How Krystal Anyang-Kusi age 30 bought her first home, a $252,275  townhouse and details how they purchased their homes in Lawrenceville, Georgia ( Inspirational and Women Empowerment)

Krystal Anyang-Kusi, 30, bought her first home, a $252,275 townhouse, in Lawrenceville, Georgia with a down payment of $4,570, or about 1.8%. Until she moved in May 2020, Krystal lived in her parents' home in Virginia with her three sisters. This is an installment of Millennial Mortgage, which profiles first-time buyers across the U.S. and details how they purchased their homes.

Image of Krystal Anyang-Kusi 

In March, as Covid-19 spread across the country, Krystal Anyang-Kusi closed on her first home in Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Until she moved in May, Anyang-Kusi, 30, lived in her parents’ home in Virginia with her three sisters. But she was ready for some independence. “I knew back in 2018 that I wanted to move out of my parents’ house the following year,” she tells CNBC Make It. She didn’t expect to be moving during a global pandemic though.

Anyang-Kusi bought her 1,850-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom new build for $252,275, with a down payment of $4,570, or about 1.8%. She was sold on the property after seeing an online video tour of the townhome model and visiting the lot. Because the down payment was less than 20%, she pays for private mortgage insurance (PMI), which costs her an additional $171 per month on top of her mortgage payment of $1,461.

Anyang-Kusi also has about $78,000 in outstanding debt: $25,000 in student loans, $5,600 in credit card debt and $47,000 on her car note. Each month, she spends about $1,279 repaying the debt for all three: $250 for her student loan, $300 for her credit card debt and $729 for her car loan.

Yet despite her existing debt, she has no regrets about adding a 30-year mortgage.

“I did feel worried taking on an additional debt,” she says. “The thing that gave me solace was that I knew a home would be more of a long-term investment.” All in all, “I just trusted that this time is right for me.”

Her Story (Life Journey and Positive Learning)

growing up i know i was personally told

hey

live at home with your parents

especially as a female

until you get married and then you move

out with your husband

and get at your home so for me i wanted

to do things a little bit differently

my name is crystal and yankusi i am 30

years old

and i just bought my first home in

lawrenceville georgia

which is about 30 minutes from atlanta

my home was 252 thousand dollars

i am a recruiter at one of the big four

accounting firms

and i work from home and make ninety

five thousand dollars a year

so this home is approximately 1850

square feet

and it has three bedrooms and 2.5

bathrooms

this is my living space which includes

my kitchen one of my favorite parts of

the home as i do love to cook

i love to bake i love to entertain

the base floor has a powder room and

the living space kitchen and a dining

space as well

while the upper level has all the

bedrooms two full bathrooms and then a

laundry room

and here we have the master living space

which includes my lovely bed

the theme from this room is definitely

dreamy and chic

being a first-time homebuyer i was told

that there were so many different

opportunities and so many

different grants and assistance programs

that would be able to assist me while on

my search

unfortunately i did not qualify for a

lot of the assistance programs here in

georgia due to income

and or various other factors i decided

to find

a neighborhood and explore lenders

that way after i decided on where i

wanted to live versus getting

pre-approved on the front end

i know a big misconception i had when i

was looking

i thought i had to put down that 20

percent to get a home

i would say some of the the hard things

are kind of like realities of owning a

home by yourself

is it is by yourself um your income

it's on you your credit score is just on

you

and obviously once you move in all the

expenses are on you

so that has probably been some of the

toughest

things for me to kind of come to reality

with

i did feel worried taking on an

additional debt

the only thing that really kind of gave

me solace was that i knew a home would

be more of a long-term

investment

this year i plan to host thanksgiving so

i'm excited to

extend the table out and have my family

in town here as well

so my parents immigrated here from ghana

which is in west africa to live the

american dream and make a better life

for themselves

i knew back in about 2018 that i wanted

to move out of my parents house the

following year

first reason why i chose atlanta georgia

was cost of living

definitely way more affordable for

someone especially on a single income

and then secondly i was just able to

find

more of what i was looking for in terms

of a new construction

and then also being in a more

metropolitan suburban

area

i thought i chose one but once i got

back home and started doing some

research i realized it just wasn't

really a fit for me

so i had asked my realtor to who lives

in atlanta to continue the search for me

virtually

luckily he would just send me different

videos

different neighborhoods try to get my

opinion and

once he sent me the video of this

neighborhood i knew just virtually that

was pretty much sold

finding especially a good neighborhood a

good county

that has really good schools and an area

that's not too far from downtown i

figured that

this is just the right time for me and

luckily for me

things just aligned where when i applied

through the preferred lender i was

approved

immediately

so my realtor met me here with the keys

and

you know gave me a quick tour of the

place and then once he

was leaving he just looked at me and he

was like are you okay and i'm like

yeah this just all felt really surreal

that

you know i was standing in something

that was mine and that i had worked hard

to get and now it was kind of like my

baby to help

raise and groom

the only thing is i wish i could have

gotten a better interest rate

maybe doing it now during the pandemic

times when interest rates were a little

bit lower than when i

initially went under contract in october

i wish that i would have

saved more money outside of

closing costs and down payment because

once i did move in

although you know my closing costs and

down payment were completed

i think i only had about two thousand

dollars left at that time

to furnish the rest of the home or to

furnish the home i wish that i would

have saved an additional 10k

before moving in

i came back the home was so quiet i was

like oh this is not the same it was kind

of lonely

moving down to atlanta on faith i did

not have and still don't really have too

many friends

and obviously my family is based out of

the dmv area so i did make a sacrifice

moving down here

by myself and also moving in a home by

myself as well without any roommates

so it has been an adjustment just

learning to

make new friends meet new people and get

out and about

to learn the area buying a home

has made me happier because it's made me

feel more independent

it's made me feel like i have something

that's truly

mine and something that i can fix up in

the way that i would like

and not have to get anyone else's

opinion

on it and if i come in and i don't like

something it's my responsibility

to change it up so it's definitely given

me more of a sense of being more of an

adult

and just made me a little bit more

responsible especially when it comes to

finances

it has made me and i would consider this

kind of like my word for the year

is being fearless because i feel like if

i can do this i can do so many other

things that i thought i couldn't do you

know i can do it on my own i can

definitely do it with somebody else.

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