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Dik Hz
Feb 22, 2004

Fun with Science

Rabid Anti-Dentite! posted:

I'm in a situation and I need some input on what do.
Backstory.
Bought a house in June 2011 for 90,000 currently owe less than 84,000 with FHA loan (PMI 3.5 down) payment is 644 a month.
A no cost living option was offered to me, and I am currently thinking about moving in the near future with work.
Put my house up for sale last week (Monday 7-15) for 125,000 based on comps in the neighborhood. Was offered 115,000 Cash today, buyer sent proof of funds. So we stand to profit 23,000 dollars in two years of living here with no extra money put into the home during our occupancy. My realtor said that cash speaks and her as well as my parents all said your first offer is typically going to be your best one you get.
Basically I am asking if I should sell the house and pocket 23,000 or wait and try to make a few more thousand. We are 23 years old with no debt other than this house, all furniture that we have would be sold so we would not have to pay for storage.
Summary.
Sell house for 115,000 CASH make 23,000 profit, wait for higher offer, maybe make less. No Debt, free living situation provided.
Come back at $120,000. Could be the easiest $5k you ever made in your life. The worst a rational counterparty can do is tell you they won't go any higher.

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Happy Thread
Jul 10, 2005

by Fluffdaddy
Plaster Town Cop
Hey folks, trying to help someone with their negotiation. How do I find the most reliable, official record possible of how much a house just sold for? This is Los Angeles. The house in question just went through a sketchy short sale, and several wildly conflicting figures on its sale price exist online that are confusing the potential buyer.

Rekinom
Jan 26, 2006

~ shady midair gas hustler ~

~ good hair ~

~ colt 45 ~

ripped0ff posted:

Why don't you just have her transfer the property and loan into your name? Then you get the tax benefits (both for the house and claiming her as a dependent) and the place becomes a legitimate investment.

I can't claim her as a dependent; she still works full time and I don't pay for > 50% of her support needs, even with the mortgage. After all, she's still relatively young, but I don't want her to have to work full time at all past 60 if I can help it. Getting the mortgage paid off before then would go a long way towards doing that, and at that point, I could claim her as a dependent, because I would be covering most of her living costs.

Zhentar posted:

I'm not an accountant, but I strongly suspect that gifting your mother $140k and then having her gift you a house is an absolutely terrible idea tax wise.
I'm not writing her a check for $140k, damnit, I'm giving her like 30k and an additional 500 a month. She still pays the mortgage every month in full.

From what I can tell, gifting real estate to ones child via a quitclaim deed can fall under a lifetime exemption of 5 million. I'm still researching it, though.

Rekinom fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jul 30, 2013

Sleepstupid
Feb 23, 2009
Does anyone have any experience with home warranties? We're getting ready to close on a new place that needs a few things done and several people have mentioned looking into one of these. My first thought was that these would be super strict about "pre-existing" conditions, but I've heard a few anecdotes, plus read a few warranty web sites that say no inspection is required. If that's the case, what's stopping me from getting a warranty and then making a bunch of claims to fix the things that need to be done?

Walked
Apr 14, 2003

Holy poo poo I am so frustrated with a seller right now. I put in a very strong offer on the financing side, with minimal contingencies, well above average EMD, and an as-is clause. Just about 4.5% below asking.

I got word that his wife was insistent they take my offer, yet he just countered with literally .5% below asking price. This is in a neighborhood with very slow turnaround and headed into fall.

I'm just going to withdraw my offer and resubmit it in a week or two only offer a bit less this time.

Just venting.

Dogen
May 5, 2002

Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Sleepstupid posted:

Does anyone have any experience with home warranties? We're getting ready to close on a new place that needs a few things done and several people have mentioned looking into one of these. My first thought was that these would be super strict about "pre-existing" conditions, but I've heard a few anecdotes, plus read a few warranty web sites that say no inspection is required. If that's the case, what's stopping me from getting a warranty and then making a bunch of claims to fix the things that need to be done?

Generally they are meant to cover poo poo like HVAC, interior plumbing, major appliances. If the house and all those things are likely new, then don't jack with it. If by 'new' you mean 'new to you', then consider the age of all those things and how likely you think there is to be a problem in the next 12 months. Our agent recommends it to everyone, and I guess I'm glad we got it but it's going to run out in another couple months and we haven't made a claim and I don't think we'll renew. Basically it's good peace of mind if you buy a house with an old A/C and it takes a poo poo after you move in.

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams
The fact that Sully sells them on TV makes me learly of the whole process. Wouldn't it just make sense to put premiums in a savings account and use those for repairs, long term? There aren't going to be tons of people with brand new houses that won't need work for years getting warranties (are there?). So the only way the company makes money is if you pay them more than they pay for repairs. I'd rather just pay for repairs and cut out the middleman, right? Or am I missing something?

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

FISHMANPET posted:

So the only way the company makes money is if you pay them more than they pay for repairs. I'd rather just pay for repairs and cut out the middleman, right? Or am I missing something?

This is how literally all for-profit insurance works, so it's not much of a criticism. Your auto insurer is doing the same thing. Insurance is about paying money for risk mitigation; you offload some risk on an insurer, and in exchange you pay a fee.

The main things to consider are: is the company reputable (does it pay out claims reasonably), and are the premiums worth it to you for the potential coverage of very expensive stuff breaking. It's hard to answer that second part because it's going to be dependent on the actual house you bought, your personal financial situation, and how inclined you are to "self-insure" and accept the entire risk yourself.

Sleepstupid
Feb 23, 2009

Dogen posted:

Generally they are meant to cover poo poo like HVAC, interior plumbing, major appliances. If the house and all those things are likely new, then don't jack with it. If by 'new' you mean 'new to you', then consider the age of all those things and how likely you think there is to be a problem in the next 12 months. Our agent recommends it to everyone, and I guess I'm glad we got it but it's going to run out in another couple months and we haven't made a claim and I don't think we'll renew. Basically it's good peace of mind if you buy a house with an old A/C and it takes a poo poo after you move in.

Yeah the house was built in 1995 and all the mechanicals except the Hot Water Heater are original. The inspector noticed that the furnace was "short cycling" and from my limited googleing seems to indicate that either it just needs to be cleaned or else there is something else more seriously wrong. I'm just trying to figure out why I shouldn't just get a warranty and make a claim on the furnace right away :shrug:

FISHMANPET
Mar 3, 2007

Sweet 'N Sour
Can't
Melt
Steel Beams

Leperflesh posted:

This is how literally all for-profit insurance works, so it's not much of a criticism. Your auto insurer is doing the same thing. Insurance is about paying money for risk mitigation; you offload some risk on an insurer, and in exchange you pay a fee.

The main things to consider are: is the company reputable (does it pay out claims reasonably), and are the premiums worth it to you for the potential coverage of very expensive stuff breaking. It's hard to answer that second part because it's going to be dependent on the actual house you bought, your personal financial situation, and how inclined you are to "self-insure" and accept the entire risk yourself.

Yeah but I can go my entire driving life without having accident, thus I'm making tons of money for my company. Since this is insuring wear and tear eventually everybody is going to make a claim. There just aren't that many people that will pay premiums but not make claims. Unless home builders are propping up the market by paying for warranties on new homes that won't need any work within the terms of the warranty, thus subsidizing people with actual problems.

Leperflesh
May 17, 2007

It's not really insuring "wear and tear". You can get an A/C unit repaired or replaced, but you're not going to get them to pay for repainting the walls because they've gotten a bit chipped and dingy, or to re-tile the bathroom because the grout is cracked. Exactly what they cover is fairly restricted and carefully laid out in the contract.

FCKGW
May 21, 2006

We got a home warranty with our home but it was paid by the seller. It was just a condition of the contract and cost the seller around $500 if I recall for the first year. Our agent seemed to imply it was standard procedure for homes in our area.

We ended up using it 4 times in the first 60 days for plumbing issues noted on the inspection and water heater issues that were missed. We ended up paying a $30 deductible for each call but it was worth it.

Leperflesh posted:

It's not really insuring "wear and tear". You can get an A/C unit repaired or replaced, but you're not going to get them to pay for repainting the walls because they've gotten a bit chipped and dingy, or to re-tile the bathroom because the grout is cracked. Exactly what they cover is fairly restricted and carefully laid out in the contract.

The plumber did note that if he had to tear out drywall to fix our plumbing issue (thankfully he didn't) that repairing the drywall would not be covered by the warranty. It covered the pipes and not any pesky walls that were preventing access to them.

Economic Sinkhole
Mar 14, 2002
Pillbug
We just got our appraisal back on the house we're buying and it came in right at the sale price. So hooray! But I found some pretty big errors on it, potentially in our favor. The appraiser didn't seem to notice the air conditioner and knocked $2K off because it doesn't have one (it does). He also didn't count the lowest level (tri-level house) as livable square footage since it's below grade. Only it isn't below grade in any sense. You can walk right out the sliding glass door and into the flat back yard. He docked us like $11k for that since there's a half bath down there too.

What a joke this process is. If he had got these things right, I bet a dollar that the house still would have come back right at the sale price, but now I'm trying to get those errors fixed and the value added on top of the original appraisal.

Thufir
May 19, 2004

"The fucking Mayans were right."
Apparently walkout basements are considered below grade http://appraisersforum.com/showthread.php?t=155319

Zhentar
Sep 28, 2003

Brilliant Master Genius

Economic Sinkhole posted:

He also didn't count the lowest level (tri-level house) as livable square footage since it's below grade. Only it isn't below grade in any sense. You can walk right out the sliding glass door and into the flat back yard. He docked us like $11k for that since there's a half bath down there too.

Having looked into this very recently (the frickin main entrance to the home we're buying is technically below grade), the fact that any portion of the rooms are below grade automatically makes them not count as habitable space. The appraiser can, with justification, value the home's below grade space higher than the comparables' below grade space, but they cannot value it as highly as above-grade space.


My appraisal came in $12K below the sale price though, so I can agree with the general sentiment not appreciating the process.

Economic Sinkhole
Mar 14, 2002
Pillbug
That's just it though, the lot is flat and level where the house is sited, with the only slope being the driveway, which slopes down away from the house. You enter the house by walking up 7 steps to the front door, then to get down stairs to the "basement", you go down 7 steps. Further, the deck off the main level in back of the house has 7 steps down from it to the patio, where the sliding door to the "basement" is.

I just went through the pictures I took during the inspection and first course of siding is continuous all the way around the house. I looked closely at the amount of cement foundation visible and if there is any difference from one corner to the other, it is a matter of inches.

Edit: I talked this all over with our mortgage lady and it doesn't really matter. The LTV is calculated not from the appraised value but from the sale price. Even if we wanted to dispute the report, the underwriter may just refuse to file the dispute since the appraised value came back "high enough". So I guess we'll do nothing. I'm just annoyed that we paid $450 for this report and the guy didn't even note that the house has an air conditioner.

Economic Sinkhole fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Aug 6, 2013

Slappy Pappy
Oct 15, 2003

Mighty, mighty eagle soaring free
Defender of our homes and liberty
Bravery, humility, and honesty...
Mighty, mighty eagle, rescue me!
Dinosaur Gum
I'm on my 2nd year of a BPG (Buyer's Protection Group) homeowner's warranty. First year was paid for by the seller. I bought the second year for $450. My deductible is $60 per visit. House was built in 1995 and has some premium appliances. So far I've had the following replaced:
-Garage Door Opener (approximately $175 plus installation)
-Thermostat (approximately $60 plus installation)
-HVAC Control Board (approximately $200 plus installation - this guy had to come back 4 times and tried multiple different things. They tried some Chinese knockoff and of course it didn't work)

Plus we're getting ready to call in what I think is a faulty board in our gas stove. When the back left eye is on, the ignition for one of the other eyes keeps firing.

If you included the installation fees I probably would have racked up around $7-800 worth of fees so far and I'm guessing another $2-300 on the stove. Including deductibles and premium they've gotten around $1130 from me and the seller. Seems like it's probably a wash until I have to replace the water heater or anything bigger. My wife likes it for piece of mind but honestly I could take it or leave it. I've got nothing bad to say about BPG. The answer is probably to get it for the first year or two when things will almost definitely break and then discontinue it. And if you're not the type to call in warranty repairs, don't do it.

cheese eats mouse
Jul 6, 2007

A real Portlander now
Would you guys recommend buying for me in 5 years? I'm 25 and right now I split a 1br slummy rental house for $575 a month with my boyfriend and we're pretty serious, but I'm not adding his income into my calculations when looking. I like my job, although I could get paid more and will most likely look for something else in the next year and my city is great. I make $35,000 a year and was looking at 60k mortgages. I have $3500 of credit card debt and $30,000 student loan debt and a $850 loan. I keep around 1k in savings for any car stuff/emergencies that pop up. Yes I'd start saving for the 12k down payment + emergencies. I should save more for emergencies anyway. I'm going to get out of credit debt next summer and that loan will be paid off by the end of the year.

I've looked at rental houses and everything better than ours is in the 750-1k ranges + any pet rent that's usually around $75/month for 3 dogs versus an estimated ~$250 monthly payment for a 60k mortgage and adding utilities for the winter + water for 2 people comes to $550-600 a month. Our market didn't get hit very hard by the housing crash either.

I really haven't done much other than play with numbers and some day dreaming so feel free to smack me back into reality. I'd probably be in a better position if I made more and had a lower debt to income ratio I bet. Part of me doesn't want to buy into a house until later in life after my student loans are gone the other part is sick of lovely landlords that don't fix anything and try to nickel and dime you and just looking for rental houses is the biggest pain in the rear end. I'm so sick of moving.

DwemerCog
Nov 27, 2012
Why not aim to buy in 5 years? Work on saving and it may happen. That's a long time away. Also you'll probably need a bigger downpayment by then unless there is another housing crash.

Remember that you need a lot of spare cash to deal with the crap that comes with owning a house, from the fact that buying is more expensive than just putting down a downpayment, to the fact that if the boiler conks out it is you that has to come up with several thousand to fix it, not your weaselly landlord.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

DwemerCog posted:

Why not aim to buy in 5 years? Work on saving and it may happen. That's a long time away. Also you'll probably need a bigger downpayment by then unless there is another housing crash.

Remember that you need a lot of spare cash to deal with the crap that comes with owning a house, from the fact that buying is more expensive than just putting down a downpayment, to the fact that if the boiler conks out it is you that has to come up with several thousand to fix it, not your weaselly landlord.

That's a good plan - just start saving now and see where you are in 5 years.

Someone in this thread really put the rent vs. buy in perspective for me by pointing out that when you rent, that is the MAXIMUM amount you will pay for housing costs each month, whereas when you buy a house, your mortgage payment is the MINIMUM that you will pay for housing costs each month. So, a $700 a month mortgage isn't really comparable to a $700 a month rental house. Needing a new washer/dryer, a new heater, a new air conditioning unit, a replacement window etc will INSTANTLY negate the "savings" you got from buying. Plus, you'll have to have homeowner's insurance, property tax, and all sorts of other payments that are already built into the cost when you rent. Just something to think about before you buy!

tiananman
Feb 6, 2005
Non-Headkins Splatoma

razz posted:

That's a good plan - just start saving now and see where you are in 5 years.

Someone in this thread really put the rent vs. buy in perspective for me by pointing out that when you rent, that is the MAXIMUM amount you will pay for housing costs each month, whereas when you buy a house, your mortgage payment is the MINIMUM that you will pay for housing costs each month. So, a $700 a month mortgage isn't really comparable to a $700 a month rental house. Needing a new washer/dryer, a new heater, a new air conditioning unit, a replacement window etc will INSTANTLY negate the "savings" you got from buying. Plus, you'll have to have homeowner's insurance, property tax, and all sorts of other payments that are already built into the cost when you rent. Just something to think about before you buy!

Yeah our mortgage is a bit over $800 a month - and just about half of our previous rental ($1600) - but this month we're replacing the roof... ($5k+), last month we bought a riding lawn mower ($1800: we have 3 acres to mow), a chainsaw: $400, a weedwacker: $200...

And next month we have to replace a wall and do radon mitigation at about $2k apiece.

We knew what we were getting into, but all of that money we're "saving" on monthly payments (and then some) is going towards the house.

And we're just getting started... We still have to paint everything, re-carpet half the house, re-finish one wood floor, re-line one chimney, replace our deck in a year, re-finish and/or replace our cedar siding, etc. etc. until we die. That doesn't even cover one of the dozen important appliances that could go at any time...

And this place isn't even a fixer-upper. It's a 30 year old ranch (DELUXE) with decent construction and no major issues.

Why do it? Well, we love the house, the location, the property, the school district and pretty much everything is perfect except for mosquitoes in the summer and bitter cold during Vermont's winters.

But we have so much savings just sitting there that we can't touch for current, future and un-planned for repairs.

cheese eats mouse
Jul 6, 2007

A real Portlander now
Yea I'm dreaming of all the upsides and not looking at the downsides. I'd love for room for a chest freezer, hardwood floors, biggish back yard and a kitchen with some counter space. I don't know what it is but rentals here that allow dogs are usually carpeted. Is hardwood/fake hardwood really that hard to maintain?

We have to supply our washer and dryer, but I just go to the laundromat, and if I had not made a deal with the landlord we would have had to supply our own fridge and stove. We have to mow the grass, but there's no storage for a mower and stuff will get stolen out of your backyard in this area so I have to pay some cash for that as well since I don't have a truck to tote around a mower. My boyfriend wants us to live cheap and save for a house instead of renting a better place. I'll just start saving more since I need to do that anyway.

razz
Dec 26, 2005

Queen of Maceration

cheese eats mouse posted:

Yea I'm dreaming of all the upsides and not looking at the downsides. I'd love for room for a chest freezer, hardwood floors, biggish back yard and a kitchen with some counter space. I don't know what it is but rentals here that allow dogs are usually carpeted. Is hardwood/fake hardwood really that hard to maintain?

It's much, much cheaper to buy a house worth of the cheapest lovely carpet at the discount carpet store than it is to fix or replace a damaged hardwood floor. Once a hardwood floor gets scratched (by furniture, or kids, or dog claws or whatever) it's a big time/money sink to fix it. And why even bother to fix it when a new tenant with dogs/kids/new furniture is just going to scratch it up in a year anyway? So I can see a rental agency wanting carpet in their units if they are going to allow pets - they know they'll have to replace it and it's cheap to do.

uwaeve
Oct 21, 2010



focus this time so i don't have to keep telling you idiots what happened
Lipstick Apathy

Sleepstupid posted:

Does anyone have any experience with home warranties? We're getting ready to close on a new place that needs a few things done and several people have mentioned looking into one of these. My first thought was that these would be super strict about "pre-existing" conditions, but I've heard a few anecdotes, plus read a few warranty web sites that say no inspection is required. If that's the case, what's stopping me from getting a warranty and then making a bunch of claims to fix the things that need to be done?

Another thing to look very carefully at is the actual limits they will pay out. Not like it won't help to have some money when something goes wrong but looking at the one that came with our house, if something big like the furnace went the payout wouldn't come close to the cost of a good, efficient unit I believe.

_areaman
Oct 28, 2009

Here is a positive post to counter some of the negativity in the OP. Bought my condo 6 months ago, I'm 24, and rent out the second bedroom to my friend at market rate. 3.85% mortgage. It was the best possible time to buy, the first floor just sold for $25k more than I paid and their unit is smaller than mine, in much worse shape, and without any balconies or parking spots. I live in a trendy neighborhood of Boston.

I always wanted to be a homeowner and I will never move out of Boston. If you want to buy, just do it, don't listen to all the negativity.

skipdogg
Nov 29, 2004
Resident SRT-4 Expert

Boston doesn't count. Boston, CA Bay Area, NYC, DC Metro, Seattle, or any other extremely desirable area with an abundance of high paying jobs are all exceptions to the rule.

Robo-Pope
Feb 28, 2007

It has big taste.

cheese eats mouse posted:

Is hardwood/fake hardwood really that hard to maintain?

Dogs scratch the gently caress out of hardwood floors. They'd have to refinish/replace them every tenant.

ObsidianBeast
Jan 17, 2008

SKA SUCKS

_areaman posted:

Here is a positive post to counter some of the negativity in the OP. Bought my condo 6 months ago, I'm 24, and rent out the second bedroom to my friend at market rate. 3.85% mortgage. It was the best possible time to buy, the first floor just sold for $25k more than I paid and their unit is smaller than mine, in much worse shape, and without any balconies or parking spots. I live in a trendy neighborhood of Boston.

I always wanted to be a homeowner and I will never move out of Boston. If you want to buy, just do it, don't listen to all the negativity.

I'm glad you're happy, and that's great that you're enjoying the condo, but telling others "Buying a condo is awesome, the negativity is unwarranted!" after 6 months is a little premature. Also, saying "I'll never move out of Boston" when you're 24 might be pushing it.

_areaman
Oct 28, 2009

ObsidianBeast posted:

I'm glad you're happy, and that's great that you're enjoying the condo, but telling others "Buying a condo is awesome, the negativity is unwarranted!" after 6 months is a little premature. Also, saying "I'll never move out of Boston" when you're 24 might be pushing it.

There is so much fear and doubt pushed about buying a house, that the only logical conclusion you can come to is to never, ever buy unless you are over 30, in some sort of non-existent job where you can never be fired, and are 100% positive that nothing bad will ever happen. "Oh, I might move! Oh, I might lose my job!" Big loving deal, sell the place and then become a renter like you were before, or don't sell and rent it out. If you have your poo poo together enough to buy a house, you can figure any situation out when the time comes.

Also, no I won't move, I am like many people who grow up and remain in a major city because of family, friends, connections, opportunities, etc. If you are someone who uproots their entire life every 5 years for a new job then you are living a nomadic existence.

Dogen
May 5, 2002

Bury my body down by the highwayside, so that my old evil spirit can get a Greyhound bus and ride

Robo-Pope posted:

Dogs scratch the gently caress out of hardwood floors. They'd have to refinish/replace them every tenant.

Pergot and similar fancier products are great though. Also if it's actually hardwood floor and not just wood (I had pine floors in a rent house built in 1922, I think walking on it barefoot would hurt it) it holds up alright.

tiananman
Feb 6, 2005
Non-Headkins Splatoma

_areaman posted:

There is so much fear and doubt pushed about buying a house, that the only logical conclusion you can come to is to never, ever buy unless you are over 30, in some sort of non-existent job where you can never be fired, and are 100% positive that nothing bad will ever happen.

I don't think that's the real message from most people in this thread though. The message really is: home ownership is shockingly expensive, and isn't a great "investment."

It's hard to over-state these two facets of being a homeowner - because even to this day there's a huge amount of myths about it. Banks, realtors, lawmakers, the media - everyone seems to hold up home ownership as a magical cure-all and reason for existence in America.

There should be a lot more fear and doubt than there is, even in this post-crash environment.

The fact that the crash of the mortgage market almost imploded the entire economy should tell you something about the kind of unhealthy and unrealistic attitudes people have about home ownership.

ChristsDickWorship
Dec 7, 2004

Annihilate your demons



_areaman posted:

There is so much fear and doubt pushed about buying a house, that the only logical conclusion you can come to is to never, ever buy unless you are over 30, in some sort of non-existent job where you can never be fired, and are 100% positive that nothing bad will ever happen. "Oh, I might move! Oh, I might lose my job!" Big loving deal, sell the place and then become a renter like you were before, or don't sell and rent it out. If you have your poo poo together enough to buy a house, you can figure any situation out when the time comes.
I agree. I don't think everyone should be encouraged to buy, but as long as you know what you're getting into its not really a crapshoot. Viewing repairs as "lost money" isn't anymore accurate than viewing rent as "lost money," especially when you consider that if you sell the property for the price you bought it for (accounting for inflation) your "rent" you paid to live in the house you owned amounts to the repairs plus the insurance, taxes and mortgage interest/insurance you paid. You can ignore the principal of the loan ultimately, assuming you take care of the place and the market cooperates.

Instead of paying $5k up front for a roof, a renter will pay $40/month or whatever more rent for a place with a nice new roof or renovated kitchen and the landlord breaks even in 10yrs, then profits for the last 10 years of the roof's life. It's not that you don't pay repairs, you just do it monthly built into your rent. In a lot of financial situations that's more convenient but its not insane or rare to come out ahead by owning.

That idea that rent is the max you'll pay monthly while mortgage is the minimum is very misleading IMO, unless you rent somewhere with strict rent control. Otherwise that's only true until the end of your lease, while your loan payment is the same for 30yrs. My rent has gone up about 18% in 5 years, it's almost impossible to have that kind of change in your mortgage payment unless you're skating by with an artificially low tax value and get reassessed at the same time taxes and homeowners premiums skyrocket.

_areaman
Oct 28, 2009

Ignoring the money situation, the quality of life issues are enormous. As a renter you are discouraged from ever improving the unit, you may get stuck with crappy appliances, you may be forced to move after your lease, your payments can change on a yearly basis, and you never feel attached to the property in a meaningful way. Constant struggles with your landlord to fix things, repairs are half-assed, and no one really cares. As a renter you are by definition just passing through. For some people, this is the life they want to live. Personally, I enjoy owning my property and doing whatever I want with it. I have spent thousands improving it and it is the nicest home I have ever had.

tiananman
Feb 6, 2005
Non-Headkins Splatoma

wixard posted:

In a lot of financial situations that's more convenient but its not insane or rare to come out ahead by owning.


There it is again. In this very thread, the sales pitch of home ownership as a money-making investment. It's such an alluring and pervasive myth that we can't go more than a few pages without someone trotting it out again.

I'd argue the opposite: it is rare and thus a little bit insane to expect to "come out ahead."

After taxes and repairs, you're lucky to come out ahead.

ChristsDickWorship
Dec 7, 2004

Annihilate your demons



tiananman posted:

There it is again. In this very thread, the sales pitch of home ownership as a money-making investment. It's such an alluring and pervasive myth that we can't go more than a few pages without someone trotting it out again.

I'd argue the opposite: it is rare and thus a little bit insane to expect to "come out ahead."

After taxes and repairs, you're lucky to come out ahead.
From your post, you still have $7500 to spend in the first 2yrs on repairs before you reach what you would have paid in 2 years of rent at your old place. And your roof, radon and redecorating wont have to happen again for 10-20yrs. You could average $5k/year in repairs, a major appliance every 6 months, and still come out way ahead.

ChristsDickWorship fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Aug 8, 2013

100 HOGS AGREE
Oct 13, 2007
Grimey Drawer

wixard posted:

From your post, you still have $7500 to spend in the first 2yrs on repairs before you reach what you would have paid in 2 years of rent at your old place. And your roof, radon and redecorating wont have to happen again for 10-20yrs. You could average $5k/year in repairs, a major appliance every 6 months, and still come out way ahead.
You're still making the assumption that the house will either be worth the same amount you paid for it or more when it comes time to sell it though. Including poo poo like deprecation, overall housing market, inflation, etc.

I like the general advice of this thread which seems to be: There are plenty of reasons to own a home, an investment is not one of them.

And all those other reasons aren't for everybody. I, for instance, and perfectly happy paying a "premium" on rent to not be responsible for repairs, because I don't want to be responsible for repairs. Some people want to have that responsibility of maintaining their own property, I personally do not and am willing to pay for not having to do it as a part of my rent.

100 HOGS AGREE fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Aug 8, 2013

NJ Deac
Apr 6, 2006
Our appraisal came back today for our closing in two weeks. $11k short of our purchase price! While it's not a huge percentage of the purchase price and we should be able to cover a discrepancy if the appraiser didn't gently caress up (it's likely that he did), it's going to be annoying dealing with this at the very least. Moral of the story? DO NEVER BUY.

NJ Deac fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Aug 8, 2013

ChristsDickWorship
Dec 7, 2004

Annihilate your demons



I'm not trying to make the argument that you should invest in real estate. For simplicity's sake, I'm assuming if you're dumping significant money in repairs your house isn't going to tank in value. But particularly in tiananman's case theyre now in a house they really like where his mortgage is half what his rent was, they could sell at a loss after 15 years with all those repairs and still call it a great decision in retrospect.

There are tons of nuances you need to consider, and I also appreciate the thread's wary tone overall. I just think some folks aren't looking at a long enough timeframe to put things like repairs into proper perspective.

tiananman
Feb 6, 2005
Non-Headkins Splatoma

wixard posted:

From your post, you still have $7500 to spend in the first 2yrs on repairs before you reach what you would have paid in 2 years of rent at your old place. And your roof, radon and redecorating wont have to happen again for 10-20yrs. You could average $5k/year in repairs, a major appliance every 6 months, and still come out way ahead.

You're forgetting taxes ($5k) and heating costs ($3k+) - which were covered when we rented, as well as another dozen regular repairs I can't remember off the top of my head.

With taxes and heating alone, we're ALMOST even with our rent costs. It takes just $1,200 in repairs a year to go over. We do that much every month on average.

edit: I forgot homeowner's insurance. We don't have PMI since we put 20% down, but between taxes, insurance and heating, it's a wash compared to renting. Add in repairs and it heavily tilts the scales.

Don't get me wrong, I have 7.5 acres of mostly wooded land. I have 2 streams. I have a 100 year old stone wall bisecting the property. We live within a 40 minute drive of 3 ski resorts, and this is my view in the winter:



But I'd be kidding myself if I thought I was "coming out ahead" financially.

tiananman fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Aug 8, 2013

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sbaldrick
Jul 19, 2006
Driven by Hate
The only reason we bought our house is because buying for us was cheaper then renting a place with the same features. It was only cheaper because it's a new build with a magically pay 1250 a month all in for the first 5 years deal when after that it will jump to around 1600 hundred which is what rent would be on the same place.

Most of the time buying in a money pit unless you are going to be there for 30 years for the upgrades to be payed for and the mortgage gone.

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