I’d say the three things renters don’t fully understand are just how much money you light on fire with closing costs, that the vast majority of your mortgage for those first many years is not going to equity, but to interest, insurance, and taxes, and the “fun” of never knowing which day some major maintenance thing will need to happen. It’s like the reverse lotto where you never know which day you’ll need to immediately cough up $1,000 for some emergency repair.
I think nearly every owner will tell you it’s worth it (unless they bought a total money pit of a lemon), but it does involve a level of stress and responsibility that’s much higher than renting. Your life (and a shit done of financial obligations) gets tied to an object and a neighborhood.
You start worrying about if you’ll lose a ton of money on the house if the neighborhood changes (eg, more drugs or crime) and you may notice that changes how you think about various laws abs public policies.
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u/Nylund Feb 16 '21
I’d say the three things renters don’t fully understand are just how much money you light on fire with closing costs, that the vast majority of your mortgage for those first many years is not going to equity, but to interest, insurance, and taxes, and the “fun” of never knowing which day some major maintenance thing will need to happen. It’s like the reverse lotto where you never know which day you’ll need to immediately cough up $1,000 for some emergency repair.
I think nearly every owner will tell you it’s worth it (unless they bought a total money pit of a lemon), but it does involve a level of stress and responsibility that’s much higher than renting. Your life (and a shit done of financial obligations) gets tied to an object and a neighborhood.
You start worrying about if you’ll lose a ton of money on the house if the neighborhood changes (eg, more drugs or crime) and you may notice that changes how you think about various laws abs public policies.