Im not changing employer. Another company is going to offer really really good money and benefits in order for me to leave my current employer.

no offense, but at this point, I'm just really getting irritated with your responses.

You're really naive, but it sounds like you're making good money so the financial repercussions shouldn't be a big deal to your net worth.

The headache of owning, however, are likely going to kick your ass in ways you cannot imagine.

Also, your potential tenant is a far bigger wildcard than you imagine.

I would suggest you rent a regular house and not for purely financial reasons. Almost everyone I know screws up a little when buying their first house when younger.

Besides the obvious life changes it takes a while to get a real sense of how you use (and don't use) a house, and then how your spouse does, kids and so on. People come in to House #1 with a list of priorities and a vision of what think they'll do with it, and then spend 5-10 years realizing how far off they were. All these things you see yourself doing that you don't, while things you discounted are bigger deals than expected.

"The lawn is more hassle than we have time for," "we hardly use that room much," "this isn't nearly enough counter space," "we never actually park in the garage," "I'd rather have laundry on the X floor instead..."

For us things like having a pantry and a connected garage were once afterthoughts but have become very valuable, while things like large bedrooms no longer are. We don't tend to hang out in the master and don't need all that much room for our offices. Likewise a formal dining room isn't on our priority list because we go off to our families for holidays, and friends coming over for dinner do it a little more casual or we just go out. 15 years ago my wish list was almost completely different.

It's not that big a deal if you do buy and sell out in 5 years if you're prepared for it. You'll pay a little premium on the way in and a larger one on the way out to do so, and you can't overlook the potential gain or loss in the value of the property, but lots of people have been through the same. Still you may want to consider just going through a couple single-family rentals over the next 5 years for a better feel of what to buy after that.

Some great advice here, triplej. Listen up.

*bought my first house in 2009. A lot of this rings true.

No offense, but people dead set on doing the wrong thing usually do end up getting irritated.

It's nice that you have a recession proof job. I think everyone should have a job like that

There are a million reasons why you may not be with your current employer in five years. Maybe you are still there and can bank on them eating the relocation/closing costs etc, maybe you arent. As you mention maybe you get a great new job elsewhere and need to move, but even then there is a strong chance that a job at your level wouldnt have a full blown guaranteed buyout as part of RELO package.

and as I asked upthread, what kind of equity are we talking about after 5 years anyhow?

and what does a rent vs buy calc in your area look like?

All I'm saying is that it is important to consider all possible scenarios, both positive and negative, rather than solely focusing on the best case scenario (white knight employer making you whole, trouble free tenants, no major life changes etc) and assuming that life will play out 100% to that scenario.

No need to do the calc. He obviously lives in a perpetual "if you pay rent you're throwing away your money" area.

Ha

From his posts this is pretty clear unfortunately.

Stopped reading at "someone to mow the lawn for me."

gutters...HAS YOU CLEANED THEM????

I work for a fortune 50 company and it is easy to say I am going to be with them in 5 years and most likely retire with this company. As naive as my statements may sound I have done the math and buying a house is definitely the best option for me.

As for my tenant, its one of my closest friends (whom I have lived with in the past) and I probably should have disclosed that information sooner.

I was just simply wanting to know what advises other homeowners could give to a first time buyer. Like what troubles they ran across that has caused a lot of pain in the future because they overlooked a certain thing the first time around.

There are like 100 BFI threads with this investment "OP won't listen to reason" AIDS. Can we keep this thread about something actually useful?

i've been lazy, but will buy a bunch of wood in spring and then we have fun

Another thing with washing machine hoses: If you shut off the valves when you're not actually using the washing machine, you greatly reduce the risk of having one burst and flood the house when you're not home.

Newest pet peeve of renovations: old home owners who stained banisters an ugly colour. If any of you are planning on restaining your banisters, i strongly advise you consider tearing them out and installing new ones.

Did this last week. Very important thing to do

You can buy hoses that automatically shut off if the line bursts.

How dirty is too dirty for gutters? Dirty enough to ask, dirty enough to clean?

its more about clearing them of leafs and stuff so they gutter and not gut.

Yes but don't use a hose and stand on the roof when it's below freezing or you might slide right off the roof like I did.

So I'm an idiot...

I never scheduled with the oil company this year to do the tune-up and now they are booked for several months. Luckily a friend that works in the field offered to do it for me and came over today.

So he said the nozzle was wrong, and the pressure was set almost 40% higher than the specs. He also said the water temp in the radiators (forced hot water) was set about 20 degrees higher than optimal.

These three things in combo will cause the furnace to burn a lot more oil. He estimates I've been burning at least 30% more oil every year than I should be.

I never even considered that the oil company has incentive to make your furnace inefficient. Scumbags.

Were you deliberately trying to become Art Metrano?