Quote:
Originally Posted by WiredGuy
I'd check around MLS and see how much a comparable house would cost to buy, I bet it wouldn't be that much more. And as people have said, real estate is going up up up so its a good idea to buy while its going up instead of renting.
WG
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Totally debatable.. Unless you have a real nice chunk for down payment, like 20%+, you're most likely ass fucking yourself. You hear about people who've "made" a bunch of money on their homes.. But of course, the ones who haven't made money don't open their mouths very much about it
Property tax - $3,000+ a year nowadays
Utilties - couple hundred a month
Upkeep/maintanence - few thousand a year
Home owners insurance
Lenders premium for lack of huge down payment
Mortgage!
and you can't write off the interest on the mortgage in Canada!!
Then add to that you don't buy a house and not get stuff for it.. Walls need to be filled, floors need space taken, the girlfriend/wife wants a new X, and XX, and hopefully you get her the expensive XXX so you can get some XXX. Then guess what, you're the new handyman. If you don't want to, or can't.. Guess what.. People cost hundreds of dollars to come fix stuff for you.
I mean let's say you have CASH to BUY a home.
$300,000 is a fairly cheapish house here now.. So you have $300k, you throw it at a house.
You were making probably 5% on your money in this shit market, so now you're giving up $15,000 a year in interest. If the world ever gets back to normal, could be $30,000 a year.
On a normal apartment with utilities included, you're paying like $1000-1500 a month
Even at a lowly $15k, you can pay your rent on the interest, and not pay property tax, not pay utils, and not fix it up. If something breaks, you complain and it gets fixed.
So that's the story if you can BUY the house outright, with CASH..
If you're mortgaging, you end up spending roughly 3x the value of the house.. So in this case $900,000 over the course of the mortgage. Most people end up screwing up, and never paying it off.. They get SECOND mortgages, and just "live with the debt"
Plus homes are crazy expensive right now. If you looked at the $300,000 in cash on a table, and then looked at the house you're trading it for, you would NEVER make the deal.
Also when you hear people "made" money with their house.. If houses have appreciated a lot since they bought, guess what.. When you sell your house - you gotta move to a new one, and they've all gone up in price too!!!!
Nobody makes a profit and moves into a smaller house.
The truth is, homeowners hate to see you renting with a bank account full of cash. They wish you were in the same shitty boat as they are.