Buying my first house

I recently closed on my first house ever. Being thirty, I realize I should have done this years ago. So, if you are reading this and heading, or sending your kids, to college soon, I highly recommend buying a house or condo for them to live in while in college. Parents, you can at least sell it when your kid finally gets married, them give them the money as down payment on their own home. Or keep it as an income property.
Back to my purpose: I just wanted to share a few lessons-learned and random asides I've collected over the whole project...

In late April 2017, knowing I'd be moving 12 hours away in just over a month, I started looking for a new place to live. I finally realized how dumb it was to pay someone else's mortgage. Or worse, actually maintain their house for them. Or worst of all, living in an apartment.
So I called a realtor. Even from several states away, she was able to show me homes and get an idea of what I look for in a home. (She sold one to my friend via lawyers and Skype. I was pretty impressed...) I highly recommend looking around a long time before picking one. I saw twenty houses in person and countless others online before deciding on one. If your realtor gets upset, remind them that you have to live in the house. If they stay upset, get a new one. You are paying them as a customer, and they should value that relationship.

I used to manage construction projects, working between the customer and the contractor to enforce the contract. (I made sure the customer got what they pay for. The customer that gave me more power would end up with a much better final product. And a much more upset contractor. My name was uttered with contempt in seedy job trailers across 3 states.) So I have an eye for minor imperfections that turn into bigger ones. Or seeing things that have been covered up. So I shot down lots of houses immediately. I highly recommend a professional inspector. I paid for one and he noticed some things even I missed.

A few things to remember, paint is cheap to change. The walls are expensive, really expensive, to move. Shows on TV glamorize renovations, but they are extraordinarily stressful and will strain the best of relationships. The house will look a lot bigger while empty. That's why someone who is 'staging' a home will often decorate in a minimalist fashion. Putting my king sized bed in my master suite instantly shrunk the room. Look beyond the shiny, at the dirt and grime. Don't just consider what looks neat and novel: think about all the times you've been at someone's house and felt like some part of it didn't work as intended... On average, you'll wind up with one of those in every house. My first apartment had a kitchen so small, the oven would melt the handle on the fridge if you left it open long enough to get a pizza in or out. Think about all the places you've lived where you didn't have enough room to fit everything in the kitchen cabinets. (Do you cook??? If not, fix it!)

All in all, buying a home was an awesome experience. The stress of getting that house to feel like home is heavily underway, and I can't wait to unpack my final box. Then it's on to building my workshop, and subsequent projects to increase my home's value. But for now, I'm living out of boxes and waiting for my perfect roommate to move in. I suppose that life unpacks at its own rate.