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The real cost of owning a home

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Re: The real cost of owning a home

#681

Post by marcus_holmes »

mbesto wrote: post #585
m463 wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think home ownership is an "every single weekend" thing unless you bought a fixer-upper. Honestly, it sounds like you enjoy it. If you are doing it with that frequency I think you just are "into" your house.

Hi - homeowner here who is NOT in an fixer-upper. "every single weekend" is clearly hyperbole however here is regular maintenance for me: - once a quarter clean the pollen off the A/Cs - once a week clean the pool (okay I pay someone but still its part of maintenance) - inevitably something on the pool goes wrong - once a week clean my grill - Blow leaves (seasonal) off porch - pull weeds - power wash the deck And th…

I'm confused - so are you working on your house every single weekend, or not?

Because that list clearly says "once a week" for one item and has a ton of stuff on it that looks pretty regular, like if you're not doing it every weekend then it'll mount up to be a real problem that takes you all weekend.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#682

Post by mindslight »

edoceo wrote: post #489
hibikir wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually the maintenance comes back again: The turn-key homes have typically had most of the things that needed maintenance replaced, but they eventually come back, and they can be quite the headache. See the wonders of having a plumbing stack going past its useful life, land resettling leading to having to do regrades, or lift concrete slabs, or just general tree maintenace.

Don't do your own trees! Wood is very heavy! It wiggles a lot! Dragons!

IMO the key to doing your own trees (or presumably having them done for less money) is having enough room around them that you can just drop them whole, rather than having to hire someone with a bucket truck and/or climbing spikes to disassemble them from the top down.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#683

Post by grantith »

raydev wrote: post #663
Ntrails wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a house without grass :)

How would you keep it from filling up with weeds in any reasonably grass-friendly climate? I just pay someone $50/week to mow my lawn and I pay zero attention to it. If we have a mini-drought and the grass turns brown, oh well.

Kill your lawn and let the native plants take over.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#684

Post by brudgers »

asdff wrote: post #470
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…

>But the biggest thing is that I'm the only one in charge of maintenance. There's no one person I can call for every single problem. Keeping track of regular maintenance, performing that maintenance, and learning how to DIY things takes a lot of time. And even if I want to pay someone to do it for me, I still have to research contractors, coordinate estimates, and schedule the project. And I still need to learn enoug…

My landlord has one.

That is a B2B relationship, not a B2C one.

The old handyman probably might not need new customers and even if they do, they probably don’t want random homeowners because the inexperienced tend to have unrealistic expectations and only own one property,

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#686

Post by shrubble »

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…

The frustrating thing is, that for not much more spent at the time of construction, we could have nearly maintenance-free homes for 80 years or more.

Like, why use wood in an climate like the American South, where there are multiple species of termites that like to eat wood?

I was a member at a maker space - the building has been around since the 40s or 50s and never damaged by a hurricane - why? The roof (with a rubber rolled roof on top) along with the rest of the building is made out of concrete.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#687

Post by 1123581321 »

anthonypasq wrote: post #336
1123581321 wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think so. A rental house is almost always more expensive if it's an apples-to-apples space, or the renter's use of it is significantly restricted even though it looks similar. Sometimes both. There can be temporary mispricings of rent vs mortgages, but they correct, and they go in both directions. There are always small mispricings in housing markets that let individuals do exceptionally well (or be ripped of…

>I don't think so. this isnt a valid response. you are just wrong. https://constructioncoverage.com/research/cities-where-its-c...

For the most part, those aren't like-for-like comparisons. In much of the US, where the average mortgage price is higher, it's because people are buying more than what they would rent.

There are a few distorted markets where that's not the case.

Didn't mean to offend with the preface before the rest of my comment.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#688

Post by defrost »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #681
mbesto wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi - homeowner here who is NOT in an fixer-upper. "every single weekend" is clearly hyperbole however here is regular maintenance for me: - once a quarter clean the pollen off the A/Cs - once a week clean the pool (okay I pay someone but still its part of maintenance) - inevitably something on the pool goes wrong - once a week clean my grill - Blow leaves (seasonal) off porch - pull weeds - power wash the deck And th…

I'm confused - so are you working on your house every single weekend, or not? Because that list clearly says "once a week" for one item and has a ton of stuff on it that looks pretty regular, like if you're not doing it every weekend then it'll mount up to be a real problem that takes you all weekend.

Different homeowner - most of the high frequency stuff there is quick and easy to do regularly with practice and it slots in pretty well with just living.

It's more in order with keeping yourself, your dishes, your clothes clean and exercising.

Slightly physical stuff (eg: hedging - waving a weighted object about from ground level to above head level for 20 to 30 feet say) is desirable to some - cheaper than gym work, keeps the body moving, fits in well between at desk sessions and a good time for thinking while you flex.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#689

Post by hardtke »

funksta wrote: post #325
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…

Leverage is great when prices are increasing, but not when prices are moving in the opposite direction. The recent 40-year trend of decreasing interest rates lulled a lot of people into the belief that real estate leverage is an unalloyed good.

In some states (California being one) the original mortgage on a house purchase is non-recourse. This means that the bank cannot come after your personal assets in the event of default. Yes your credit gets dinged but the leverage of a home loan is fundamentally different than a margin loan in the stock market.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#690

Post by sharts »

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…

Time not spent drinking, etc. To some that’s a win
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