Questions about Buying or Renting Housing

[Provenance]

Me and my fiance will be getting married in May 2017. I am just curious if anyone has some wisdom regarding the best way to approach housing. Neither of us want kids at all anytime soon.

What should I look for? Obviously, owning your own property has benefits, but if it's just me and her I don't want to pay for space we don't use.

[Kujako]

Can't recall the term, but check how many years it takes for property in your area to double in value.

[Fasolina]

A lot depends on your income, where you live, and what your objective is. Kinda hard to answer this without more information. I will say that you should be careful in major cities right now: the second realestate bubble is in full swing and you can get seriously burned.

[Reg]

Don't bite off more than you can chew. I mean that in two ways. First, make sure finances are in order and you aren't going out of your budget. Second, owning a house is a lot of work, inside and out. Between the upkeep both inside and out, it will take up a good chunk of time every week.

[chazus]

I recently purchased a house about two years ago. There are a lot of factors involved. Expect to look at a lot of shitty houses first.

Also make sure they actually fall into your criteria. My realty agent showed me a number of houses that I didn't even qualify for (FHA vs Conventional Loan)

[Gestopft]

Have you thought about a condo? You can start building equity as a homeowner, you probably won't have more space than you need, and your outdoor maintenance is usually taken care of by a HOA.

[SirPiken]

If you have the credit and live in an area unlikely to have the property values plummet, buying is usually cheaper. I pay $100 a month more on my mortgage than I did when we rented for literally twice the living space. If you live in some place with ridiculous housing prices though you may have to rent, even though it is basically throwing money away if you live in an area where property values steadily rise.

[The Casualty]

Also consider that while you may not want the extra space immediately, you may want or need it later, and selling a home with space enough only for 2 people is harder than selling a single family home.

[Provenance]

A lot depends on your income, where you live, and what your objective is. Kinda hard to answer this without more information. I will say that you should be careful in major cities right now: the second realestate bubble is in full swing and you can get seriously burned.

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Our combined income will be roughly $80,000. I have a good job I started in July and I expect that to go up. We live in the Nashville area.

Have you thought about a condo? You can start building equity as a homeowner, you probably won't have more space than you need, and your outdoor maintenance is usually taken care of by a HOA.

I have actually! I don't know much about them, but today they're what I've been most interested in looking at and learning about.

[Tijuana]

Me and my fiance will be getting married in May 2017. I am just curious if anyone has some wisdom regarding the best way to approach housing. Neither of us want kids at all anytime soon.

What should I look for? Obviously, owning your own property has benefits, but if it's just me and her I don't want to pay for space we don't use.

1. Buy a starter home, not your dream home.
2. Get a home you can afford to buy with 20% down on a 15 year note.
3. When you can pay off the first home, or get wage increases, then move to your "dream" home or whatever.

The financial purpose of home ownership is to negate the inflation of rent, and limit expenses when you retire. You have a long time until you retire. Don't jump in too early, and let the burden of high payments ruin your life.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Our combined income will be roughly $80,000. I have a good job I started in July and I expect that to go up. We live in the Nashville area.



I have actually! I don't know much about them, but today they're what I've been most interested in looking at and learning about.

If you live in Nashville, I assume you know who Dave Ramsey is. Buy his book. You may have to skip past some evangelical nonsense but, the financial advice is solid.

[Fasolina]

Thanks for the quick replies everyone. Our combined income will be roughly $80,000. I have a good job I started in July and I expect that to go up. We live in the Nashville area.



I have actually! I don't know much about them, but today they're what I've been most interested in looking at and learning about.

Condos can be good starter homes like he said. I'm not familiar with Nashville so it is hard to comment on what the current housing market is like there, but the bottom line is that there are going to be pluses and minuses. One thing I will say: assume everyone in the equation (including your own buyers agent) is out to screw you. Housing, like car-buying, is the kind of thing that give zero incentives to the people who are supposedly there to help you to get you a better price. In most cases, the more you pay, the more everyone makes off of you. I've dealt with about five or six real estate agents in my home-buying life and have to say that even the nicest ones were a little scummy.

Oh another great piece of advice: if it isn't in writing, it isn't true. When I bought my condo, BOTH realestate agents fed me this line of bullshit about how the condo fees were going to go DOWN over time. This was absolute bullshit. Not only was that just a bold face lie, I'm paying almost double what I was paying ten years ago in condo fees. My real estate agent also told me that the condos in the building I was buying mine in were such an amazing deal that she was going to buy AT LEAST one unit herself as a rental investment. She didn't buy shit.

[Provenance]

1. Buy a starter home, not your dream home.
2. Get a home you can afford to buy with 20% down on a 15 year note.
3. When you can pay off the first home, or get wage increases, then move to your "dream" home or whatever.

The financial purpose of home ownership is to negate the inflation of rent, and limit expenses when you retire. You have a long time until you retire. Don't jump in too early, and let the burden of high payments ruin your life.

- - - Updated - - -



If you live in Nashville, I assume you know who Dave Ramsey is. Buy his book. You may have to skip past some evangelical nonsense but, the financial advice is solid.

Yeah I listen to Dave Ramsey on occasion and enjoy his show. What you're saying falls in line well with my own understanding and expectations. I work in Metro area, but would prefer to live in the surrounding area. It's an extremely fast growing area so there are tons of new developments going up all the time. Is there a rule of thumb for how much house you can afford based on income? I think I read its like 3x or something like that. That seems excessive though.

[Felya]

Don't over do it. Plan ahead. Have at least 20% down and a few grand in a rainy day fund.

[Provenance]

Condos can be good starter homes like he said. I'm not familiar with Nashville so it is hard to comment on what the current housing market is like there, but the bottom line is that there are going to be pluses and minuses. One thing I will say: assume everyone in the equation (including your own buyers agent) is out to screw you. Housing, like car-buying, is the kind of thing that give zero incentives to the people who are supposedly there to help you to get you a better price. In most cases, the more you pay, the more everyone makes off of you. I've dealt with about five or six real estate agents in my home-buying life and have to say that even the nicest ones were a little scummy.

Oh another great piece of advice: if it isn't in writing, it isn't true. When I bought my condo, BOTH realestate agents fed me this line of bullshit about how the condo fees were going to go DOWN over time. This was absolute bullshit. Not only was that just a bold face lie, I'm paying almost double what I was paying ten years ago in condo fees. My real estate agent also told me that the condos in the building I was buying mine in were such an amazing deal that she was going to buy AT LEAST one unit herself as a rental investment. She didn't buy shit.

Ill have to look at the options here a little more. I will definitely try be weary of people's scumbaggery.

Don't over do it. Plan ahead. Have at least 20% down and a few grand in a rainy day fund.

For sure. We will have a solid down payment saved up by the time we are married. I will definitely need to start the ball rolling on the emergency fund though.

[chazus]

Inspect the house/townhouse/condo 3-4 times. I actually have a huge checklist of things to inspect for, if you're interested. Get everything checked out by an inspector (or two) and make sure electrical is good, and has had load testing done on every drop. Check the roofing, too. Also make sure you pick up insurance for everything for the first year (beyond just accidental/damage). Things like AC, washer, dryer, etc like to die right after purchase.

[Provenance]

Inspect the house/townhouse/condo 3-4 times. I actually have a huge checklist of things to inspect for, if you're interested. Get everything checked out by an inspector (or two) and make sure electrical is good, and has had load testing done on every drop. Check the roofing, too. Also make sure you pick up insurance for everything for the first year (beyond just accidental/damage). Things like AC, washer, dryer, etc like to die right after purchase.

For sure! I'd love to take a look at it if you have a link or something. I know from personal experience with AC/heating that that shit is expensive and seems to always go out. Is there like an all encompassing insurance plan for things like that? Is it an extension of homeowners insurance?

[Kujako]

If you CAN'T do a downpayment, wait for awhile. There are some FHA changes (good ones) that are being reviewed in Congress right now. If they pass, they should be retroactive, but they may not be.

[Vanyali]

if you buy a house:

Your house will break. Ever single thing that you thought was a solid immovable piece of house will break.

But you can fix 99% of it. DOn't call someone to do it - sure, it's "free" when you're renting, or they're obligated to do it. Not so when you're the owner. Get a toolbox, learn to fix things.

Don't touch plumbing, don't touch electrical. Two reasons: coding and safety. You will probably do something that causes major issues or will cost you a great deal of money should you try to sell it to get it up to code. It will be found. More likely you'll either start a fire or a flood at some point, though. Bigger costs if you're found to be outside of code as well. Disregard if you're licensed to do so, of course.

Watch out for HoAs.. sometimes they're sneaky, sometimes they're not, but you *have* to abide by their rules if you purchase there. Know the rules, get printouts of the meetings even if you don't go - to be discussed an issue has to be on there, so you can know if anything important to you is being discussed even if you don't go. If it's important, *go to the meeting*. Don't skip out and whine about how you shouldn't have to because you didn't agree to that when you moved in, you will lose.

[Tijuana]

Yeah I listen to Dave Ramsey on occasion and enjoy his show. What you're saying falls in line well with my own understanding and expectations. I work in Metro area, but would prefer to live in the surrounding area. It's an extremely fast growing area so there are tons of new developments going up all the time. Is there a rule of thumb for how much house you can afford based on income? I think I read its like 3x or something like that. That seems excessive though.

Look at whatever the bank will loan you, based on your income, and then take a big step back from that. You can always pay more if you have a good month. Focus on the whole thing being a savings account of sorts. Pay it down hard so you can then move in to the house you really want to live in. But, if you are a young couple without children yet, take advantage of that time where you maybe don't care as much about schools. Neighborhoods with good schools obviously cost more. If you bought a home and waited 5 years to have kids, then waited until they were school age, you could save up a lot of equity in that time, and make transitioning to a better home in a better neighborhood a breeze. If you started with 20% down, by this time your equity should be so much that you can actually lower your payment while moving up.

[Gamdwelf]

if you buy a house:

Your house will break. Ever single thing that you thought was a solid immovable piece of house will break.

But you can fix 99% of it. DOn't call someone to do it - sure, it's "free" when you're renting, or they're obligated to do it. Not so when you're the owner. Get a toolbox, learn to fix things.

Don't touch plumbing, don't touch electrical. Two reasons: coding and safety. You will probably do something that causes major issues or will cost you a great deal of money should you try to sell it to get it up to code. It will be found. More likely you'll either start a fire or a flood at some point, though. Bigger costs if you're found to be outside of code as well. Disregard if you're licensed to do so, of course.

Watch out for HoAs.. sometimes they're sneaky, sometimes they're not, but you *have* to abide by their rules if you purchase there. Know the rules, get printouts of the meetings even if you don't go - to be discussed an issue has to be on there, so you can know if anything important to you is being discussed even if you don't go. If it's important, *go to the meeting*. Don't skip out and whine about how you shouldn't have to because you didn't agree to that when you moved in, you will lose.

Plumbing is some of the easiest things to fix though. I've almost replumbed my entire house.

...for reasons...