Geographic location doesn’t affect numbers. Your income still has to equal your outgo. If all the houses in your area are 600k plus then yeah you might have to wait till you make 300k to buy a house. Sorry. Maybe you could mortgage the house for 50 years?
Fixer upper can turn into making you broker. Be careful what you buy.
I love the reaction of people when they find out how much it actually costs to “fix up” a house. Even in a smaller “starter” home, new windows, roof, and siding can easily run you $20k and you havn’t even gone to the inside of the house. On the flip side that same project can go for $5000 if you do it yourself and buy some cheap crap knowing you’re gonna move out in a few years.
X…
My current house I bought ALL new windows and doors for… cost about $2500 so far. Had a friend show how to install one, and then rifled right through the rest. Another few thousand for siding and roof, and the house is a gem. Gonna make over a 40% profit from when it was bought 3 years ago, not too bad for WNY.
For me it’s a no brainer. Buy land, then build. I’ve got too many friends of the family in the right places to not take advantage of it.