Home buying thread

Leadsalad

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Your mortgage doesn't go up but your insurance, property taxes and maintenance all go up just the same IMO
Yeah, sure, but at some point your mortgage payment ends. Rent never ends (and it goes up every year due to those same taxes).
 
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Khane

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What is or isn't smart doesn't really play into it for a lot of people. Whether it's logical or not the past ~20 years soured a lot of the younger generation on homeownership.

I think a lot of younger people just don't really care to deal with it and there is a fair amount to deal with, in a world where people pay ridiculous sums to have literally anything and everything done for them.
 

Daidraco

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What is or isn't smart doesn't really play into it for a lot of people. Whether it's logical or not the past ~20 years soured a lot of the younger generation on homeownership.

I think a lot of younger people just don't really care to deal with it and there is a fair amount to deal with, in a world where people pay ridiculous sums to have literally anything and everything done for them.
These kids really dont know how to do just basic things. Things I would call someone a city slicker for not knowing 15 years ago. But they can jump on a computer and code a small program for me in half an hour. They also have a "not my job" type of attitude, as well. One of the rental properties had a corrugated pipe come completely off a gutter down spout because "something" knocked it off - instead of just slipping it back on, they called us. For fucks sake, what do you think we're going to do when we come out there? Simple shit like that. This gen is fucked if anything drastic happens.
 

Khane

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My tenants are older than me and have 4 kids and I've been called to "fix" some pretty hilarious stuff. The best one was their dryer not working. They knocked the plug out of the outlet somehow and never even thought to check. Hilarious
 
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Lanx

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My tenants are older than me and have 4 kids and I've been called to "fix" some pretty hilarious stuff. The best one was their dryer not working. They knocked the plug out of the outlet somehow and never even thought to check. Hilarious
how the hell you mistaken knock out a 220 outlet plug
 

Kais

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These kids really dont know how to do just basic things.
It's even worse than that for retirees building their last home. Shit you would have thought they would have figured out 2-3 homes ago. I get calls for our new construction homes at least once a week that goes something like "if the electrician shows up and all he has to do is press the gfi reset hes going to charge you for the trip. Heres a picture of hte gfi with a big red arrow at the button you need to push." next day...."why is he charging me this is unreasonable!!!" It's cause you bought a 6way and tried to plug in your ipad, tv, blender, espresso machine, and toaster oven on the same outlet! I even showed you a picture of the button you push! Pay up, that motherfucker WILL send the bill to collections
 
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Kais

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I think my favorite one was a lady complaining that there was a pencil mark left on the corner of the mantel from the trim carpenter who built it. She demands he come out there that day to "fix it". He shows back up, asks to borrow a pencil, erases the mark, and hands her a bill for $150.
 
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Fucker

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They also have a "not my job" type of attitude, as well. One of the rental properties had a corrugated pipe come completely off a gutter down spout because "something" knocked it off - instead of just slipping it back on, they called us. For fucks sake, what do you think we're going to do when we come out there? Simple shit like that. This gen is fucked if anything drastic happens.
I ran into "it's not my job" a LOT in the last state I lived in. I had some furniture delivery done. One crew to drop off beds, another to assemble frames. Frame guys took 45 minutes to put a bed together. 2 of them. They wouldn't put the mattress on the frame because it wasn't their job. I told them to get the fuck out and did the second bed myself. Took me 10 minutes. Washer dryer guys wouldn't hook them up because the water line was leaking. I told them it was wet because I just unhooked the old washer. They left both units in the hallway and left.

These guys were all over 30 and probably wondering why they were delivering furniture.

I doubt I'd be able to run any kind of business that employs people because almost no one under 40 has any kind of work ethic.

I know a guy who rents a lot of units. Big family business...100's of units. He charges for everything allowable. Light bulb? $60 to install. People pay it, too.
 
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OU Ariakas

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Home ownership seems to be a microcosm of some other cultural beliefs that have been cultivated over the last few generations. There is a mindset to home ownership that completely goes over the head of young people that look at the cost vs. renting and just say "it's close enough, why deal with the issues?" It is because owning a piece of land and the house that went on it was a fucking huge deal a hundred years ago and the very basis of freedom anytime before 1900. It was buying something with the intent that this small piece of real estate was the bedrock for building the rest of your life around, and without that you were always beholden to someone else. Large swaths of younger Millennials and Gen Z seem to not take seriously the idea that living a life trying to be happy is destined to fail and that the things that bring satisfaction and contentment are usually hard and do not make you feel happy most of the time.
 
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Khane

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All of that isn't terribly realistic these days though. Job loyalty doesn't pay anymore, so to speak, and so people change jobs often just to get whatever money they feel they deserve and in a reality like that homeownership can kind of feel like being handcuffed. Putting down roots is very different now than it was even 30 years ago.

Combine that with lazy, incompetent, unscrupulous "professionals" across the board in all facets of the home buying and selling process and there is a high degree of mistrust as well. The whole industry revolves around trying to get people to buy and sell often. At some point it switched from buying an actual home to buying a building that you'll call your house, for a bit of time. Personal pride has kind of been marketed out.
 
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OU Ariakas

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All of that isn't terribly realistic these days though. Job loyalty doesn't pay anymore, so to speak, and so people change jobs often just to get whatever money they feel they deserve and in a reality like that homeownership can kind of feel like being handcuffed. Putting down roots is very different now than it was even 30 years ago.

Combine that with lazy, incompetent, unscrupulous "professionals" across the board in all facets of the home buying and selling process and there is a high degree of mistrust as well. The whole industry revolves around trying to get people to buy and sell often. At some point it switched from buying an actual home to buying a building that you'll call your house, for a bit of time. Personal pride has kind of been marketed out.

No, you think it isn't terribly realistic because you are unmoored from what constitutes living a good life. You think that the most money, biggest house, and the most luxuries around you are the goal and then come here talking about how your generations women are not worth your money and about how everyone in business is trying to cheat you. Like the phrase caveat emptor is a new phrase. It is very, very easy to find well meaning people from older generations that will answer questions around how to not get screwed when buying a house; the rest of your post is just complaining about how mean people force you into some sort of gypsy lifestyle. Life isn't fair and there are plenty of people out there who will acknowledge that and still show you how to incrementally build a meaningful life. You, Khane, rejecting that is not a repudiation for everyone around your age or younger.
 
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Khane

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Bud, I wasn't talking about my own personal belief. I was talking about why a lot of people from younger generations feel the way they do about buying a house.
 

Tmac

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All of that isn't terribly realistic these days though. Job loyalty doesn't pay anymore, so to speak, and so people change jobs often just to get whatever money they feel they deserve and in a reality like that homeownership can kind of feel like being handcuffed. Putting down roots is very different now than it was even 30 years ago.

Combine that with lazy, incompetent, unscrupulous "professionals" across the board in all facets of the home buying and selling process and there is a high degree of mistrust as well. The whole industry revolves around trying to get people to buy and sell often. At some point it switched from buying an actual home to buying a building that you'll call your house, for a bit of time. Personal pride has kind of been marketed out.

Millennials haven’t done enough real estate deals to experience any professionals, much less bad ones.

The reality is that they have no value system and have been sold “you will own nothing and be happy”. Which is the opposite of reality.
 

Khane

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Maybe they haven't "done deals" but I bet they've watched HGTV.

That should be a joke but it isn't. It's not surprising a generation of people who grew up being sold the concept of starter homes and the "value add" of granite countertops and then lived through 2008 doesn't have an "American Dream" idealism for homes.
 

Onoes

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Hey, I'm thinking about something, and despite being well known as the guy on FOH making solid and rational decisions when it comes to important things... thought I would ask some advice here.

So, I currently own a home, I owe a little less than 180,000 on it, and have 12 more years on the lease. My current homes value is 380,000-400,000. I've stumbled upon a recently renovated duplex (two bedrooms on each unit, plus a 1 car garage each) in a nice location in my town. I checked the Zillow and it looks like someone bought it in 2021 for $220,000, renovated it, and resold it in 2023 for $330,000. No clue why the new owners are trying to sell it within a year of buying it, but my guess is they would be happy walking away with the $330,000 they put into it.

I checked local apartments, and for a 2 bedroom they are running $1200+, so I'm guessing I could get $1400+ per unit on this duplex. Also, my wife and I have a monthly surplus of about $4,000 AFTER what we budget for, so even if we had no tenets, we could make the monthly payments ourselves (Assuming no major life changes, which is always a risk). I do think we could put down the down payment, but would have to finance the rest, and it would wipe out our savings/emergency fund. The other option would be to borrow against the equity on our current house for the down payment, to ensure we still have a pile of money on hand just in case.

Do you guys think this is something worth looking into more, or should I really not be considering this?
 
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Khane

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First, don't trust zillow for anything. In different areas people use different sites for apartment hunting more prevalently. Here, it's Facebook marketplace oddly enough. Find out what the bigger sites are for that in your area and use those to determine rent pricing.

Second, consider worst case scenarios for dealing with tenants and ask yourself, honestly, if you have the capacity to be a shithead to deal with shitheads.
 

Lanx

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Hey, I'm thinking about something, and despite being well known as the guy on FOH making solid and rational decisions when it comes to important things... thought I would ask some advice here.

So, I currently own a home, I owe a little less than 180,000 on it, and have 12 more years on the lease. My current homes value is 380,000-400,000. I've stumbled upon a recently renovated duplex (two bedrooms on each unit, plus a 1 car garage each) in a nice location in my town. I checked the Zillow and it looks like someone bought it in 2021 for $220,000, renovated it, and resold it in 2023 for $330,000. No clue why the new owners are trying to sell it within a year of buying it, but my guess is they would be happy walking away with the $330,000 they put into it.

I checked local apartments, and for a 2 bedroom they are running $1200+, so I'm guessing I could get $1400+ per unit on this duplex. Also, my wife and I have a monthly surplus of about $4,000 AFTER what we budget for, so even if we had no tenets, we could make the monthly payments ourselves (Assuming no major life changes, which is always a risk). I do think we could put down the down payment, but would have to finance the rest, and it would wipe out our savings/emergency fund. The other option would be to borrow against the equity on our current house for the down payment, to ensure we still have a pile of money on hand just in case.

Do you guys think this is something worth looking into more, or should I really not be considering this?
ask slum(land)lord Daidraco Daidraco
 
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