The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: William on March 13, 2013, 07:01:38 PM
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Congratulations on being a homeowner! Or if not, you probably will be soon if you cared enough to visit this thread! I am the latter. To help myself and others dream about the day we own a home.. what do you enjoy most about owning your home?
This is just a fun thread to rave about owning your own home!
My thought is that the best thing would be investing in something tangible. I have a good amount of investments now but the money just goes from a savings account to an investment summary. With a house, I could live in and admire my investment!
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I would say the best part of having a house for me is that I can do anything I want (within reason). I don't have to ask permission to paint the walls. I can remodel however I want. I can have people over without ticking off the neighbors.
That being said I do not view my house as an investment. It takes too much time and money for maintenance for it to be a good investment. Not that my house is poorly built or a money pit but things just break. And you are on the hook to fix them. Can't call the landlord. I do most of the work myself but its time consuming. Recently my garage door opener died. So I bought a new one. Cost wasn't that bad but it took nearly 4 hours to install. It wasn't difficult but time consuming and I could have been doing something else with my time.
I don't want to discourage you into getting a house but a lot of people overlook the time and cost to maintain a home. Now it can be done cheaply like MMM with his remodel but it does take a lot of time.
If I had to do it again I would still buy but I'd be more picky about certain things in a house.
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I would say the best part of having a house for me is that I can do anything I want (within reason). I don't have to ask permission to paint the walls. I can remodel however I want. I can have people over without ticking off the neighbors.
That being said I do not view my house as an investment. It takes too much time and money for maintenance for it to be a good investment. Not that my house is poorly built or a money pit but things just break. And you are on the hook to fix them. Can't call the landlord. I do most of the work myself but its time consuming. Recently my garage door opener died. So I bought a new one. Cost wasn't that bad but it took nearly 4 hours to install. It wasn't difficult but time consuming and I could have been doing something else with my time.
I don't want to discourage you into getting a house but a lot of people overlook the time and cost to maintain a home. Now it can be done cheaply like MMM with his remodel but it does take a lot of time.
If I had to do it again I would still buy but I'd be more picky about certain things in a house.
I'm fixing a door handle right now in the house I'm living in! Just plain broke when I turned the key. Total time including shopping trip has been 2 hours at least. https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/share-your-badassity/i'm-23-living-in-a-historic-home-in-a-beautiful-neighborhood-for-free/
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I have had to remind myself of the positives here of late. My neighborhood is going to hell in a hand basket, and I couldn't sell my place for nearly what I paid in 2007. While I would jump at the opportunity to move with more favorable conditions, I am overall happy here at Casa de la mc6.
I have pink walls. Like, the color of strawberry ice cream. I can have as many cats as I want. I appreciate the tax benefits.
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I bought a new construction house so I don't have any of the headaches of fixing stuff (yet). My favorite part is feeling like I am more invested in my community than I ever was as a renter. I know I will be here for a long time and love working with my neighbors to improve the neighborhood. I can't really think of anything I don't like, but, again, I am still new to this!
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For me it's the satisfaction of knowing my family will have a place to live, regardless of what happens to my income or investments, as we own our house outright. Having lived in 20+ different houses over my life, it also happens to be the best one. And by best I mean goldilocks-like "Just Right", not some oversized McMansion full of fancy, empty rooms.
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I don't care much about owning a home. Actually, to be honest, I'd probably prefer to rent on a long term lease if costs evened out (i.e. rent was cheaper and surplus could fund investments that paid the same return as the equity gain and appreciation in the house).
But I'll do what's mathematically superior. In some places it's crazy to rent. In others, buying would be ridiculous.
I don't have a strong enough attachment to either lifestyle to do something that will cost me lots of money (buying or renting, each could potentially do that).
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I like not having a mortgage. A lot!
Home owners insurance, property tax and the insurance on the major home systems run me about $310 a month, which means I have a very low overhead. I'm covered on all the big things that could go wrong. I like the major difference it did to our cash flow once we paid it off early.
I like not having a home owner's association or landlord telling me what I can or can't do with my property. (It is one of my goals in life to NEVER, EVER own a property that requires me to join an HOA.)
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It's a roof over your head. A place of refuge. A place that is yours, and as Miss Snow mentioned below, a part of a community....which I see as more important.
I grew up on a cul-de-sac street where there were lots of families with similar age kids. The sense of community and being "tied" to the people around you is worth the price of whatever you have to pay for it.
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To be fair, I own a duplex which makes my financial obligation different than that of other homeowners.
My favorite part? Being in control (somewhat) of my return on investment. I put just about $10k worth of work into the house and it's now worth $~50k more than my purchase price in the eyes of a local real estate broker.
I understand that these numbers are completely subjective and furthermore, they're only moderately accurate in the present housing market in my area. Either way, it's still good news.
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I like my house too, but I wouldn't consider it an investment either. In the last year, I've spent $15K on repairs (and a few upgrades like flooring), and I expect another $5K gone before I'm done. So yeah, terrible investment this year. :P
That being said, I really like having a yard and not having to haul groceries up three flights of stairs (or in my better apartment, the elevator). My favourite part though is not having to listen to my neighbours have loud "romantic" times right next to my bedroom wall at all hours of the day and night. Yep.
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I live in an apartment that DW and I (nearly) own.
We love the community of our small building - 4 out of 12 apartments have children the same age as ours, and we see each other regularly.
I also love being able to decide whatever I want to customize inside my home to suit our lifestyle.
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My home is where I raise my family, cook food and grow veggies. That's the best part. It's the full backdrop to a very nice home-centered life.
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I like to tinker. By that I mean: looking at a thing and either figuring out how to fix it or figuring out how to make it better.
Owning gives me that option. Owning outside of a municipality gives me the option of "unlimited tinkering without a permit". It also gives me "50 feet to woods in any direction."
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I love not hearing the neighbors above, not having to worry about finding a place that allows pets, and being able to make it my own.
Once it's paid off I'll feel even better!
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I like that my children have lived in the same house in the same great neighborhood their whole lives (14+ years). To me, it's worth a lot -- though not financially.
I do look forward to (potentially) renting again one day when they are on their own, although if I don't need the cash from the equity to live on, having a paid-off property of this size and location is cheaper than what I'd rent (factoring taxes, utilities, and maintenance). So I may just keep it forever.
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I personally enjoy spending thousands of dollars more on things I never factored into my original budget. I don't recall a renter ever spending thousands on the vacant lot next door because it's selling at half assessed value. Never met a renter who spent a boat load of cash to finish the basement of their apartment. And I doubt a guy who rents will be like "oh look, my property tax bill is about to exceed my total mortgage payment. Yippee!"
No, not a lot of good things to say about home ownership from a FI angle. But my kids really like the house, and I got a nice view of a pond and valley below.
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To be fair, I own a duplex which makes my financial obligation different than that of other homeowners.
My favorite part? Being in control (somewhat) of my return on investment. I put just about $10k worth of work into the house and it's now worth $~50k more than my purchase price in the eyes of a local real estate broker.
I understand that these numbers are completely subjective and furthermore, they're only moderately accurate in the present housing market in my area. Either way, it's still good news.
Nice.
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Favorite Thing About Home Ownership!?
In a word: control.
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I love owning my own home for several reasons. Pets is the biggest one. Others are I can plant a garden, put in bird feeders, scratch the floor without worrying, change the wall colors. DB and I love dreaming about adding on a deck, opening up the living room to the dining area, expanding the garden. Though there are some maintenance issues (I replaced the roof and water heater) it does help at tax time. Renting in my area is also way higher than my mortgage, insurance, & property tax payment combined.
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1. Having a locked-in housing payment for life (or that goes away almost entirely once the house is paid off). No possibility of "your rent will go up next month" notices, no inflation.
2. Knowing that part of my payment each month is going towards building equity, not towards sending the landlord's children to college.
3. Stability (can't be told to move because the owner wants to sell, for example)
4. Better living conditions with no neighbors on the other side of the wall (for a SFH)
5. Steady appreciation in housing prices where we live adds considerably to net worth, especially with leveraged equity
You didn't ask for this, but what I hate:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5.... Property taxes. Where we live property taxes pay more than half of the county's gigantic, bloated budget, and property values are extremely high so it results in very large tax bills. This year we'll pay $15,000 in property taxes for our residence and two modest rental homes. And there's no limit here on assessment raises. The county raised our tax assessment over 50% in a single year a couple of years ago, and double-digit increases every year after that! There is no appeal process, you just eat it. Glad I'm not a senior trying to live on a fixed SS income.
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I don't know if many people consider this but there are 5 basic advantages of owning a home.
1. Mortgage/prop taxes are tax deductible.
2. Mortgages decrease in value due to inflation.
3. Home rises with inflation; hard asset
4. Your cost of living is fixed at today's prices.
5. Rental conversion option.
Honestly I think #2 and #4 are the most important. Fixing your costs is an amazing ability. My mortgage now costs me less than rent would and it's tax deductible.
A $1500 mortgage today is decent but in 15 years? It will be basically nothing. Rent floats with inflation.
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Gardens and pets. Fruit trees. Feeling like I am "home."
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My favorite thing is being able to rent out an extra bedroom that covers taxes and mortgage interest! Having the freedom to shift towards using the space for another purpose later in life is also very nice.
But from a financial perspective, it's hard to know if the house will end up being a good "investment" given the high housing costs in my area and the opportunity cost of the correspondingly high down payment.
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I love having extra space, a garage, not having to haul laundry offsite, not having to worry about finding a place that will accept a cat, many of the things others have already mentioned. Something I haven't seen in the previous comments is being able to add extra insulation and make other improvements to add efficiency and lower utility bills. This is a big deal to me...I was surprised to find that even moving to a larger place, our utility bills actually went down because landlords aren't usually that concerned about efficiency if they're not paying the bills.
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My favorite thing is that it provides a stable conistent environment for my kids to grow up in. My second favorite thing is knowing that I can sell it and be a renter when the kids are grown ;)
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My favorite part is I don't have to deal with 1 or 2 hundred other human beings and their different view points and morals on living and how it directly impacts my life since we live in close proximity
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Gardens and pets. Fruit trees. Feeling like I am "home."
me too... i love my garden, our workshop, that my pets and I can hang outside in our own little yard.
It's not for everyone, and there's pro and cons and both sides, but I do love the feeling that it's mine.