Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My entire family has owned their own homes for decades. All live in suburbia. It's entirely American to own your own home. So, you are up against that bias.
In places with weak tenant laws and protections renting can be risky business as you are caught between the landlords whims and what markets will allow him to get away with asking .
Other areas like now our entire state have excellent protections in place .
It used to be just the city but now it is expanded to the state .
So while comments here about home ownership being the best or only way to get a head may be true in some places ,in other places that is not true .
But you have posters who fail to realize that not all places work the same , so their comments read like renters are second class citizens.
One of the best articles i remember was one in Forbes about what is called sleeping with the enemy.
The article was about how the Fact that so many people hurt themselves financially because they believe their own bull sh*t either as fact or the only way to do something or the only way something can play out .
…they only hang out with those who support their view , they hi five those who support their view , they parrot each other ,and they only read things that support their view .
But what they don’t do is sleep with the enemy to see what the other side really knows ..they never bother to learn or experience the other side well enough to even have an informed view .
Yet it is only when you learn and experience enough and can equally argue both sides as well that you actually have a clear Picture of what is happening .
If you go back in to time and look at my posts you can see how many views I have changed on things after sleeping with the enemy .
My views changed completely on things like when to take ss , portfolios and mortgages in retirement , traditional vs Roths , advantage plans , etc ..
All views switched hats as I really learned the other side and found holy cow they do have better points .
What you see in these forums is just people parroting other mis informed Who view their side of the things without fully understanding what the other side is doing .
You know the Deal here in these discussions, renters are losers , renters pay for nothing , renters will be poor .
Lots of preconceived thinking without considering there are lots of renters who do have assets and prefer using the landlords money to provide their housing so their own money can buy businesses , practices or far more lucrative investments .
In fact if I was the only one who did that in the entire country , it would make their narrative false as a general statement and I am far from a renter who actually likes renting and has a better deal renting then owning and can deploy my own money in to far more lucrative things , and I am far from the only one as loads of renters rent and grow their money elsewhere .
So I personally take these comments the mis informed make about renters as offensive because I ain’t a loser renter
I, too, rent and echo the same sentiments. Most people think renters are without status, ranking, nor class. They judge without any other considerations.
It doesn’t matter what they think …there are those that rent and invest elsewhere ,and many may not buy investment properties, but buy practices and businesses ..our build has loads of them…
If a person is wealthy enough to buy multiple businesses, then it is practically certain they can buy a home if they so choose. It would be peanuts.
I would refer to such a person as a business owner, and not simply a renter.
It is much harder to own a business and run it properly than it is to own a home or even an investment property.
Why or why not ? ……Wondering if it’s even worth it
I love it. Wouldn't ever want to rent again. I think the key is to not buy at the top of your budget. Leave some room for emergencies, or if you're like me leave some room for upgrades. But I think it really just depends on the person, some people's circumstances may favor renting over owning. It's just not for me. Buying is the only way I'd like to go and hope I can continue to do that.
And the why for me is that I love to update an old looking (outdated) house. I'm working on a huge project now, having an entire kitchen built in what used to be the spare room (the original kitchen is really small). I'm having such a great time. I redid the entire living room--floors and walls and it looks like a totally different room. It's just really cool. Can't wait to get to the rest of the house. But, yeah--really not able to do that in a rental.
My favorite part of owning a house is how easy it is to customize it to be exactly what you want. I don't even know how to evaluate the complete financial aspects of renting vs owning, but if you like to make your environment match your preferences then owning is fantastic.
I rented from ages 18-30 and it made sense at the time. Now that I am married with kids, financially secure, tenured at my job, and comfortable handling (DIY or hiring) projects, I feel owning a home is great. When I get older and the kids move out, renting may make sense again.
Renting vs Buying advantages depend on your station in life and your geography.
We owned homes from 1996-2019. 4 of them, back-to-back-to-back-to-back. Only one of the four had a good annual ROI, and that was the home we lived in for 15 months.
Now that we don't get tax deductions anymore, I frankly don't think it's worth it to own unless you are planning to stay there 10+ years, make it your own, settle in, etc. I did the math on the last house I owned and I got out about exactly what I put into it. Essentially a zero sum game, meaning, if I had paid my mortgage/taxes as rent, I would have been in the exact same position as I ended up being in.
There are certain geographies make the calculations different. Lower tax states help ownership win too.
Selling a home is an expensive proposition. You have to spend a lot of money to fix it up, pay a realtor, lawyer, closing costs, etc. It eats into your profit a lot. A lot of people don't do that math, and they just look at sales price vs. buy price and equity gain. There is more to it that makes it tougher to realize a good profit.
I have always loved real estate. My father was disabled and unable to take care of our home so I took over at age 7 cutting the lawn, shoveling the snow, raking leaves, etc. I learned my carpentry skills out of necessity to keep up the house. Fortunately my grandfather was a good teacher and when I ran into a problem he was there to show me how to do something. By age 10, I was climbing ladders, painting, fixing shingles on the roof, doing basic plumbing repairs, etc.
I have owned, built, renovated and flipped properties. Food, clothing, shelter and safety are basic human needs. As a former teacher, I have witnessed the effects of the lack of stability in living situations. Rents get raised, properties get sold and people have to move. It is stressful to the parent(s) and extremely stressful to the kids. Therefore, I place a high value on owning a home in a location that I choose to live. Other than college, I have rented twice in my life and never felt at home. The options were limited in the communities that I was living. The rents were expensive, the cost of heating the rental units was outrageous, and in one place I could literally hear the people talking in their bed as if they were sitting right next to me. That being said, rental units make sense for many people, especially seniors who are alone and may need assistance. In my town we have two large senior and disabled housing complexes. These are independent living apartments but the town does a great job providing support services to help arrange for energy assistance, transportation, social services, etc.
I plan to live in my own home as long as I am physically able to and will likely purchase another home if an opportunity arises.
We know NYC and major city centers are different MJ. I know someone with a rent controlled apartment in Oakland. He's been huddled in there for decades. My friend, his girlfriend, is saving her entire paycheck to pay cash for a house. I doubt she will ever convince him to give up his rent controlled apartment. It's meant he's not needed to work full time 100% of the time; he's had a lot of major breaks. It's too small for two people and two cats though. But, oh well, that's not the most important thing in life.
Oh, man, that strikes really close to home. My sister-in-law is living with guy in a rent controlled apt in San Francisco. He won't move because of the low rent, which- given the situation now, is a tremendously smart move. Also, because of that, he never had to go and get a high paying job because he could afford rent then, it's like $600/mo. The emerging problem I see is that he was never pushed to do more that what he was then. between 6 and 7 years ago she almost tempted him to purchase a house, and he had ~200K saved up. They found a small, but beautiful little house in the foothills for $250K which needed some work, but had great bones and scenic views. He didn't want to 'throw away' $250K on that, so is still living in his apt. She, meanwhile, inherited a house in AZ, and has fixed it up, and is slowly moving herself from SF to AZ. Now, the owners of the rent controlled house are in their late 80s, and one of them died. I don't know how long he can stay there, and he will be toast when that happens. Anything he could purchase now would be minimum of 5x-8x what it was, and he doesn't make all that much. He proverbially shot himself in the foot.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
