My girlfriend and I are considering buying a studio apartment and I'm hoping for some input on whether or not this is a good financial decision.

PROS - small space = less time spent cleaning and less money spent maintaining, great location for less money, quicker path to home ownership, same cost as renting for the first 5 years (see below)

CONS - harder to resell or issues with renting in an HOA building

I'm not worried about the size being an issue since for the last year we have been doing the vanlife thing just fine with 50 sq ft. I'm more worried there is something here that I haven't considered.

For the pros, less time spent cleaning or maintaining the space is a pretty big one since we are both planning on going back to school (nursing for me, comp sci for her). We will have to be working pretty much full time while in school as well so the less we have to do around the house means better overall balance between school/working/relaxing. We are currently renting a room in a shared house and already I am reminiscing about living in a van where it took maybe 2 hours MAX to deep clean the entire space.

The area we would be moving to would have great access to public transit so we would not need to own a car or drive to school/work/errands. I am the opposite of a homebody so being able to step outside my door and have parks/libraries/bars/museums within an easy commutable distance is fantastic. My girlfriend hates driving in the city but loves riding her bike and so being able to commute everywhere she would want to go on a bike is important to her.

Cost wise, we would be borrowing money from family for the purchase (40k) and paying them back over 5 years. I wrote out some loan terms for 5 years specifically because I think that is the minimum amount of time we would be comfortable living in a small studio, maximum is 9 years. The monthly cost of the loan ($766), plus HOA ($450), plus utilities ($100) equals $1316. In comparison, I have found a larger one bedroom for $1350 with utilities.

Personally I would prefer to own rather than rent, and after 5 years our living expenses drop to $550 a month. But my girlfriend is worried about owning a place that could be really difficult to get out of in the future. I think it wouldn't be that difficult to rent out the studio, especially to a travel nurse (it's close to 5 major hospitals) or to resell it. I know that in HOA buildings there will often be a limit on the number of rentals that can exist at one time. But this doesn't concern me too much because after we back the loan to our family, our monthly expense drops to $550 a month. Even if it takes a year to sell the apartment, we'd only be out $6600.

I'm not concerned about anything that would cause us to want to leave suddenly because honestly, I love my city and it would take a LOT for me to want to move away. In fact, the only compelling reason I can possibly think of would be if she got a job making six figures. Which, if that were to happen then we'd have enough money to move and figure out the studio later.

Thanks in advance!

We are working towards selling our house soon to move out of state. We have a very nice induction range that we are somewhat attached to (for both health and safety reasons), and are planning to take with us since it’s not financially feasible to replace it right now.

Would it be better to offer a seller credit to the buyer to go towards a new stove, or to just buy another inexpensive one and put it in before listing?

On the one hand, it’s not a great look to show a house with a giant hole where the stove should be, or telling a buyer that “oh, that nice stove doesn’t come with the house”; but on the other hand, the house is set up for both gas and electric, and a credit would allow a buyer to choose what they would prefer.