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What's a million-dollar house look like in Australia/New Zealand anyway? I have a very clear picture of what that'd get me in the bay area, NYC, rural Texas, etc. but I have no baseline for this. Are they US-style McMansions? Ranch houses on lots of property?
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May 3, 2016 01:42
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Aliquid posted:What's a million-dollar house look like in Australia/New Zealand anyway? I have a very clear picture of what that'd get me in the bay area, NYC, rural Texas, etc. but I have no baseline for this. Are they US-style McMansions? Ranch houses on lots of property? A million bucks in Sydney is going to get you a very average 3-4br home in an OK suburb 30-40 minutes from the CBD. If you don't mind not having a backyard you can probably knock 100-200k off. FAKEEDIT: I think this is one they used as an example in the 4corners video linked earlier http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-strathfield-122354970
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May 3, 2016 02:02
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Does all this negative gearing make rentals a steal? It sounds like, "you'll make up for the losses on the back end" is a great negotiation strategy against a lot of ignorant landlords. Don't want to charge me too much in rent, otherwise the gubment is going to take all that money in taxes.
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May 3, 2016 02:19
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Devian666 posted:Then someone gets pregnant. Save me Liberal Jeebus!
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May 3, 2016 02:29
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Aliquid posted:What's a million-dollar house look like in Australia/New Zealand anyway? I have a very clear picture of what that'd get me in the bay area, NYC, rural Texas, etc. but I have no baseline for this. Are they US-style McMansions? Ranch houses on lots of property? In Auckland a rather ordinary but nice enough house. It varies depending on area. http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-1080151108.htm It gets you expensive land in a premium location in Wellington. You'd have no TV reception problems here, but it's only 150m2 (so there's better options than this). http://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-1074199577.htm Outside of major centres you can get a McMansion design for $1m.
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May 3, 2016 02:55
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Nail Rat posted:I don't understand why people still think there is a property "ladder" that you need to get on. They are going to pay so much loving money in selling costs when they go to sell. It worked for the dozens of people I know that bought condos downtown in 2012-13 with 5% down and due to speculation now have 20% for a house in the burbs.
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May 3, 2016 03:16
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Negative Gearing 101: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL7M5RIXjY8
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May 3, 2016 04:17
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zaurg posted:done If this is true, I am extremely happy and relieved for you.
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May 4, 2016 10:20
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mastershakeman posted:It worked for the dozens of people I know that bought condos downtown in 2012-13 with 5% down and due to speculation now have 20% for a house in the burbs. Condos downtown cost more than houses in the burbs though.(on average, unless you're talking about something like Winnetka) How much did they really "make" after thei 6% closing fees, maintenance and their HOA fees? And even then, that's only if you're lucky with speculation. It only works if the place you're buying now appreciates significantly more than the next place you're buying. The odds of that are incredibly low, since ostensibly the next place will be more desirable. Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 12:50 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 12:04
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Nail Rat posted:Condos downtown cost more than houses in the burbs though.(on average, unless you're talking about something like Winnetka) How much did they really "make" after thei 6% closing fees, maintenance and their HOA fees? And even then, that's only if you're lucky with speculation. It only works if the place you're buying now appreciates significantly more than the next place you're buying. The odds of that are incredibly low, since ostensibly the next place will be more desirable. If you bought some condo for $300k and sold it for $400k to then flee to the burbs, you're doing fine. Large scale price increases in the past few years has affected the green zone areas of Chicago more so than any of the burbs. So while the price of a SFH in Downers Grove or whatever has likely increased some as well, not at the rate with which your condo did so even when taking closing costs into account (HOA/maint/taxes/PMI/interest/opportunity cost is probably a wash vs what you would have paid in rent) you're still coming out significantly ahead. But if you're moving from a condo in River North to a bigger condo in Bucktown, chances are the appreciation has been about the same and you won't have significantly increased your purchasing power.
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May 4, 2016 13:47
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Nail Rat posted:Condos downtown cost more than houses in the burbs though.(on average, unless you're talking about something like Winnetka) How much did they really "make" after thei 6% closing fees, maintenance and their HOA fees? And even then, that's only if you're lucky with speculation. It only works if the place you're buying now appreciates significantly more than the next place you're buying. The odds of that are incredibly low, since ostensibly the next place will be more desirable. The house you own doesn't need to appreciate faster. You capture the total appreciation of the house you own, minus any fees, but only need to cover 20% of the appreciation of the new house, plus 20% of the original difference in value.
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May 4, 2016 13:49
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There was a great one on Reddit yesterday, but the guy deleted it before I could save it. From memory: He and his wife went to a one-day "sale" of land in the middle of nowhere somewhere in the South. They were lured by ads that said the cheapest plots were $100k, but then they found that those plots were useless, so they bought a plot for $140k, which they then found out was useless because it was completely wooded. (I don't know what the difference was between the $100k useless plots and the $140k useless plot they bought.) He had thought they could use it for camping with a trailer, but there's no space for the trailer and there aren't any utility hookups, and he has no interest in camping without utilities. There are also HOA fees which will be used to maintain the gravel road connecting the different plots. To buy this $140k land, they had put down a $5k deposit. Now that they're having second thoughts, he was seeking to get the deposit back, which would only happen if he was rejected for financing for the rest of the cost. He was posting to ask if it would be a good idea to temporarily lower his credit score by buying a ton of televisions and laptops, so that he'd get rejected by every lender. Here's the thread with the comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4hi4c5/purchased_some_land_buyers_remorse/
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May 4, 2016 14:10
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asur posted:The house you own doesn't need to appreciate faster. You capture the total appreciation of the house you own, minus any fees, but only need to cover 20% of the appreciation of the new house, plus 20% of the original difference in value. Good point. quote:Large scale price increases in the past few years has affected the green zone areas of Chicago more so than any of the burbs. That's a huge crap shoot though, that's not always going to be the case. quote:If you bought some condo for $300k and sold it for $400k to then flee to the burbs, you're doing fine It's not that cut and dry. If you put down 5%, you're paying PMI, and PMI on that 300k would be about $200-$250 a month, plus $200 HOA fees, let's be conservative here (there are many condos with fees significantly higher). Over 5 years, you're talking $25k in PMI and HOA, plus another 25k in real estate commission. Add in the closing costs when you purchased - we'll be conservative and say 8k - and that's 58k. Assuming 2% maintenance per year, you also will pay about 20k between fixing/replacing stuff and getting ready to sell the place. So of your 100k appreciation, 80k is gone. You're left with about 20k, plus whatever principal you put in over five years (not much). I mean, I guess that's making a profit, but is that really making more of a profit than you would have by renting for those five years? The mortgage is over 2k a month, after all, and most of that was interest. I think it comes out being pretty much a wash versus renting a comparable apartment, and that's in a more or less ideal scenario. And you also now have to go through the selling process, which is a lot more stress than just moving out of an apartment. Of course there are people who have places appreciate by 100%+ in 2-3 years, but that's still a bad idea to count on that! That's like being "heh, I spent 50k on lottery tickets and won $150 million, tell me again how I was wasting money  "
Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 14:15
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Nail Rat posted:
PMI on a $285k loan is $130-$175. Average that out to $150, $9k. HOA of $200 on a $300k condo seems about right, $12k. 6% commission on 400k sale is $24k. $8k of closing costs for a buyer at $300k seems high but hey, we'll go with it in our imaginary scenario. Real estate taxes, if properly assessed (lol fat chance) would be $6k/year. $30k. 5 years ago interest was at about 4.75%. So over 5 years, you're averaging about $400/month towards principal. $24k in the black over 5 years. Total it up $100k - ($9k + $12k + $24k + $8k + $30k) + $24k = walking away with $41k of profit. Maybe another $20k in debits for maintenance over 5 years? Not terrible for 5 years. Not entirely sure what it would cost to rent the equivalent of a $300k condo ($2k-$3k/month?) but it can't be cheap and would have to be significantly less than what you'd be paying for in just mortgage interest in this particular dreamed up scenario to be coming out (strictly financially) ahead. I guess the general point is if you sell your place for $100k more than you paid for it 5 years ago, you're doing alright. Obviously this isn't going to happen all the time (and is just as likely to be the opposite) but hey, if you bought a $300k condo in a desirable area of Chicago in 2011, chances are good that it's worth $400k now.
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May 4, 2016 15:02
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Obviously in this somewhat ideal scenario, they're doing alright (I would say 20k for maintenance on a 300k condo sounds pretty low to me over five years unless you get lucky and nothing breaks and it's a very new place where you don't have to replace poo poo when you sell). My point is that that's when everything goes incredibly well, and in general buying for five years or less is a bad idea that can work out well, just like just about any idea can. Since it just as often works out the other way, the idea of a "property ladder" is dumb. You're much better off just saving for a place you want to be in longterm. Of course, if you absolutely need to buy now for personal reasons that's fine, but it's not an ideal move to make on a purely financial basis to buy for five or fewer years with only 5% down, and the profit isn't anywhere near the appreciation. Not sure what's controversial with that stance. Nail Rat fucked around with this message at 15:14 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 15:06
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Right, this does require a lot of things to go right in this scenario but it isn't out of the ordinary over this specific previous 5 year period in our specific city. If you had purchased in 2006 and were selling in 2011 it would look significantly worse. Paying PMI in just about any scenario is silly as well. Just to see it to the logical conclusion, your all in living expenses for purchasing over this 5 year period would be $66k (5 years of interest at 4.75% on a $285k loan) - $21k profit from above nonsense = $45k. If you were putting out $2k-$3k/month on rent (again, not sure what it actually costs to rent the equivalent property), your expenditure would be $120k to $180k over that same period.
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May 4, 2016 15:13
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As penance for this derail, here's some nice short and sweet BWM. Bought engagement ring, not going to be used, still paying for something that has significantly decreased in value: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4htn6p/engagement_ring_woes/
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May 4, 2016 15:19
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I'm taking it to PMs to stop this derail, sorry.
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May 4, 2016 15:22
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Nail Rat posted:Condos downtown cost more than houses in the burbs though.(on average, unless you're talking about something like Winnetka) How much did they really "make" after thei 6% closing fees, maintenance and their HOA fees? And even then, that's only if you're lucky with speculation. It only works if the place you're buying now appreciates significantly more than the next place you're buying. The odds of that are incredibly low, since ostensibly the next place will be more desirable. Yea, it was blind luck for them - for instance, one said condo was in Old Irving which was dead back in '12 and now is pretty hot, so the 1br they had there literally doubled in price. Then the respective people moved way out to suburbs I've never even heard of. I'm actually trying to categorize all my home improvement purchases and whatnot on Mint so that in a decade I can look back and go holy poo poo, I spent way more than just that $x/mo to the bank.
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May 4, 2016 16:20
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Bad with money: walking away from a job in your late 40s over demotion, turning that into an early "retirement" and blowing through all your savings before age 60, becoming a burden on your children. https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4huu45/my_dad_retired_about_10_years_ago_and_my_mom/
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May 4, 2016 17:28
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In case it gets deleted:quote:My parents are both currently in their late 50s, and my brother and I live several states away from them now. My father has always handled the finances. They have two homes, one of which used to be rented but has now sat vacant for years and has fallen into disrepare, mold, etc. My father is very overweight, and that + age has made it so that he has trouble with one of his legs. He doesn't need a scooter or anything, but he usually opts out of activities that involve sitting or standing for substantial periods of time. My mother is also overweight and has diabetes, but has been managing it well through diet and medication.
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May 4, 2016 17:37
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What on earth possesses people to 'retire' while they still have a substantial mortgage that they can't pay off immediately? I can't even begin to fathom the thought process.
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May 5, 2016 00:04
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r/personalfinance seems to be a goldmine right nowhttps://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/4hw0lx/my_28f_sos_23m_family_might_be_doing_some_shady/ posted:I'm hoping you have some advice for me about how to help my SO be more financially legit. He works for a family-owned auto/collision business and gets paid weekly by his brother. He doesn't pay taxes on this income and has never filled out a W-4 or received a W-2, and I'm not sure of the tax situation with the family business. His family is not from the U.S. and I think they are skeptical/have a limited understanding of proper documentation for things like this. As a result, he has limited understanding of the potentially huge implications for him financially and career-wise, and I am only just beginning to understand all the problems with his situation. I don't know much about the American tax system, but this sounds like a giant clusterfuck of dumb.
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May 5, 2016 00:36
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Finance major.
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May 5, 2016 01:52
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Nail Rat posted:Bad with money: walking away from a job in your late 40s over demotion, turning that into an early "retirement" and blowing through all your savings before age 60, becoming a burden on your children. Ughh I empathize with the poster. There's something so frustrating about having a BWM parent. Like no matter how well you plan for the future, they could derail everything. BWM anecdote from my childhood - once when my family was at a restaurant eating ribs I asked a waitress for extra wetnaps in case mommy couldn't pay the water bill again.
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May 5, 2016 02:19
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Breetai posted:What on earth possesses people to 'retire' while they still have a substantial mortgage that they can't pay off immediately? He quit out of pride and then realized nobody wants to hire an old guy to the nice position he was used to so called it a "retirement" instead of admitting he was wrong and hosed.
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May 5, 2016 04:42
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We're on a roll today"Woman to appear in Waverley Local Court after $4.6 million ‘wrongly transferred’ into account posted:A “GLITCH” in Westpac’s banking system allowed a Sydney teenager access to $4.6 million, part of which she spent on luxury handbags, a court has heard. quote:Police allege $4.6 million was wrongly transferred to her account in 2012, when she was just 17, and that four years later, the woman had still not returned the money.
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May 5, 2016 04:47
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Aliquid posted:Finance major. "Trust me, I've been avoid taxes for years."
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May 5, 2016 04:51
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oRenj9 posted:"Trust me, I've been avoid taxes for years." One of the best books I got on tax was called Pay Zero Taxes. It's a decent book for the local tax environment but I found out the other week that the author had apparently been charged with fraud. He may have taken his own advice too literally. http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/our-communities/397046/Swindle-sees-accountant-author-jailed
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May 5, 2016 05:08
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Recently I've been doing a decent commute each day, which means I've listened to more radio recently than the rest of my life put together. It's just gone the end of tax year and I am amazed at the number of ads telling people they have to pay a tax company to sort out their tax return. Ads like 'Last year I lost $500 to tax [whatever the gently caress that is actually meant to mean] but this year, I'm not going to lose because I'm using TaxManAmaze Ltd, and they wont break the bank with high fees' Tax returns are freely organised by contacting the government department and you can make claims several years in the past so you can't 'lose' refunds. GWM to start a company getting people to pay you to do a quick process they could do for free, BWMorals re disingenuous advertising and BWM to pay a freakin company to fill in a form you could absolutely fill in yourself. E: apologies for erratic phonepost grammar/spelling
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May 5, 2016 06:09
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BWM: buying ads in May about filing taxes
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May 5, 2016 07:28
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GWcronyism: companies like Intuit buying up your government so that you can't just do your own tax filing online like a first-world country  Devian: Does NZ have this sort of thing too?
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May 5, 2016 08:33
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Nah we have Xero. We're going to buy your Government and everyone elses.
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May 5, 2016 08:43
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Weatherman posted:GWcronyism: companies like Intuit buying up your government so that you can't just do your own tax filing online like a first-world country You can definitely do your own tax filing online for free in the US.
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May 5, 2016 12:21
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Tamarillo posted:Recently I've been doing a decent commute each day, which means I've listened to more radio recently than the rest of my life put together. It's just gone the end of tax year and I am amazed at the number of ads telling people they have to pay a tax company to sort out their tax return. Ads like 'Last year I lost $500 to tax [whatever the gently caress that is actually meant to mean] but this year, I'm not going to lose because I'm using TaxManAmaze Ltd, and they wont break the bank with high fees' The most predatory ones I've heard where I am are on the hip hop/r&b station and are so over the top it's not even funny. In lighter BWM fare, yesterday I saw a huge Ford truck with a lift kit and a Herbalife car wrap that was clearly legible from about 30 yards away. The only thing it was missing was truck nutz, but I'm sure there would bag been something else to :eyeroll: at if the windows weren't tinted a smoky shade of 'anything darker would be illegal everywhere'.
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May 5, 2016 12:25
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This is maybe the best, most concentrated page of r/pf in this whole thread 
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May 5, 2016 13:20
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Subjunctive posted:You can definitely do your own tax filing online for free in the US. Unless you're in the large chunk of people who make too much money or have any investments at all. One year turbotax wanted an extra 80 dollars because I had about 30 cents of qualified dividends.
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May 5, 2016 13:24
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Subjunctive posted:You can definitely do your own tax filing online for free in the US. OK sorry I meant "online, for free, and with a minimum of hassle". https://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Lodging-your-tax-return/Lodge-online/ Something something this is communism
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May 5, 2016 13:29
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Leviathan Song posted:Unless you're in the large chunk of people who make too much money or have any investments at all. One year turbotax wanted an extra 80 dollars because I had about 30 cents of qualified dividends. You don't have to use turbotax in order to do it 
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May 5, 2016 13:29
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Parallel Paraplegic posted:You don't have to use turbotax in order to do it Where exactly can you hit submit on a computer and be done with your taxes at any income level? The answer is that you can't. There are other exceptions and the optimistic estimate is that 70% of people have free efiling available, the realistic number is probably less than half.
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May 5, 2016 13:43
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