I bought in march this year and my only regret is not purchasing sooner. I had an IRS bill that I thought was a lien, but was not. I could have purchased a year earlier and saved over 100k.

clean gutters and fix the drainage on race track

My wife and I cleaned up on our first home. We bought in 2006 and sold in January of this year b/c we moved to another city. It was a starter home, 2 bedrooms 1 bath with an unfinished basement, we bought for just under $140K.

The previous owner had a small water issue on one side of the basement. She had a company come in and dig down to the weeping tile, replace it and put on a rubberized membrane on the outside wall along 2 side of the house. We elected to have the same company come back and do a 3rd side for a cost of about $2K. Our basement was bone dry the entire time we lived there. Other than that we painted a couple rooms, and we re-painted the front railing and eves/gutters.

We sold it for $240K and upgraded considerably when we moved.

Interesting thread. I find I cannot find an unbiased opinion when it comes to hearing the truth behind investing in real estate.

A friend of mine was a farmer and his family sold off their farm for a tonne of money. He went and purchased a 3 bedroom home in a cookie-cutter neighborhood for 410k. How will he sell this place for any more than he bought it for? It's an up and coming neighborhood, that is growing quickly, but how is anyone ever going to buy a non-detached home with no backyard and no property for over 410k?

Demand?

One more tip re: water, when you leave your house for vacation, make sure you turn the water main off. Friend had a faulty upstairs toilet give him a real crappy coming home present - picture waterfall cascading down the stairs.

Real Estate, how does it work?

410K is easily affordable by a family. And there are lots of places where that would be considered cheap.

Pay the $80 or so to winterize your in ground sprinklers.

Don't ignore your electrical panel. Overloaded circuits are not a good thing.

Keep journals or repairs, issues, etc...paper has a better memory than your brain.

Good attic insulation makes a big difference.

Pay your water bills...there are lien companies out there that will buy out outstanding water bills and then charge YOU the interest.

Same goes for real estate taxes.

I've rented apartments my whole adult life but right now I'm looking for a house to rent. I am not particularly handy so I'm hoping that renting a house will be a good way to try my hand at keeping up on house maintenance.

I'm a complete idiot when it comes to handyman stuff - when we bought our house I spent about $30 on a home depot book that tells you how to do simple home maintenance/repair stuff. It also tells you what you probably shouldn't be messing with, which is really helpful.

We had the garbage disposal seize up during a party for about 50 people - I was able to fix it (which was childishly simple) after looking it up - stuff like that.

And as other posters noted, anything water related (seeps, leaks etc.) needs to be fixed yesterday - the amount of damage from even a small leak is insane.

MM MD

I've been told by every real estate investor that rent is burning money. Anyone who can dissuade me? Keep in mind I don't intend on getting married or having kids.

Well, of course they say that!

What they like to focus on is that by buying instead of paying your rent money to someone else you are 'paying yourself'. Your mortgage payment just builds equity that you can turn around and sell to get your money back. Sounds pretty awesome, right?

What they don't say is that a good chunk of your mortgage is going towards interest costs which go to someone else just like rent. Owning a property has costs like property tax and maintenance that aren't equivalent to renting. If your house goes down in value that 'equity' you built disappears. The extra money you're spending on a house could be invested in other things that return a better rate. And so on.

My wife and I like owning a house. I'm pretty sure right now that renting would be a bit smarter financially than owning - but we like that its our place and that comes with a bunch of benefits. I also hate moving, so by buying a house you have a lot more control over how long you stay there.

how about the platonic method? why do you think that rent is burning money?

I own a condo and my mortgage, taxes, insurance, and HOA come out to be slightly less then what it would cost to rent an equivalent apartment. So on it's face buying doesn't seem that attractive vs renting.

However, when you add in the principal being paid off every month and the tax breaks buying is way better, at least for my situation. Plus condo's are pretty low maintenance. The most expensive thing I've had to fix in the last 5 years is a $400 water heater.

You do realize that people from all over the world read this site and the stuff you said doesn't apply in many, many places?

Same with this.


Inflation? Supply and demand? There are a lot of economic factors that apply to the price of homes in a neighborhood.

I remember when a friend of mine paid $240k for a condo about 8 years ago and I thought he was crazy. I couldn't imagine having a mortgage for that much (you could get a new house for $150k at the time). Last year I bought a house for $425k and really didn't have much choice but to pay in that price range. The economy is strong here and rent prices are high, so it's either pay through the nose renting, buy, or move away (not an option). My point is that if you would have asked me 6 years ago if I'd ever buy a $400k house I would have said that there was no chance.

If you don't think home values will go up noticeably over the next 50 years, do you also anticipate the cost of coffee, gasoline, bread, and candy bars staying roughly the same?

So basically owning a home is protection against inflation?

They're skyrocketing because Congress ended the federal flood insurance program subsidies that kept the true premium level down.

Nobody OWNS a house.

home value appreciation is way below the return on the stock market long term.

With the interest credit Americans get buying a home has to be a positive.

Thoigh the argument for investing the money you save renting can be a valid one problem is many do not have the due diligence. A home is still a great investment toolk

Just bought my first house last May. I wish I would have checked to see if my outdoor spigot had a shutoff valve before winter. It didn't. That was a horrible week of trips to Lowes to fix a broken pipe. Broken plumbing sucks

As someone who has rented for 15 years it is definitely burning money, but my rent is really cheap and my apt is pretty big, but I would rather put my rent to a mortgage, but my credit is bad from poor choices.

Sure the mortgage is mostly interest but as long as the house doesn't lose money you basically will get it back if you sell in a year or so. You just don't want to be house poor.

In Southern California there are plenty of cookie cutters going for $400k+, people will like these because they are new and don't need much, unlike an older home with a bigger front and back yard where you might need a re-pipe/new kitchen/new bath/new roof/new HVAC unit etc. I hate the cookie cutter types but the are good for a lot of people.

Hopefully I can get qualified for a home next year, but my biggest issue is not being house poor.

Renting is probably only good if you are always on the move or can't afford a house.

I haven't ran the numbers at all, but are people really saying that renting is cheaper than buying? We're talking about comparable dwellings right? For that to be true wouldn't most landlords be losing money? Maybe i'm over looking something.

Nope! You are totally right on bro. Paying rent is throwing money away when you could be using it to build equity in an asset that will never depreciate.

-Everyone, before 2008

I was wondering when Thremp would show up.