Buying a House
Michael N., M1
After exploring the many unique neighborhoods of St. Louis for about seven months, my girlfriend and I decided that we were ready to buy a house. We found our agent by going to a bunch of open houses in the neighborhoods that we liked, admitting that we weren’t ready to buy, and asking a bunch of questions about life, love, and local real estate to gauge how compatible we were with them. Many times, this resulted in us being invited out for a beer or coffee. After we found our agent, we began the process of looking for a home and getting pre-approved for a loan. Property values here are super reasonable, so I qualified for pre-approval on my MSTP stipend alone to buy any of the homes I was interested in. As of Oct. 25, we are the happy owners of a beautiful brick home in our favorite part of South St. Louis City! Our mortgage is less than our rent was, and we have more space than we know what to do with!!! Non-trivially, the home came complete with a bar and a stoop cat that we named Juba! Feel free to reach out if you want to see pictures of Juba or have any questions about our experience!