We had a similar plan and follow through, we did it in the late 80's. We had three kids by College graduation. He was salaried at $30,000 a year, worked 60 hours + a week; benefits but no overtime pay. He traveled, sometimes internationally and was gone for two weeks out of every month. I stayed home with the kids and we learned to budget.
That first house had three bedrooms, 1 bathroom and the "Master bedroom" had a noticeable list to the floor. It had been built in 1960, smelled of cat urine throughout, needed new siding, a new roof, the neighbors to the left, sold drugs, the neighbor behind us mentally abused his wife. Nobody else wanted it, so we got it for $75,000 and were happy with interest rate of 10%.
Eventually, we (as in we, not hired help) fixed the roof, put on new siding, landscaped, fixed the addition and sold it for almost twice what we paid for it. Rinse and repeat for 30 years.
My three oldest kids all bought their first house before they turned 22 (#4 will be 22 next year and is about to get his first house) without our financial help. None of them or their spouses had college degrees. They started working at 15 for minimum wage, worked their ###-ets off, didn't go party, take vacations and stayed thrifty; walmart t-shirts off the clearance rack, jeans from Goodwill, no new vehicles, etc. We could have helped financially but, we didn't and they didn't ask.
Try to tell some of these entitled kids these days that they need to do that to get their first house and you think you just told them they needed to cut off their finger.
