Sadly waiting on a check to clear... :(
If you still need slots filled on Wednesday, I'll snag one. If not, then yay and I will get you next time.

Holy balls, that's ambitious!

If you don't mind the question, why do you need so much money to move out? I don't mean to pry, I'm just curious. Not sure what your plans are (like buying a house, starting a business, etc) but I was able to get my own place with substantially less money than that. Again, I don't mean to be up in your business or anything, it's just me and my silly curiosity.

I'm an open book. :3

I was originally planning to move to California for the job industry, but I've realized I can't physically handle the strains for a 9-5 job in a corporate area like Cartoon Network. So I changed my aspect to stay in the state I already live in, Texas. So now my goal is to move to a small area in Houston and buy a small house for me and my pup to live in and just be independent living off commission funds. I get more freedom from housing ownership and apartments are rough as it is, I couldn't imagine shelling out more money for an apartment than I could have just buying a house.

What's your area, if you don't mind the question? Now that you mentioned it and since I'm staying in state, I may be able to lower my fund needs and move out way sooner than I hoped if housing isn't as high as I expect.

I live in New York. This particular part of New York is unique in that houses themselves are not that expensive, but the taxes are what will kill you. We purchased a house for 127k, which to most people sounds super low, I'm sure. It's really not that bad for a first house, its about 1300 square feet, 1.5 baths, 3 beds, finished basement, updated kitchen. It's nothing spectacular, but it's not a dump by any means. However, what we pay in taxes a month is the same as our mortgage, whereas in the state I want to live in (Virginia) the taxes on a house for 200k are a fifth of the taxes on our house. I'm not sure what the tax system is like in California, though I do know that for the most part property costs themselves are really high, though I'm sure it depends on what part of the country you decide to live in.

When you buy a house, the bank usually wants only 10 percent up front for your down payment, but we got away with paying less than that. The area we are in is sort of rural, though not super country, and there is actually a special kind of mortgage available for properties in such areas. It's essentially a way to help people that may not have much money buy a house and be able to keep up with the payments. The only time you would ever need to pay up front for a property is if you don't have any taxable income that you can claim, because the bank will not loan you the money. I'm friendly with a guy that works under the table and he wants to buy a house but he can't because as far as the bank is concerned, he doesn't have any income, as they base how much they will loan you on your income. I believe technically you could claim whatever income you get from your commissions, though what exactly you'd have to do to make that possible, I'm not sure. You would, of course, then be taxed on that income, but you would then be able to get a mortgage based upon whatever those earnings are.

Hope that helps, and I'm open to any more questions :) For us, moving was a bitch, and I still remember a lot of the crap that went into it.

I'm planning on paying for the house all in one payment, which is why I'm trying to get so much money together before moving over to a small town near Houston. I read that there's no need for a mortgage then, but how do taxes on a property work? No one's really explained that to me and I've only owned apartments, so I don't know much about property tax.

Correct, if you pay for the house up front, you do not need a mortgage. As far as property taxes go, it looks like they are significantly less in Texas than they are in New York (as I expected.) A house in Houston for $175k has taxes of around 175 a month, as far as I can tell, but there might be slight variation from house to house. So, no monthly mortgage payment, but as long as you are living in the property and you own it, you will be responsible for paying property taxes. If you have already have in mind a precise area you want to live in, I'd just go check out properties for sale online and they should all specify what the taxes are monthly. Watch out for HOA fees too! We don't have a lot of those in NY as far as I know, but they can be bloody expensive and you always have to pay those too.

thanks for the info! I kept seeing mentions of taxes but no explanation or exact name of taxes that would be on houses. :O