Mortgage = Prisoner in your own home, surroundings

Kerouac wrote:

ccrryypptt wrote:

A hobo is usually struggling and goes wherever. I'm talking about doing what you want, going warm weather in the winter months, etc.. For me, 1 city, 1 place YOY doesn't cut it.

That's retirement.

Not if you are still working. The solution is to buy multiple properties in different locations or even countries and circulate between them. They don't have to be large because you might only be there for a few months and you can rent them out as vacation homes when you are not there.

A place in Tahoe, a place in Scottsdale, a place in the Caribbean, Thailand, NYC, etc. And now there is absolutely no reason to take any job where they want you to work out of one location.

Renting = prisoner to your landlord. If he wants to sell your condo, renovate your house, or jack up your rent, you get to move.

Yes the system is designed for people to barely scrape by. Mortgages reinforce that. People normalize it in cohesion with accepting mediocrity. If you get a mortgage, you've been gamed by the system which is designed to keep people in check. You're only free once you're out of the stranglehold they try to enforce on as many people as possible.

Getting a mortgage is not the worst thing that can happen to you. People often look at it as a hook: you’re young, you dream about your shelter, so you apply for mortgage approval. Then, you spend the next 20 years working hard to break even. But that’s the dark way to look at life in general. A mortgage is a way the state helps people who can’t afford to buy a property but show all signs they will generate enough finances to do that in the future. So why not let them live their dream now? You can read through articles at https://www.greedyrates.ca/ and educate yourself about mortgage essentials.

Kerouac wrote:

ccrryypptt wrote:

Selling a house, you're still pretty committed to at least a couple years in any house you buy. And you're paying closing/admin costs. I like to leave an area every few months, and if I like it- revisit in a year. Far as 6+ weeks vacation- most do not get that much.

You're describing a hobo.

The new term is van life. Hobos used to ride trains. Vans get you to more places.

Buzzingwab wrote:

Getting a mortgage is not the worst thing that can happen to you. People often look at it as a hook: you’re young, you dream about your shelter, so you apply for mortgage approval. Then, you spend the next 20 years working hard to break even. But that’s the dark way to look at life in general. A mortgage is a way the state helps people who can’t afford to buy a property but show all signs they will generate enough finances to do that in the future. So why not let them live their dream now? You can read through articles at

https://www.greedyrates.ca/

and educate yourself about mortgage essentials.

You can't afford to buy a home, can you?

bio Domer wrote:

Owning a home is more expensive (mortgage, insurance, taxes, repairs, needless home improvement projects your wife insists on doing., etc.) than renting, and there are massive transactions costs to sell a house. Sure, you could get lucky and your leveraged investment appreciates in value, but then what do you do when you sell? The house you’ll buy will be just as expensive, or more so (unless you’re downsizing).

In general, it’s probably a better financial decision to rent unless you know you’ll live in a house for at least 10 years.

I very much doubt this with the once exception of buying a house at the very peak and with a n adjustable rate mortgage (which is more rare now). I have a house worth $1.2M and my mortgage is $275K fixed at 2.25%. I pay $1,250 for my mortgage for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath 2,500 square foot house in socal. That would easily cost 3.5k and likely 4k per month to rent. In about 7 years it will be paid off completely and and I will have no mortgage or rent. I don't' have a fancy house and I have done nothing special to get to this outcome other than re-finance to an extraordinary low rate that will never change, while rent will always go up. I max out my 401k, IRAs, kids college funds. I get to live in near perfect weather year round. If I want to move I can sell my house for a lot. I can also rent it out and travel/move. I can't think of a single good reason to rent a home. I don't know anyone wealthy that rents (and in my world I know a lot of wealthy people). Not one of them rents and most of them own multiple properties.

None of this is meant to brag...I'm not rich. This is meant to shut down the criminally stupid idea that renting is better than buying. The only people who say renting is better than owning are renters. It's like the saying - people who say money doesn't buy happiness don't have any.

I bought my house in 2010 for $275k. It is now worth at least $600k. My mortgage payment has been the same since 2010 save and except for about a $250 a month increase for taxes. If I rented, I would have paid about $1,500 a month in 2010 for a decent two bed apartment and about $2,000 to rent a fairly shabby 2 bed house in my neighborhood (pretty much had to have a house with two dogs). Today, it costs $4,500.00 a month to rent a smaller house in my neighborhood (all the shabby ones got bought up and flipped) and that number keeps going higher and higher as smaller houses are bought up and flipped. I was able to refi with the same payments down to a 15 year and will have paid off my mortgage in 2028. After that, I will only pay about $900 a month for taxes. And my taxes freeze when I retire (hopefully in 2037). I expect to stay in my house for another 10 years after retirement as my wife is younger than me and will need that long at her job in the schools to get her retirement benefits. So, I will have about 20 years of living in a great neighborhood and will only have to pay taxes and maintenance. You never get to that point renting.

If you do not have job stability and have to move around a lot, a mortgage is not at all a good deal unless you make so much money that you do not even feel it. But if you are in it for the long haul. you cannot beat home ownership renting simply because at the end of the mortgage is nearly free housing, which makes a huge difference in retirement.

ccrryypptt wrote:

You can't just get up and leave to another state when you want. You're trapped into a $1K /week job (give/take) to often times barely meet expenses with none left over. Same city, places, people, 365 days/year, YOY. Parts of the country/world, you never see, except during your 2 week vacation.

But having a family and/or building a 401K & retirement usually requires this.

What kind of job will allow you as an adult to live this “free” lifestyle?

Ideally your mortgage would not be anymore than 25% of your take home household income and would be a 15 yr mortgage (at most). This will give you freedom.

People get into trouble when they do things like put 0% down on a 30 yr mortgage.

That works for you because you bought your house before it was worth 1.2M. Your average person will never be able to afford that new price.

There is a whole generation that went to school and bought houses when the prices were effectively nothing. Then they pretend they are financial geniuses and the current generation is just lazy.

uphill both ways wrote:

That works for you because you bought your house before it was worth 1.2M. Your average person will never be able to afford that new price.

There is a whole generation that went to school and bought houses when the prices were effectively nothing. Then they pretend they are financial geniuses and the current generation is just lazy.

I’d be curious where you live.

Here in Texas, very close to the major cities, there are some really great homes for under 300k.

What metro area do you live in/near? Perhaps the peanut gallery here can help you find some homes in your range.

My experience:

I bought my house for 120k in 2001. Took out a loan for 100k in 2007 and put an addition on doubling the size of the house. After that I owed around 220k, I went through some rough times 2009-11. I was able to borrow more on the house to get through that rough patch and maintain a decent quality of living for my kids.

My kids went to college, and I took out a home equity loan to help for college. I did not need it, but it was in place just in case. it costed me $50 dollars per year. I closed that out when I remortgaged at a low percent.

I now owe 240k and the house and property are worth 800k. I have recently taken another home equity loan out for 360k. I can either use it or not. I have not yet but it is in place for 10 years. If I want to, I can buy a vacation home and be in a cash position while doing it which I will wait on because I think house values are too inflated right now.

Also, my primary home is in a vacation area. I can rent it out and leave to go anywhere I want.

I designed the addition with the ability to make apartments should my children move back in.

Most of these benefits for my family would not have been possible had I rented. I'm not saying home ownership is for everyone but it's not like the OP is saying. Really the only thing that keeps us planted is our employment, not the house.

Great, your kids now have to pay 800k for a comparable house you bought for 200k.

uphill both ways wrote:

Great, your kids now have to pay 800k for a comparable house you bought for 200k.

Where do you live where all the houses are 800k+? Sincerely, I’m curious about your specific housing market.

ToyotaTacoma69x wrote:

go ahead and 'stick it to the man'

quit your job and bum rooms off friends for 3 months at a time

be a cool guy, bro

take awesome pix for insta, get tons of likes

keep bumming off people and the gov't until you're 75 and die

very cool and trendy/hip, stickin it to the man

live in a van, very edgy and cool rn

Read this again OP

uphill both ways wrote:

That works for you because you bought your house before it was worth 1.2M. Your average person will never be able to afford that new price.

There is a whole generation that went to school and bought houses when the prices were effectively nothing. Then they pretend they are financial geniuses and the current generation is just lazy.

But this applies to so many homeowners, not just me. Tons of people have the same story - they bought a house, the house price went us as mortgage rates went down. I specifically said I did nothing genius, we just bought in 2014 and it's gone up a lot in socal area. We bought a house we could afford one one income specifically to reduce risk and enjoy life.

But this posting is all about choosing to rent instead of buy (which is terribly stupid if you can buy) as opposed to not being able to buy.

Everything you say is true, but there is one thing. If you want to travel, or just move to another city why you take out a mortgage?

ccrryypptt wrote:

fansofonly wrote:

It is possible to sell a house and move on to another place. And some of us get 6+ weeks a year of vacation to go explore the world. OP fail.

Selling a house, you're still pretty committed to at least a couple years in any house you buy. And you're paying closing/admin costs. I like to leave an area every few months, and if I like it- revisit in a year. Far as 6+ weeks vacation- most do not get that much.

Brian Laundrie abides