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Thinking about buying a home, but not sure how to afford it? Welcome to the Down Payment Diaries, where real people spill about how they saved and splurged on their path to homeownership. If you’d like to submit your own Down Payment Diary, please fill out the form here.
Today, a couple buys a starter home for less than $12,000 down—thanks to a side hustle, an FHA loan, and the help of a savvy Realtor®.
The basics
Age: 23
Marital status: Married
Occupation: Server and student (working toward a master’s in occupational therapy)
What was your home experience growing up?
My family and my husband’s family owned the homes we grew up in. For me, homeownership is something I’ve always aspired to. It represents security and family.
What led you to start thinking about buying a house?
We’d been living in an apartment in Meridian, Idaho (outside Boise), and it was expensive. After a few years, we were frustrated that we were pouring our money into nothing. Then we found out that our apartment complex was about to increase our rent by another $100 a month. That’s not much, but we also learned that a new renter leasing the same size apartment would be paying less than what we paid when we first moved in. That was the final straw.
What were you looking for in a house?
We wanted a big backyard. I pictured myself gardening, and we also hope to have chickens and a dog someday. On my husband’s list was a garage since we have four cars. (Most of them are part of our Turo car-rental business.)
How long did you look before finding your home?
About two months. We looked at 10 homes in person. Most were really nice but not quite what we wanted. We’d see one and like the backyard, but the washer and dryer would be in the garage, for example.
How did you learn about this house?
It was a last-minute addition to our lineup. It wasn’t on the apps at all. It turns out the seller, who lived abroad, had checked the box saying they didn’t want their home online. For some reason, they didn’t want their neighbors to know the house was for sale—which also meant that barely anybody knew that this house was on the market. But it was on the MLS, so our Realtor, Jodie Sharp, had access to it.
How did you know this was the one?
We knew right away. The home was cute—it had arches and a lot of character. Outside, we really liked the backyard, which already had garden boxes built. There was also a really big shop with benches and built-in shelves that was separate from the garage and perfect for my husband, who fixes and builds things. Plus, the location was great for us: just five minutes from the airport, which works really well for our Turo business.
How did you save up the down payment?
My husband works as a wildland firefighter and he put in a lot of overtime. We both worked as many jobs and as many hours as we could.
How much did you put down?
We did FHA, so it was 3.5% down, not the traditional 20%. It came out to be just under $12,000.
How did you manage to secure an FHA loan?
The listing said the sellers would only take a conventional loan, but our Realtor called and asked if there was any reason they wouldn’t do FHA. Turns out, there wasn’t.
Since Jodie knew what we needed to do to make sure the house met FHA requirements and the seller didn’t want to be bothered with any of it, my husband did most of the work. He touched up paint and installed smoke detectors. There were a few more minor things that came up in the home inspection, but the seller paid for those small fixes.
What did it take to qualify to buy?
Our Realtor went above and beyond to help us get qualified. She connected us with a lender, and then she went back and forth with them to make sure that they were including all of our varied income streams so that we could qualify.
What was the negotiating process like?
We were the only offer on the table, probably because nobody else was seeing this house online, but there was still some back and forth. We made our offer. The sellers countered one time. We countered back, and they accepted that.
You were also able to negotiate down your interest rate—how did that work?
Initially, Jodie got us an $8,000 concession toward closing costs. Then, during inspection, a few issues came up, so she was able to get us another $8,000. Our lender was able to use $5,000 of that concession to buy the interest rate down 1%. In the end, our mortgage payment was only $200 a month more than the rent on our old apartment.
Did you ever think you would own a home this early in life?
Not really. We’re so young, and we had just gotten married! I’m the only one of my friends to have a house. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without our side hustle or our Realtor’s help putting it all together. It all worked out better than we could have imagined.
