<prompt> Human: So Im a 20 year old college student, Ill finish school at the end of September next year. The house in question was my grandparents and it holds huge sentimental attachment for me, as they died when I was 16 and I have a great deal of memories in that house. My only concern is that the house is 90 miles from my college and 45 miles from where I currently co-op, so there are at least 6 of the next 12 months I wouldnt be able to live in the house due to school, and the remainder of the time I will be forcing myself into a 90 mile per day commute to and from work instead of renting near work.Right now, Im making approx 20k a year as a co-op, but that will increase after graduation to 50-65k Mechanical Engineering, and I currently have about 14k in debt on a 2012 Ford Focus. The house would be around 40,000, with property taxes around 2,500 a year. My parents are not willing to cosign on a mortgage, just to give up their share of the price of the house. Is this a stupid idea? Is keeping childhood memories worth taking out a mortgage before your 21st birthday?EDIT: The house was built in 1944. Its a three bedroom, one bath, brick bungalow in a stable neighborhood with excellent services.Assistant: This is a bad idea. You have a fair amount of debt from the car and you are still in college. The taxes seem very high in relation to the worth of the house. Not to mention you have no idea where your first post-degree job will take you. You dont specify the age of the house, but Im betting its old and has seen a lot of deferred maintenance which is common in homes owned by the elderly. Dont buy it. Spend a weekend there taking photos. Maybe grab a couple momentoes that you can put in your first house in a few years. But walk away. The house is a thing, a reminder of your past, dont let it become an anchor.Human: House dates from 1944, in a similarly old neighborhood. Its brick, and weve already done a lot of restoration work ripped up the carpet and redid the wood floors, patched the plaster and repainted, etc.. The plus side I keep thinking about is that I KNOW this house. My grandparents spent 58 years in that house. Its like buying a car from your parents - you know exactly what went on with it. You know they took good care of it, etc. Assistant: Im sorry, but youre extremely naive. You dont know this house. Youre not a home inspector. You might think that just because you spent a lot of time there as a child, that you know what is going on in the house itself, but you dont. Youre making a mistake to think otherwise unless you were directly involved in nearly every maintenance aspect of the home and even then, it would be questionable.Human: Im not a home inspector, thats true. But I feel that having torn out all the carpets, sanded and stained the floors, patched and repainted the walls, etc. gives me a big insight into the health of the house. Also, this house is about 500 feet from my parents house. I spent more time in this house than in my parents house before my grandparents died. I dont feel naive at all about this house, quite the opposite, compared to a random stranger off the street.  <response>: Those are all cosmetic things. What state is the foundation? You said the roof was last repaired in th 80s buy when was it last replaced? I guarantee the roof doesnt have 5 years in it. It most likely needs replacement. Then you will find that the underlayment is bad. Not to mention plumbing and electrical from 1944 is woefully out of date. You wont know this house until youve opened the walls and ceilings. 