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The real cost of owning a home

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Re: The real cost of owning a home

#701

Post by lostapathy »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #697
lostapathy wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other trouble is that every handyman thinks they have a great handle on everything but have at least one blind spot where they do really, really stupid stuff.

It seems like you misspelled "human" there. A large number of people can't afford contractor rates, so the alternative to the handyman is doing the work themselves. Who is more likely to screw it up, the person who does it once a month but not every day, or the person who does it once in their whole life?

Honestly, I'd debate this.

The problem is the "handyperson" may "know" (but not actually) and do what they think they know. When I encounter the same task, I don't know I stop and try to learn the right way first. So there's a good chance the homeowner is actually on a better path.

A lot of the handypeople you hire, kinda by nature of being under-the-radar, also end up intentionally cutting corners where "it doesn't matter" because savings are a priority for their customers, and it can go too far. I, on the other hand, at least know I'm not trying to cheap out on my own work just because my last customers were broke and I'm conditioned to working in that mode.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#704

Post by musicale »

Galanwe wrote: post #303
jedberg wrote: post #164

The benefit of owning a home is almost always psychological, not financial. 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. But the psychological benefits can be huge. You have much greater control over the place you spend most of your time. You can change it to your liking. You don't have to worry about rent increases or ow…

> 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…

> most people cannot go to a bank and borrow $500k

Unless they can get admitted to a private university and a professional school.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#705

Post by aidenn0 »

memcg wrote: post #558
LoganDark wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you ask a realtor?

Realtors often have a list of contractors they rely on to help potential sellers get their homes ready for sale. I have found and used recommended roofers, plumbers, HVAC and electricians from a local realtor that wants my future business.

A good realtor will often not recommend the same contractors that they use for prepping a home for sale. The requirements for getting a home in saleable condition and getting a home in livable condition are not always the same.

Instead they act as an information hub for homeowners.

Obviously "good realtor" is doing a lot of work here, and I don't know how you find a good realtor (kind of lucked into mine after having a terrible one for my first purchase).

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#706

Post by skirmish »

iamalizard wrote: post #582

I'm not from the US but I find some of these numbers ridiculous. $515.50 per month for property taxes? That seems soo high. What does this cover - garbage collection, what else? > Cut down trees that were too close to the house: $2,800 I could've likely flown to the US, cut down your trees for a few hundred and flown back home for that much money. Why so expensive? I'm beginning to question the other numbers. > Repla…

Contractor costs are insane, our recent experience. Gas heater wouldn't start:

-- diagnosis: $180 flat fee

-- quote for replacing a failed igniter: plus $300, one week waiting for parts

-- I found the part on eBay and replaced it myself for $20, delivered in 2 days

Trimming an (admittedly large) tree in the backyard: $2,500. One guy in the tree with a chainsaw, 3 guys carrying branches to a wood chipper truck.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#707

Post by rascul »

natebc wrote: post #491
bombcar wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you treat your house like a rental that you rent to yourself, you can avoid a bunch of headaches - mainly because you’ve given yourself “permission” to spend on it.

wait ... There are landlords out there who will "spend on it"? Mine took 3 weeks to replace a broken HVAC when it was 35 degress out. 5 days to fix a toilet that when flushed dumped sewage into my downstairs neighbors ceiling. Maybe if you're treating yourself as a tenant but your run of the mill rent extracting (or worse, middle man) landlord is the cheapest creature on the land.

There are good landlords. Unfortunately many of them aren't and there's not really a good way to know before.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#708

Post by SirMaster »

locusofself wrote: post #540
SirMaster wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been renting the same unit for 15 years now. It was 400/mo when I moved in 15 years ago, and it's 650/mo now, 15 years later. I have paid about 90K in rent now over the last 15 years and this also includes water and heat. My friends with houses in my area pay about that much in property taxes plus heat that I pay for rent... I pay this small amount and make 6 figures and I put the majority of my income into in…

650/month is incredible. My mortgage payment is almost eight thousand dollars.

I really only need a small apartment, anything more would be a waste for me. I just need a place to cook/eat and sleep, and keep my things.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#710

Post by jandrewrogers »

shrubble wrote: post #686
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 rub…

It probably depends on where you are in the South and also cost sensitivity. If you are hugging the Gulf Coast then you do see a fair amount of cinder block in new builds, at least in wealthier parts.

As you move north, you enter either the South Carolina or New Madrid seismic hazard zones. Building codes require reinforcing new masonry construction to modern US seismic standards which adds significant expense. Older masonry construction that pre-dates the current seismic standards are typically grandfathered in but you might not want to be inside it during one of the infrequent strong earthquakes.

The US uses wood because it is abundant and cheap. But people also forget that most of the US is subject to strong earthquakes, so the alternative to wood is massive amounts of steel which is expensive. The original masonry construction in the US was mostly destroyed by earthquakes.

Where I live a new house is required to survive a M8.5 earthquake without material structural damage. If you avoid the use of wood in construction, the amount of steel required to meet that standard tends to be cost prohibitive. Steel construction also requires much more expensive labor in addition to the material costs.

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