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The real cost of owning a home

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Re: The real cost of owning a home

#691

Post by lostapathy »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #671
asdff wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> Seemingly he can do every trade. He's under the building doing plumbing or electric one day. Landscaping the next. Doing this is basically illegal in modern day. The requirements to get even one trade license, much less more than one, are set up to make it uneconomical unless that trade is your full-time profession. Who can justify doing a multi-year full-time apprenticeship in each trade when they expect to spend…

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.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#692

Post by BobbyTables2 »

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…

I’ve always wondered why the South uses black asphalt shingles. Aside from being the worst possible color, they like neither the hot summers, the hailstorms, nor the hurricanes.

The level of stupidity exceeds California homes using sun-baked wood shingles that can be torched off from the suggestion of a single spark.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#693

Post by mtoner23 »

iamalizard wrote: post #586
mtoner23 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cost of labor quite higher here. Especially house work. Any licensed person to work in your house you're looking at paying $200 minimum just to walk in the door. At least in the major metro areas.

Why would you care if they're licensed if they're doing yard work or replacing faucets or cutting down trees? I understand wanting some assurance for whoever will wire your whole house or will make major plumbing repairs but not for small jobs. Yes, trees can fall, but it's easy to make sure the person cutting them knows what they're doing - I've cut trees myself. For small repairs (light switches, blown fuses, fauce…

yeah of course. theres no license for most of these things. just clarifying

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#694

Post by rogerrogerr »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #645
rogerrogerr wrote: post #634

Been thinking about this a lot. Curious what the rational folks of HN would suggest for me. Fact pattern: - I'm in the 25-30yo range, single male - Living with parents because I can; there's no friction and I mostly enjoy it. And I'm saving a ton of money. - Remote senior SWE for a non-FAANG, but still doing around $200k/yr between my W2 and a few other things - NW somewhere around 400-500k. I could easily go buy a h…

Do you want to buy a house? Do you need to buy a house? If the answer is no to both, then don't buy a house.

I want to buy a house, but I do not want to end up crazy underwater on a house. If I thought values would be at-least-stable I probably would buy. Everything just seems so bubbly that it feels like a trap.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#695

Post by prawn »

jeremy151 wrote: post #49

I am a DIY-er by nature with construction experience, I enjoy it, so when we wanted a bit more outdoor space, we moved from a suburban cul-de-sac to a slightly more rural property on some acreage, and chose an aged luxury home, feeling comfortable generally in my ability to be able to rehab it over time. After all, we're not in any sort of rush, and wanted the kids to experience putting work into the place where they…

We did similar within the last couple of years, moving from quarter-acre to 25+. And there is no season you get off. Forgo irrigation in our climate and things flat-out die or you would be full-time watering things.

I would love to go back to myself 10 years ago when I was griping about the hassle of netting 5 small fruit trees, or cost of landscaping, and insist that I appreciate the scale and cost of that moment. Now we are dealing with a kilometre of vineyard netting, pruning hundreds of trees and vines, etc. Replacing all our nets back then would've been $200. Now it would be $5000+. I wouldn't give it up though.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#696

Post by koolba »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #564
LoganDark wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you ask a realtor?

Realtors tend to have a lot of contacts. The realtor I worked with knew “a great guy” for every aspect of the house (roof, plumbing, cabinets, driveways, etc.) due to the fact that she naturally encountered so many of these tradespeople. She would get recommendations from sellers. Either the seller recently had work done in order to improve the home before putting it on the market, or, the seller had some trusted exp…

Realtors are also notorious for recommending service providers that give them a kick back.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#697

Post by AnthonyMouse »

lostapathy wrote: post #691
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #671

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seemingly he can do every trade. He's under the building doing plumbing or electric one day. Landscaping the next. Doing this is basically illegal in modern day. The requirements to get even one trade license, much less more than one, are set up to make it uneconomical unless that trade is your full-time profession. Who can justify doing a multi-year full-time apprenticeship in each trade when they expect to spend…

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?

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#698

Post by rascul »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #671
asdff wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

> Seemingly he can do every trade. He's under the building doing plumbing or electric one day. Landscaping the next. Doing this is basically illegal in modern day. The requirements to get even one trade license, much less more than one, are set up to make it uneconomical unless that trade is your full-time profession. Who can justify doing a multi-year full-time apprenticeship in each trade when they expect to spend…

Licenses aren't always required in all areas. But there seem to be fewer of those areas than there used to be.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#699

Post by zefhous »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #533

All those costs are baked into your rent by your landlord (who had/has to pay them). The difference is that after 30 years you can own the house and have a low-cost place to live in your old age (not free, you still have prop taxes, repairs, etc.), whereas with rent you have nothing. That is significant. But really, the biggest benefit of paying a mortgage is related to the value of money. Over 30 years your rent wil…

Exactly — it doesn’t matter how many “hidden” costs he finds to adds to the cost of owning for the article — the renter pays them all, plus the owner’s profit.

Re: The real cost of owning a home

#700

Post by bix6 »

SirMaster wrote: post #420
bix6 wrote: post #403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I said family which isn’t a reality for you yet.

I suppose you do say family. For me I don't really plan on having a family, so it semes like renting will always be a better option. Perhaps mainly because they don't really make houses small enough to match the cost of renting, or at least not in the area I want to be in.

Land ownership is powerful but I hear you.
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