Help me find a place

[WRXtranceformed]

In my mind, if you don't have close to 40-50K sitting in the bank, looking for a house is a waste of your time unless you're just researching the market.

Joan and I were almost about to pull the trigger on a house in Burke but that number was too stupifying.

That's not exactly the case =) I won't have 40-50k in cash when I look to purchase a house next year. You can finance down payments / closing costs as well. The more you have to put down generally makes payments easier on you, unless it makes more sense for you to keep it in savings to earn interest on it, or to pay off outstanding loans to reduce your monthly debts.