I agree with pretty much all the criticism of TFA here, I just want to highlight three, in my experience very real, traps: 1. Interest rates are, at least in G

I agree with pretty much all the criticism of TFA here, I just want to highlight three, in my experience very real, traps: 1. Interest rates are, at least in Germany, rather high if you didn't manage to save or inherit some starting capital somehow - so for most people the best course of action is probably to live for rent at first and put aside what they can to get a decent deal. Also bearing in mind that interest might jump up after the initial contract period. 2. At least for me, it was hard not to overinvest into my own real estate. "Just 10% more for these fancy light switches instead of the plain ones". "Just double for these awesome windows" and so on. The landlords I had in the past usually had the cheapest, most plain stuff and it never bothered me, but somehow with my own property I have this voice telling me to put in just a little more. Thing is: Houses can be changed to quite a degree after moving in, much like software. 3. Old houses are usually the cheap choice. But they are also, in my experience, always in worse condition than you (and even experts) think. So it's good to prepare for having to pay rent _and_ the credit for 3-12 months - as well as have some items on your fix up list that you could sacrifice in case you learn about something more pressing to fix. The housing market were I live is solid enough that I broke even after about 3 years despite these traps, but I have a feeling I got lucky and it could have gone bad just as likely.