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Whether or not it's the only thing you can afford has no bearing on whether or not condos are horrible. I listed your other three options: make more money, move, or don't buy at all. A condo does make sense for some buyers, but the price isn't really what decides that. Living in a condo is a certain lifestyle and that lifestyle has its benefits and drawbacks. Condos are a slightly different kind of investment than a traditional single family dwelling (you don't own the land) and condos go hand in hand with SFDs subject to HOA vs. those unencumbered by such organizations as well (e.g., you must account for the drawbacks of these organizations, how they're run and funded, and what sort of uncertainty they add to your long-term budgeting). I'd never buy a condo but I'm not you. In this thread I think the main thing is that we want you to be sure it's really what you want before you buy one. I get the impression you think "renting for your whole life" is your only other option, and also that you hate that option. We'd like you to see that it's not necessarily the case on the first count (see the three options above) and that renting for your whole life isn't such a terrible thing either. e. So let me be more helpful and ask some questions. Why do you want to buy? Why do you want to buy now? Are you sure your income will never rise, or never rise faster than the rising price of housing? Is it unlikely you'd be able to afford something else if you wait ten years? Is moving to another location, where houses are cheaper, impossible for you (perhaps owing to career or relationships)? I'd hate for someone to spend $300k on something they hate, just because they think it's the only reasonable option and someone's convinced them that "renting is just throwing your money away" (a saying we have railed against over and over in this thread because it's a horrible lie). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 00:44 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 00:40
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A lot of advice being given in this thread is just to prevent people from making life-altering (ruinous) mistakes. That's not to say that some of us haven't thrown caution to the wind and come out unscathed. It's possible. Some of us have dodged bullets. Some of us haven't. Most of us have learned from our mistakes though and that "wisdom" is what we intend to pass on. This might be the most unnecessary "advice" in the world, but if you're looking for the hobbit hole that might or might not exist get really familiar with the market in your area. Sites like Redfin, Zillow and Trulia allow you to window shop to your heart's content. There are bargains out there and sometimes you'll find a diamond in the rough. I had a lot of preconceived notions about what I wanted to buy, where I wanted to buy it, my timelines and how much I could afford. Through the process of religiously checking Redfin every single day, visiting open houses and setting up appointments with my real estate agent for 6 months I actually learned that my requirements changed based on what I learned about the housing market in San Diego. I know what it feels like to have your heart set on buying and if you educate yourself, take your time and are willing to be brutally honest with yourself I'm betting you can find a home you'll love at a price you can afford. It's so hard not to be emotional about the process but if you can maintain a practical outlook you should give it a shot. When I compare the house I ended up buying with my original requirements when I started, I ended up spending $65,000 more than my original budget to live in a neighborhood 10 miles further outside of the city than I wanted to live. And not only am I ok with it - I'm ecstatic because through the process of looking for a home I learned what my priorities really are and I ended up purchasing the right house. I'd say start shopping and as long as you're honest with yourself about what you can afford, what's important to you and what you can live without you'll probably be OK. Even if you don't, shopping for houses can be fun. I'll echo the sentiment about the proper order of things though. Buying a house and getting married both complicate each other. It is hard to make marriages work. It is hard to buy a home. I'm not trying to be cynical but 50% of all marriages end in divorces (I've had one) and sometimes they end really quickly and without warning. You don't want to get stuck holding the bag with a mortgage and no spouse/second income to help pay for it. That home the two of you love can quickly turn into a morbid, horrible reminder of a failed marriage and ever mounting, colossally crippling debt. Likewise you may not want to get stuck a home purchase that leaves you underwater that could ruin what would otherwise have been a healthy marriage. Tread lightly.
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Jan 4, 2013 01:06
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We just came off a period where the only thing worse than owning a single family house purchased at the peak of the bubble in 2007 was owning a condo purchased at the same time, so it's no surprise that people will advise you to run away from condos. Just start googling. You'll find thousands of stories about condo fees suddenly going through the roof. Sometimes the fees end up exceeding the monthly mortgage payment. If you don't pay, they'll put a lien on your unit and can even force a sale. As delinquencies went up during the bust, the remaining owners were left holding the bag for common maintenance on the whole complex. Seriously, look around. $275 --> $352/month plus $3600 per unit special assessment. $200 --> $400/month $563 --> $1200/month. 107% increase It's something that just doesn't happen in single family stuff, and it's a good reason to do your research very carefully. If you're stretching your budget at all to buy the condo, it's probably an even worse idea than stretching to buy a house.
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Jan 4, 2013 03:04
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KS posted:We just came off a period where the only thing worse than owning a single family house purchased at the peak of the bubble in 2007 was owning a condo purchased at the same time, so it's no surprise that people will advise you to run away from condos. I personally think condos are fine, but you are definitely making a more involved decision, as you are buying not only your unit, but the common structure, and a share in the COA, all of which you should be comfortable with before buying. e: And most of the condo horror stories can be avoided if you avoid new construction.
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Jan 4, 2013 03:26
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I want to ask but I don't want to word this in such a way as to scare off anybody who wants to, or should, buy a condo. Since I know that's not possible, I'll just blurt it out: Are most condos built with the idea that the people buying them simply can't afford a better place, and thus built to the lowest possible standard? It sure seems like it around here. Almost all the new-build condos and townhouses I see around here are complete crap, often built to be sold into the rental market. There are some very nice exceptions but it seems like they are exceedingly rare. I'd love to live in approximately the location of the apartment we're renting but there just aren't any condos built up to a standard I would accept. I know it's possible to have a really nice place (my parents own one on St Croix and another person we know owns a nice place in Mazatlan) but it sure seems like that's not particularly common. Or is it that they just don't come up on the market much?
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Jan 4, 2013 03:26
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Advent Horizon posted:I want to ask but I don't want to word this in such a way as to scare off anybody who wants to, or should, buy a condo. Since I know that's not possible, I'll just blurt it out:
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Jan 4, 2013 03:31
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Advent Horizon posted:I want to ask but I don't want to word this in such a way as to scare off anybody who wants to, or should, buy a condo. Since I know that's not possible, I'll just blurt it out: I would guess it's very location-dependent. Unless I was a zillionaire who could buy with cash and not really care about eating costs, you couldn't give me enough incentives to buy a long-term place that shared walls, floors, or ceilings with someone else. That poo poo is bad enough when you have the ability to leave at the drop of a hat; ending up with an unbearable neighbor through the wall would be torture.
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Jan 4, 2013 04:31
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Location seems to be part of it. Where density is sufficiently high enough you seem to see better places, like in the downtown areas of cities. The two examples I gave are partially good based on a better level of construction, partially on location (both beachfront), and partially because the association is an asset when you're not around most of the year. Even here, though, I'd actually look at a place with concrete walls. There's no way in hell I'd share a wood wall, there's just too much potential for stuff to come through.
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Jan 4, 2013 04:48
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marauderthirty posted:You must live in a coastal city or something, because your numbers seem outrageous to me. I live in the Midwest, and it's neither a depressed area nor is it rural. We are in Colorado Springs, and while housing is a bit more expensive up in Denver, it's still nowhere near 450k for a "starter house." For reference, the house we just bid on was listed at 136k, 4 bedrooms/2 bath with only a little bit of work needed, and it was in one of the more desirable neighborhoods in town. If we wanted to live in the ghetto, or at least this towns version of it, we could easily get the same size house for under 100. 450k would get you a whole lotta house on an acreage around here. I live in Maui and even here you can get a 2-bedroom starter home for $150k if you're not picky about area (this is for a home within walking distance of the beach, but you'll also get a lot of smoke wafting through your back yard twice a year when the sugar cane field next to your back yard get set on fire). An FHA loan would make this easily within reach of most families (although you'd be paying out the rear end in mortgage insurance) Frankly, a condo is just not a good choice for most people. You'll probably end up paying a lot more for it than if you had just rented a nice apartment, and it's a huge anchor around your neck until you can manage to sell it off.
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Jan 4, 2013 05:28
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I know this whole discussion isn't quite about my question anymore, but this popped out at me:gvibes posted:And most of the condo horror stories can be avoided if you avoid new construction. That's actually a bit heartening. I live in Cambridge, MA and am looking in the same area, and almost everything was built something like 75 years ago. (One of the places I bookmarked today was built in 1920 but has a new furnace, new hot water heater, new hardwood floors, and a new kitchen.) I mean, obviously that's not enough to make up for all the reasons that we should wait, but still--I feel better about potentially buying a condo in the area.
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Jan 4, 2013 05:38
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Nicol Bolas posted:I know this whole discussion isn't quite about my question anymore, but this popped out at me: That's good. I don't know much about Cambridge, but I imagine that the areas you're looking in don't have too many affordable homes anyway. When you're looking at a place in which you are interested, knock on neighbors' doors and ask what they think of the complex, the other neighbors, the HOA, etc. If they say that everything is above board and if the price is right then I don't see any harm in buying a condo, but you'll have to keep in mind that it's still a financial risk
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Jan 4, 2013 06:43
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Leperflesh posted:If the room in your budget for savings right now is $50 a month, you cannot buy a house. Your current apartment costs approximately the principal + interest on a $300k loan ($280k, 3.5%, 30 years is $1257.33/mo), and that doesn't include PMI (likely $200+ a month), hazard insurance (could be anything from $80 to $300+ a month), taxes (2% of property value per year, as a random guess?), maintenance (at least a couple grand a year), utilities (compared to your apartment?), HOA dues/Condo fees (potentially hundreds a month) and a bunch of likely up-front costs (new furniture, appliances, moving costs, etc.). I think you could comfortably budget for $2000 a month for your condo purchase but you should check tax rates and typical insurance rates for your area to be sure. This is a useful breakdown. What does PMI stand for? Something that starts with P Mortgage insurance? And you misread my post; I'm socking away $50 a week, not a month. But you're right, that isn't $2000 a month. And for what it's worth with all the marriage comments--we have already lived together for four and a half years, so it's not like we're buying a condo to move into together. We're also not planning the wedding at all yet. We haven't even set a date and we're not going to for a while, for exactly the reasons you stated; we'd rather try to get this sorted first. We're not trying to do it all at the same time.
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Jan 4, 2013 18:37
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Nicol Bolas posted:And for what it's worth with all the marriage comments--we have already lived together for four and a half years, so it's not like we're buying a condo to move into together. We're also not planning the wedding at all yet. We haven't even set a date and we're not going to for a while, for exactly the reasons you stated; we'd rather try to get this sorted first. We're not trying to do it all at the same time. I think what we're telling you is to reverse this; get married first and then worry about where to live long term. If you do decide to buy it's going to be easier to shop around for a mortgage as a married couple vs. (in the eyes of the bank) 2 single people who want to live together.
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Jan 4, 2013 19:08
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Nicol Bolas posted:This is a useful breakdown. What does PMI stand for? Something that starts with P Mortgage insurance? I understand. My (now) wife and I lived together for 9 years before we got hitched. But: it lowered our tax burden by about $5k a year! gently caress! That's enough to make up a significant portion of the difference in what you're looking to spend on your home payments, if you realize a similar level of savings (but you might not, everything depends on your exact tax circumstances which are obviously beyond the scope of this thread). I don't actually think banks give a poo poo whether you're married or not when qualifying you for a loan, but I do think they give a poo poo about your AGI (adjusted gross income), which takes your larger married-people standard deduction into account. Of course you may have personal reasons for not wanting to get married right now and that's none of my business. But I think the BFC answer is to get your financial house arranged before getting your physical house arranged, and so that's where my advice is coming from. e. PMI is Primary Mortgage Insurance. Your lender will require it if you put less than 20% down on your purchase, and will charge it until you hit 20% equity. If you get an FHA loan, you get a similar thing with a different acronym: MIP, which stands for Mortgage Insurance Premium. FHA requires MIP until you hit 22% equity or have paid it for 5 years, whichever comes last, and it also charges an up-front premium (which you can, but probably shouldn't, roll into the mortgage). \/\/\/Strictly speaking it stands for either/both and they mean the same thing. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jan 4, 2013 |
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Jan 4, 2013 19:38
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Nicol Bolas posted:What does PMI stand for? Private Mortgage Insurance.
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Jan 4, 2013 19:42
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Leperflesh posted:e. So let me be more helpful and ask some questions. -We want to buy because I want to live somewhere that I can: Do more or less what I want with my space, be able to upgrade kitchens and bathrooms and maybe even see some of that value added to the condo, have in-suite laundry. I also loving hate moving and want a place I can feel safe to live in for at least 5-10 years, if not longer. I'd LOVE to live in a townhouse/rowhouse but restrictive zoning here means developers generally only build tiny condos or massive mansions and nothing in between. -We want to buy now-ish because we've almost saved up the 60k or so we'll need to buy a 250,000 place, prices are fairly low, and this year there's hundreds of new condos coming on the market and people are saying condos are really over-saturated here so I'm hoping to see even further price drops. Many units we've kept our eyes on have gone off the market and come back on 20k cheaper, this keeps happening. Also my wife hates living in a basement suite of a house and if it wasn't for her I'd probably stay in this hobbit hole saving up until I could buy a condo in cash. -I'm pretty sure my income will never rise much beyond $15 an hour, I have extremely limited career options and am terrible at "job hunting" or anything career related. I also work in an extremely niche industry using programs and skills that are pretty much specific just to my office so my skills aren't that transferable to other cities. At best I take over the business my self one day when my boss retires, but I totally lack the skills for this. I'm mostly secure in my employment but if my job were to suddenly vanish I don't know what I'd do and that's terrifying. Her career options though are pretty good, if it wasn't for her last job's office shutting down she was pulling about $25 plus union benefits, but now she's a poor like me making $15. But even so, houses are such a huge step up in price from a condo that unless we both became doctors or something it's just not something the working-class are permitted to have here, it's only for middle and upper and they aggressively enforce those class based exclusions via zoning and powerful community associations. There aren't HOA's here as they don't need them, city hall already is the HOA serving the wealthy. Moving to another location is pretty much impossible. My wife works insurance which can get you a job anywhere but the only places we'd be willing to move to are MORE expensive than where we live now. We're very spoiled where we live, and outside of an impossible move to europe I don't think I could stand to live anywhere else. Even just going more than 2-3km from the city centre gets "how can anyone live like this?!" reactions from both of us.
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Jan 4, 2013 22:35
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Krailor posted:If you do decide to buy it's going to be easier to shop around for a mortgage as a married couple vs. (in the eyes of the bank) 2 single people who want to live together.
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Jan 4, 2013 22:49
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moana posted:Is it really? I bought a house with my boyfriend and it wasn't hard at all to find a lender, although we both had good credit. If both of your names are on the mortgage, I don't see how it matters at all. It doesn't. If the lender is giving any number of people trouble about getting a mortgage, it's because one or more of those people are coming up short in their eyes to qualify. Any hardship past that point is based on how the payments are made on a monthly basis. If you can't pay because your BFF is a moocher, or because you broke up with your boyfriend, or your spouse finally asked for the divorce since they started banging the milkman...it's all the same scenario in the eyes of a lender. All the more reason to make sure that you have a huge financial cushion, a decent amount of flexibility, and a glut of research/time on your side, otherwise DO NEVER BUY.
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Jan 5, 2013 02:46
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Bloody hell, the mortgage broker apparently thinks we're closing 3 days earlier than planned. This wouldn't be a problem for us but the sellers won't be out of the house by then and, more importantly, nobody was informed of this change until USAA casually mentioned it on our answering machine this afternoon while looking for verification to start the insurance policy. It's in writing, people, the 14th! Not the 11th! They decided to send our Realtor on a hunt to see if the sellers could change and their answer was no. Thanks for assuming you had the dates right without looking at the paperwork! What this process is doing is merely making me think we need to get this whole banking crisis to finish with a general flushing. Advent Horizon fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Jan 5, 2013 |
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Jan 5, 2013 03:36
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moana posted:Is it really? I bought a house with my boyfriend and it wasn't hard at all to find a lender, although we both had good credit. If both of your names are on the mortgage, I don't see how it matters at all. Doesn't really make a difference to us if you're married or not, only thing that really changes is you have separate applications and credit reports instead of joint docs. There might be some restrictions on USDA and VA loans due to their quirks regarding borrower eligibility, but conventional and FHA it shouldn't matter.
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Jan 5, 2013 06:19
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Thanks for this thread. After thinking about it for a year, the wife and I got a real estate agent last weekend, got preapproved yesterday (We won't find out for how much until Monday) and we're looking at two houses today. Property taxes in New Hampshire are friggan outrageous though.
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Jan 5, 2013 14:19
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Nicol Bolas posted:That's actually a bit heartening. I live in Cambridge, MA and am looking in the same area, and almost everything was built something like 75 years ago. (One of the places I bookmarked today was built in 1920 but has a new furnace, new hot water heater, new hardwood floors, and a new kitchen.) In the Boston area, there just aren't really any SFHs until you get out in the suburbs. Even Vicki Kennedy lives in a condo.
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Jan 5, 2013 17:35
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The other thing to think about before buying a condo (or house for that matter) is how you're going to feel about living there long term. I know it is obvious, but you're going to own the thing for a while and you may not feel as awesome about city living at 30, 35, 40 as you did at 25. At least I know that is true for me, after college I wouldn't be caught dead in a small town and now I own a house out outside a small town. It is so quiet here! Also, does anyone have any recommendations for deal with a neighbor dumping water on your property? They literally have a drain line run straight to the fence from some kind of pump that runs intermittently. Who knows what they're doing. The previous owner sent a registered letter asking them to move the drain line and desist dumping onto the property. What next? Lawyers? Sheriff?
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Jan 5, 2013 17:50
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FunOne posted:What next? Lawyers? Sheriff? Try talking to them in person first, then talk to a lawyer that specializes in property issues.
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Jan 5, 2013 18:56
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Apparently my refinance mortgage was never recorded (it's been like 3.5 months). Free and clear, baby!
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Jan 5, 2013 19:33
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My wife and I looked at a Condo today in Southern NH for $115k, and we really like it, but the condo fees are $300 and the property taxes are $4600 (normal for the area). Are we crazy to consider this?
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Jan 5, 2013 19:49
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Trying to find a good place to ask this, I am in search of a storefront with residential/living space like a combo use property. I've seen ones with apartments on top but I cannot figure what name to use to get them to come up in searches. I have tried mixed use but cannot find anything.
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Jan 5, 2013 19:49
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When we got insurance quotes we were given the option of earthquake coverage, which would nearly double our rates. After asking every person I know around here who owns, not a single one of the has earthquake coverage because 'we just don't get earthquakes very often'. We decided to pay the extra anyway, and let insurance know Thursday. Last night we had a 7.5. At least that's one decision I can feel good about.
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Jan 5, 2013 20:06
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Pillowpants posted:My wife and I looked at a Condo today in Southern NH for $115k, and we really like it, but the condo fees are $300 and the property taxes are $4600 (normal for the area). Are we crazy to consider this? You just started looking right? It's very tempting to jump at the first place you look at. Without knowing much about your situation, I'd say wait and look at a few more places to be better able to compare this condo to other similar ones. Do some homework on the neighbourhood if you're not familiar with it. Ask to see the buildings financial information. Your condo fees could suddenly skyrocket if the HOA doesn't have a contingency fund and something big comes up. Buying a place is a big decision, be patient and do all the research you can.
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Jan 5, 2013 20:46
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Rockzilla posted:You just started looking right? It's very tempting to jump at the first place you look at. Without knowing much about your situation, I'd say wait and look at a few more places to be better able to compare this condo to other similar ones. Do some homework on the neighbourhood if you're not familiar with it. Ask to see the buildings financial information. Your condo fees could suddenly skyrocket if the HOA doesn't have a contingency fund and something big comes up. Buying a place is a big decision, be patient and do all the research you can. This was the third house we saw. We've been looking online for months. Thank you for this advice too, I'll be sure to ask my realtor about the financial info
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Jan 5, 2013 22:15
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DO NEVER BUY We just got off the phone with USAA, they managed to get every part of our policy order wrong, starting with the quote, so our insurance is really going to cost $200/yr more than they quoted. I honestly feel like they pulled a bait-and-switch with us, since they're saying our earlier quote was on a lower square footage when we confirmed the number multiple times. Same with with the coverage, deck size, effective date and on and on.
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Jan 5, 2013 22:20
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So gently caress them. There's plenty of insurers in the sea. And to answer your earlier question/point, yeah, people seem to be idiots about earthquake insurance. I live in California and when I talk to other people and mention I have earthquake coverage, they often kind of cock their heads and look a little lost for a minute and say things like "really? Is that really worth it? I heard it's really expensive" and stuff like that. A basic catastrophic-only (e.g., high deductible) policy is not that expensive. What's annoying to me is that after the next Big One, thousands of uncovered homeowners are going to be expecting the government to bail them out. I'm sure people in New Jersey who didn't have flood coverage are finding out right now why that's not such a great plan. Pillowpants posted:This was the third house we saw. We've been looking online for months. Thank you for this advice too, I'll be sure to ask my realtor about the financial info For comparison, my wife and I looked (as in, went to physically and went inside and stuff) at houses for 6 months before we made our first offer. We were shopping foreclosures, so that does make a difference, but nobody should rush into a hundred thousand dollar plus purchase over a weekend. There's plenty of properties and more coming up for sale every day: I think you need to see a dozen before you are likely to start really noticing the more subtle flaws and also noticing features that you like (but never knew you might like or even existed).
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Jan 5, 2013 23:05
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I'm not an HO insurance expert at all but this is how my insurance agent described earthquake insurance to me and how he ultimately convinced me not to bother. He said my house has $250,000 coverage limit for damage from earthquakes (this is just a part of the Chubb Masterpiece policy - not with extra earthquake insurance added). My home is valued at around $650k so obviously I panicked a little. The house is not a huge building - just under 2200 sf. Approximately half of the value is in the land and half is in the building structure. By his logic, even if the home were completely destroyed (which tends to not actually happen much in earthquakes unless you are very close to a fault) I could build a pretty drat nice dwelling for $250k. I would say a lot depends on how close to a fault you actually are - but he did make a good point. Even if your house is completely destroyed, do you think the land value would be completely lost too? For that reason, earthquake insurance may not really be necessary for a lot of us. Interestingly enough, where I live Chubb was the only insurance carrier who would cover me becuse we are in a high risk fire zone. Chubb has their own fleet of firetrucks and supposedly they zip around burning neighborhoods putting out their own house fires first. So I got that going for me.
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Jan 6, 2013 00:09
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How much does having a renter affect the back of the envelope calculations? My wife and I are in Seattle, strongly considering a house that is on the market for 550K (and will probably accept an offer for less, the owner is in Ohio and it's an estate sale). We make, roughly, 150K/year and have <10K in student loan debt. No other debt and a healthy retirement account. Normally I would say the house might be a bit of a stretch financially, but I tend to play things conservatively. I'm super frugal. Anyhow, the house basically has a separate living area that's probably around 800-1000 sq feet, which we could easily get $1000/mo for (we have a friend who wants to rent it). Does the rough financial sketch make any sense?
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Jan 6, 2013 01:33
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Pfhreak posted:How much does having a renter affect the back of the envelope calculations? In my mind, it wouldn't enter the picture at all. I'd just treat any money I got from renting as a bonus.
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Jan 6, 2013 01:53
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How much money do you have to put down? With a 20% down payment, you'd have a mortgage of just under 3x annual salary, which given your lack of any other debts, I'd feel OK with, if you feel like your income will be stable. Are you planning on having kids any time soon?
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Jan 6, 2013 02:13
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Leperflesh posted:And to answer your earlier question/point, yeah, people seem to be idiots about earthquake insurance. I live in California and when I talk to other people and mention I have earthquake coverage, they often kind of cock their heads and look a little lost for a minute and say things like "really? Is that really worth it? I heard it's really expensive" and stuff like that. The lady in the cube next to me gave a partial explanation of "if it's that bad the government tends to throw in some money..." gently caress that noise. I'm not counting on that terrible idea, and it pisses me off that people expect the gov't to toss in for their stupid life choices. That's not what government is for, dammit! Emergency shelters and national guard help and food, sure, but there's a reason insurance exists and if you opt-out that's your problem. Pfhreak posted:How much does having a renter affect the back of the envelope calculations? IF there is a good rental history the bank can use something like 75% of the income towards your qualification. Remember that you need to take taxes into consideration so that money isn't free. You also run into all sorts of fun little things like higher garbage collection costs, possible higher water/sewer rates (in our town you're unlimited for about $20/mo unless you have more that one living space, in which case you're metered), etc, etc. Not to mention we've decided to take out a larger insurance policy for liability because I don't need a renter falling down in the driveway (my responsibility to clear) and bankrupting us. We're in the same boat, we bought a house that we can pay without the renter but it's more than we'd prefer. Our unit has a solid rental history (and supposedly the current tenant is awesome) but we still get worried about what it's going to be like sharing 'our' house with somebody else. At least he's in a different building in our case...
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Jan 6, 2013 02:22
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We're looking at homes now, and the kind of home we like is going to end up being in the suburbs and move my commute from about 20 minutes to an hour. To keep the same commute, we would have to look at older homes, and they just seem so outdated whereas we prefer modern. Everything about the houses farther away are great except the commutes... Should that be a deal breaker? How bad do you guys have it commute-wise, and is it worth it driving longer to get everything else we want in a home? What is an average commute time for people in larger cities?
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Jan 6, 2013 06:52
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Advent Horizon posted:IF there is a good rental history the bank can use something like 75% of the income towards your qualification. Remember that you need to take taxes into consideration so that money isn't free. You also run into all sorts of fun little things like higher garbage collection costs, possible higher water/sewer rates (in our town you're unlimited for about $20/mo unless you have more that one living space, in which case you're metered), etc, etc. Not to mention we've decided to take out a larger insurance policy for liability because I don't need a renter falling down in the driveway (my responsibility to clear) and bankrupting us. Yeah, we're weirdos from the NW, and are totally into the idea of a large communal kitchen/dining/rec areas with smaller personal spaces. So we've got friends of ours we've known forever who are interested. Like a microcommune (or, more correctly, cohousing). It's not a mother in law apartment, because it shares the same kitchen and living room. We really haven't seen a house like this around before. I don't think it's ever been rented out, since the house itself only had a few years of occupancy before the owner passed away. Good call on the liability/utilities though. And taxes. I didn't think about all that stuff.
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Jan 6, 2013 08:16
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| # ? May 17, 2024 12:06 |
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three posted:We're looking at homes now, and the kind of home we like is going to end up being in the suburbs and move my commute from about 20 minutes to an hour. To keep the same commute, we would have to look at older homes, and they just seem so outdated whereas we prefer modern. Everything about the houses farther away are great except the commutes... A lot of this is going to come down to personal preference, of course, but I think the other part of the equation is what kind of commute it is. Is this a public transportation commute or a driving commute? I hated my long commute by the end of my stay in Chicago, and I was relatively okay with an hour when I was on buses and subways and could fill that hour with something mildly useful like reading or studying or a video game each way. If I had to drive for two hours a day in that traffic I would have gone insane. Which leads to another question of what the situation is like for the transport. If it's public transportation, is it reliable? Is it packed? If you're driving, is it light traffic and back roads? Is it heavy traffic that you'll have to start shifting your working hours to avoid, LA-style? My current commute is 35 minutes of driving but it's all country roads and one lightly-traveled interstate so I'm almost never going below 65. I can handle that, and even then I tend to work at home one day a week. My suggestion to you would be to maybe find a friend, or even get a hotel, for a week in the area you're thinking about moving to, and doing the commute that way. See if you think you can handle it and be honest with yourself. Eventually you may have no choice if you're really looking for house-style living, and millions of people have an hour train ride into big cities every day, but it's something that was really disheartening for me personally to deal with, those "lost" 2 hours every day. Especially since my job already had me working long hours. Sophia fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jan 6, 2013 |
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Jan 6, 2013 15:36
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