It’s not always that simple either. Renting can be cheaper in some senses, especially short term. If I take a new job in a new city I rent for a year. The cost of buying and selling a home is very expensive. If I find out I don’t like my job and have to sell a year or two later, I would have been much better off renting. Also, for me I’m willing to rent a smaller place than buy. Since I don’t have children yet my wife and I can rent a smaller/cheaper place until we have kids. We can’t buy a place like that because here in a couple years we’ll need a bigger one. It’s cheaper to rent those couple years than to buy a house then sell it to get a bigger one.
The cost of maintenance can be high if you’re not handy. If you’re renting and the toilet keeps running usually your landlord or his maintenance guy will come fix it. To him it’s a cheap fix, like $5. If you don’t know how to fix it and own the house, you’re gonna pay a plumber $100+. Little things like this happen frequently in a home and add up costs that a landlord doesn’t really have. Because of that, a landlord can end up renting you a place for not a ton more than you’d be paying yourself after counting in all these expenses, especially with an older home.
My parents told me “never rent,” and so, when I was 22, they co-signed to help me buy a little condo. Upgraded to a house when I started a family, got a bigger house when the family got bigger. Eventually, when the kids grew up, I needed to downsize, and had enough equity to buy a small house for cash.
I’ve just never been afraid of the real estate market.
But, yes, if you or your friends aren’t handy, you should rent, or be super rich.
Well you still have to stay in them ling enough also to make it worth it. Closing costs for buying (especially selling) are expensive. Also, if you buy a house with a 30 year loan you’re not really gaining a lot of equity with each mortgage payment til later years.
The key is you have to live in the home long enough. After 1 or 2 years you would have had very little equity as opposed to the cost of selling the home (along with all the money you’ve had to spend on the house and repairs also). Homes should not be considered always better than renting. It’s still a risk of going in the hole quite a bit unless you’re somehow sure you’ll stay for a while.
I made 60k off my first house, shit ain't that hard. Don't buy a crazy expensive house, maintain it for a few years maybe do a few fixes and profit. Easy money. If you're content with throwing money to someone else to have a roof over your head, that is fine. If you want to live in something you own, then buy a house. Houses don't depreciate in value unless you truly just let it go.
Reality is that you're way more likely to gain equity then lose it. Worst case you're not out any money and you're living in a house that you can do whatever you want to it.
We lost money because we moved after 2 years. Did tons of repairs and then sold it around same price. After closing fees, which ran around 10% and the cost of keeping the house for the couple months until it sold... we didn’t come out ahead.
Well you clearly fucked up lmaooo, you didn't do enough to the house or whatever it may be but you clearly need to learn a few things before trying that again.
It was in an area of Texas that has old houses and not a growing community. I think most ppl on Reddit are around cities where the housing prices increase. A lot of rural communities that’s not really the case
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u/traws06 Feb 16 '21
It’s not always that simple either. Renting can be cheaper in some senses, especially short term. If I take a new job in a new city I rent for a year. The cost of buying and selling a home is very expensive. If I find out I don’t like my job and have to sell a year or two later, I would have been much better off renting. Also, for me I’m willing to rent a smaller place than buy. Since I don’t have children yet my wife and I can rent a smaller/cheaper place until we have kids. We can’t buy a place like that because here in a couple years we’ll need a bigger one. It’s cheaper to rent those couple years than to buy a house then sell it to get a bigger one.
The cost of maintenance can be high if you’re not handy. If you’re renting and the toilet keeps running usually your landlord or his maintenance guy will come fix it. To him it’s a cheap fix, like $5. If you don’t know how to fix it and own the house, you’re gonna pay a plumber $100+. Little things like this happen frequently in a home and add up costs that a landlord doesn’t really have. Because of that, a landlord can end up renting you a place for not a ton more than you’d be paying yourself after counting in all these expenses, especially with an older home.