I just wanted to thank this community with changing my decision

I made a post a week or two ago inquiring if HOAs were worth it. A lot of you truly were honest and straight to the point with the horrors of condos and how costly one could be with HOAs.

I had presented the idea to my grandmother to look for a house(she’s providing the down payment for context) and she agreed. We initially looked at a house that was 859k, it was gorgeous although I didn’t truly understand the market. My county being right outside of NYC has been very desirable for those moving out of the boroughs and going north so houses have been going for way more than what they should be, at least 100k+ over asking, etc. While getting pre approved again for a mortgage, the house we initially looked at sold.

Disappointed and wanting to just view something, we viewed a nice looking home that was about 200 – 400 less square feet than what we initially looked at. I’m glad I did as the pictures didn’t describe how amazing this home was. Especially as our young son loved it.

We offered 65k over asking, there were offers that were higher than ours, but our terms were more appealing in our offer (willing to break out lease with our apartment asap, no financing contingency as I’m already pre approved appropriately).

Obviously not completely out of the woodworks yet as we still need to go through everything else and close, but as a first time home buyer, thank you everyone on this sub for swaying me in the right decision with dropping the idea with investing in a condo and investing in a house where we can comfortably grow our family of three, soon to be four come October. Thank you ❤️