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Friends, Kristina and Kirill bought their first home in the USA just a couple of weeks ago. To give you an idea, this is what their neighborhood looks like. I mean, this is the true American dream. And here comes Kristina
Kristina and Kirill share their journey buying a $885K home in the USA, detailing costs, neighborhood, and lifestyle changes.
Key Takeaways
- Buying a home can be a practical alternative to renting, especially with pets and long-term plans.
- High demand and competitive markets require quick decisions and sometimes compromises on location or condition.
- Community and neighborhood atmosphere are important factors in choosing a home.
- A significant down payment can help avoid extra costs like mortgage insurance.
- Homeownership offers lifestyle benefits and opportunities for customization and investment.
What the video covers
- Kristina and Kirill bought their first home in the USA, embracing the American dream in a desirable neighborhood near San Diego.
- They decided to buy after facing rental restrictions due to their adopted dog with special needs.
- They compared rent prices with mortgage payments and found buying more feasible.
- They explored many houses, including expensive and older homes, but chose a well-located house despite high demand.
- The video tours their home, highlighting features like high ceilings, a spacious kitchen, offices, and a backyard with fruit trees.
- They plan renovations including a kitchen island, bathroom remodels, solar panels, and a Tesla charger.
- The neighborhood is safe, friendly, and typical of American suburbs with no shops nearby but outdoor amenities.
- They paid a 20% down payment to avoid mortgage insurance and covered the difference above their mortgage approval.
- They emphasize the value of community, neighbors, and lifestyle changes moving from an apartment to a house.
- The video also touches on future plans for refinancing and the flexibility of homeownership.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Neighborhood Overview
- 01:11Decision to Buy and Market Analysis
- 02:10House Hunting Challenges and Neighborhood Choice
- 03:11Neighbors and Community Impressions
- 04:59House Tour: Living Room, Kitchen, and Offices
- 05:54Bedrooms, Closets, and Garage Features
- 06:58Master Bedroom and Bathrooms
- 07:38Backyard and Garden Plans
- 08:02Purchase Price and Financial Details
- 08:59Neighborhood Amenities and Lifestyle
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
to join us. So, will you show us your house today and share all the details, guys? Definitely, because it’s amazing that half a year ago we weren't even planning to buy a house, and now we’re living like in an American
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movie. Well then, let’s go, guys. Today we’ll show you the whole house, tell you how much it costs, what our monthly payment is, what down payment we had to make, and all the deal details. But first, we’ll give you a little
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backstory on why we even decided to buy a house. We decided to buy a house because we were living in a rental, and at one point, we adopted a dog from a shelter.
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She had some special needs. We were training her. And one day, the leasing office told us, "Guys, we can't keep you here with the dog anymore. It’s either the dog goes, or you leave." We couldn’t give up our dog. And so,
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against that backdrop, we decided to look for housing. We analyzed the market, looked at rent prices, and compared them to what a monthly mortgage payment would be. Without much thought, we decided to buy a house. The difference wasn't that big. And of
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course, we wanted a place with a backyard so our dogs could run around, so we wouldn't have to drive to dog parks every single day, because while it’s great that America has huge fenced areas where dogs can run, it’s
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not very convenient when you have to drive there every day. It’s much more convenient to have your own backyard.
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So, we started looking for a house. We had a choice. Either look for a newer house in a not-so-great area, or look for an older house in an amazing area. We looked at many different homes, even an hour drive inland from San
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Diego. We saw houses that cost around a million dollars but were in terrible condition, you know, looking more like shacks. There could even be animal droppings there. And there were good options, of course, but they just kept slipping through our fingers. We could
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view a house the same day and say we were ready to buy it. There were even ones with pools for prices lower than what we eventually paid. But honestly, houses here just fly off the shelves like hotcakes. People had already
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managed to put down a deposit before us. And when we saw this neighborhood, we realized we didn't want to leave here at all. We're staying. And you know, a very strange thought crossed my mind.
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Maybe you can feel what I experienced. When we were viewing this house, I was walking around it, looking at it, and at some point, I saw the staging furniture. That is, the furniture agents set up when showing a house. And
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I just sat down on the bed without even thinking. I was just like, you know, "Oops!" and sat down. And I somehow felt at home and realized that this was, in fact, our house. And, of course, the
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neighbors made a huge impression on us. I remember standing here on the porch, and a very mature woman drives by, more of a grandma type, and she gets out of her car and starts asking if this house really costs almost a million dollars?
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"We have the exact same one, just across the street, and my husband and I bought it for peanuts a long time ago." "I can't believe that this house costs so much now." "I would love to go inside and take a look." I said, "Well, come
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on in, I'll walk you through and show you." And she said, "I haven't had my coffee yet." "I'm going to Starbucks." "Should I get you a coffee, dear?" And you know, I felt like I was in a movie.
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She was such a sophisticated, lovely grandmother. I thought, "God, what a joy it is to just step out and, like in the movies, wave to the neighbors." And it's really happening in reality. We have very nice neighbors, and it's
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pleasant to be with them. And the community president lives here too, right, who also welcomed you and was glad that...
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He told us the following: that finally there would be a young couple here. I mean, those were his exact words. He was like, "I'm praying that you buy it.
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" I mean, he really wanted it. Yes, and he knew that you were from Russia, right? Yes, yes, yes, we got acquainted right away. He was like, "Wow, that's cool." Is that everything you need to know about Americans, how
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open they are? Very open. Well, so as not to drag this out, as promised, let me show you the whole house. When we walk in, we immediately enter the living room.
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There are high ceilings here; they drew us in right away. There is a fireplace, and this is the dining area. We've already bought a table for this spot.
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By the way, we want to cut a window here to get even more light. And we have such a spacious kitchen. Here, too, of course, we plan to redo a lot of things, and we'll put a kitchen island
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here. I think it will add so much coziness. When we go further down the hallway, there is this isolated, um, isolated area here. And there are two bedrooms right here. Usually, they are used as kids' rooms, but an office is
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more relevant for us. And this one, for example, will be mine. For now, everything is just scattered here, but we plan to work on it a bit later. I am, of course, drawn to the view of the
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palm trees. You know, you can work, get inspired, and, um, spend your time productively. Opposite is Kirill's office. It’s a mess here too for now.
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We moved in just a few weeks ago, we haven't had time to unpack everything yet. Yeah. And in each of the bedrooms, there are these spacious closets. You can store a lot of things in there too.
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Going a bit further, we end up in a no less significant room. This is a two-car garage. Upstairs we have an attic. And we want to install a Tesla charger here and solar panels on the roof. Actually, you can often see our
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neighbors leaving their garage open all day long. And that is an indicator that this is a very safe neighborhood. Now I will show you our bedroom. On the way, we come across the guest bathroom. We want to start our renovation with it.
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We’re going to do everything ourselves. And here is our bedroom. It also has high ceilings and lots of light. You know, what wins me over is that every morning at 7:00 AM, the sun rises from there, and you catch the
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sunbeams on your pillow, on your face. And it’s, you know, like a real "good morning." This is the master bedroom.
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In America, that means it’s a bedroom connected to a bathroom. There are two sinks here, which is also very convenient. And this is the second bathroom. We'll do this one second, after we've learned how on the first one. And let me show you what we have
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in the backyard. It’s also going to be interesting right now. Well, first of all, this fantastic garden stole our hearts. There is a tangerine tree with very sweet fruit, and a lemon tree that smells like citrus. From afar, you
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might not see how much fruit there is, but if you look closely, there’s enough here for our entire San Diego community. And as you know, with our help, more than 300 people have arrived. So, guys, you know who to write to.
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Well, and there is this cool slope here, which is unfortunately dried out for now, but gardeners come to us every week. It costs 60 dollars per visit.
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And they will start sprucing up this area. We basically want to make the house in a sort of, um, Greek-Italian style. I’m bugging GPT with things like, "Okay, let's develop my idea." And as you can see, we have already
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painted the fence white, partially in sections. We want to put a shipping container pool here, and naturally turn this into a cozy, beautiful space where we can sunbathe, gather a large group, and spend our evenings just like in
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those American movies. And most importantly for us, those who watch me on Instagram know what kind of trouble we have with Skye. She's the dog, a girl, that we recently took in. When we aren't home, she chews on a lot of
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things. So we want to fix up this space, which the previous owners used as a storage shed,
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winter arrive, we can keep them in here when we leave the house. There is already a fenced-in area with mesh, so they can be both outside and inside. In the end, we bought this house for $ 885,000. And as promised, let's discuss
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the deal itself in more detail and what steps we had to take. The first step we took was to get pre-approval for a mortgage. To do this, we submitted our tax returns from the last two years to our broker and realtor. Kirill works as
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a manager at a body shop in San Diego. He has been here for 4 years, and I have been here for 7 years. This also influences your credit history. So, we got pre-approved for $ 700,000.
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The second point was that we needed to understand what we could actually afford. And around San Diego, you can't buy much for $ 700,000.
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The average house price is $ 900,000. So that was way off from our budget.
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We could have looked at the Temecula or Ramona areas, but those are quite far from the coast. After visiting those places, we realized that it wasn't what we wanted at all, and we wanted to stay closer to San Diego and the coast. So,
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we went to over 20 viewings, including houses that were well above our budget, and then we found this one.
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The third point was to enter the deal. In order to secure the house, we had to put down a 3%deposit. And after paying that 3%deposit, there is a list of procedures you have to go through.
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Everything you did for the pre-approval gets thoroughly checked from top to bottom, including all your income, where you work, all your pay stubs, and all your bank statements for the last 3 months. And in fact, the entire approval process for our deal took a
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full month. When we were closing the deal, we had to provide home inspection documents—basically, what's up with your roof, what's up with your walls.
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Well, as far as I remember, it wasn't mandatory. I mean, you can do this analysis and pay for it out of your own pocket. Or you can buy the house at your own risk, like a pig in a poke.
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Obviously, we wanted to know the state of the house and if there were any red flags that would cost a lot of money later. So, we paid for all those things . How much did we end up paying for it?
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Listen, we paid about 3,000 dollars for all the inspections, but it opened up such an opportunity to negotiate with the seller that we were able to save about 15,000 dollars on the purchase.
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And here's a good life hack for you guys: don't be shy about negotiating. In America, that often works really well and yields results. And the fourth step was to actually execute the deal, meaning making the final down payment.
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In California, as a rule, the size of this down payment is between 3%and 5%.
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But since the house cost more than the mortgage we were approved for, we ended up covering that difference. And our total down payment came to 20%, which is quite a lot, but it allowed us to avoid paying mortgage insurance. So,
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our monthly payment is 4,900 dollars a month for a house like this. And the fifth point, uh, was getting the keys. So what do we have in the end ? A house costing 885,000 with a 7.5% mortgage rate. It's also important to
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add that the home insurance required by the bank was paid for by the seller.
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Also, the insurance on the appliances, that is the equipment, was also paid for by the seller. And the home insurance was 2,000 dollars. The appliance insurance is about 900 dollars a year. And on top of that, uh, a monthly payment of 4,900. And it's
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important to add that there is property tax. It's about 1.1%to 1.2%, which is around 10,000 per year. It's paid once every six months.
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Our neighborhood is a typical American suburb, meaning there are only houses here and no shops or pharmacies within walking distance. But we have a hike, a lake, a campground, horses, and a playground here. I suggest we walk there together and discuss the
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additional payments that many people don't often think about when buying a house. And just a five-minute walk from the house, we arrive at this wonderful oasis. People often gather here to barbecue, fish, walk with their children and dogs, and generally enjoy
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life and have a great time. Speaking of additional payments, we have a payment of 30 dollars for the HOA. It's a local aesthetics board that's in charge of making sure everything stays within a single design tone, so there are no
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garish-colored houses. Like a neighbor's, for example. We also already received our first water bill, it's about 170 dollars. Plus, there's a payment for gas and electricity. And the first preliminary payment is around 150 dollars. We'll see how it goes from
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here. And on top of everything, you also pay for trash collection. It was about 30 dollars a month. They pick it up every Monday night.
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Guys, look, you lived in a complex before, you had a two-story penthouse, you had a pool, a jacuzzi, all the amenities, as is usual in America. How is life in the house now compared to how it was before?
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Well, the difference is certainly colossal. Nothing has broken yet, but in a residential complex, it's convenient that they'll come by the same day and fix it for you. Here, you have to do it yourself. Right. And, well, another difference is that in a
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house, since it's out in nature, there are more spiders and insects, but in California, they are usually not poisonous. There's only one poisonous type here, and that's the black widow.
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It won't just end up in the house out of nowhere. They really love dark, dark spaces. So, we peacefully share this space with them. We also have a woman who comes by every two weeks to help us keep the house in order, because the
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house is big after all, and doing it yourself when you both work full-time jobs isn't that easy. So, we need help with the yard, a gardener comes for 60 dollars a week. And this woman comes to help with the cleaning. She often
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removes cobwebs and any signs of insects. And then everything looks really civilized. And it doesn't even feel like a country cottage vibe after that. But that is probably exactly how I would describe life in a house; it's very different from an apartment, but
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it has its advantages, despite any downsides it might have, in that you feel free. We're currently planning a lot of renovations, and you can paint any wall in your house, buy whatever furniture you want, including expensive pieces you wouldn't buy for a rental,
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even if you really liked them, drill walls, hang pictures. In short, we plan to have fun with it.
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Yeah, I understand that in the morning you can just let the dogs out into the yard and don't need to go downstairs.
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That's the best part. You don't have to walk down from the sixth floor. See, they just go straight out, both of them , and, well, they do their business, and they don't bother you. That's wonderful.
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And a plus that's definitely worth mentioning is having neighbors in your own house. Because you realize you'll be together for many, many years, and that forms a completely different level of relationship. And our neighbors introduced themselves to us. We'll
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definitely organize a party, where we'll invite our neighbors, where I think we'll make some pelmeni, whip up a vinegret salad, yes, and welcome them , sharing a little bit of our traditions, because in America there's really a big, uh, mix of different
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cultures, and Americans respect that. So we want to tell them a little bit about ourselves here too and make friends with our neighbors, because really, here you often say hi on the street, and in a pinch, you can reach
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out to each other for help. And one last question I want to ask you . Was it scary to take out a 30-year mortgage?
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No, listen, honestly, it's not scary at all. For one simple reason. First, the payment is very close to rent, and it's much better to build your own equity than, uh, buying, well, rather than continuing to rent. And it wasn't an
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investment decision; it was a decision to start this journey. Plus, we can always refinance later, and when rates drop, the payment will be lower accordingly. On top of that, you can always sell and move to another house that you like even more. Yes, and you
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can still pull out the money you invested, unlike renting, where you move out and that's it.
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Yes, and you know, Americans often still, uh, sell their homes and move for work from one region to another, and that’s a completely normal practice for finding new opportunities.
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Oh, yes, houses here sell like hotcakes , so selling definitely won't be a problem. And there is still the prospect that the property will increase a bit in value. Again, this is not an investment decision. I mean, we
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didn't analyze the market from that angle, we just wanted to free up our hands, but that's a possibility too.
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Well, and you are planning to put money into the house, after all. So it could also grow in value over time because of that?
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Yes, but we want to do it primarily for ourselves, and that will definitely increase the value of the house. We hope this video helps you better understand how buying a home works in America, in California. And if we
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didn't answer any of your questions, please write them in the comments. And thank you for watching. Subscribe to our channel so you don't miss the next video. See you soon. Bye-bye.
Topics:home buying USAAmerican dreammortgage costsSan Diego real estatefirst home purchasepet friendly housinghome renovation plansAmerican suburb lifereal estate marketdown payment
