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House / rent questions

Kristi2k

Kristi2k

Golden Member
I am new to all of this, and am planning on moving out in a yr or so.

I am trying to decide on an apartment, or buying a small home (with town water not a well), or renting a house. What is best for a couple starting out?

This probably sounds dumb, but I am un experienced in this new part of life. 🙂
 
it all depends.


google mortage calculater to see whether it makes $$ sense to buy/rent.


BUT you also have to figure out whether or not you want to be responsible for maintenance, yard work, etc..., or if you like the relative freedom of renting.
 
As a really rough rule-of-thumb: if you are living there for less than 3 years then rent, if you are living there for more than 3 years then buy.

If you buy and then leave in less than a few years, the loan fees and closing costs are so exhorbant that you will likely have lost a lot of money. If you rent for more than 3 years, then all that rent money went for nothing.

Of course this rule-of-thumb doesn't include intangibles such as quality of living. Do you or your wife really want a garden (quite difficult in an apartment), or do you hate doing your own maintainence (comes free with apartments), etc.
 
We really don't know if we would be staying in this area. So probably renting would be best? We make a lot of noise sometimes (when we watch movies [Surround Sound], gaming, etc).

Eventually we would like to own a home, but it sounds like renting one for now would be best?
 
I would say that sounds pretty reasonable. IF you found that you could buy for less than you can rent, and you have plenty of money/income, then you might consider buying just for the learning experience. You don't build much equitity in the first year or two, unless the market jumps up, or you do a lot of improvements to the house.

For example, the house next door to me is going to go on the renter market at 1300/month. However, I could buy that house with 5% down for less than 1100/month plus get tax benefits. So, look around and see what houses cost to buy/rent and then reconsider. You could also go ahead and talk to your bank/credit union to see how much of house you can afford.

I think the key is to not rule anything out until you have more information about the housing market in your area.
 
One other thing is to check around and see how the market is doing. Are houses rapidly appreciating? Are they going up in value slowly? Are they decreasing? How long does a house take to sell in your area?

If you are in a slow moving area, you are looking at slow moving appreciation, so your house really doesn't gain much value. Then you also have the added problem of taking forever to sell in the future and you'll have to cough up 6% of the earnings to a realator possibly to help you move it.

If it's a slow moving market, and you don't forsee yourself staying there long, then rent. If it's a rapid moving market that is gaining value quickly, and you plan to stay a minimum of 3-5 years, then buy.
 
this is some good advice guys, as I find myself in this same situation

plan to stay wherever for ~6-7 years...so I guess that means buy.

I just did a "how much house can you afford" calculator and worst case scenario for us is a $100K house, so just to be even safer we're looking at sub 90K houses.

any advice on lenders? those ditech commercials about drive me nuts. is it worth checking out?
 
start with an 80k house then upgrade things around it, trust me, if they save 90k, it'll end up being atleast 110k or something unless you don't upgrade a bare thing.
 
Originally posted by: AgaBooga
start with an 80k house then upgrade things around it, trust me, if they save 90k, it'll end up being atleast 110k or something unless you don't upgrade a bare thing.
Click to expand...

depends on where you live but many places you cant find a condo let a lone a house for 80K
 
Originally posted by: AgaBooga
start with an 80k house then upgrade things around it, trust me, if they save 90k, it'll end up being atleast 110k or something unless you don't upgrade a bare thing.
Click to expand...
can you reword that with correct punctuation. i'm having a hard time following it (probably just too tired at the moment)
 
Originally posted by: GtPrOjEcTX
Originally posted by: AgaBooga
start with an 80k house then upgrade things around it, trust me, if they save 90k, it'll end up being atleast 110k or something unless you don't upgrade a bare thing.
Click to expand...
can you reword that with correct punctuation. i'm having a hard time following it (probably just too tired at the moment)
Click to expand...
alright, after some rest, I think I can make it out. the "if they save 90k, it'll end up being atleast 110k" was what was screwing me up, namely the "if they save" phrase.

I take that to mean, "if they spend 90K for the house..."
 
House prices in my area are pretty low so renting didn't make a lot of sense for me. The little 2 br I live in would rent for around $600 a month. My house payment is $338.
 
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