buying a house

“LOL...Wounded...A friend had bought a 1.4 acre lot with a 1200 sqft house on it....around 80K

So I noted that this other place (4 mins from the lake) went on sale. asking 65K, I offered 55 but they had to clean everything out...60 and I would pay 5 K for the existing furniture.

Ended up with 1.89 AC, 1400 sqft house two of three bedrooms furnished, furnished LR K, washer dryer everything....and then my freinds sold his for 105 K or so.....”

“Hello! Sweet”

“My wife and I are getting ready to put an offer on a 2 family that would make owning cheaper than we are currently renting, barring any major repairs or replacements.

We weren't planning to buy just yet, but our rent is getting jacked up higher than we're comfortable with, and I'm seeing opportunity written all over the house. This house is a rare find around here, in that with only a small down payment, the PITI and maintenance could be covered with the rental income from month 1. That means we'll be able to keep a good amount of our savings and be able to move out without selling when we are ready to buy a single family home in a better neighborhood in a few years.

This isn't our dreamhouse, and while it's not a "bad" neighborhood, it's in an area where the houses are a little too close together for me. I'm ok with that because we're not ready to buy our true "home" yet anyway. When we are ready to do that, we will be able to keep this house, and in 20-25 years, hopefully we'll own it outright thanks to our tenants.”

“Starter homes are the way to go. Gives you time to figure out what you really do (or don't) want with the "dream home". Congrats on giving up the rent payments!”

“Here's a thought.
After a couple of years buy another duplex and live in it and have three rental incomes. Then think if maybe you'd like to do it again (or even many times) or just get a single for yourself and have four rentals.

I'd think as long as you can handle being a landlord with multiple properties your ability to build wealth should be looking pretty good. I think it would be pretty cool to have your properties pay for themselves (including your primary residence) plus a bit of profit.”

“When the housing market slows, some home sellers drop their asking price. Others give buyers allowances to cover the cost of upgrades or offer help with financing.

Bob and Ricki Husick came up with a more creative twist: Whoever buys their four-bedroom, 31/2-bath home on Fountain Hills Drive in Pine would get their money back after the Husicks die.

Not only that, but if the buyers are willing to care for the Husicks in their old age, they could also inherit the Husicks' retirement home in Arizona for a total estate now worth about $500,000. The couple has no heirs.

"Why not go for the works? So if we're worth $2.5 million, you get it all," said Mr. Husick, 55, a former Wachovia mortgage broker who would like to continue working after he and his wife move to Arizona.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07302/829344-30.stm”

“I wish sellers would realize that the market is crap.
This hasn't been a fun process so far.”

“Just keep looking. You should wind up with a bargain. Folks are likely in denail about the amount of equity they're left with based on the devalued property.”

“Good luck Opie. Hang in there and make sure you don't get hasty w/ decisions.”

“Come up north and buy my duplex. I'm damn sure not in denial:)”

“I feel ya.

We bought a house back in July.

Our first choice wasn't what we ended up with. The guy was asking $170,000 which was high even when everyone and their dog could still get a mortgage. We felt a good price would have been 140-145. We really wanted it, so we even reluctantly offered $152,000. Know what the counter-offer was? $168,500. Obviously, it was time to walk.”

“When I sold mine this summer I got a really low first offer and came back with a really high #. We wound up 6k under my asking. I knew they'd looked at the house 3x before their offer though so that made me a little more aggressive on the offers.”

“The houses on each side of Chili and I, in Knoxville, are for sale. One has been up for several months. They have reduced the price $14,000...plus they are giving an update allowance. The other just went up last week.”

“We sold ours this summer. Only had the house 2.5 years and made 120% on it. It sold the first day. The house we bought had all the upgrades we were planning on doing on the other house, but for tens of thousands less money. Good times.”

“"Folks are likely in denail..." - DH


Would this be a fancy term for home demolition? : )”

“Just showing my spelling skillz.”

“wurd”

“Wasn't the suburbs around ATL one of the few places were values were still rising?”

“http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/01/property-stable-homes-forbeslife-cx_mw_1001realestate_slide_8.html?thisSpeed=18000
(use the arrows at top to get to ATL page)



7. Atlanta, Ga.

Median home price: $175,500

Annual price change from 2006: 0.9%

Projected price change to 2008: 4.4%

Affordable markets like Atlanta don't feel the extreme swings of higher-priced markets. The city's migration and job creation spikes have made Atlanta one of the fastest-growing cities in America. Its current problems are the result of a bloated inventory, especially condos in the beltway, but other fundamentals, including a fast sales rate and a low proportion of non-conforming mortgages, suggest it can burn off its supply glut.”

“we offered 159K on one with a list of 169K, they countered with 170....lmao”

“Good luck, Opies.
Your puppy needs a yard (saw Mrs Opie's MySpace page). :-)
last edited: 11/21/07 12:30:04 PM”

“Are these prices for people sized homes or doll/dog houses?”

“What part of Affordable markets did vile not understand?”

“If these houses were more people size, rather than giant size, they would be affordable to buy and live in. Profits from bigger houses is bigger for the builders so the little stuff just hasn't been built in this latest boom. Even at reduced prices many can't afford taxes and heating /cooling.

Average house size doubled from 1964 -2004(989sqft>>2056sqft)
last edited: 11/21/07 8:27:01 PM”

“Just my opinion, which for some reason has always been pretty accurate, if your not already a renter, you should be.”

“Why? You rent for a year you have a stack of cancelled checks to show for it. You buy and you have some equity after a year.”

“My belief is that owning a home is seen too much as an investment. For many people renting is probably the way to go.

If I still rented I would be in a better financial position than I am by owning. There's the mortgage which is double what rent was, the gas and electric, which is at least 3 times what it was when renting, the maintenance, all the crap my wife buys for the house, the taxes, and the insurance.

If I took all that and put it in the bank, the amount on my bank statement would easily be ten times the amount of equity I'd otherwise have after the first few years of owning a home.

I'm not saying owning is a bad choice, but it's also probably not such a bad choice to put it off.”

“Don't forget, if you own your own home, your dog can be over 18" at the shoulder.”

“Home ownership has paid off for me. Our combined costs of owning a home (mortgage, taxes, and utilities offset by mortgage interest deductions) have been less than rent of a similar sized building. After 20 years, the mortgage is paid off, and the cost of homeownership now is a fraction of the rent.”

“Hotlanta has a beltway? Cool!

Did someone say they live in a Denali? That's cool, too. I'm happy with my small Tacoma. It's cozy, paid for, and gets good gas mileage.”

“So long as rent here is 450 a month I am paying half or less then a mortgage and I am not paying for upkeep or propety taxes...

While I would prefer to own It just does not make sense when our needs and situation will change drastically in a few years.”

“ductape, its the biggest investment of your life, unless you are one of the rare few that takes their 401K seriously starting in their early 20's.

Here's a good example of how its a much better investment than renting. I'm going to ignore insurance and energy costs. Insurance is only a few hundred more annually than renter's insurance in most areas (flood and hurricane zones excluded), and if you insulate right your energy costs should be lower than all the poorly insulated apartments out there. Our energy useage at our 2700 sq. ft. house is lower than it was for our 1100 sq. ft. town home, or any of the 700 sq. ft. apartments we rented when we were starting out.

My father paid $150,000 in 1979 to buy his land and build his house. Its now worth over 1 million. Subtracting out costs for a new roof coming soon, new heating system last year, other upkeep, and interest on the loan that paid for the house, the net value is still about $800,000. Since he plans on staying there at least another 10 years (and will stop paying for the place in less than 2 years), the net value will start to skyrocket since the property value will go up while his costs drop almost to zero. This is what prosecutor was demonstrating in his post.

If he had instead rented for all those years I estimate it would have cost about $200,000, not counting time value of money which would give a more accurate figure. So looking at rough numbers rent for a much smaller place would cost a little less than the total cost of ownership of the house. Going with a bigger rental unit, the cost of renting is even or more.

Since rent goes up every year (unlike fixed mortgages), very little would have been left over every year to invest, so after 28 years the renter is left with 28 years of cancelled checks and $200,000+ out-of-pocket. The home owner is left with $800,000 in net equity. Almost as important, mortgages stay the same for 30 years, so cost of living becomes an increasingly smaller percentage of the budget as income increases over the years.

Put another way, income increases 3% each year. So does rent, gas, food, healthcare, etc... so at the end of the year the renter's buying power never increases. For the home owner the largest expense (mortgage payment) never increases, so their buying power exponentially increases over the years. And once the mortgage payment is gone - like in prosecutor's case - then the owner's buying power skyrockets.

Going with the impossible scenario, if my father could have lived rent-free for the last 28 years and instead invested that $150,000 at 5%, it would today be worth about $588,000. About half what his home is worth. But to make this scenario even more impossible, he didn't have $150K to invest 28 years ago, which is why he had to get the home loan. So closer to reality he would have had a little to invest as his income grew, but since the early years are much more important for long-term investments, today he would be lucky to have $100,000 in the bank. If he didn't just spend the extra money as he got it, like most of America is doing today.

Like with all investments, its best to get in early - especially when the market is weak like the housing market now is. Then your investment has more time to grow exponentially, and so does your buying power.
last edited: 11/23/07 7:02:08 AM”

“Tech, those are rare examples. You have to agree with that, right? Most of the neighborhoods in my area appreciate at around 3-4% a year historically. And you are one of an extremely small percentage who pays less to heat and cool four times as much space.

It costs me a lot more to own than it did when renting. I paid nothing for heat while renting, and no amount of insulation in the world is going to make my gas and electric charges average $40 a month in my house. I paid no property taxes, didn't pay for water or trash removal, and didn't have to pay when the roof leaked, toilet exploded, etc in an apartment. So, most of those expenses didn't simply increase, they were non-existant before. Those costs alone, not even taking the mortgage into account, add up to almost the entire cost of renting our last apartment.

Those costs should all rise at the same rate, so they will always be just a little less than the entire cost of renting. The only way I would end up better in the long run from a purely financial stance is if my home was appreciating at a much higher rate than it ever will in my area. I just threw some numbers together in a spreadsheet and I would be better off to rent until I could pay cash for the house, again from a purely financial stance.

I would never go back to renting. You can't put a price tag on not having to hear the neighbors screaming at each other, do your laundry in the same machine said nasty neighbor does theirs in, not having the sides of your car bashed by ashole neighbors cardoors, etc.”

“If you're a homeowner, your roof doesn't shake when your neighbors kids decide they are kangaroos.”

“At our last apartment, I think the kids had those roller skate shoes.”

“His example isnt mainstream, but not rare. He got in just before the big value increase in the early 80s, and held during the latest one over the last 7 years. That does put his average yearly increase higher. But even putting his growth at 4%, the curent gross value would be $450,000. The net would be $200k to $300k. Still way above renting.

As for energy useage, I was talking about the useage when we moved in 3 years ago. Before adding insulation, etc. The attic had 4 inches of insulation instead of 18. I didnt keep track of kW before this house, only rough $. Our average bill our first year here was about $100. In our townhome no bill went below $100.”

“My wife won't let me buy this: http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=418489

We've watched it being built for over four years now. It's the most amazing house in town. The owners never even moved into it. I guess they must be getting divorced or something.

I deserve it.”

“Good gawd, it looks like a conference center.”

“I figure with a million down, the monthly payment would only be about $23,000 before taxes and insurance.”

“Heated driveway!!!!! WTF? I didn't know you could get that, wonder why it wasn't an option on my condo??”

“plus it has its own soundtrack. coolio”

“Bill Gates and his buddies has Propane heated driveways at their cabins(cabins the size of that castle) in Idaho and wouldn't want a plow or blower to mess up that $75.00 a square foot drive way.”

“wow!

the state office building and the state house here have heated stairs so they don't ice up.”

“My wife won't let me - violin

LMAO - I bet you have to say that to whatever few male friends your wife reluctantly lets you have a lot!”

“Architectural Masterpiece? I think not. That monstrosity is god awful.”

“Never buy a house you wouldn't feel comfortable farting in.”

“The beholders beauty is in the 'I'.

Take three, thats a _rap.
last edited: 5/22/08 6:22:36 AM”

“Looks a bit like my old boss's house. Friggin' over the top ridiculously huge. He did have a really nice "dream" kitchen though.”

“I think you should try to buy it without letting your wife find out about it. (With small enough payments she'll never know.)”

“It's almost good enough for Al Gore.
Think of the carbon credits it will need.”