I had to travel to Jacksonville so often for work that I finally started looking for the house there. My time is valuable, and when I realized I was spending over 20 hours a week commuting to and from Jacksonville, I realized I was costing myself money. Every hour I spent on the road was an hour I wasn’t earning money! The market in this city is so large that it was overwhelming, and I had to get some expert assistance. I called a local Jacksonville real estate agency, and told them what I was looking for. After one day of touring local houses, I came to understand that it might be smarter for me to buy a house in Jacksonville than to rent one. The rental market was jam packed with great places to live, but rent was so high that it would be more expensive than paying a mortgage. I found an older woman named Jenny who had been a Jacksonville real estate agent for over twenty years. Jenny knew everything there was to know about real estate in NE Florida, and showed me all the best spots. She also explained to me about the first-time local homebuyers program, and how it would cover a large piece of the down payment. The way Jenny explained it, Jax real estate was an investment in the future, and buying my home would lead to a windfall of cash in the future. The way Jacksonville property values keep rising, I could sell the house for twice as much money in just a few years.