My point isn't that investing in real estate and home ownership are bad things, but you should be aware that they are propagandist. It might not be right for you
@stylus yea for me it was:
- thought i was going to stay in a place for a long time, bought a house
- lived there for two years before things changed and we moved away
- I've paid the mortgage for two years while trying to sell it
- house needs (also) about $6k in repairs in order to sell it
- I'm paying a few thousand to get rid of the house. Not to mention the mortgage payments for the past two years (we didn't live in a good area for renting it out)
@tcql ouch
@stylus yup
at this point I just want it gone
@tcql This calculator covers a lot of the bases, except that it's so hard to guess at some of the values to enter, like the annual growth rate in home value. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0
@tcql But what if I really want some power to determine what I do with my environment?
Leasors are always vulnerable to the lessors.
@tcql The downsides of home ownership can be huge, enough to outweigh the main benefit which (if you get a 15 or 30 year fixed rate mortgage) is a fixed cost instead of potentially varying (increasing) rental rates.
But as a homeowner you bear all the risks of unexpected repairs. Last year we had over $6000 in unbudgeted home repairs.
You also have a risk if you need to move house for whatever reason; it's easy to take a five-digit loss on this.