BloodBag posted:I guess Austin County appraisal district took less time than HCAD. I'm still waiting for that lovely 'your escrow is short, gib money plz' letter I seem to get every year. gently caress owning a house. If I pay off the whole thing, I still have to come out of pocket $300+ to just own this place because Harris County gets theirs. Wait? 300 a year? I'd kill to pay that...i pay ~300 a month LOL. In any case, my offer came in and I signed it...and I'll be telecommuting which means lower expenses all over the place!
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# ? Feb 25, 2016 23:48 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:37 |
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DogsCantBudget posted:Wait? 300 a year? I'd kill to pay that...i pay ~300 a month LOL. In any case, my offer came in and I signed it...and I'll be telecommuting which means lower expenses all over the place! Have you looked in to fighting the tax raise? People in my neighborhood do it all the time and are successful, because of how fast the property values are going up all over Austin. We haven't had a raise that was so insane yet that we've had to fight it.
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 03:07 |
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DogsCantBudget posted:Wait? 300 a year? I'd kill to pay that...i pay ~300 a month LOL. In any case, my offer came in and I signed it...and I'll be telecommuting which means lower expenses all over the place! He was just talking about the shortfall. I don't think it matters what country you're in, honestly. I'm in Travis and they wrung me out for the max increase, capped by the homestead exemption.
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 03:21 |
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DogsCantBudget posted:Wait? 300 a year? I'd kill to pay that...i pay ~300 a month LOL. In any case, my offer came in and I signed it...and I'll be telecommuting which means lower expenses all over the place! Oh nay nay. If I were to pay off the remainder of my mortgage, the taxes and insurance portion of my monthly mortgage payment would still come out to $391.60 per month that's before the $325/month HOA dues because I live in a townhouse. So, the principle and and interest of my mortgage is quite small, but I bought about half of what I was approved for back in 2012 and put 20% down. Harris County has some of the steepest taxes in the state and it's why Houston's real estate never bubbled like the rest of the country did pre 2008, because that property tax is a killer. Everyone thinks Houston is cheap to live in, but Harris County Appraisal District makes it that way through high property taxes. HCAD wrung me out for the maximum increase as well last year. I had to come up with over $800 if I recall correctly and they still ended up bumping my monthly payment by about $50. I was real impressed how they managed to time that letter with me getting my income tax refund
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 12:09 |
RheaConfused posted:Have you looked in to fighting the tax raise? People in my neighborhood do it all the time and are successful, because of how fast the property values are going up all over Austin. We haven't had a raise that was so insane yet that we've had to fight it. I think its too late until the next tax raise...I don't think TCAD has released their tax raises yet...
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 15:56 |
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Texas has high property taxes since there is no income tax. Another reason renting in Texas can really work out nicely.
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 17:11 |
spwrozek posted:Texas has high property taxes since there is no income tax. Another reason renting in Texas can really work out nicely. My mortgage is still WAYYYYY cheaper then comparable rent
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 17:13 |
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spwrozek posted:Texas has high property taxes since there is no income tax. Another reason renting in Texas can really work out nicely. Dude, rent in Houston was and is out of control and has been since 2008. Since it's harder for people to qualify for loans, more people have to rent, and landlords know it. When I moved out of my Apt in 2012, rent was $1100 and it was going to get jacked another $135 a month. They sure as poo poo pass their increase in property tax on to the tenants.
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 17:21 |
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Lol, come to Denver and then you can talk about high rent and high income taxes and high housing prices!
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# ? Feb 26, 2016 19:38 |
Holy poo poo so the last month was crazy as all hell Lets review overages: I'm gonna go out of order to lump things into categories of why they happened: Spending Money: This is the bulk of the AirBNB expenses. Household Goods: 22$ over for an 8 pack of scotch tape, which we use for shipping and the such and some stuff from RadioShack(AirBNB expense) Pet Care: 187 over. This is actually an AirBNB expense. When we rent our entire house, we board our dogs at a kennel. It still ends up a net positive! Note: Mid next month all these expenses would be 0'd out after our airBNB visitor. Actually expect to be ~150 in the black after next month Car repairs: new axles, new tires, new wipers. I'll need to do an alignment and inspection next week at some point too. These were needed repairs. Delta AirMiles and CapOneVenture card: This is a wierd category, and I don't know why they are negative. Trust me when I say, they aren't... Groceries: 4dollars...but given the other bullshit, lets not talk about 4 dollars, eh? Restaurants: Overage after going out this weekend. I admit we went out and celebrated a couple times this weekend about both being employed. Hobbies: This one I have no excuse for. Wife needed some bike stuff, and I had to buy an airline ticket for a trip I had booked in January for May. Not buying the ticket would have ended up with a 2k loss from money that had been invested already in the trip. I also loaned 130$ to a friend that I expect to get back in March(similar to a previous loan regarding some stuff I bought someone, that BFC was ok with) Wow this might be the worst month to date for overages. However, wife and I are both employed(or at least I start on Monday...). But lets talk about networth over the last month, it's actually gone up! Current account balances: DogsCantBudget fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Feb 28, 2016 |
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# ? Feb 28, 2016 18:50 |
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Move your AirBNB expenses to their own line item. Commingling expenses confuses presentation.
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# ? Feb 29, 2016 08:36 |
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Dogs, you still alive? Does no news equal good news apply here?
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# ? Mar 19, 2016 06:28 |
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Ohh no it's been a month and a half now where's dogs?
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# ? Apr 11, 2016 21:01 |
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I hope his sporting event hobby didn't kill him this time.
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# ? Apr 11, 2016 21:49 |
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His first AirBNB guest is currently wearing his skin as a robe.
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# ? Apr 15, 2016 01:58 |
No news does seem to mostly equal good news I think. Our AirBNB experiences have been pretty good. We're probably 5-800 in the black on AirBNB. The first big group of guests wasn't as good as they could have been, but overall an ok experience. We've had others since who have been wonderful to deal with. We've sent off our taxes(which sucked, but thats what happens with taxes), and actually paid 5k extra towards principle of our house. Down to nearly 190k with (based on recent neighborhood sales) almost 280k total value, so 90k in equity. We analyzed a snowball method payoff vs an avalanche method and found that working on our house agressively could help us get out of debt in the next 3 to 4 years, completely. We also have a potential windfall in the low 5 figures coming soon, and plan to apply that to the mortgage as well. My vehicle continues to be on schedule for payoff in November. Our hobbies continue to be an important part of our lives with DogsWife participating heavily in road cycling while I continue to immerse myself in diving(get it, immerse?). Overall this thread has been of minimal interest to BFC as, I think, I have mostly made the correct decision(TM) most of the time. I'll keep it open and come back if there is need, but I think we are in a decently good place now.
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# ? Apr 17, 2016 16:52 |
DogsCantBudget posted:No news does seem to mostly equal good news I think. Our AirBNB experiences have been pretty good. We're probably 5-800 in the black on AirBNB. The first big group of guests wasn't as good as they could have been, but overall an ok experience. We've had others since who have been wonderful to deal with. Hey look I'm back to ask a question. We're still doing quite well and haven't spent a ton of money on a houseboat or anything. On the other hand, one of my friends DID go on an RV adventure for a week and had an amazing time. Him and his wife rented a large RV and it cost something like 500$ a night....neat but not for me. My wife and I are considering something for a few months(we're thinking 6 months), and I wanted to run it by the thread. We have a decent amount saved up now for a down payment on a house(20k) and have ~80k in equity in our current house. Now, some stats we do have a 4br, 2.5 bath house. 3 of the bedrooms are upstairs, and we don't spend a ton of time up there. I'm thinking of renting one of the bedrooms out to buffer our down payment fund and add some extra cash. What say you brain trust?
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# ? Jun 3, 2016 03:34 |
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DogsCantBudget posted:Hey look I'm back to ask a question. We're still doing quite well and haven't spent a ton of money on a houseboat or anything. On the other hand, one of my friends DID go on an RV adventure for a week and had an amazing time. Him and his wife rented a large RV and it cost something like 500$ a night....neat but not for me. If you are happy with having another person in the house then sure. I have friends that are doing work on their house and fixing issues and they usually rent out two rooms. A good source of income.
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# ? Jun 15, 2016 03:58 |
Hey it's been 3 months, and just wanted to check in and say we are putting away 4k a month in savings! Now question time: I have 9 credit cards that I don't use anymore(in fact we have one that we put all our purchases on and pay off monthly, it's working BEAUTIFULLY!). But cancelling them would hurt my credit score, right? So do I go and make a 1$ purchase on each card once every 6 months to keep them active? Or what?
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# ? Aug 27, 2016 23:31 |
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People will tell you to leave the oldest ones open. I didn't, and bought a house 2 years later. I got a 2.875% fixed rate mortgage. I didn't want any open lines of credit that I didn't need hanging around. It might hurt your score, but not in a big way and not for long. Pay your bills on time and you'll be fine.
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# ? Aug 28, 2016 03:28 |
Yea one of them is unfortunately my oldest line of credit....all told I have ~100k of credit debt available to me. Thank god I've learned that I don't have to use it all(or any of it for that matter). I had a friend today ask me to go through her finances for her. She then told me how she HAD to go to a concert and spend 2-300 on march. It felt so much like Blue Waffles with her planned Star Wars expenses, I almost laughed in her face. I actually asked her if she was "loving serious right now".
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# ? Aug 28, 2016 04:13 |
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Just go through and cancel the ones you don't need. It won't make that much difference to credit score and there's no point paying out a lot of credit card fees each year. Just having one to two cards should be more than enough. Hopefully you can get the message through to your friend. I keep finding out people have overdrafts they are using as the permanent "zero" on their bank account.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 02:16 |
Devian666 posted:Just go through and cancel the ones you don't need. It won't make that much difference to credit score and there's no point paying out a lot of credit card fees each year. Just having one to two cards should be more than enough. Any. There's no point paying out ANY credit card fees. There are plenty of credit cards with no annual fees that you shouldn't bother with any that have them.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 02:19 |
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Paying credit card fees is silly. What kind of cards do you have?
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 02:53 |
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He never said he's paying credit card fees. Keep the one you use and either your oldest or an oldish one with a high limit as a back-up. Cancel the rest.
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# ? Aug 29, 2016 04:51 |
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# ? Jun 5, 2024 06:37 |
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OI DCB, it's been a few months, how are things going in these spendy times?
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# ? Dec 2, 2016 18:02 |