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Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

shouldigetahouse.com

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Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#141

Post by codegeek »

alach11 wrote: post #2

My wife wants to buy a house, but I'm unable to make life decisions without trying to minmax them. I wasn't satisfied with existing rent vs. buy calculators, so I decided to build my own! I'm not a developer, so I apologize if it's a little rough looking... Some things it takes into account: - The actual rate of return on your down payment and extra costs of a house - Inflation - Itemized deductions on your taxes - T…

Nice project but if you are serious about buying a home, don't just look at numbers. Figure out what you and your wife want for yourself in next 2-5-7 years. If you see you guys staying in 1 place and build a family further, buying a home may not be a bad idea considering your finances are in shape (good credit, have 20% downpayment etc etc). I would say rule of thumb is 7 years in 1 place. If you are going to live in same place for 7+ years, buy with 20% down and total cost not >25-30% of monthly pay.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#142

Post by BeetleB »

madcaptenor wrote: post #29
alach11 wrote: post #2

My wife wants to buy a house, but I'm unable to make life decisions without trying to minmax them. I wasn't satisfied with existing rent vs. buy calculators, so I decided to build my own! I'm not a developer, so I apologize if it's a little rough looking... Some things it takes into account: - The actual rate of return on your down payment and extra costs of a house - Inflation - Itemized deductions on your taxes - T…

This is nice. I definitely played around with some calculators like this when I was deciding to buy a house a few years ago. Off the top of my head, some things I'd add to make this more useful to a wide audience: - I don't know what I pay in state income and sales taxes. But I do know my income and my state's tax rate; income tax could be derived from that. I'm not sure how you'd estimate sales tax, though - you'd h…

> I've heard a rule of thumb that home maintenance costs are 1% of the home's value per year

It's a very poor rule of thumb. Contrary to the other comment, these costs don't increase linearly with value of the house. Sure, if I live in an expensive area, it may go up 30%, but not much more. Looking at how much my house has appreciated, I can assure you I pay not much more in maintenance than when I bought it.

The 1% rule came about when the median house price was under $200K.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#143

Post by BeetleB »

drfuchs wrote: post #47

Where do I enter the intangible value of owning: "Don't have to worry about getting priced out if the neighborhood becomes popular; can do any improvements I want, when I want, how I want, and they become an asset; don't have to worry about not getting lease renewed at an inconvenient time (perhaps in the middle of a school year) when the owner's nephew gets divorced and needs a place; on the other hand, don't have t…

> can do any improvements I want, when I want, how I want, and they become an asset

Depends on the HOA rules, if you have an HOA.

As for whether they'll be an asset, it depends on the improvement ;-) I tour open houses often, and people definitely have done some typically undesirable improvements.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#144

Post by seanmcdirmid »

cpursley wrote: post #127
pimlottc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with the terminology being confusing. Houses can be rented and apartments (condominiums) can be purchased.

In North American lingo, "apartment" exclusively means a multi-family unit that you rent and don't own. If you own a multi-family unit it is a Condo (condominium) and never refered to as an Apartment. I know, confusing.

Also, duplexes are houses with two units in them vs. a two floor apartment.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#147

Post by city41 »

bachmeier wrote: post #27

There's no way to put this into a calculator, but this decision isn't purely monetary. Do you enjoy having to maintain a home and property? If not, maybe buying a house isn't for you. Even if you hire someone, that can be a massive hassle, you have to worry about being ripped off, ... If you're not settled in your career to where you can comfortably take off long stretches of time during the day, you probably shouldn…

> Even if you hire someone, that can be a massive hassle, you have to worry about being ripped off

This is a huge problem with home ownership, at the very least where I've owned homes (California and Michigan). The quality of contractors varies dramatically, and many will happily rip you off or at the very least just do a bad job. If you can't get a good recommendation from someone you trust, you really roll the dice hiring someone. IMO, if you're going to own, you should be willing to do a lot of work yourself. At least then you know exactly what's happening to your house.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#148

Post by BeetleB »

carabiner wrote: post #99
drfuchs wrote: post #47

Where do I enter the intangible value of owning: "Don't have to worry about getting priced out if the neighborhood becomes popular; can do any improvements I want, when I want, how I want, and they become an asset; don't have to worry about not getting lease renewed at an inconvenient time (perhaps in the middle of a school year) when the owner's nephew gets divorced and needs a place; on the other hand, don't have t…

> can do any improvements I want, when I want This is the main thing I'm wondering about. Most people I know who own homes enjoy working on them. Home improvement becomes a hobby that they like, whether it's basic plumbing or painting the walls or building a deck. I despise this work (even though I do basic carpentry), and I fully consider it work that detracts from my life. It's like doing the dishes, it's a chore,…

> I despise this work (even though I do basic carpentry), and I fully consider it work that detracts from my life.

I felt that way when I bought my house too. My experiences:

Get used to the house never being fully OK. Things will continue to break, but over 90% of them aren't urgent. By the time I get one thing fixed (either by myself or by paying someone), something else is broken. That's OK. As time goes by, you realize that most of these things aren't really that important.

Yes, my toilet has a leak so I've turned it off for now: I have 2 others in the house. It's not urgent.

I cannot make ice in my fridge because the water hose to the fridge is leaking - had to shut off faucet. Am I going to chuck an otherwise good fridge over this? No. So for the past so many years, I manually add the water to the ice maker to make ice.

My over-the-stove microwave died. Twice. Am I going to rush and buy another brand new one? No. I'll wait till there is a sale. In the mean time, I can get a perfectly good used microwave for $20.

The list goes on and on.

If you want everything working all the time, then it will be a major pain.

Just learn how to find decent professionals/contractors, and learn to research prices before calling them.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#149

Post by crazygringo »

mauvehaus wrote: post #119

You get old enough, and you get tired of somebody else making decisions from afar that affect your day to day life with no real consequences to them. Little things like the kitchen layout being moronic and having zero drawers get old when it isn't your choice to remodel or live with it. And while it's nice to say "just move", let's not forget that moving costs a couple months rent and a massive time investment to fin…

Funny, I'm the opposite.

The more I get older the less I want to deal with bullshit home maintenance, and the infinite time suck that is customization and endless improvements.

Really part of a general life shift from "if you want it done right, do it yourself" and "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right" -- to "outsourcing is a valuable tool" and "perfection is the enemy of the good".

I realize my time is valuable and I want to make sure I spend it where it counts -- on people, activities, experiences, travel.

When I rent a place, the kitchen layout and drawers are already good enough or else I wouldn't have rented it. And the things that aren't "perfect" I've decided I can live with, because nothing is perfect and there are more important things in the world to pay attention to.

To be clear: your viewpoint is entirely valid too, for yourself. But you're not speaking for everyone who "gets old enough" -- other people grow in the exact opposite direction.

Re: Show HN: Should I Get a House? a better rent vs. buy calculator

#150

Post by stonemetal12 »

pessimizer wrote: post #126
Finnucane wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably want to allow for the possibility of rent rises over time. One thing that I think this actually shows pretty well is the notion that part of the answer depends on how long you intend to stay in a place. If you expect to move in two or three years, it's probably not worth the hassle/expense of buying. If you intend to stay 5+ years in one place, it makes more sense to buy.

> Probably want to allow for the possibility of rent rises over time. Isn't that counting inflation twice?

No, rents go up and down for reasons other than inflation.
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