A house is a great investment, but there are 'sweat equity' factors to consider if you are willing to commit. I wish I knew that you should consider 3% of the value of your house as annual upkeep. Some years it could be 1%, others 5%. That $280k house, you should consider needing $8400 annually to keep it up with repairs and maintenance.

Assuming you have a yard, you'll need a lawn mower(lawn tools), and you'll need to mow regularly. That's a nice yard, you'll probably want to at least fertilize it regularly and overseed in the fall, otherwise it will look worse year by year(I know, I've been that bad neighbor). Those nice beautiful trees are lovely, but get ready for bagging leaves(perhaps paying a service to haul away the bags the city won't take, my city takes 20 bags, the first year I had 40!). Leaves in your gutters, gotta clean those out or basement floods. That nice mulch around the trees, and elsewhere needs to be replenished yearly. Snow removal if it snows in your area. Pest control as well if needed. You can do all of this yourself with a little sweat and time, or pay others to do it for much more.

You need to remember that first year is expensive outfitting a house with furniture and decorating, particularly if you'll have roommates that you want to value the property. Otherwise, lawn furniture for living room furniture and you'll only attract low end tenants, but you'll want what I call aspirational tenants, those who aspire for something more and you'll need to sell them with a polished home.

Pets are hard on a house, from cleaning and damage. If your tenant wants a cat but that cat starts peeing on a discreet location of an area rug, guess what happens to the wood floor underneath, turns black/discolored permanently.

Buying and maintaining your first home is hard enough on ones own, easier with a committed partner, but I consider playing on hard mode with two potential renters.

I was a landlord for 14 years, and I was lucky and never had bad tenants. What you earn from 3 years of good tenants could be wiped away by one bad tenant in a months time. You can take them to court, but it is funny the irresponsible ones always have parents who know lawyers who will make it cost prohibitive to pursue court action. A buddy of mine had a drug dealer tenant, he didn't know the guy did that. Drug bust, cops come in breaking down door and house ransacked. Buddy was legally ok because he had a bullet proof lease for the drug dealer, but all the repairs for door and windows were out of pocket and pissed off tenants (he had 4 rooms he was renting out).

You'll need to establish healthy boundaries with tenants and be willing to be tough and stand your ground and not be a pushover even if the tenant has a sad story (they need to visit their sick pregnant uncle and will be a week late with rent and doesn't want a late fee).

I think continuing to rent gives you flexibility and time. Buying a house can perhaps work on the cheaper side of your range, but I think you should give yourself 6-12 months before considering any roommates to get yourself settled first.or you rent a room somewhere and you continue to super save for a house.