Home buying thread

Izuldan said:

Whose fault is that? Again, choice, consequences. You choose to have a family earlier in life, especially before you have your career on track, then so be it, but realize it may delay your ability to do other things, especially when it comes to anything involving money, since kids are so expensive. You can"t always have your cake and eat it too. Having a family means taking longer to save money to buy a home, it"s not rocket science. The worst thing you could do is try to cut corners and putting your family in a financially precarious position just because you feel like you have to "own" a home.

And I"m not sure why you feel like it"s some shameful thing to have a family and rent. People do it all the time, unless it"s an ego thing on your part.

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Where did anyone say it was shameful?

You have some serious stock in turning this into a psychological debate.

Ravvenn said:

They"re up in a lot of areas. With so many losing their homes, rentals are in high demands and the prices (here, too) reflect as much.

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And that"s how it used to be in the past. Easy credit is the single biggest reason why house prices have shot up so high in the last few decades and have outstripped the incomes. It used to be that buying was always better,if you could get a downpayment and a mortgage. But not every Dick and Sally could get one.

Noah EQ2 said:

If you can get money at 3.5 to 4% ~ go for it. As a consumer, you will likely not have this chance again soon. Take advantage of a lower payment and put the rest into 8%+ IRA/Index 30yr fund or so. If you want, push a little more on each payment but honestly, if you can get 8% in a retirement fund, it is probably better there. For those that have $$$$ to put down, I would only recommend the amount needed to get the best rate (likely 20%). 3.5% Fixed is ridiculously cheap money. Sure you will owe more but the leftover cash should be pushed into a strong investment which will earn more over those 30 years than the home.

Secondly ~ tax deductions on home interest is nuts. You won"t even realize until you own a home and do your taxes that year. This will likely push you down 4-5% less in taxes, if not more. This is basically a free raise.

One thing you don"t want to do is "buy on payment"... Find a home size and location that is below your means. Approved for 300k? Find something around 220-250 or less if you can.


Now a question for the masses ~ We are looking at a lake front property. Does anyone have experience with them and if you feel they are worth it? The house is just about the right size and location but 20k above market comps in the area since it is on water. Thoughts or experience?

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Do you have kids? Do you plan on buying a boat? Do you have free time to do lake related recreational activities?

If you want it to do some boating don"t. Never buy a boat. Also if you have young kids you"ll have to be careful, so many boating related accidents on lakes it"s really not worth the hassle.

Picasso said:

Where did anyone say it was shameful?

You have some serious stock in turning this into a psychological debate.

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What I meant was whether or not you are married or single has nothing to do about whether or not you should buy a house. It"s all about whether or not you can afford one. Phoenix mentioned he was renting.....Cutlery discounted him because he was single? Why? For all we know, Phoenix is renting a home in a nice neighborhood, Cutlery could be doing the same. Nowhere does it say if you are single you have to be renting some shitty apartment.

TheCutlery said:

Where did I say it was anyone"s fault?

If you think kids are better off in an apartment environment, with all it entails (neighbors of ill repute, drugs in the complex, etc) over having a suburban house in an established neighborhood with a yard and pets and parks and sidewalks and shit, I can"t say anything to you that will matter. The fact is that apartment life is not any way for kids to grow up. You can disagree if you want, but it doesn"t make it anyone"s fault that it"s the case.

Hell, even Cad agreed with me, and he"s the one trumpeting advice apparently only directed at single guys in their early 20"s (who by and large aren"t buying property) or DINKs (Double Income No Kids, mind the negs), who by and large have enough money to afford whatever they want.

Renting is fine if you"re 20 and bagging groceries while you take a couple classes down at the technical college to avoid paying back the student loan. It"s not fine at all if you"ve got a family, your kids deserve better than an 8x10 room on the 3rd floor to call their own (and by that statement, I don"t mean anyone"s kids in particular. I mean that these are things you think as a parent who is renting). I know, I"ve been in that situation, and it sucked shit. We had a kid early, and even as our income grew, we couldn"t outrace the housing bubble. If you guys wanna call me retarded for putting 3.5% down on a house instead of 20, that"s fine, because I don"t really give a shit and 20% is fucking unrealistic these days for most people. You need to pay for a place to live somewhere, it might as well be somewhere decent where your neighbors aren"t 2 pieces of sheetrock away.

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I"m not comparing apartments to homes. No doubt you are better off having your family in a nice suburban home vs. some sketchy apartment in a bad neighborhood......but don"t pretend you somehow can"t rent a home in the same neighborhood you want to buy in. Especially in today"s market. You tell me which area you are looking at, I bet you I can look on Zillow.com and find plenty of rentals.

Again, it"s about affordability, not your marriage status.

And you"re not retarded at all Cutlery, but obviously the financial situation you have you put yourself in, at least take some responsibility. You had a kid early. You are the one who decided to have the kid, THEN try and find a nice home to put them in, which is the hard way, vs. getting yourself financially situated first, getting a nice home, and THEN having kids because you had a nice home to put your kids in. Again, not judging you at all, God knows there are plenty of people in the same exact situation you are, but you need to make the best financial situations for your family now. Taking your family out of a bad neighborhood into a good one is a no-brainer. What you need to ask yourself is....is it better to rent in my new neighborhood, or buy a home in that same neighborhood? And what I"m advising is....rent. Of course, do whatever you want, but read back on my previous posts and see what some of the perils of home ownership are. It"s not something to be entered in lightly, just like becoming a parent.

AladainAF said:

Rentals in Austin cost more payment wise than houses here do. Renting is a terrible idea if you have a family for all the reasons Cutlery said above.

Currently, I"m in a 15 year loan @ 683.00 a month not counting taxes/insurance/hoa. We"ve been saving several k a month toward a new home. We"d like to put 100k down.

Some people say thats dumb but I dunno. It"s going to be in a house we"ll be in for 20 years at least and we"re going to get a 15 year note. Really only thing I feel I"m missing out on is the mortgage interest tax deduction which, let"s not fool ourselves, is going to go away soon.

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It is (all) kind(s) of dumb unless you can get equal tax deductions elsewhere. If you can then it makes no difference, but if you can"t it"d be er $30,000ish over 15 years.

Why do you think the tax deduction is going to go away soon? I don"t think there is much chance of this.

Renting is fine without kids but with kids I would sure as fuck hate to keep moving and separating my kids from their friends just so I can keep my rent down.

You keep going back to apartments because apparently in your state it"s against the law to rent a home.

All we"ve been arguing is whether or not someone who can only put 3.5% down has the "means" to purchase a house. I say no, you say yes, that"s the only place we differ. The whole "apartment" thing is a strawman argument you"ve created.

And don"t kid yourself, rent feeds the slumlords, but a mortgage feeds greedy bankers. You lose either way. Bankers must get a hard-on everytime they see someone like you or Brad come in, willing to pay more money on interest than they need to. It"s obvious this home is an emotional purchase for you, but when it comes to finances, you should always view things as objectively as possible, and leave your emotions on the sidelines.

Renting is nice. Something breaks they fix it. Assuming its a good rental. When my house breaks I need to fix it or find someone to do it for me. It just depends on your situation. I want to go travel for 6 months. I can tell you owning a house is a pain in the ass unless you know someone who wants to check it for you. Renting you tell the landlord and the shit is taken care of.

From an objective POV I have never heard or read of anyone successfully saving money (or coming out ahead) by renting for 30 years instead of buying.

That is not to say that I have not heard of people being screwed by buying because obviously we all have heard of that by now. It is just that I haveneverseen proof where renting turned out to be the better idea anywhere other then "on paper".


*This does not include DINKs or people who otherwise came into wealth or much higher income suddenly and later on in life...

Sinron said:

Renting is nice. Something breaks they fix it. Assuming its a good rental. When my house breaks I need to fix it or find someone to do it for me. It just depends on your situation. I want to go travel for 6 months. I can tell you owning a house is a pain in the ass unless you know someone who wants to check it for you. Renting you tell the landlord and the shit is taken care of.

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Hi there do you remember that time when it was 30 below with snow on the ground and the furnace broke down and it took them 3 days to get their repairman there? No? Well I do. Or how about the time when the neighbor moved out after he caused a massive ant infestation which you only found out when they were crawling all over you one night? No? Well I remember that one to. And it pissed me the hell off when they wouldn"t even let me out of my contract due to ants all over my fucking bedroom (and NO I never ate in there it was confirmed to come from the neighbor who broke lease and ran).

They even had the nerve to raise my rent again when the lease was up.


Fuck renting.

Sharmai said:

From an objective POV I have never heard or read of anyone successfully saving money (or coming out ahead) by renting for 30 years instead of buying.

That is not to say that I have not heard of people being screwed by buying because obviously we all have heard of that by now. It is just that I haveneverseen proof where renting turned out to be the better idea anywhere other then "on paper".


*This does not include DINKs or people who otherwise came into wealth or much higher income suddenly and later on in life...







Hi there do you remember that time when it was 30 below with snow on the ground and the furnace broke down and it took them 3 days to get their repairman there? No? Well I do. Or how about the time when the neighborhood moved out after he caused a massive ant infestation which you only found out when they were crawling all over you one night? No? Well I remember that one to. And it pissed me the hell of when they wouldn"t even let me out of my contract due to ants all over my fucking bedroom (and NO I never ate in there it was confirmed to come from the neighbor who broke lease and ran).

They even had the nerve to raise my rent again when the lease was up.


Fuck renting.

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Like I said depends on your situation. What about owning that house next to some weird ass neighbor? Who is constantly playing loud fucking music or throws shit in your yard. You want to move and get the fuck away from him but the housing market just sucks and you cant sell but for some huge loss.

I have never had a bad rental. I realize I am probably fortunate.

1. When buying a house look at the HOA"s rules.
2. Check out your neighbors. Obviously if someone moves in later on that can"t be helped but still...
3. Sue. I don"t like suing more then the next guy but if some dumbass neighbor doesn"t get the idea that throwing trash in your yard is a bad idea then grow a pair. At least you can sue. Better then going into your apartment complex and seeing trash on the stairs every night and not being able to get anything done about it.

Besides while bad neighbor horror stories do happen they are not nearly as common or long lasting as all that. While rising rent and shitty apartment companies is the status quo.

Sharmai said:

1. When buying a house look at the HOA"s rules.
2. Check out your neighbors. Obviously if someone moves in later on that can"t be helped but still...
3. Sue. I don"t like suing more then the next guy but if some dumbass neighbor doesn"t get the idea that throwing trash in your yard is a bad idea then grow a pair. At least you can sue. Better then going into your apartment complex and seeing trash on the stairs every night and not being able to get anything done about it.

Besides while bad neighbor horror stories do happen they are not nearly as common or long lasting as all that. While rising rent and shitty apartment companies is the status quo.

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Yeah I can see you got all the answers.

Sinron said:

Yeah I can see you got all the answers.

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Sharmai said:

That is not to say that I have not heard of people being screwed by buying because obviously we all have heard of that by now. It is just that I have never seen proof where renting turned out to be the better idea anywhere other then "on paper".

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Sharmai said:

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Do you sell real estate Sharmai?

Izuldan said:

You keep going back to apartments because apparently in your state it"s against the law to rent a home.

All we"ve been arguing is whether or not someone who can only put 3.5% down has the "means" to purchase a house. I say no, you say yes, that"s the only place we differ. The whole "apartment" thing is a strawman argument you"ve created.

And don"t kid yourself, rent feeds the slumlords, but a mortgage feeds greedy bankers. You lose either way. Bankers must get a hard-on everytime they see someone like you or Brad come in, willing to pay more money on interest than they need to. It"s obvious this home is an emotional purchase for you, but when it comes to finances, you should always view things as objectively as possible, and leave your emotions on the sidelines.

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You want to argue anyone who puts 3.5% down cant afford it?