<prompt> Human: Hey guys,So here is the situation. My wife and I both 28 are trying to buy our first home. We found a place we think is perfect. Right where we want to be, everything we need, fixer-upper in very nice neighborhood, all that stuff.Its at the tippy top of the price range we were looking for when we started looking. We just want some outside advice to make sure we are in a good place before moving forward.We have 42k saved up in the bank. After the down payment, closing costs and initial repairs that are required, we will have 13-15k in the bank.The mortgage will certainly be doable with our current salaries. I work a sales job with wildly varying yearly income 80k-120k depending on the year, so we stick with just my base 55k for budgeting and regard any commission as a bonus. Also my commission comes as one large check once a year, so its not something I should be factoring into a budget anyway. She is currently working a seasonal job that pays alright. Shell have to get a new one since we are moving 2 hours away my job can be done remotely. But it will be tight. This mortgage is going to be about 250 more than our current rent.My car payments are 2 years from being complete, my college payments are 4 12 years from being complete. Once those are gone, there will be a lot more wiggle room. She has no debt.I also have 68k in my 401k. I know that is never supposed to be touched, but its ultra life-or-death emergency money.Weve talked about it, and we think that even though its going to be tough at first, as time goes and we go into ultra-savings mode, we should be okay and this is a great investment, since we can slowly work on the house. As I said, its the worst house in the best neighborhood, so were hoping this results in it being a good investment over just continuing to rent.Lets go with a breakdownMy monthly income without commission - 3,084 Mortgage Including taxes, insurance and PMI - 1,864 Car payment - 305 Car Insurance - 147 College Loan - 168 Cell phone - 80So that leaves me at 520 a month, still dont know what utilities would be. Dont know what my wife will be able to bring to the table, but her last job was 60k a year, and Im fairly confident shed be able to find that kind of work again. Thats the thing though - we wont know until she starts looking.Again, this isnt some crazy dream home. We bought a real fixer upper that needs a lot of work but its surrounded by nice houses in a very nice neighborhood, so we know with some work it hopefully will be a great investment.Thoughts?  <response>: Im just going to slide in my two cents over here. I work in the construction industry. Ive seen time and time again where couples buy more house than they can handle with lots of work to be done. If its already at the top of your price range, any work that needs to be done that isnt on the surface will come as a shock to you, and you might not be able to scrape together the money to re-wire your new house, or fix a foundation, or repair your roof. If you both really love this house and think you would live in it for a long while average homeowner movesswitches houses every 5-7 years, sometimes every 7-9 years I recommend spending money up front on services from a reputable company that does home construction work. Have a senior member come and do a walk-through the home. Have him look top to bottom. Roof, foundation, plumbing, wiring, walls mold, mice, bad insulation, etc, have him look at your fireplace if there is one, have him take a look and see if you could ever potentially put an addition on the house if you needed. Basically have them do a really nitty gritty examination of the structure of the house. If he just says looks good, you may need to replace this old carpet, fixtures, cabinets, etc. thank him for his time and find a new company. Those hidden housing renovation costs can quickly make a home unsafe or not what you wanted for years until you finally have the money to replace the roof, or move again. Something like that. 