421–430 of 901 posts
One thing the author does not think about is end of life depreciation. When you retire and drain your investment funds they very quickly will disappear and stop producing value, especially at any sustained rate. A house has none of these issues. Costs are relatively constant. Rent on the other hand. Well. Anyone who rents knows the cost goes up and will keep going up, if not simply for increased utilities. Another wa…
Beyond financial costs, I was caught off guard at how much time home ownership took up. House maintenance and projects have taken up most of every single weekend of mine for the past few years. Part of it is simply that I bought a house with more space than the places I usually rented. More to clean, more to maintain, more things that can go wrong, etc. But the biggest thing is that I'm the only one in charge of main…
Indeed. This is why I'm a preferential life-long renter, although I think the primary reason is that I can't stand living anywhere for more than 2-5 years. So much friction to move, unwinding this risky position very expensively, with loads of transaction fees stacked--I can't understand the appeal. Even owning a condo was enough for me to realise I don't want to own my own bare metal, and that I look at housing as a…
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Indeed. This is why I'm a preferential life-long renter, although I think the primary reason is that I can't stand living anywhere for more than 2-5 years. So much friction to move, unwinding this risky position very expensively, with loads of transaction fees stacked--I can't understand the appeal. Even owning a condo was enough for me to realise I don't want to own my own bare metal, and that I look at housing as a…
Moving every 2-5 years sounds like one of the rings of Hell from Dante.
I mean, of course I tell myself this is the last time we're ever moving, and that this is the forever spot. However, experience suggests this is never, ever the case, and there's no actual precedent for that.
What a meaningless slop article.
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What maintenance is there to do exactly ?
Yard work, gutter cleaning, power washing exterior, cleaning windows, bi-annual HVAC service, exterior paint (especially if the house has any wood) and trim upkeep. And as the house ages, you get things like repainting interior rooms, more frequent plumbing issues, major HVAC repairs, roof replacement, repaving driveway, electrical upgrades, remodeling, etc. We downsized to a townhome to avoid some of that (half the…
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> If you hold for long enough You are improperly accounting for risk. People don't own a diversified portfolio of houses, they typical own one house. The "if you hold it long enough" is to some extent disqualifying. Many people never see any real return over multiple decades. Where I live rents won't cover the interest payment on a new mortgage. The return on renting is insanely good here in addition to the increased…
I'm not saying you need a diversified portfolio, I'm just saying that the actual rate of return will regress to the mean of 4% given enough time. Obviously we don't know if that regime will hold forever but that's the nature of investing, predicting the future is very difficult. I agree though that this is a very location-dependent thing to consider. Local renting rates vs property values is hugely important when det…
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Yeah, no. Fuck renting. It may be ok for 5 maybe 10 years, while you're figuring yourself out, but after that it's just wasted money. If you buy property it will be yours, forever. You will pass it down, you will be forever part of the community, and your children, and so on. Both my parents come from big farmer families, and lots of poverty. When my grandparents managed to end serfdom in the late 50's and their rent…
Passing it down to your kids is huge. Unfortunately what I've learned is most people are incredibly selfish and do not actually care what happens to their family when they pass. Renting and owning may not be all that financially different to you with a mortgage of 30+ years, but it will definitely be financially different to your heirs.
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Being forced to move in the middle of the school year because the owner want to sell the house kind of sucks, though 5 years of a month-to-month was a bad idea. More landlords are asswipes than not, being able to control your own destiny has advantages. After all, you are paying all of the costs plus a premium for the rental, and you don't even get the paint or floor covering you want, let alone nice things.
Or you need to have decent tenant protection laws. In SF, you can’t evict tenants because you sell the house, and you can’t evict tenants with kids during the school year (without a just cause).
Said by the same people who asks: "Why the young are not having children?"
Beyond financial costs, I was caught off guard at how much time home ownership took up. House maintenance and projects have taken up most of every single weekend of mine for the past few years. Part of it is simply that I bought a house with more space than the places I usually rented. More to clean, more to maintain, more things that can go wrong, etc. But the biggest thing is that I'm the only one in charge of main…
There absolutely can be if you want to pay for the service. Look up home concierge / residential management services, like Para Home Services.
Beyond financial costs, I was caught off guard at how much time home ownership took up. House maintenance and projects have taken up most of every single weekend of mine for the past few years. Part of it is simply that I bought a house with more space than the places I usually rented. More to clean, more to maintain, more things that can go wrong, etc. But the biggest thing is that I'm the only one in charge of main…
What maintenance is there to do exactly ?
If they didn’t, living in a rental that the landlord doesn’t spend anything on maintaining would be fine.