920s bungalow in Tacoma, Washington, and spent a year renovating the house into a stylish cottage full of vintage finds. And Ana was only 25 when she became a homeowner. Are you impressed? I’m 33 (not a homeowner) and very impressed. Ana was kind of enough to answer some questions about how she bought a home while still in her twenties, from how to know when she was ready to how long it took to save up for a down payment.

Saving up money for a down payment is no easy feat—but a separate savings account can help.

I admit it. Since moving to New Orleans, I’ve been fantasizing about finally buying a house. It’s the fun stuff that gets my blood pumping—I’d love to knock down some walls or paint a ceiling green—all the things you can’t do when you rent.

New to the home-buying process? If you’re ready to start looking for your dream home—or if you’re just looking to learn more about how buying a home works for the future—there’s a lot you’ll need to know. The process is long and can be as stressful and confusing as it is exciting.

Thinking about buying a home? If you’re not familiar with how mortgages and down payments work—and how many different types there are—you could be missing out on choosing one that works perfectly for you. Here is a breakdown of 11 different types of mortgages, from the most common to the mostly rare, and a rundown on how down payments work.

Wooed by its close proximity to our favorite beach, my husband and I bought an older home in Charleston, SC, last spring. One year and tons of cash later, we’ve learned the hard way that it isn’t always the big, glaring problems with older homes that’ll bite you right in the butt—er, budget. In our experience, it’s the little red flags that sneak up and rob you blind before you can close the front door.

Do you dream of one day buying a bit of land, plunking down a stylish trailer and living a slower-paced, nature-filled, “tiny home” lifestyle? Or perhaps you’re just curious how anyone goes about getting that kind of life? Either way, you’ll want to check out this advice from Kirsten Dickerson, who lives on 25 acres that includes a 1955 Spartan Mansion (350 square feet) and a 1967 Overlander Airstream (180 square feet).

The Hollywood Hills castle is the 12th home we’ve designed for ourselves. Our first project was a townhouse in Chelsea NYC in 1996. Along the way we’ve been pretty proud of most of the homes we’ve done, but in hindsight we’ve made many mistakes — due to inexperience, to budget, to trends — you name it.

Potential buyers can be thrown off by the littlest things (just consult any episode of House Hunters). Even if you’re not thinking about selling your home now, you can make small improvements while you’re still living there without dedicating a lot of time or money to the cause. These 7 bathroom projects take only a weekend and a few hundred bucks, at most, but they’ll pay off in the long run when you decide to sell in a few months or a few years.

Cortney and Robert Novogratz have famously successfully navigated the choppy waters of high-end residential real estate in New York City and Los Angeles for years. Through market ups and downs, multiple renovations and redesigns — not to mention raising seven kids while they are at it — they’ve always managed to find great deals. And now, they’re sharing their secrets with us.

Q: Hi! So, my partner and I live in the Cleveland area and are running into a few problems as first-time home buyers. We currently rent in an area that has tons of cute neighborhoods and we can walk and bike to our favorite restaurants, coffee shops, and record stores. However, when we look at homes on the high end of our price range to buy, they are shabby, on the outskirts, or would cost quite a bit to fix up.

Whether you’re looking for a home right now or plan to be on the hunt some time next year, don’t just stumble into a house hunt unprepared. While the process is exciting, there might be a few things you want to make sure you have on hand during the search so you can hunt for the home of your dreams smarter.

We’ve learned the hard way that there are some very important things that should be checked before signing the papers to buy a new home. Of course, you’ll have a professional do an inspection and look over the place to make sure the home is termite and flood damage free, but these ten things fall into a different category; the immediate to-do list, which is something you may not want to be adding to right now.