Home buying thread

Caligula_The_Cat said:

I’m sure the plan is to pass a chunk of the taxes onto tourists in the form of a sales tax. Meatball knows you can’t just cut all that revenue without replacing it.

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Im quite content with having an obnoxiously high sales tax. Hell - 80% of the shit in the grocery store should have a regular sales tax and not a food & drug tax (or lack thereof). I'd be annoyed that I'm paying $4-5 bucks for a White Monster, rather than the $2.50 they cost now... but energy drinks and similar shit arent exactly something I HAVE TO have.

Or in other words, that bothers me a whole lot less than the House I own and worked hard to own is still taxed every year. Where it could all of a sudden go from a county tax, to being included within the city because of redistricting - and all of a sudden, in my old age - I cant afford to eat AND pay the taxes on my vehicles and House. Or if I had a medical problem right fucking now - that if I was in deep rehabilitation for a year+ that I would struggle to keep my house and vehicles because of taxes?

Just... fuck taxes. Fuck paying for all these fucking social programs that were setup to help "the few" in real need, but end up fucking "helping" thousands of people, turning red owned and red supported taxes turn their own fucking city blue.

/rant

Sanrith Descartes said:

Let's look at it objectively. They is zero, less than zero, chance this doesn't get the 60% of the vote to pass if it makes the ballot. The fight will be every county in court to keep it off the ballot.

If it makes the ballot it passes. So the question becomes how do all the counties compensate for the massive loss of revenue to fund schools, firefighters and shit. It will have to be sales taxes, but those all require referendums to implememt.

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Increasing sales tax and abolishing real estate tax AND personal property tax wont effect counties much at all. The rentals I have in Campbell county Virginia come up at something like $0.45 cents per $100 in assessed value. It would ultimately save my renters $50-$100 bucks in rent a month.

Looking at local budgets, the cities would have the hardest time with sales tax and thats probably where the majority of the pushback would come from. County tax here would have to go up from 1% to 4% to balance the budget of current expenses. City on the other hand would have to go from 1% up to 8% to balance the budget. City and county sales tax overlap. So inside the city, you would be paying 4% from county, 8% from city, 4.3% from state (16.3%). Effectively DOUBLE of what you would be charged just to buy your shit outside of city limits. So in order to not bleed out over the next few years, the city would have to make some low sympathy choices and bring the sales tax down significantly.

Or in other words - if real estate tax abolishment gained any massive following with meaningful results - this would be another "Great Reform" across the US.

If you had $150k cash but weren't ready to buy a home, would you buy something anyways to get into the market?

I feel bad throwing away $36k/year towards rent but I know that home ownership isn't necessarily cheaper either.

Right now two places I'm considering are L.A. or NYC.. and in NYC I'd get a shitter place however it would be easier to rent out.

Otherwise I could buy a place in Dallas and rent it out but there's that whole 20% down rule for rental properties.

Lanx said:

don't you live in nyc now?

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No, I've been traveling

ToeMissile said:

Also, need more context. Type and size of the home/property, neighborhood, etc. I'm not really familiar w/ NYC but I'm in Southern CA; guessing the greater LA region is going to have a much larger variety.

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I am just looking for 1bd/bath.
Just wondering if its worth getting into the market to have something. I feel exposed holding onto cash/stocks.

I'd avoid playing the landlord game if you want to avoid financial risk, that can blow up in your face badly if you get a bad renter and if you only have one property you can't spread the financial risk around.

If you're not ready to settle in a particular place I'd just keep the money it invested for now. Don't underestimate the value of having a liquid reserve, plenty of people don't have a reserve and end up in dire straits within a month or two of losing employment.

tugofpeace said:

If you had $150k cash but weren't ready to buy a home, would you buy something anyways to get into the market?

I feel bad throwing away $36k/year towards rent but I know that home ownership isn't necessarily cheaper either.

Right now two places I'm considering are L.A. or NYC.. and in NYC I'd get a shitter place however it would be easier to rent out.

Otherwise I could buy a place in Dallas and rent it out but there's that whole 20% down rule for rental properties.

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Absolutely not, especially not with today's mortgage rates.

Shit, put it in CD's if it's money you need in the short term but it's burning a hole in your pocket.

Homes are generally not the greatest investments. They "work" because you need a place to live anyway, so you're taking that rent money and leveraging it. But it lags the stock market pretty dramatically. And in order to even look decent, you need to hold it for longer than just a few years.

All you'd be doing is making an investment into something that's not that great, missing all the advantages of home ownership.

tugofpeace said:

If you had $150k cash but weren't ready to buy a home, would you buy something anyways to get into the market?

I feel bad throwing away $36k/year towards rent but I know that home ownership isn't necessarily cheaper either.

Right now two places I'm considering are L.A. or NYC.. and in NYC I'd get a shitter place however it would be easier to rent out.

Otherwise I could buy a place in Dallas and rent it out but there's that whole 20% down rule for rental properties.

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Depends on the market. NYC and LA in particular have both high cost of entry, and laws that heavily favor tenants. No thanks.

It needs to be done at a scale greater than one, especially if you have a mortgage on the unit. Large repairs can easily scuttle all your profits for that year. Further, if you aren't local to your rental, you'd need to hire a company to manage it for you. More lost $ and these businesses tend to offer shit service.

Current mortgage rates for rental properties also cuts into profit, nearly to the point that it isn't worth it. Also, home values are very high. Values can only appreciate so much, even in high growth markets, so counting on appreciation as source of profit is pretty risky business.

For instance, I purchased small 1000-1200 sq ft homes when the economy hit the skids. $70-$75k each. 3 years ago, these values hit $400k. If you bought one to rent at peak value, you just bought a loss, because these houses are now going for $75-$100k less...and rental values have also fallen. You are now spending $300 more a month on mortgage than you are taking in on rent. This does not even consider all the other expenses that come along with this type of venture.

I looked at getting back into it last year, but the high cost of entrance, low returns, and appreciation ceilings means that I can make a lot more money in pretty much any other type of investing, and I can jump in and out of these investments with a few mouse clicks. You can't do that with real estate.