The I need to buy a house thread

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The I need to buy a house thread

Post by BSF21 »

I'm sick of this apartment. I've got 6 months and I'm up. I'm buying. Got money saved. Ready to call something my own.

Any words of wisdom for the young single 20something buying a hooose?
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Sabo »

Get an FHA loan.

Don't use all of your savings for the down payment.

If you can swing it, get something you can fix up yourself and invest in sweat equity.

Consider how long you want to live there when thinking about all of the above.

Remember: There is ALWAYS something to fix when you buy a house, unless you buy new. Then you have a few years before things start to fall apart.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by A_B »

For a first home, just do the 3.5% for an FHA down payment, like Sabes said. Maybe 5%, but don't hamstring yourself because you'll need that money.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Shirley »

On the flip side, if your mortgage is for more than 20%, you have to pay PMI, which is a huge pain in the ass. Or do FHA loans not do that?
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Sabo »

Shirley wrote:On the flip side, if your mortgage is for more than 20%, you have to pay PMI, which is a huge pain in the ass. Or do FHA loans not do that?
From what I remember of my FHA loan, there was no PMI.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Shirley »

Sabo wrote:
Shirley wrote:On the flip side, if your mortgage is for more than 20%, you have to pay PMI, which is a huge pain in the ass. Or do FHA loans not do that?
From what I remember of my FHA loan, there was no PMI.
Of course, I meant mortgage of more than 80%, not 20%.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Shirley »

Looks like FHA loans do have mortgage insurance, but they call it MIP instead of PMI. And it can actually cost you more.

http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/mor ... source=web" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by brian »

Shirley wrote:Looks like FHA loans do have mortgage insurance, but they call it MIP instead of PMI. And it can actually cost you more.

http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/mor ... source=web" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Yeah, but for a first home, it's probably worth it. If all goes well, he won't be staying in it more than a few years and he will have built up some equity to roll into a new home in a few years (again, in a perfect world -- we all realize it doesn't always work like that any more).

Without knowing the exact amount of money he has saved, it's probably not worth it to hamstring himself financially since he's likely going to need to make sure he has some savings for home repairs, etc. If you think MIP/PMI is bad, putting that shit on a credit card is ten times worse.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by HaulCitgo »

Buy a big one right now. Rates and prices are climbing. Size and school districts drive resales, so consider those even if theyre not an issue for you.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by blundercrush »

Location Location Location...Also one thing to look at is having a roommate help pay the mortgage, even if you can roll it yourself, free money is free money. Made the unfortunate mistake if buying just before the market crashed but I had a roommate help pay my mortgage the entire way so I made a lot back on that alone.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by kranepool »

Rent.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by mister d »

I'm pretty sure selling for profits twice in the last 5 years qualifies me as a real estate expert, right? I'm with Kranepool. Either you'll buy a condo you'll need to sell down the road or a house you need to sell when a future spouse (and/or future you) doesn't like it or your needs change. Rent. Stay flexible.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Steve of phpBB »

mister d wrote:I'm pretty sure selling for profits twice in the last 5 years qualifies me as a real estate expert, right? I'm with Kranepool. Either you'll buy a condo you'll need to sell down the road or a house you need to sell when a future spouse (and/or future you) doesn't like it or your needs change. Rent. Stay flexible.
At least run the numbers carefully. How much does it cost to rent? How much would it cost to buy? How much of your mortgage payment would be paying down the loan (i.e., building equity)? How much would be paying interest, and what is the marginal value of that deduction on your taxes? How much are insurance and property taxes? Assuming property taxes are deductible, how much would that deduction be worth?

When I bought my first home, my monthly payment went up by about $200. I saved about $100 per month in income tax from the deductions, and about $100 of that payment was for equity. So I came out about even on a per-month basis. Luckily for me, I have stayed in that house for 13 years and the value has gone up. But YMMV.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Brontoburglar »

I'm thinking that you may be in the same boat as me (given where we are in the country) in that rent is going to be just about as much as a mortgage payment.

That's what I like about my situation. I wanted a yard and something to call mine, and now I have it. My mortage is down eight years (hooray refinancing!) and I'm paying considerably less than I would for renting a similar space -- and I only put down 6K on the house.

I've put a lot of sweat equity into it and spent a lot of money, but thankfully in the job situation I'm in, I'm on track to save considerable cash -- knock on wood -- this year and have more reserves in hand than I ever have entering 2014.

I didn't know how I'd handle doing my own household tasks and buying all the shit for my yard, etc. But damn if I love walking in my yard after spending a ton of time in it, or what my basement now looks like compared to what it looked like two years ago when I bought it.

Is there always something to do? Yes. That will never go away. But I like the pride that comes with it.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by BSF21 »

Renting is no longer an option. I've done it for years. I'm tired of not building my time and efforts into anything. I'm sick of sitting around every weekend when I could be doing projects or making something my own. I've got too many ties to renting and this area. I'm going to be here at least 5 more years, probably longer. I have a relationship that is going somewhere. I need a place to call my own.

As for the FHA loan or whatsit thing, I've heard about this. Without going into too many specifics, I've got 10k put back and I anticipate that moving towards 20k by the end of summer/time I need to pull the trigger and buy.

Any other tips are always appreciated. How to find a good mortgage company, etc. (I say this because my buddy bought his first house with his wife and they went with a local mortgage company. Someone they could find and get ahold of for questions, etc. Their mortgage was sold to Chase 3 days after they moved in) Any handy tips on little things. I've heard good things about home warranties?

Thanks as always frogs.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Sabo »

BSF21 wrote:Any other tips are always appreciated. How to find a good mortgage company, etc. (I say this because my buddy bought his first house with his wife and they went with a local mortgage company. Someone they could find and get ahold of for questions, etc. Their mortgage was sold to Chase 3 days after they moved in) Any handy tips on little things. I've heard good things about home warranties?
Try local banks and credit unions instead of big banks/mortgage companies. You'll get that personal level of service and might be less likely to have the loan sold. Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. just want your cash, and will do whatever they can to get it. Local banks will probably be less evil (even if it's just slightly less evil).

Unless the seller pays for the warranty, I'd avoid it. If I remember correctly, most home warranties are valid for only a year, so you'll want something to break to make the cost worthwhile. And of course, it means dealing with an insurance company, which means the contract is already structured in some way to screw you our of your money. But hey, if the seller pays for it, great.

Here's a tip: If you go with an FHA loan, they'll require a home inspection. If the inspector finds nothing wrong and the house is more than 10 years old, you got a shitty inspector. Even if you have to pay for a second inspection yourself, get someone who really looks at everything to see if the house is in good condition. This will take hours, not just an hour. Make sure they go into the attic/basement/crawl space, etc. and look at everything. They'll almost certainly find something. I'd much rather know what I'm getting myself into before signing a mortgage.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Scottie »

Have you considered a yurt? Highly mobile in case of unforeseen horsemen attacks; which you will see coming from even several days away on your new-found prairie flatland green-friendly hut's vast sight-lines. Miles, you'll see from any variety of vantage points in your sheep-skinned weatherproofed hide-fashioned fabric-taughtened beautiful new homestead! Eco-friendly, relatively cheap, utterly practical. Toss in the cost of a couple of Salukis and Yaks to roam the steppes surrounding your nomadic dwelling and herd the occasional odd unsuspecting animal from whose milk you will ferment potent alcoholic beverages to get you through those long dark nights of human despair and, face it, that sort of cost-effectiveness is terribly over-looked in this current tragic "hurry up" economy.

Hub-caps and metal garbage can lids can easily be hammered flat, or concave (to maximize signal reception), into portable satellite dishes so you can witness, first-hand, news reports in their original North Korean, Mongolian or Iranian syntax. Plus! Your brilliant new view of the uninterrupted night sky will be spectacular; odds are that you'll see a meteor coming before anyone else will. In which case you will surely have plenty of time to relocate your yurt to safer, non-meteor impact environs; way ahead of those short-sighted real estate urban death-wishers. Just you try that from a condo! Hah! There's so many up-sides to a yurt.

Yep, yurt. Yurts*.

* Actual yurt cost and relocation may differ from this advertisement. If your yurt takes longer than four hours to construct, or relocate, please consult your nearest feudal-era physician. Do not build a yurt if you are suffering from high blood pressure or are susceptible to reactions caused by foreign invasions. Building a yurt may cause psychotic responses as yet undocumented by our best physicians, studies or as yet to be seen eventualities.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by BSF21 »

Dammit Scottie. My stomach hurts. Early nod for post of the year.
Scottie wrote:Have you considered a yurt? Highly mobile in case of unforeseen horsemen attacks; which you will see coming from even several days away on your new-found prairie flatland green-friendly hut's vast sight-lines. Miles, you'll see from any variety of vantage points in your sheep-skinned weatherproofed hide-fashioned fabric-taughtened beautiful new homestead! Eco-friendly, relatively cheap, utterly practical. Toss in the cost of a couple of Salukis and Yaks to roam the steppes surrounding your nomadic dwelling and herd the occasional odd unsuspecting animal from whose milk you will ferment potent alcoholic beverages to get you through those long dark nights of human despair and, face it, that sort of cost-effectiveness is terribly over-looked in this current tragic "hurry up" economy.

Hub-caps and metal garbage can lids can easily be hammered flat, or concave (to maximize signal reception), into portable satellite dishes so you can witness, first-hand, news reports in their original North Korean, Mongolian or Iranian syntax. Plus! Your brilliant new view of the uninterrupted night sky will be spectacular; odds are that you'll see a meteor coming before anyone else will. In which case you will surely have plenty of time to relocate your yurt to safer, non-meteor impact environs; way ahead of those short-sighted real estate urban death-wishers. Just you try that from a condo! Hah! There's so many up-sides to a yurt.

Yep, yurt. Yurts*.

* Actual yurt cost and relocation may differ from this advertisement. If your yurt takes longer than four hours to construct, or relocate, please consult your nearest feudal-era physician. Do not build a yurt if you are suffering from high blood pressure or are susceptible to reactions caused by foreign invasions. Building a yurt may cause psychotic responses as yet undocumented by our best physicians, studies or as yet to be seen eventualities.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by A_B »

Almost all local banks sell their mortgages anymore. Some companies don't sell as part of their business model, but they usually also don't offer rates that are as competitive.

And really, what's the problem if they do sell to a mortgage farm? As long as you get fixed terms to tart with (and with rates as low as they are, there's no reason not to do so) it isn't like they can change your interest rate once they buy it.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by FredRomero »

Brontoburglar wrote:
That's what I like about my situation. I wanted a yard and something to call mine, and now I have it. My mortage is down eight years (hooray refinancing!) and I'm paying considerably less than I would for renting a similar space -- and I only put down 6K on the house.
Why the hell do I live in the Boston area? 6k isn't a big enough down payment for a parking space here.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Johnnie »

Why nearly anyone lives in Boston outside of going to college beats me. I was happy to leave there at 17.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by mister d »

BSF, its only building equity and all that if its something you can sell down the road and cash out that equity. I have a lot of friends who are now renting out their first places while renting a new place for themselves because they outgrew but can't sell and don't want to be carrying two mortgages. Buying before its really long term (a lot more than 5 years) is risky as hell, despite my amazing successes.



(One of the two driveways at our condo would have cost $40K if we wanted both sides, $20K for just a half. We passed.)
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Sabo »

mister d wrote:BSF, its only building equity and all that if its something you can sell down the road and cash out that equity. I have a lot of friends who are now renting out their first places while renting a new place for themselves because they outgrew but can't sell and don't want to be carrying two mortgages. Buying before its really long term (a lot more than 5 years) is risky as hell, despite my amazing successes.
But renting out is just as risky. Renting out in Boston is going to be MUCH easier and more profitable than renting a property in the Midwest. When we sold our house a few years ago, we considered renting it out but the typical rental prices for a house like ours wouldn't cover our monthly mortgage payment. Yes, Cleveland is a very soft real estate market, but that's the case for a lot of areas in the Midwest.

And you can do all the background checks you want, but you never really know what the tenants will do to your property. You have to consider you might need to drop thousands of dollars to fix whatever damage they caused.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by sancarlos »

In this tiny interest rate environment, I'd certainly buy, if one can afford the down payment and expects to stay in the area. As was said before, focus on location overy any other factor - you want to buy in an up and coming area that can be expected to be more desirable in future years. A place with new stores, good schools and a growing population.

All banks sell their loans, and as AB noted, no big deal. You just send the payment to a different name. Personally, I went with a mortgage broker who was recommended to me by my boss. Ask a local businessman you respect who he used for his mortgage. You have options. See what the tradeoffs are on interest rates and terms of loans (fixed or variable, long or short term - it's the old risk/reward analysis.) You don't need to pay any points on your loan in this environment. If you find a place you really want, consult hard with your realtor to see what it really takes to make it yours and do it. Don't settle for a place your only half-like.

Like Mr. D, I've been lucky. We bought our place in 1998 and had serious buyer remorse because it looked like we way overpaid for a nice place in a nice town. But, we got lucky and have ridden a wave of value appreciation.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by brian »

Sabo wrote:
BSF21 wrote:Any other tips are always appreciated. How to find a good mortgage company, etc. (I say this because my buddy bought his first house with his wife and they went with a local mortgage company. Someone they could find and get ahold of for questions, etc. Their mortgage was sold to Chase 3 days after they moved in) Any handy tips on little things. I've heard good things about home warranties?
Try local banks and credit unions instead of big banks/mortgage companies. You'll get that personal level of service and might be less likely to have the loan sold. Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, etc. just want your cash, and will do whatever they can to get it. Local banks will probably be less evil (even if it's just slightly less evil).

Unless the seller pays for the warranty, I'd avoid it. If I remember correctly, most home warranties are valid for only a year, so you'll want something to break to make the cost worthwhile. And of course, it means dealing with an insurance company, which means the contract is already structured in some way to screw you our of your money. But hey, if the seller pays for it, great.

Here's a tip: If you go with an FHA loan, they'll require a home inspection. If the inspector finds nothing wrong and the house is more than 10 years old, you got a shitty inspector. Even if you have to pay for a second inspection yourself, get someone who really looks at everything to see if the house is in good condition. This will take hours, not just an hour. Make sure they go into the attic/basement/crawl space, etc. and look at everything. They'll almost certainly find something. I'd much rather know what I'm getting myself into before signing a mortgage.
I'd go a little bit further on this and will explain in a moment, but a couple of other things.

1) Make sure you get a good Realtor. The truth is that a great many of them are idiots. Any monkey with a clipboard can get licensed. Don't stop looking until you find someone you're comfortable with. Don't start the process of buying a house until you find someone you're comfortable with. The nice thing for you is that since you're just buying you don't have to pay any commission fees on the sale of the house. (That'll change when you go to sell of course, but for now you're freerolling. Take advantage of it.)

2) Following up on Sabo's point above, ABSOLUTELY pay for a private inspection of whatever house you want to buy. Here's usually how it works, you make an offer, maybe there's some dickering about price or whatever else and then your realtor makes your offer contingent on your private inspection. It will cost you probably between $200 and $350, but it will be the best money you've ever spent. This inspector works for you and will go through every nook and cranny of the house looking for issues.

He/She will find many. Since it's the Midwest the stuff you're most concerned about is past/possible termite/insect damage, mold and roof issues. (Less likely, but possible are structural issues. Most of the issues they find will be either a) things the sellers are going to have to fix to make the house pass FHA and/or city inspection anyway, b) inconsequential, things you may have seen yourself and don't mind fixing or things you can live with.

If he finds something major you can go back to the sellers and require they fix it. When we bought our first house we discovered the roof was bad and required the sellers to drop the price of the house $2,000 (essentially we just went halves on fixing it, which we did the next spring). Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal if there's something wrong with the house. There will be others and $300 or so to find out is cheap.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by A_B »

The realtor thing is decent advice -- the best part of having a realtor isn't finding you a house, it's the help with the process of buying one and handling all the paperwork. Some for sale by owners will be less inclined to work with a realtor even if the realtor accepts a partial commission instead of the full amount, though most will accept the lower commission as a buyer's agent.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by brian »

One other thing that was discussed -- whether it is included by the sellers in the purchase price or not, consider paying for a home warranty. I may be in the minority on this, but the money is worth the piece of mind. I use a company called American Home Shield and I've been happy with the service/performance, even though I've been lucky enough to not have needed it very much. If you do, just make sure you read the fine print on what's covered and what's not. There are also varying levels of coverage and add-ons for pool equipment, etc.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by The Sybian »

BSF21 wrote:I'm sick of this apartment. I've got 6 months and I'm up. I'm buying. Got money saved. Ready to call something my own.

Any words of wisdom for the young single 20something buying a hooose?
I'll tell you what I told Bronto. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!

I guess things are a lot different in the Midwest, but I can't fathom considering purchasing a home as a single guy in my mid 20s. Then again, I put down close to $250,000 as a down payment. I know it seems like renting is throwing away money, but paying interest on a mortgage is throwing away money as well. It takes several years before your mortgage payments start paying down the principle of the loan, so you really aren't getting much equity out the first 5-10 years of the mortgage. Then you figure you are going to get married and maybe start having kids, are you going to want to stay in the same house? I thought my first house was big enough for raising kids, but you find out real quick that a kid takes up a hell of a lot more space than you think. When my parents first visited our first house, my wife was insulted when my mom said it "was a nice 'starter' home." We planned on staying there, but we were naive. Coming from a tiny one bedroom in Manhattan, a 1300 sq. ft Cape Cod seemed enormous. Why would we need a bigger house?

Anyway, my point is that at this age, you have no way of knowing what you will want or need in 10 years, so you can't buy today for what you think you will want then. The other issue with owning is that when shit breaks or needs replacing, and it always does, you will pay for it instead of your landlord, and most of the time, it doesn't increase value. I recently had a leak from behind my kitchen sink soak through the walls downstairs into the walls of the kids playroom. Copper pipes weakened. They had to tear up the walls in the down stairs bathroom, part of the ceiling and replace pipes through the ceiling into the kitchen sink. The rest if the pipes in the entire house are bound to start going. Not to mention the waterstained carper that will have to be replaced, then I had to replace the sheetrock on the walls in the bathroom, put in a new ceiling, because they couldn't match the textured ceiling in the bathroom, and of course the wall was papered, so we had to rip down the paper and paint the whole room. This will end up costing me $8,000, and it was only 2 sections of pipe totaling maybe 3 feet. I have hundreds of feet of copper pipe ready to go at any minute. There is always the threat looming of a major repair. My next door neighbor just had to dig up sewer pipe in his yard, and that ran him $20,000. If you own, you need to be prepared to pay for shit like this. And its always something.

You also can't count on fixing up a place and getting you money back. My handy neighbor who I've mentioned in the past fixed up his old house, dropped close to $200,000 in materials to completely redo his first house thinking he would making a killing by doing all the work himself learned a cruel lesson when the housing market collapsed. They financed the upgrades through home equity loans and eventually had to walk away from the house when they couldn't get enough for it to pay back the mortgages.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by A_B »

Yeah, you guys in the northeast are useless to this conversation.

I'm in the process of buying a house that is a considerable upgrade for my family and what syb put down plus my downpayment would pay for my entire new home.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by The Sybian »

AB_skin_test wrote:Yeah, you guys in the northeast are useless to this conversation.

I'm in the process of buying a house that is a considerable upgrade for my family and what syb put down plus my downpayment would pay for my entire new home.
The other reason is that single living is done in cities in apartments, so there is even less of a point in renting vs. buying.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by sancarlos »

The Sybian wrote:I know it seems like renting is throwing away money, but paying interest on a mortgage is throwing away money as well. It takes several years before your mortgage payments start paying down the principle of the loan, so you really aren't getting much equity out the first 5-10 years of the mortgage.
Your mileage may vary, but when I bought a condo as a single guy I found the interest deduction on my mortgage interest to be a significant benefit on my taxes. Second, without the appreciation in value I got on my condo, I never would have had enough money to pay the down payment on the house I bought a few years later on.
"What a bunch of pedantic pricks." - sybian
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mister d
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by mister d »

But solid appreciation isn't the norm right now.
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sancarlos
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by sancarlos »

mister d wrote:But solid appreciation isn't the norm right now.
Yeah, you have to estimate that one on your own. But, I do believe the economy is improving (at least here where I live), and I'd bet on appreciation wherever the economy is rebounding. And, D, in a location like yours, where monthly rents are steep (and non-deductible), the tax benefit paying your amount in mortgage instead of rent is often significant. A good banker/mortgage broker steered me to a first-time buyer tax benefit that increased its worth further (although I have no idea if that benefit still exists).
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by BSF21 »

Regardless of tax benefits or anything like that, the rent/own arguement is not one that is important. I see it like leasing a car. Even if it isn't the best thing, having something at the end is better than having nothing. I'm paying a lot of money to stay here right now. I get a small renters deduction on my state taxes and nothing else. If I buy a home, even if it would depreciate which I don't believe it would in the areas I am looking, I stand to gain more by having something at the end of all this to my name rather than a nice history of why I've spent 10 grand a year to live somewhere that I'm not improving and have no ties to.

Basically, if I pay a house off in 10 years (which I'd like to) and the house loses, let's say 20%, I've spent 100,000 on an 80,000 property and have gotten to live there for 10 years. If I choose to continue renting, I've spent 100,000 on a place to live for 10 years.

Again, not saying it doesn't work in certain situations, but I'm home here. I have a business here. I'll be a minority partner inside 2 years and a possible outright owner within 10. I'm not going anywhere unless something absolutely extraordinary comes along, which would have to be so outrageous that having a home here that is worth 1/7 of what my business is.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by wlu_lax6 »

Just as a data point.

I am going through the exact same thing that Syb mentioned. F' Pipes. My house's 1960s era pipes have leaked (behind my sink, dish washer). How did we find out. We had a leak from the stupid fridge ice maker/water dispenser that was under the fridge so we did not notice. Caused some problems near the fridge section of the kitchen and basement bathroom (which is below the fridge). So we go to tear out the vinyl floor and replace it..knowing we need to get to the sub floor fixed too. And yup, the whole plywood is wet...so the pipes are leaking...well the floor goes under the cabinets. Don't know if that is wet and moldy....

So conveniently it looks like Mrs. Lax 6 is going to get new cabinets and countertops in addition to some fresh plumbing. Guess the updates/safety improvements to the Little Lax and Little Laxette's tree house will be on hold.

Would have been nice to call the Landlord and say, fix this.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Scottie »

You people. With your indoor plumbing, running water, store-bought booze, refrigerators and microwave ovens. Yes, you! All lost in the supermarkets; hopelessly baffled by the conditioning of a lifetime of television commercials made by idiots trying to sell crap to fuckwits! Look. Really. Hey. Your frozen pre-fab Trader Joe's pizza pie dough is not even made from real Llama milk. Didn't know that, didya? Fucking heathens. Yes, you! You. And your ziplock bags, love seats, vacuum cleaners, hardwood floors, drapes, futons, utensils and "chairs". You just don't get it! None of you! Your carbon footprint resembles Godzilla's imprint of a poetically squashed Japanese rush-hour commuter bus on a once functioning Tokyo thoroughfare. What a tragic waste of drywall and shag you are! Cabinets! Coffee makers! Knock-off Van Gogh prints you bought back in college hanging on a wall in a cheap Ikea frame you got at a flea market fundraiser to send stupid kids to Girl Guide Camp in Nicaragua. You'll never know the beautiful human artistry of taking a dump in the temperate grasslands upon which you will one day cultivate your own barley, hemp and arugula; where the livestock you have husbanded sniffs, considers, and offers a furrowed brow before assuming its standard piss stance, all the while unaware of its destination as inevitable functional delicacy. What? You won't eat Yak's arse? Two-hump Camel nads? I'll tell you something; Anthony Bourdain would! So fuck off. What is wrong with you? And why do you motherfuckers hate French Press coffee? Damn you! Is grinding your own beans some terrifying metaphor? Is that it? Lunatics!

You heartless, yurtless, bastards!
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by elflaco »

buy the house.

as far as all the stuff.. having spent the better part of the past 15 months in africa... i'm now going batty trying to convince the missus to get rid of half of our crap. yep. crap. we don't need even half of what we own in this house. far too many toys, far too much crap. but not my books. those stay. and my futbol jerseys. all else? time to do major spring housecleaning. at least until i get a gig stateside or have to go back to TZ.

carry on.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by Steve of phpBB »

BSF21 wrote:Basically, if I pay a house off in 10 years (which I'd like to) and the house loses, let's say 20%, I've spent 100,000 on an 80,000 property and have gotten to live there for 10 years. If I choose to continue renting, I've spent 100,000 on a place to live for 10 years.
As long as the numbers work out like that, it's a no-brainer. But be sure you are running all the numbers. "Having something at the end" doesn't really matter much if having that something means you have less money at the end.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by DC47 »

An important consideration that is typically ignored in the rent vs. buy discussion is the alternative use of funds.

Very few people would spend more on rent than on down payment plus mortgage payments plus maintenance and repairs over any period of 5 to 10 years. That means the renter has money to invest compared to the buyer.

The best investment is often likely to be one inside a tax shelter -- like an IRA, 401k or 403b. If you're not maxing out your tax-sheltered investment opportunities, this is something to consider in the buy vs. rent analysis. Historically, stocks have appreciated at a rate of several times that of houses. And inside the tax shelter you've got a tax advantage that's typically better (depending on your situation) than the mortgage deduction.
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Re: The I need to buy a house thread

Post by A_B »

DC47 wrote:An important consideration that is typically ignored in the rent vs. buy discussion is the alternative use of funds.

Very few people would spend more on rent than on down payment plus mortgage payments plus maintenance and repairs over any period of 5 to 10 years. That means the renter has money to invest compared to the buyer.

The best investment is often likely to be one inside a tax shelter -- like an IRA, 401k or 403b. If you're not maxing out your tax-sheltered investment opportunities, this is something to consider in the buy vs. rent analysis. Historically, stocks have appreciated at a rate of several times that of houses. And inside the tax shelter you've got a tax advantage that's typically better (depending on your situation) than the mortgage deduction.
With cost of capital as low as it is, non-liquid assets can be as valuable as liquid ones.
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