On the thing of renting over buying.
I get the point of renting and I did it for a long time, you don't have to pay for those fixes.
But for where I live I was paying more a month for rent than what my mortgage payment is now. You have to think of your house as an investment you can profit off of later that your paying into. Where when your renting your just paying and paying, yeah you get live there, but in the end your getting nothing.
When I'm old and just paying my utilities and not worrying about rent....that will be awesome.