Is it possible to safely and easily unlock an iphone 4s by yourself?

I'm looking for a 4s but I realize that the unlocked ones go for more so I wanted to know if I could factory unlock one by myself without having to pay… Or is there a place where it is safe and cheap to get it unlocked? I just don't want to mess up my new phone. Also can you jailbreak it yourself but also be able to update the phone's firmware while it is jailbroken? (That means without having to reset it every time a new version after ios 6.1.13 comes out).

Your hesitation just screams that it's an entirely bad idea. If you have Apple Care Plus, or any warranties, it WILL void it, so don't risk it and call the carrier to have it unlocked.

Not possible. You would need to pay, and cdma iphone can't be unlocked.

Yes you can unlock an iPhone 4s except for Verizon iPhones because they don't have a sim card slot (CDMA). If you have or know someone with an ebay account then you could buy an unlock from them for $5.00 to $10.00. If you do buy it then depending on how long they can process your unlock they will send you an email to connect to iTunes. Then you restore it and it is unlocked. (Just Backup then restore form a backup).

Now if you jailbreak your device then when you update the jailbreak will be gone and you'll have to wait for a new tethered or untethered jailbreak. So yes you can update while jailbroken but the jailbreak will be gone.