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The real cost of owning a home

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Re: The real cost of owning a home

#431

Post by abalashov »

hawaiianbrah wrote: post #429
dividefuel wrote: post #315

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's no one person I can call for every single problem. There absolutely can be if you want to pay for the service. Look up home concierge / residential management services, like Para Home Services.

True, but you still have to cough up. The benefit of renting is that it's an SEP (Someone Else's Problem).

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#432

Post by alistairSH »

fragmede wrote: post #419
huhkerrf wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question: how can you know ahead of time? I could imagine you could have an HOA that seems reasonable until you get to know them.

You get a copy of the HOA bylaws before you close/finish buying. Read those bylaws to find out what rules exist. Some, like no having junker cars in your front yard, are going to be agreeable. Others, like the HOA gets to judge and prohibit certain flags, or the color of the paint on your house, are going to be vaguely worded, giving room for the HOA to be unreasonable. Additional bylaws can be introduced later, but…

Exterior paint color is a good example. In my little cluster of townhomes, there are about six colors that we are allowed to pick from. And no two homes next to each other can be the same color. My house is currently a light green and in theory, I could paint it to be a blue or a tan, but not a grey because of one of my neighbors. I don’t find it to be particularly vague or onerous, but if I really wanted a pink house, I would’ve seen that in the HOA documentation upfront and not bought here.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#434

Post by alistairSH »

huhkerrf wrote: post #389
alistairSH wrote: post #382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but you don't need to buy in an abusive HOA community. I live in a "town" (Reston, VA) that has a notoriously strict HOA. But, it mostly applies to buying/selling and home additions. And it's very consistent. Each subdivision within Reston also has its own HOA that's run by the owners and in charge of regular community upkeep. It works out, as long as you perform due diligence up front and know what you're buyi…

Genuine question: how can you know ahead of time? I could imagine you could have an HOA that seems reasonable until you get to know them.

As the sibling comment said, you start by reading the HOA covenants. If there are rules in place that you can’t abide by you simply don’t buy the house.

All the stories of people who bought in HOA areas and then got fined for having a work truck… I have little sympathy for them because that would’ve been in the HOA docs which were provided during contract negotiation.

The next step would be looking around the neighborhood to ensure that the rules are actually being fairly enforced. If the covenant say no work trucks, but there are work trucks parked at every third home then that’s indicative of a problem may or may not be an issue to you depending on your line of work, but it’s something to keep in line.

There are other things you can check as well. For example, ask for the HOA finances. Are they doing regular capital projects and do the budget seem reasonable? Do they have enough money in the bank for unforeseen capital expenses? Again not always a dealbreaker, but those are things you need to know and people frequently don’t bother asking about.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#435

Post by [deleted] »

wwweston wrote: post #365
Galanwe wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you take the money you'd use for a down payment and mortgage and invest it instead (after paying rent) you end up in about the same place. That is not the right way to see it. If you have the cash to buy upfront, then yes, real estate is not that good an investment, unless you have a loaded portfolio already and want to diversify a bit, get some high inflation hedge, etc. The real value of buying a home is lever…

Love that the two most solid pro-homebuying points I've ever encountered (jedberg's about the psychological benefits, yours about leverage) immediately surface in an HN discussion. It's probably worth making a closer comparison though: * Buying a House on Loan: commit to paying off a $450k loan over 30 years at 5% interest, with an immediate $50k down payment and the home itself as collateral. So ~$2500/mo payments,…

[deleted]

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#436

Post by bittercynic »

People seem to have very strong feelings about the subject (myself included), and some seem to think there's only one correct conclusion.

Renting an apartment and owning a home have so many differences that it doesn't make much sense to compare the two.

Many people seem to assume they'll be moving every few years, but if you want to stay in the same place for life the equation looks very different. I hope to be done paying the mortgage around the same time I'm too old to work for a living, and if that lines up it's a pretty big win on the own instead of renting side.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#439

Post by hawaiianbrah »

vineyardmike wrote: post #146
quantified wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

If the buyer wants to move in, isn’t that a just cause for eviction? If the new buyer just wants it as a rental, sure, carry on.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#440

Post by vel0city »

em-bee wrote: post #96
quantified wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

that's the nice thing about renting in germany. there this would not work, the owner can sell the house but they can't kick out the tenant. so whoever is buying is taking over the tenant. and while you can ask a tenant to move out if you need the house for yourself, that too has to consider the needs of the tenant. if they have kids in school it is almost impossible to remove them unless you go out of your way to hel…

Is the landlord obligated to renew the lease at the end in perpetuity? Or does the landlord just need to wait for the lease to expire and then choose to not renew?
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