Originally Posted by
BernieCarbo
There is very good information here regarding actually buying a house, but I am really glad for you that you held off. You mentioned before about the stress of it and borrowing from retirement, and no one needs that. Also, people really need to get over the idea that buying a house is part of life. It doesn't need to be. I mean, I built a house when I moved here, but it's because I needed a shop and lab built onto it, and rental properties usually look down on that stuff. But if it wasn't for that, I would have rented forever. Let the house be someone else's problem.
Also, you really have to look at the true cost of buying/owning a house. My son and DIL, who are in their mid-20's, have a life plan where they want to retire in their early 40's. After college, the first thing they did was rent a nice apartment in a new development. People said they were stupid and should buy a house as an investment, but they are not stupid. If you get right down to it, there is more to owning a house than just the mortgage. These are just a few things that come to mind:
1. Mobility. A great job or opportunity come up two hours away? Moving is a cinch, especially in a newer place where the places are in demand and the property administrator or will work with you.
2. You know exactly what it's going to cost month to month.
3. You don't have to worry about anything. Hell, my DIL called maintenance to kill a spider once (and yes, she is still very embarrassed about it).
4. You can save tens of thousands of dollars on all the crap you don't need to buy. Right off the top of my head, you don't need to buy a lawn mower, garden tractor, garden hose, rakes, shovels, ladders, bags of stuff for water treatment, flowers, patio furniture, gas grill, and a thousand other things.
5. A good place will provide all of the amenities- they have a pool, fire pit, grill station, pool table, an awesome workout center, and a party room they can reserve for free. It's all literally within a one minute walk. And because they don't have to worry about taking care of anything, they have much more time to enjoy it.
6. Again, zero maintenance. They don't have to worry about a hot water heater, broken window, upgrading the kitchen, or even spreading mulch. The grounds are impeccable, and the place is adjacent to a city park.
So, they pay $1300 a month for everything except for electricity, and they sock half of their combined income away every month and there are never any surprises. They would like to have a child in a few years, but the place is a two bedroom and will serve them fine. They are going to have a very comfortable stress-free life, and more power to them.
My gf has one of those suburban cookie cutter homes, and although it is really nice, and she has been smart with her money, she will admit that she will just break even. Every spring she has to buy a bunch of mulch, this summer the garage door broke, her water heater broke, and she is just now replacing the kitchen countertops because she knows no one would want a ca 2001 kitchen 20 years later. This doesn't even count all of the other stuff I mentioned above, as well as the time and effort maintaining the place.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is if you really want a house, that's fine, but it's almost like it's something that's expected now, and it doesn't need to be. And although a lot of people will brag about how much money they made, a lot of people really get screwed, and even the ones that make money probably aren't including all of their Home Depot receipts. Good luck to you.