• Lasherz@lemmy.world
    251·
    27 days ago

    HOA gonna pop that bubble real quick.

    PSA to homebuyers: Even if the HOA has reasonable rules now and is run by your neighbors, don’t expect that to continue when they get older and want to pass off management to a company who will make life a living hell.

  • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
    3·
    25 days ago

    Just a quick example here. Mortage payment I make (or did make, we sold) was 6k a month.

    Now sure, I’m getting equity, but it’s by no means quick. The bank is making a killing. Of that 6k, we are bringing down the principal by something like 800 bucks a month. The bank is taking 3k and the rest escrow and PMI.

    If you buy a house. Be sure to be able to put 20% down. This will bring your payment down a ton.

    Try for the best interest rate you can. It’ll be a shitty 7 or higher % for now, and at least until the bubble pops again. Because it will and it’s getting close.

    Then, you get an endless list of repairs and improvements. But if things start to break, make cheap repairs, then save up to replace. Update your kitchen and master bathrooms. These things sell houses. Never keep your house out of date or you won’t get the return you want.

    Good luck out there to home owners. It’s a good asset to have, but only if you keep up with maintenance and updates.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
      1·
      25 days ago

      I just bought mine this year. I got in by the skin of my teeth as a single person in a ridiculously expensive capital city.

      In Australia we have things called Offset accounts. This is a regular bank account that you might get your salary paid into, but it’s linked to your mortgage loan. The interest you pay on the mortgage is based on the mortgage principal minus what’s in your offset.

      So if my mortgage is 500,000, and I have 50,000 in my offset account, interest is only calculated on 450,000. I still have access to my $50, 000 to do with as I please, but the more I stack up there,the less I pay in interest, and the less that interest compounds.

      So for these first few years it’s really important for me to stack as much cash in my offset account as I can, because it will save me huge amount of interest over the life of the loan.

      I’m working two jobs, 7 days a week for the first couple years to do that, and I have a couple other side hustles to help reduce cost of living as well. But the bank is still making a killing off me in interest.

      I would rather die than be a landlord though, so I have an agreement with my partner. Instead of contributing to the mortgage or paying rent, she loans me a set amount each week, say, $300. This builds up in my offset account and helps reduce the interest I pay. After 5 years, I’ll repay this loan to her at the same rate, $300 a week.

      This benefits us both hugely, she will effectively have a rent-free period of 5 years AND be getting a boost to her cashflow, while I will have been able to offset my mortgage by up to 78k extra over the course of 10 years.

      Yes, she will effectively ‘lose’ the opportunity to earn interest on her savings by saving that money herself for 5 years, but she won’t lose the principal amount, and together we will have robbed the bank of far more interest than she would have earned from saving it.

    • Delphia@lemmy.world
      1·
      25 days ago

      I own a home and its insane how people who have never owned underestimate the cost of actually owning a property. “I can pay $1500 in rent, but apparently I cant afford a $1500 mortgage”… like… you probably cant. Banks arent not lending to you because they dont want to make an assload off interest. They tried lending out money to everyone who swore they could keep up the payments and 2008 happened.