house hunting..or why i am becoming an alcoholic. a rant...

[berryman]

Sorry to hear of your problems zorak, Hope things work out for you and I'm sure they eventually will. I have never had to house hunt so I can't really relate but I'm sure it's a PITA.
I kinda did it the hard way many years ago, bought a piece of land, put in a well, septic, driveway, electric and lived in 3 different $hitty moble homes along the way. I really had some hard times to end up with what I have now, lots of land a new house with a full basement, garage, barn and other out buildings, but it was a long tough road along the way. Keep your chin up, you'll find what you are looking for.

[mtsoxfan]

Sounds like a laundry list of troubles.... Around here, 'm sure there are realtors that aren't totally honest, but I don't remember hearing of one. Are things that shitty in Fla?

Is it possible to get a recommendation from somebody? There has to be someone who is reputable.

Sorry to hear of all the woes...

[haerbob3]

shit dude what expect when ya buy a FORD The above rants tells you what is going on with MR B and pretty much any company on the planet!!! I did real estate sales many many years ago. I found only caring about the current sale costs you many sales. The sad part about sales is that the shysters out number the good ones.

[zorak1066]

frozenintime... I know.. I could get a 100k loan for 15 years and pay LESS per month than rent but... and heres the big but..
since the economic collapse and the dodd-frank law, if your debt to income ratio is higher than 40% you cannot get a mortgage loan... I think. sadly im still trying to dig out from really hard times and wouldn't qualify. or is that just federally funded loans? then of course with ownership comes new headaches. at least as a renter if I hate my neighbors I can move in a year and if the roof leaks I don't have to fork out the money... but then again im at the mercy of stupid owners and stupid property managers and have nothing to show for my money.

[mtsoxfan]

I'm a homeowner kind of guy.... but there is a lot more to consider other than rent vs mortgage
cons to owner
TAXES
Repairs
Insurance
Liabilities (someone getting hurt)

Pros
Investment (some say debateable)
Pride of ownership
Ability to do/change anything (with towns approval)
Tax deduction (debateable, paying say 5K in interest to save paying, say 20%, taxes on 5K, not always wise use of money, as there are better investments)

I know there are more others will add...

[Yankeedag]

You don't own, you just rent from various levels of Gob'ment

[FrozenInTime]

You don't own, you just rent from various levels of Gob'ment

That is a sad but true statement that. As long as the government levies taxes on property, you will never truly own it. Miss a tax payment and see how quick they will take the property away from you and *sell* it to someone else.


mt says:
cons to owner
TAXES
Repairs
Insurance
Liabilities (someone getting hurt)

You pay this whether you rent or own. Your rent has this figured in so you do pay it, u just don't see it.

mt says:
Pros
Investment (some say debateable)
Pride of ownership
Ability to do/change anything (with towns approval)
Tax deduction (debateable, paying say 5K in interest to save paying, say 20%, taxes on 5K, not always wise use of money, as there are better investments)

I think real-estate is a bad investment in today's market IMHO. I do love the fact that someday I will co own my place with the gov, but that is a ways off before I can tell the bank to take a hike. I am fortunate that I can tell the town/city to bugger off, none of their business. I would never own a place as a tax deduction, not wealthy and I don't see it as a good invest. myself.

[mtsoxfan]

I've always been lucky, bought low, sold high... True, I sell high, then have to turn around and buy high, but have never lost money on a sale.... crazy market. Been through 4 house, should be in this until retirement.

Actually, a down market is the best time for a first time buyer, less chance for it to go lower. The biggest trouble is people who "lost" home to bank, whoever, usually haven't taken care of things, so it could be a money pit...

Maybe it's an New England thing, but the market go high to low and back every 10 or so years...

[Yankeedag]

average cost of a house here (not a big one mind you) is 250k... the Californians moved up here and brought their prices with them, not the employment pay.

[mtsoxfan]

Depending on house style and condition, you'll pay $125 - $175 a square foot in ct. More or less on location as well, but that's a rough guesstimate.

[haerbob3]

also prices are rising. The area I live most houses are selling in a month

[mashani]

15 miles from where I live in one direction you can buy a house for 10k, sometimes even 1k or even 500 bucks if it's a bombed out shell - next to a boared up crack house or a bombed out apartment buildings. If you are so inclined. I drive past them every day, and every day some house or another has been stripped of copper, or had the door kicked in to plant a crack lab have a party or whatever it is that people do in them (I don't really want to know).

Only 7 miles from there is a mixture of 100k houses and 500k-1million houses and dense concentrations of apartment buildings.

Just a few miles in any other direction you can buy a post WWII bungalow type of house for $120k or < if you are willing to deal with 1970s décor.

Where I live it's $150k-500k with 500k being a 5000+ sq foot McMansion. I live in an old house built in 1930s and updated since - one of the first houses built here. There were a handful built, then the great depression happened, then building resumed post WWII, those houses are radically different and actually not as well built. The people who build the McMansions buy one of those post WWII houses - especially if it's a ranch house, tear it down, and built their McMansion out to the legal limit of the property line on all sides. I've got a picture of my house and the only other one on my street in the 30s with a horse drawn sleigh out in front. Now it's dense urban. Some places nearby have up to 10k people per square mile.

What makes this tolerable to me is that we have vast swaths of public parks and forest that I can get to in minutes from where I live. Where I live is actually very safe, which sounds strange considering what I described first in this post... but it's weird here, a single road may divide "bad" from "good" areas just because the city on the good side has a large police force, and the city on the other has 7 cops, and 7k people who are mostly poor per square mile.

[zorak1066]

Mashani... sounds like you live near Detroit. you can get 2000 sq ft homes for next to nothing. the catch is, youll be paying more in taxes each year than you paid for the house... you will be living on a bombed out street full of crackheads and crime... and if your home ever catches fire, the fire department will more than likely contain the fire but let it burn to the ground. their equipment is busted garbage and they cant risk their lives because Detroit is bankrupt (in every sense of the word). where I live now you should see what ppl think their houses can sell for! everything is so ridiculously priced.

[mtsoxfan]

It's times like these, when I'm feeling sorry for myself, I know that there are many people worse off than I. I actually see it everyday in school, so I don't feel sorry for myself that often...

[RickBeer]

Mashani... sounds like you live near Detroit.

I believe you are quite off the mark .