This is what I was thinking about. When I was looking around for my first home, I definitely fantasized about buying some big, old building that was cheap/in n

This is what I was thinking about. When I was looking around for my first home, I definitely fantasized about buying some big, old building that was cheap/in need of work but still livable (for some definitions of livable...basically I don't mind if it's grungy for a couple of years while I work on it). Unfortunately, even in my city (which is not in good financial shape) there weren't too many of these legally zoned for residence. Sure there are the old warehouses and de facto "lofts" where artists and crust punks live off the radar or with a wink and a grin (suuuuure, you're just working there and not living there...) but most of the big places were either in such poor shape I couldn't really consider living there or not legal to use as a residence. On top of that, even the ones in really bad shape were selling for $200k or more. For someone with a $400k budget and somewhere else to live for a year that's fine because you can get the whole thing gutted and renovated. For someone like me with a $200-250k budget it was a no-go. Any cool "fixer uppers" I found in the $100-150k range were bought for cash within a few days of listing--prime targets for cash-rich developers who can clean them up and flip for profit. In the end I compromised and found a place for $170k that had not been maintained, still needs loads of work, but was livable once I got all of the trash and cat stank out of the place. It's a reasonably large (though nothing like the Mason Lodge) 100-ish year old townhouse and I've been slowly renovating and repairing over the past couple of years. Even then, it was difficult to get homeowner's insurance. My initial provider dropped me as soon as they found out I was working on it while living in it. Unless I could show them a timeline and refer them to a general contractor (who wasn't me learning as I went along) they didn't want the risk. Ended up getting some community insurance that wasn't nearly as expensive as whatever my lender would've forced on me but also wasn't too much worse than a "traditional" provider. Still loads of frustration, it will take forever at the rate I'm going just getting in a day or two per week of real work. But I must be a glutton for punishment because I still think it's cooler than just taking out a bigger loan for something that was already renovated by someone else. At the very least, I can pay for supplies and hire contractors when I have the funds, but I'm not on the hook for a higher mortgage payment every month if some unforeseen circumstance leaves money temporarily tight. And it's pretty cool learning by faking it until I make it. I'm still no craftsman but I'm a lot better at some of this stuff than I was a few years ago. Maybe in another few years I'll be vaguely competent!