As an entrepreneurial couple, we’re often asked to share our tips for entrepreneurs who may be starting out or are in the middle of their journey and now want to start putting down roots.

Which often brings up the question: Do entrepreneurs really need to own a house?

Our answer and this is strictly for us is a resounding YES.

As much as we love travelling, the nomadic lifestyle isn’t for us as a family.

For starters, Manini is private-schooled not home-schooled, so we don’t want to pull her out of school for 6 months on the road.

Next, as an introvert and an HSP, I enjoy familiarity and routine. Having a home helps us accomplish all of this.

Third, Mayank believes in real estate as a sound investment and a house is both a financial and emotional investment.

Plus, and most importantly, I love the idea of being in one place so you form lasting relationships, have memories attached to different places and whenever you travel, you come back home.

So, with that out of the way, if like us, you believe that owning a home is key {pun unintended!} for you, here is a peek into our home buying journey and how we’ve done it without a mortgage and with a bit of research and persistence.

Tips for Entrepreneurs Who Want to Buy a House But Not Take On a Mortgage

1. Save Up!

First off, you will need considerable savings to dip into if you want to buy a house, mortgage-free.

Our savings came from an accumulation over the years, thanks to a deeply ingrained savings habit from an early age.

However, at 25 we didn’t have enough to buy the house completely cash down so we borrowed the balance from family with the promise of returning the sum in 3 years.

The first house we chose to buy was not in a metropolitan city and was extremely teeny-tiny in size {I kid you not, when I tell you I could touch the ceiling with my hand!!} but it was in our budget.

We sold it at a considerable profit riding the realty boom in 2007 {yee-haw!!} and that money became the investment for our next house once we’d paid the family the amount we’d borrowed.

For our 1st house in a metropolitan city like Gurgaon, we wanted a much bigger and spacious apartment so we opted for a construction-linked plan and bought directly from the builder at the stage when the construction had just started. This helped us save since we got a great price and kept paying for the house as it got built. This again was in the suburbs {see the trend here?!} and we paid for it completely over 4 years.

This meant that we did not save much else but we did create an asset in the form of this house over those 4 years.

So, while doing your research for a house do consider a project that’s under construction since that’ll help with the payment plan as well.

Currently we are on the verge of getting the keys to our 2nd house which is where we intend to live. We used the same approach and bought the house directly from the builder since buying an already constructed house in a prime area in the city was not within our budget without taking up a mortgage.

2. Research Matters!

Next up, is research.

Ear mark areas that are liveable, in line with your family’s values and yet within your budget.

For us, it was very important to have a school and a hospital close to where we lived and also, we wanted an apartment condo complex because we enjoy a community lifestyle a lot.

Sites, like 99acres.com in India and Homefinder.com in the U.S., can make this job much easier.

We scoured a number of realty sites, Realty TV Shows, Newspapers for several options and narrowed down to two builders who came with great reviews and options.

The benefits of doing our research this way was that we saved time, did a fair amount of looking around from the comfort of our home {introvert, remember!} and only visited a few properties that we had narrowed down.

When doing your research, look at areas that are in the suburbs {like we did} and also, for projects that are under construction {again, like we did!}.

However, there’s a caveat: under construction projects will take longer for you to move into than a ready-to-go built up house. So, be prepared for that waiting time and the fact that you will be paying for your rental property, in the meanwhile.

3. Deals and Steals!

Once you’ve done your research and narrowed down your options, it’s a matter of finding the best deal for the projects of your choice.

You can again, use a real estate portal to do that and interact on a forum with other property owners to get to know what deals are available and if a builder is open to negotiation and so on. You may also, want to reach out independently to builders and find out what are the best options they have for you.

We did that by consulting with a bunch of realtors, existing property owners and friends as well, and found a realtor who gave us a great price for the apartment of our choice.

So, there you have it.

That, my friends, is our step-by-step journey and our tips for entrepreneurs to buying a house, mortgage-free.

Questions? I’m sure you have them! Ask away in the comments below.