Owning a House

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I've owned an apartment for 3 years and am saving up money to buy a house. If things keep going the way they are going now, I should be able to sell my apartment and buy a house in approximately 2-3 years. Actually I could buy a house in some other area not too far away right now, but I like the area where I live now and I want to stay here, even though houses here cost a bit more.

I work full time and have a rather well paid job. My husband works full time too at a slightly lower paid job. We don't have children and we are very thrifty and economical and spend much less than we earn, so we manage to save up money rather fast. We do have a mortgage, but the payments are well within what we can manage to pay for.

Work and save.

I had a harder time renting. I really don't like people telling me what I can and can't do. If I want to rip down walls and combine rooms I can, if I want to install a 6 by 5 foot shower I can, if I want to put a workshop in the basement I can. If I want sky windows I can install them. I can do whatever I want here, no one can tell me no. The county can dictate a little, but not much.

we aren't all middle class here. a lot of us are working class or underclass, live from rent payment to rent payment and have absolutely no hope of ever being able to save such a huge amount of money.

This is not to contradict you, because what you say is very valid, but serious frugality is really underrated as a means of getting to home ownership. My husband and I thought we would never be able to afford a house in our very expensive area and weren't even trying. Then we got inspired by reading about frugal living. It was amazing what we accomplished once we put our minds to it.

It's not something that can happen for everyone, unfortunately--some people will just not have enough money no how hard they try. But it's something people shouldn't dismiss without looking into. It requires a lot of mindset changing and the first step is to be open to the possibility that it might work.

My predominant worry about housebuying is having to take out a dreaded mortgage....in other words, instantly landing yourself with a lifelong debt that, especially nowadays, would be difficult to ever pay off.

I know that I need my own space, and should have bitten the bullet a long time ago.

In order to afford a downpayment and to be granted a mortgage, I worked three jobs, working about 80 hours a week, and also lived in a place where I had a volunteer role, so didn't pay rent or bills. It was totally exhausting - I don't know how I did it, looking back, but I was extremely determined to have my own place. I was eventually able to buy a small one-bedroom flat.

However, owning a home brings on a lot of stresses of its own. I find it incredibly hard to keep tidy (well, I don't keep it tidy - it's a mess!) and I find paperwork and bills can be confusing and overwhelming, and I tend to panic when anything in my home goes wrong. Owning a home is a huge responsibility. Although on the whole I'm very glad to own my own place, there have definitely been times when I've wondered if it was worth it.

I have a good job and saved a lot of money by renting a very cheap apartment--so the down payment wasn't a problem. You might look at small 2 or 3 bedroom homes--not only are they cheaper, but they are likely to hold their value better than those big homes that are harder and more costly to maintain. As folks retire they are likely to need smaller homes, driving up the value of small homes.

I find it great to unwind in the garden after work.

A couple of things to remember about a mortgage:

1) Every payment, you are putting money into your own pocket. Each payment that goes by, you own a little bit more of your home.

2) In many cases, a mortgage payment can wind up being less than the amount that you would spend in rent for a similar property.

3) Mortgages are nice and predictable. You know know much you need to have available for each payment--and that amount doesn't go up during the term of the mortgage, which means that inflation is working for you, rather than your landlord.

Fixed rate mortgages are nice and predictable. Adjustable rate mortgages are not--we got a 15 year fixed rate mortgage--so the house will be paid off before I'm 55.

I have a mobile home currently and will be moving into a town home next month. If it were not for my mom and dad I would not have this opportunity( they are fairly well-off, not rich or anything). The hardest part for me has been cleaning my house.

Great topic and discussion.

I'm a 51 year old female and I paid $70,000 for my home in 1997. With the crazy market, at one point it was worth $175,000. Now it's worth $135,000. I bought my house when I was in my late 30's.

Prior to purchasing my home, I was a renter and moved about every two years. I don't know why I moved so often. Could have been my sensory issue with sound and trying to get away the sound of neighbors.

I love not having to move like I kept doing before buying my home. I can have pets. Neighbors are cool (sometimes there are few problems). I LOVE having my own home.

I have found that really there is very little maintenance (less than I thought would be needed). I have learned how to fix a faucet and a toilet. I just had a new roof put on after living here for 13 years. Sure I need new carpet, but the carpet is still usable.

Sooooo think of it this way, when you retire your residence is your biggest expense. If you can own your own home (whether it's a condo, manufactured home, stick house) you WILL NOT be at the mercy of someone else telling you what you need to pay. (Except if you live in a mobile home park, you still have to pay space rent, so it is better if you don't go that route long-term.)

You will be in a far better position if you can keep your expenses down when you retire.

What you need is a Realtor that you can work with that can explain things to you and help you overcome your fears. You can work with a Realtor for awhile then take a break. Later on find a different Realtor, take a break, etc. Until, finally, you decide one way or the other if being a homeowner is for you.

There are also books available. Even at the library. Take advantage of the first-time home buyer programs they are awesome. Basically, there is a lot support for first-time home buyers. I think financial institutions even have classes for first-time home buyers.

Get educated and get all the support you can.

I gotta go, the toilet won't stop running . . . just kidding. Good luck. Let us know if you become a homeowner.

Yes, you want to work with a buyer's agent, who represents you. A good agent knows about your town and can help you avoid "gotchas," like covenants and home owners associations that can limit what you can on your property. They split the commission with the seller's agent. It helps to inspect the house on a regular basis--I climb up into the attic every spring with a search-light to make sure that everything is still OK up there.

I have a two-family house so I have a tenant who pays rent on one apartment and I live in the other one. This has been a great way for the house to help pay for itself and to have some income from it. Two-family houses usually cost the same as single family houses, sometimes they cost less because they are less desirable and can be in shabbier condition, which also lowers the price.

Having tenants can be a hassle but if you choose them very carefully it can be problem-free. I have had the same tenant for over 6 years.

There's more maintenance, because you have to upkeep the tenant's apartment and do things like have her appliances repaired or buy new ones, so there's a little more to do,

It's been a bit overwhelming but not much more so than just taking care of the house itself.

Also, keep in mind the house is not actually rent-free. Property taxes and insurance can be quite high depending where you live, and they're a bit like paying rent every month.

I own my home, (house).
I do not have a mortgage.

I just recently( last 2 weeks) moved to a new home. It is a nice townhome built in 1985 with 2 bedrooms and 1 and one half bath. So far, I am loving it better than my old mobile home which quite frankly was a shit-hole. This place is so much better, no longer do I have the kitchen right off of the master bedroom, I actually have privacy as I now have a basement. I spend a lot of time down here as I can have all the lights off except for the ones in the finished part of the basement. One corner is my studio area for my comic book illustration, I have a corner desk set up with an end table to hold my art supplies in between that and my drafting table. The kitchen is about 100 times smaller than my old one, but I actually like that as I can just turn around and everything is in reach. The flooring was redone last year, with a wood finish laminate in the living room and a stone look in the front bathroom and kitchen. Of all the places I looked at, the on I am in was the nicest for the price. There were no feminine touches except for the furniture, I have more modern black vinyl and chrome furniture which looks like it could be used on the set of a sci-fi movie. The basement does have blue walls, but I will completely re-do the basement in a couple years once I build some equity in the home.

The positives are that the new neighborhood is MUCH nicer and safer than the old one. The old one was a run down trailer park... This one is in walking distance of downtown Mechanicsburg PA. It is a nice downtown area that is very historic. The house is obviously sturdier and better constructed, It no longer feels like there is an earthquake when I am doing a load of laundry on spin cycle. The house is much quieter as the walls between the units are soundproofed.

In the old neighborhood, there was a lot of crap going on, you could hear the neighbors two doors down fighting, the next door neighbor revving his ATV early in the morning, yet yelling at me for fixing my car that early, there was a meth lab that got raided. A pedophile that burned down his house so he could collect insurance to use for bail money, and who could forget the weird guy on disability who came up to me every time I came home from work and wanted to talk for 10 minutes? Oh and the drive by shooting...

The new neighborhood is down the street from the elementary school so the cops are around the area, so that deters criminals.

Total expenses are actually about 100-200 dollars more than what I was paying at the mobile home which I find ironic.

My new house is also much easier to keep clean. With the only carpeting in the upstairs bedroom area, I don't have to worry about vacuuming too much. The floors in the living room area are easy to clean as they are the aforementioned laminate floors, just take a swiffer sweeper... It takes about 30 minutes to clean the house top to bottom( light cleaning)... Also, the hot water in my old house never worked right and I would run out after 2 minutes... Here I can take a 20 minute hot shower if I so choose( I did that the first night I spent in the new house, lol)...

I really do not miss my old neighborhood at all, the only thing I wish this house had was a garage... Oh well

Interesting discussion. I've owned (technically still do) and rented and have found that renting is far better for my situation. There are a lot of common misunderstandings out there about ownership, especially in our current economy. First, the wide-held belief that ownership is essentially a retirement account is not always true. Some analysts predict it may take 20 years or more for the market to truly recover - depending on locality. Second, you mortgage payment may not be as stable as you think. If your taxes and insurance are included in your payment, you can expect it to go up anually. My payment jumped up by 150/mo after only on year of ownership for a house valued at only 125k (of course this was in NY where taxes are outrageous). In contrast, local rental rates averaged an increase if about 10-20 bucks. Third the overall cost of home ownership can easily go far beyond expected expenses, especially for an older home. You really could get slapped with a repair in the 10's of thousands overnight. If you don't have a significant safety net, you could become very indebted, very quickly.

Admittedly I'm a bit soured by the experience because I purchased my home in 2006, spent nearly 30k in unanticipated repairs, and then my husband lost his job. Ever see The Money Pit? Anyway, we were about 20k underwater, not including our repair "investment," and were forced to relocate for employment. The house has been on the market for almost 2 years now - no bites. The bank is allowing a short sale, but it's not working out do to the unrealistic appraisal they performed. A deed-in-lieu of foreclosure is in our near future. If we had decided to rent back in 2006, we would have saved at least 30k (probably more) and our credit would still be excellent (it's now in the crapper). Oh well, you live and you learn.

We're back to renting now and I love it. No more worries about leaky roofs and broken heat. No more Sundays spent mowing and weeding. We spend more time together as a care-free family and it's great.