To dream or not to dream (of a house)? That is the more pressing question.

Recently, andrea and I have started seriously contemplating about purchasing a house of our own. After computing how much we’ve spent (and wasted – in a more pessimistic note) on rent alone, we can’t help but wish we’d bought one from the beginning. It’s been almost 4 years since we moved in together and started shelling out a considerable portion of our income for a place (well 2 to be more exact) that we’d never really be able to call our own in the end. I mean if we had invested on a property from the beginning, we would have already shaved 4 years off from the loan period.

So now we’ve taken the first bold steps towards fulfilling that dream of having our own home. Last summer we’ve undergone a seminar for a government housing loan program and became aquainted with the nitty gritty stuff of the trade such as mortgage protection insurance, title transfers, building permits, occupancy permits and all the other legal mambo jumbo. We’ve also started asking around for available lots, trusted architects and engineers.

Heck, the more I get to understand the ins and outs of getting a house, the more realistic and, at the same time, scary the dream becomes. No wonder a lot of people have second thoughts about purchasing a house of their own.