The closing of the sale of my townhouse was today! Hooray! In honor of such a big event, I decided to create a spreadsheet of all my debits and credits to represent the "Before" (all my monthly expenses and income during the ownership of my townhouse) and "After".

Monthly expenses that I will no longer have to pay after today:

$18.92 - Rental Unit Insurance
$28 - Tenant's Water/Sewer Bill
$175 - Homeowners Association Dues
$822.20 - Mortgage + PMI

With the check I receive from the sale, I will be paying off my vehicle and my student loans! This means after that point I will no longer have to pay:

$181.65 Student Loan payment per month
$271.14 Vehicle Loan payment per month

I'm going to have an extra $1496.91 in my bank account each month. Woo hoo!

I'm currently paying $850 in rent (technically $425 since my boyfriend and I split it) and looking to buy a home (again) instead of wasting money on a house I don't own (or like).

I'm pre-approved for a conventional mortgage loan of $250K and extremely happy that I won't have to pay mortgage insurance anymore.

I never thought that I'd be free of my student loans before the age of 30 and I'm beyond thrilled that that time is fast approaching!

It's time to legit start looking at buying new property here in Montana! The sale of my MN home will be complete on February 24th. I can almost grasp moving out of this teeny, tiny concrete house.

I keep going back and forth between two options: 1) buying acreage (.5 to 2 acres) with a house already on it or 2) buying the acreage and then putting a modular home on it.

I was originally leaning toward the modular/acreage but it's been a little difficult finding land that allows modular homes. Even though they are built based on higher standards than manufactured and mobile homes, most land covenants want traditional stick-built homes. Ugh.

The boyfriend and I are going to go look at a home this week - 1550 sq ft, 3 bed/2 bath, new construction with .25 acre yard in a subdivision... the words "in a subdivision" make me cringe a little. I don't want to be in a cookie-cutter neighborhood, but these have decent sized lots so we'll see.

I haven't talked with a mortgage loan officer yet (I've been waiting until the closing of my MN house) but I am a little at a loss on how much I can afford. I'll be purchasing the house since I have excellent credit and while I don't see me and my boyfriend ever breaking up - I never have liked the idea of co-signed loans. He and I will still split all the monthly payments though... I guess he'll essentially just be paying me rent.

I only make about $38,000 annually (same with the bf) but I'll have about $100,000 for a down payment. A real estate agent I was talking to kept sending me houses that were $300,000... that seems quite steep for someone who only has an income of $38,000.

Advice anyone?