hahaha you sound like me when i bought my first house - this apartment cost $1400 a month. A house note (PITI) costs $1450, how could this not work?

Needed a washer, dryer, refrigerator, large trees trimmed, a few trees removied, all locks on outside doors changed, furniture - this all amounted to thousands of dollars upon move in.

then when I was only in the house for 5 months, the shower pan started leaking in the master bathroom and I had to pay to have the entire shower rebuilt because home warranties don’t cover leaking shower pans. Well did I have thousands of dollars to rebuild an entire shower? Nope! I was house poor. Placed a claim on my home insurance on the advice of a family member. So then when a few years later, the ceiling in the guest bedroom closet fell in due to a leaking AC well did another claim too than spent like 10 years in home insurance jail, paying double what I had been before.

I had to replace the sewer line to the main ($3600), replace HVAC ($9000), gonna need a new roof by next year and I need new windows.

Don’t forget to throw in costs for landscaping and fence replacements. Not to mention if you want cosmetic changes like different toilets, light fixtures and ceiling fans, new paint (interior and exterior)

Owning a house is far more financial responsibility than just a monthly mortgage payment.

If I were to redo it today, I would have saved like crazy for 20% down payment to avoid PMI. I would build a separate sinking fund for move-in costs. Another for home improvement and yet another for emergencies - that last one would be 1-3% of the home’s value so for you $3500 to $10500 just for house emergencies.

If I had had these things in place, I could have paid for that shower rebuild, out of pocket and moved on. Never would have a ding on my home insurance.