[W///]

Currently live in Upstate South Carolina, and houses are cheap compared to the big cities. For almost 10 years, I rented an apartment because my job and green card situation was still up in the air, so I wanted to be mobile as possible.

Once that was done, I decided to purchase a house, because my rent was $1100 for a 2 bedroom apt with 2 car garage is not that much different than my current $1400 mortgage. The plan was to grow roots and making this place my home base for decades to come.

My current house ranch style built in the 70s. It's 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2050 sq ft on 0.8 acres of land, which is more than I'll ever need considering I'm in my mid 30s and single. What's amazing about the house is the previous owner is retired and built a 4 bay detached garage (no power though) for his wood working hobby. I love being able to have space to work on my cars and a spot for all of them.

Lessons learned so far:
- While there's a gap of only $300 a month, there are other expenses of course that push that gap to a quite a bit more than I expected. Nothing insane, but still worth noting (ie heating and cooling 2050 vs 1100 sq ft)
- Yard work takes a long time, and sucks during South Carolina heat
- Luckily no big repairs yet, but I know it's an older house and that's always in the back of your mind
- Rightly or wrongly, I don't look at the house as an investment. This is a place where I belong, having moved around a lot most of my childhood life. So I didn't plan it to buy it to sell it in 8 years to move to a bigger house. I think it has everything I need to be here for years to come
- It takes me forever to start and finish a project (same with my cars actually). For example, if I start painting a room, it'll take me a few weeks because I only feel like working on it during weekends. And that's ok.

Do I have any regrets with the move? Not at all. I love the privacy I have, my dogs are much happier since we went went from an apartment on the 3rd floor to a house with a big back yard and the garage situation is pretty damn amazing. While I completely get the flexibility of renting and moving around, for me, it was the exact opposite for me.