Owning a house was not an immediate goal of mine. Renting was easy and convenient. If something broke, I submitted a maintenance request and it was fixed. Home maintenance in an apartment required little effort and even less stress. 

I've also always enjoyed flirting with the idea that if I wanted to pick up and move to Europe or some other far-off location, I could, and with no strings attached. In my head I was a nomad, free to roam the world as I pleased and I was enjoying the minimal responsibility that apartment living provided. In reality, I was a 34-year-old with nearly 10 years under my belt of Washington, D.C. living. So if history was any indication, I knew I probably wasn't moving any time soon.

So after a decade in the city, I had graduated out of the financial starvation that plagued my 20s and I was leasing an apartment that was costing me nearly the same amount that a mortgage payment would on a $300,000 loan. My year lease was set to expire in a few months and so was the special rate that gave me a nearly $300 per month rent reduction. There was no way I was paying more for that apartment, so I started my condo search.