OK, i know part of it is where I live... seacoast NH is not gonna be the cheapest place in the world... but its just silly
We HATE where we live. The people in the apt complex hate us and we are wasting $1000/month on a shithole apt. Finally the decision has been made... its time to get a house. now, since Bill has no money and credit is... lets just say... less than desired, its all on me. SO, start look... short of living in a trailor or in a house smaller than the apt on on land... its gonna be over $200K. what the hell every happened to starter homes??? I mean, a house with 650 sq ft should NOT be $250K in DOVER... WTF
So... talkin to my parents. They are willing to sell me thier house... in 10 years. can move in now for no rent... IF i build them an apt in the barn (ok.. so thats will be something around $50K.... HOPEFULY). The big problem (other than the potential of once again living 'with' my parents. In 10 years i have to be able to hand them $300K+ to move in the the retirement community they want to get into. Ok.. where am i gonna get THAT in 10 years. I make alright money now but if something happens... its not gonna happen. Plus once im there and i do own the house its gonna be $6k+ year in taxes (NH... tax free my frigin ASS) plus the thought of heating the place makes me soil my pants.
Dont know what to do. would move someplace with cheaper houseing and more jobs in my field but, do to the joys of ex wifes,a child and this whole being in love bullsh*t... can leave frigin NH... could move to MA but yeah..... thats no cheaper!!! its MORE EXPENSIVE!!!
ugh... i dont know what to do. Sorry. Im sure thats a useless little rant there... kinda gay but still... needed to get it out. Im stuck at work and my widdle brain is about to bust!! no idea what i should do!
Last edited on Mon May 9th, 2005 07:00 pm by Pokes
____________________ Its all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye with a dick
Wow I'd have to live in a box if that was the case here in Oregon. Home ownership will be next to impossible for me. My girl's credit is in the toilet due to her ex-husbands student loans coming back to hunt her, and my crappy job.
Have you looked into government help? When recently looking for a place for us to live (my girlfriend has 4 kids and we needed to get out of apartments and into a big enough home for all of us to be together) I found out that there are hundreds of new home buyer/renter programs that are more then happy to help simply because so few people know about them. Problem is you have to have a pretty low overall income for most. But if your guy is paying child support or joint custody, here in OR they have special funds and programs that are willing to pay a percentage of your rent/morgage. The biggest problem I found with that is this type of help is limited and if they run out of money your stuck with out any help. But it did work for me, for 4 years a program called HUD was paying 20 percent of my total rent on my old apartment. Doesn't sound like much but it made the difference between living in an apartment or out on the street. Also trailor aren't so bad. I've actually seen really nice ones. Try searching yahoo if your interested in help. It's what I did.
Good luck
____________________
Yeah, I punched a baby once, in anger. But in my defense the baby was being kind of a dick.
It's very tough for young people just getting started. I'm afraid I don't have any real suggestions. I will say, however, that houses & condos appreciate, and trailers depreciate. I've seen trailers that were drop dead beautiful, but you'll lose money if you buy one. It's just like buying a car. Drive it off the lot and you've just lost $XXX. If you can get in a house and stay there for just a few years, you'll be able to make a profit on it.
____________________ If you can't read this, you're illiterate.
I doubt we will ever move out of Wisconsin because of the high cost of living elsewhere. We bought our house for 65,000 (1638 sq ft 4 bedroom full basement, big backyard) stuck about 20,000 into fixing it up and it's a great place to live.
I just can't imagine paying 200,000+ for a house let alone a starter house!!
edit: I would stay away from trailers (especialy the higher priced ones). Maybe look into buying a prefab house? I know in our area you can get a prefab house for around 70,000 land included. It's nicer than a trailer....
Last edited on Tue May 10th, 2005 03:00 am by 03 white zx3
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
Couple of quick thoughts.
Housing prices are artificially high due to the large number of zero down, interest only mortgages out there. This is a regional deal, California is the most suspect market. Check around before you buy any property and if much of the local housing is held that way then you might be better off to wait.
Don't know if I'm reading this right but it looks like you are buying your parents house for 300k, title transfer when? If the house and property are worth 300k and you don't have to pay rent on it then the possibility of you stashing the money over 10 years is dependant upon your income over that time. If title is tranferred to you in ten years then you'll be able to pick up a mortgage to make up the balance of the 300k.
BTW if you are on an oil fired furnace, heating can be done very cheaply. I heat my house and my ex's for about 20% of what it would cost if I was buying furnace oil. Takes a little work but I get to keep the cash that I'd be paying out to the fuel oil company.
My 2 cents. Especially when it's a family transaction make sure that the entire deal is down on paper and signed off.
____________________
A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams...John Barrymore
One more thing I thought of. If you need to convert the barn into an apartment for your parents, where are you going to come up with the 50 Gs for that? Since your name won't be on the title, you won't be able to take out a "mortgage" on it and how are you going to get an unsecured loan for that much?
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
So, yes, i will not be lookin at trailors. There are no nice ones around here and I wont make any money there in the end.
As for keeping it in the family, thats kinda the plan. That was the house i grew up in, lived there my whole life (minus the last year and a half). We want to keep it in the family. Everything will be done through a lawyer, I know that for sure. After 18 years as town manager, i dont think that my father could do it anyother way.
I have spoken with them come. My parents are willing to take out $35K from thier home equity since they can get it for a better deal, and ill pay that loan back. I have about $11K in CDs i can use so worst case, I need to get a personal loan for like $10K or less (hopfully).
I was thinking too... when 10 years come, i will be a 1st time home buyer so i should be able to get some deal there.
Now, im dealing with the new reality. for the next 10 years, my parents will be living with me, sadly, im alright with that. its the after that i dont like. I would have to rent out the apt to someone.... and the thought of a stranger living in my house.... i really really do not like at all. Would have to figure out a way to deal with that. best case, get someone to rent it who will only be in the apt a few weeks a year (have a private school in town so its not unheard of).
Eh... i dont know. I sweat the stupid stuff. was up all night with this. Im a frigin mess.
____________________ Its all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye with a dick
We both need to get out of this appartment style living and into somthing a LOT better.
currently we are both at large miltifamily appartment units. She's in an appartment and I'm in a condo complex that was recently transformed from appartments to condos and the condo's are 60%+ renters(so basicly there back to being appartments). Yes I have a mortgage on my condo but thats the only plus side to where I live. Both of us (Pokes and myself) have neibghors that don't give 2 shits about anyone else. I don't feal totaly safe where I am and I am sure Pokes feels the same way or similar. Parking is always at a premium(and we both have off street parking lots) and good luck being able to park within walking distance to your front door. Even me being in a condo I still have to fight for a parking space, and than when I find one I hope and pray I don't get door dings because they just relined the parking spaces and made them a bit smaller. If your cars brake down we have literally 8 hours to fix the problems because we cannot work on cars in the parking lot, not that I really want to do that.
Don't know about Pokes but I feel I have no privacy. I hear people walking down the halls and they can hear me talking inside. The downstairs neibghors have the bass blasting shaking the floor and when asked to stop they deny it's them. I get to hear the upstairs neibghots scrump every $%^&#%& night and it got old really fast. Everytime I turn around I find somthing else in the condo that needs updating, fixing or nastyness being cleaned up from god knows when. Condos my ass.......
so know you see why she needs to get out and into a house.
Hell I'm about ready just to find a trailor on its own land just so I don't have to deal with all the bullshit I have..
Also the the low end of starter houses(if you can find one) is in the 190-200 range. Anything less would either need major fixing before moving into or be so small you might as well rent a studio appartment.
Wow Pokes - I'm sorry for all the problems. I know that if you were my kid I wouldn't charge you $300k for my home. jeesh - I'm sorry but I'd want my kid to get a break.
As for housing costs...they are insane! artificially inflated beyond the cost of living. We, young couples, can't afford places where we'd like to stay. Many have to re-locate to places we don't want to go to just to find something we can afford.
Dan - I will NOT live in a trailor. BTW - There are nice ones out ther, but they cost as much as a home. When Dan and I were looking around we priced some out. There were some in the $300k range!!! bite me!!!!
Dan and I will have to find something we can afford, which will mean we'll have to commute further. I don't mind my 1/2 hour drive, but I won't do another hour again. It defeats the purpose.
Pokes, even though we hate where we live, we've already earned good equity and will have a good turnaround when we go to sell. I say shoot for a Condo like what Dan did. He did this all on his own. I am not on the deed. You may qualify as well.
Look for First time Buyers - I can honestly tell you we don't spend $1000 where we live when you combine our mortage, association fees & utilities.
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
Cost of living here is cheap. My old apt. was $169/mo (income-based) for a 2-bdrm ground floor apt. It was nice, too... new carpet, new paint, new stove. I had to pay utilities, but that was like $59/mo, even if I left the a/c on all summer.
Here I thought Maine was a killer, but my Fiancee and I just recently started looking for a dwelling. Along with my advisor at KeyBank we decided the easiest way for us to get into a home is buy the land (about 125,000 for 2.5 acres) and then build on that, luckily for me, my dad is a plumber, my uncle is a designer/carpenter, and another uncle is an electrician, so a fat majority of the labor costs are covered, and there is no parts markup either. We are looking at about 75K for the built house so a total of 200K. My advisor gave us some numbers, and with 10% down, we are looking at a payment of about ~750/month taxes, fees, and all that other bull included. Not bad when you figure it would cost us more than that to live in an apartment. Just for reference, we both have credit scores over 700, with a total debt between us of about 130K.
cant find land down here that large... and if you do.... they are like $200K themselves. i was going to do the land thing, but i have no where to live while the house is being built and all that good stuff.
And as for credit... oh dear lord... its all on me. Mine is good... but im still only one income.... i thinki make decent money but around here.... apparently i dont
____________________ Its all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye with a dick
Price of living in the Northeast in general is ridiculous.
My grandfather's selling his 5-unit apt building here in RI because it's getting to be too much of a hassle for him to deal with, but all the tenants are pissed cause they know the new landlord will probably charge them "market prices" - my grandfather doesn't need that much supplemental income anymore, so he charges them enough to make a profit but you can't go near a 2-bdrm in a decent neighborhood, recently renovated, off-the-street parking for anything NEAR what he charges them.
On that note, ME prices must be a little more stable than a little further south... you couldn't touch 2.5 acres for 125k, if you could find that much land together in most areas.... ok maybe Western MA you can still get that...
It's insane though... I mean for the most part a worker in MA will be making more than one in TN or KS or something, but not nearly THAT much more to be proportionate to how much more expensive it is to live here. My uncle's building a home in MO for like 100k total, counting like 5 acres of farm, of course he's handy so a lot of labor is done himself, but still, it's odd.
Good luck with your housing situations all, I'm just glad I appear to be living at home another year... I have zero interest in finding an apartment with the market the way it is right now, sheesh!
Yep don't go the Trailer/Manufactured home what ever the F you want to call them. I bought a single wide about 8 years ago just as the housing market rates were dropping. I'm half way on a 15 year note and I'm still way upside down on this place. It's OK for a bachelor and it's nice enough but it was very bad timing. I should know next week if I got this new teaching position in a small rural N.E. Tx. town(pretty sure I have it). I'm going to buy some land and move this thing up there. To move this single wide 60 ft, 60 miles and set it up $2000.00 (just burns my ass though) that $2K could put me in a new home but w/ a 30 year mortgage, but at least it would appreciate. I have to weigh the options because I might get married again(my married male collegues and friends say don't do it) and I was married for 10 years but been single the last 13 years. I have about 10-15 year until retirement (closer to 10 I hope). I honestly can say the price of housing in the little town compared to Tyler, Tx. is like night and day the small town (Winnsboro, TX. pop 3,000) avg price $55,000 and here in Tyler it's like $150,000 (old oil money here). I think I'm going to talk to a lawyer about the consiquences of letting this place go but I already know pretty much what he's going to tell me. I'm just about 100% recovered from my bankruptcy in '99 and I've already spoke w/mortgage companies. I guess I'll just have to eat the $311.00 for the next 7 yrs. I should be able to rent it out but that's a major pain unless you know who your renting to. Guess it could be much worse because it has. Lots of room here in Texas if you can tke the hot summers. Later and good luck Pokes.
JT
Last edited on Fri May 13th, 2005 11:00 pm by JTex
Yup, its all kinds of crazy. Went and looked at a house the other day.. wanted $200K for it... and it was like half the size of your apt is now. whats up with that?? It was SO not worth that... private water, private sewer... was out of control.
I have been lookin at land now... not for me but for Bill's grandparents... even that is rediculous. Doesnt help that there are endless plots for like .5-1 acre... they dont tell you that in most of those towns you need atleast 2 acres to build!! sneaky little trick there. So now i may still be done looking for a house at the moment... but still have to find land for someone else.
Maybe i should go into Real Estate... could make more than i make now... and i spend enough time lookin through the stuff!!
All I know is if i dont get something done by like Nov Im SO tempted to just go down to Texas and pitch a tent on the land i own there... what irony... I OWN LAND!!.. its just frigin 3000 miles away!!
Last edited on Mon May 16th, 2005 07:00 pm by Pokes
____________________ Its all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye with a dick
I feel your pain but I decided to bite the bullet and buy a place - I close at the end of the month. I kept looking at home prices back in my home state of Wisconsin, and like 03 said you get a lot for a little up there. Oh well, we like the place we're getting into, but be aware that insurance and taxes can be a surprising amount. I think young people are pretty much being forced into townhomes and/or condos as the only affordable options. The upside there is that you don't have to mess around with any maintenance. Best of luck Pokes and all you trying to find a way through the rock and hard place that is real estate.
Kona,
That's a very smart decision (imo). Do you have any pictures of the house yet?
____________________ "Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either, just fuck off and leave me alone. "
konaboy wrote: I feel your pain but I decided to bite the bullet and buy a place - I close at the end of the month. I kept looking at home prices back in my home state of Wisconsin, and like 03 said you get a lot for a little up there. Oh well, we like the place we're getting into, but be aware that insurance and taxes can be a surprising amount.
Congrats on finding a new place!! Im sure that you will enjoy it greatly
And being from the land of 'No Taxes' (NH) we are all very aware of property tax. That we do have.... LOTS of it... at the moment.. my parents house is at about $5500/year. if we work together and get it to what we want we will be at about $6500-$7000 a year in taxes for the place..... no taxes in NH my ass
____________________ Its all fun and games until someone gets poked in the eye with a dick
When it comes to condo living, you have to be ready to live by very strictly enforced rules and pay heafty Association Fees with potential for special assessments.
____________________ Get in, Sit down, Shut up and HANG ON!
I just found 20 Acres for $125,000. They just lowered the price to that. After you buy it who knows how much it will cost to get permits and install septice and well and all the things needed before you even start to put a house on it.
And for about $80,000 I can get myself into a trailor(1989) on its own land (about .3 acres) and it has a 1 car detached garage with workshop.
. They just lowered the price to that. After you buy it who knows how much it will cost to get permits and install septice and well and all the things needed before you even start to put a house on it.