When Justin was offered a new job in the Dallas, TX, area at the beginning of the summer, we quickly discovered that housing costs are higher here than where we were living at the time. We didn’t want to increase our mortgage by much, so we started talking about buying a fixer-upper, so that we could pay less upfront for the type of home we wanted, gradually fix it up, and build more equity as we go.
We were immediately met with the well-meaning question from family and others, “Are you sure?” The implied follow-up thoughts were…