You must log in or register to comment.
Just a quick example here. Mortage payment I make (or did make, we sold) was 6k a month.
Now sure, I’m getting equity, but it’s by no means quick. The bank is making a killing. Of that 6k, we are bringing down the principal by something like 800 bucks a month. The bank is taking 3k and the rest escrow and PMI.
If you buy a house. Be sure to be able to put 20% down. This will bring your payment down a ton.
Try for the best interest rate you can. It’ll be a shitty 7 or higher % for now, and at least until the bubble pops again. Because it will and it’s getting close.
Then, you get an endless list of repairs and improvements. But if things start to break, make cheap repairs, then save up to replace. Update your kitchen and master bathrooms. These things sell houses. Never keep your house out of date or you won’t get the return you want.
Good luck out there to home owners. It’s a good asset to have, but only if you keep up with maintenance and updates.
Buy. It matters. Bring on the downvotes.
It’s cool right up to the day something breaks and you realize that you are the landlord now.
I’m currently working through getting everything fixed and sorted following an intense hail storm and it’s become very apparent that I’ve taken on the role of property manager by daring to own my own home. Honestly a pain in the butt at times. Long term it’s worth while but yikes!
And every day, something new breaks.
My landlord will fix any problem I point out to him, as long as I am willing to wait somewhere between 2 weeks and however long I hold the lease.
Then you pay for it and still come out ahead.
It have a home maintenance plan for more predictable cost and renting like experience, and coming less ahead than renting, but still somewhat ahead.
Yep, factor in that most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself. You actually pay a couple hundred dollars per month to your bank instead of over a thousand to your landlord.
most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself.
This is financial double speak.
most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself.
That’s one way of looking at it, not usually the accurate way, but it is a way.
The bank:
“Awe, that’s cute!”
and the HOA.
And my axe?
Die Axt im Haus erspart den Zimmermann. - The axe at home lets you skip the carpenter.
and climate change induced superstorms and wildfires
Is it a requirement in the US to join the HOA?
If you buy a home in which an HOA is already established, then yes, it’s required. And good luck finding a neighborhood where one isn’t already established. If you get a small enough town or cheap enough neighborhood, maybe.
It’s funny that the ‘right to work’ exists to dismantle unions, but somehow no-one has thought of a ‘right to live’ to combat HOAs.
The really shit part about HOAs is that most of the US NEEDS them. Most of the US has little to no zoning laws, and most of the suburbs are in unincorporated areas outside of the cities. This means that without an HOA, there’s nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.
WTF is wrong with that? My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
WTF is wrong with that?
While you’re correct on this pushback…
My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
This is the contention that drives the fallacy that we need strict zoning laws and HOA’s. In most places in the world that don’t have these kinds of strict rules, neighborhoods tend to follow community standards held by the community itself. You have markets and food vendors and small businesses mixed into your community which lets people socialize, walk around and meet each other and not have to drive everywhere for everything all the time.
You aren’t pounding on your “rights” as a homeowner there, you’re abiding by the sense of community and trying to be a part of something bigger than yourself so everyone is happy. This is why not everyone opens a scrapyard and why your neighbors aren’t worried you’re going to open a scrapyard, because there is a social pressure because people actually care.
In the US and other “developed” places, people are scared that their neighbors are going to stand on their “Rights” to do whatever the fuck they want because they don’t know their neighbors and their neighbors don’t care if they piss off everyone on the street by opening a crocodile petting zoo. Which is how we got HOA’s and laws that dictate what you can and can’t do on your property.
Fear. It’s all fear, all the way down.
most of the US NEEDS them.
Why exactly?
there’s nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.
You’re thinking of zoning laws, those are different.
HOA’s are concerned with what color your walls are, if you have trees of a certain size and shape, and aesthetics as well as minor upgrades and expansions to your home like fucking window shades and gazebos.
And I will also say the zoning laws are ALSO fascist and killing our sense of community. If you think without strict zoning laws your neighbors are going to open a fucking ZOO you haven’t left the country once. In many other countries, neighborhoods have markets, people walk around, they sell art or food from their porches, they talk to each other, they share their resources through private stalls, vendors and other small-scale entrepreneurial ventures. They don’t abuse their freedoms because they don’t want to be hated by their neighbors. Because they have COMMUNITY.
But I will give you this one small point: in the US our car-oriented culture makes it really, really hard to have any kind of residential space that doesn’t turn into a fucking parking lot overnight without regulations. This is because, again, we don’t have markets and jobs and entertainment in walking distance of most homes so you’re forced to drive everywhere.
In many neighborhoods; yes.
Mortgage is just rent with another name (I know it’s not quite that simple, but it feels that way sometimes)
Mortgage ends one day. Paid off my mortgage 10 years ago.
Even if you don’t stay long enough to pay off, when you do sell, you get to have more proceeds from the sell than you owe.
If you only are going to stay in a place 2 or three years though, probably not worth it.
Nah. Pay off your house and its yours.
When do you pay off your rent? When you die.
Most people never do pay off their house.
You have a citation? At least when they sell the house they definitely pay it off and then some.
Been living without mortgage or rent for over 10 years myself.
No I don’t. I hope you’re right, cause mine feels forever away at this point.
Squatters have entered the chat.
Debt pay back time.
The new landlord still won’t do the repairs!
This
HOA gonna pop that bubble real quick.
PSA to homebuyers: Even if the HOA has reasonable rules now and is run by your neighbors, don’t expect that to continue when they get older and want to pass off management to a company who will make life a living hell.
much better PSA, don’t buy a house that is in an HOA. HOA’s are the devil, and they are a great example of why the adage that local control is best, is total bullshit.
Agree. Moral of the story is basically that every HOA has the potential to suck, so don’t take the extremely substantial risk that it will in your lifetime. Just buy a different house.
What about like multi property buildings? Like townhomes or condos?
Don’t those always come with an HOA?
I’ve owned a townhome that didn’t have an HOA. It’s not super-common, but it does happen.
I get possession of my first house this Friday, very happy to say HOAs aren’t really a thing in Canada
Imagine buying a house with an HOA.
Imagine buying a house.
Thank god I was able to. Was sick of paying for someone else’s investment.
Annoyingly house prices decided to surge right when I got a job that would have allowed me to afford one (pre-surge).
Yeah dude, same boat.
Imagine living in the US … Awful
Thank god I don’t.
Imagine even knowing what an HOA is.
Youre luckier than you know.
Unless I move out to the middle of nowhere, there’s not many options for me that don’t have an HOA of some kind. Wish I could avoid them, but unfortunately too ubiquitous in the states.
Unless I move out to the middle of nowhere,
City folks sure say “the middle of nowhere” when they mean anything other the overpriced suburbs, and stupid cities like New York.
freedom
*buy
Bye.
a yes grammar fascists finding ways to ruin jokes.
Not your joke to begin with mate.
touche
*ah yes
Well, that’s an overreaction if I saw one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That was an orthographic mistake, not a grammatical one.
lol you literally reposted this minutes after I made it.
ok ok, you have good joke, I turn into bad joke.
“When”
lol
Congratulations! You will now work off that debt for the next 40 years! 🥳
Better to work off that debt over 10-30 years (which is what mortgages usually run for, not 40) and then be able to sell the house and get your money back than paying rent for 10-30 years and have nothing.
True, also best to not pay off your mortgage. It is a line of credit if worth more than you owe. Once you pay it off that credit line is gone.
If you have a HELOC, yeah but the rate isn’t great. If you do pay off, you can always open a new HELOC.
Funny story, I had a HELOC as part of buying a house with no closing cost on it I paid the balance off but kept it open. They called me one day and asked if I would close the account. I said that I don’t think I should, because I’d suddenly owe the money for closing costs for paying off early, and they confirmed I could either sit with a zero balance for two years for free our pay a few thousand dollars for the privilege of choosing the account…
I paid my Car note and owed like $250 more for it to be paid off. My lender sent me a bill for $250 + $50 late fee. I called them and explained I just paid $430 and was going to pay the remaining next month. They said my 72 month contract ended is why. Okay but a late fee? I told them I will never do any business with them again.
