Wall Street Housing Grab

[skull]

Indeed, someone making a 'normal wage' nowadays can never save up enough 15-20k for an average home. I was 'lucky' enough to sell my soul to the govt, so I got a nice VA loan with no down payments. I was also 'smart' enough to get a car far more expensive than I could 'afford' that i put double payments on for two years. That gave me enough credit to actually get a decent VA loan.

I managed to save up 20k to buy my first house making 30k a year. One of the ways I did it was by not buying an expensive car, stupidly thinking I needed to, to get good credit to buy a house.

 

[1prophet]

It wasn't that long ago that one would need 10% Cash Down Payment for a Mortgage. I think this is a perfect example of how Wages and the Cost of Living have become grossly out of sync. Certain things have become cheap like small appliances and electronics, but Housing, something we actually Need, has become ridiculously expensive. Although radical, the Singaporean policy of Public Ownership of all Real Estate/Housing makes a good case for itself, at least to make things affordable.

They didn't become cheap, they became outsourced and throwaway/virtually non repairable, while the profits moved upwards due to the fact that the labor expenses, taxes, and many other costs of making it in America as well as availability of spare parts for repair makes it more cost effective to throw away making people think they are getting some sort of deal on their ever diminishing wages always buying new.

Add up the environmental costs of pollution both in production and disposal, non serviceability, diminished wages, how cheap are those electronics and small appliances in the end.

Made in China—Cheap at the Store, Costly for the Earth

Because of antiquated manufacturing processes and reliance on coal energy, Chinese-made goods come with an increased emissions price tag.

www.takepart.com

 

[Bitek]

They didn't become cheap, they became outsourced and throwaway/virtually non repairable, while the profits moved upwards due to the fact that the labor expenses, taxes, and many other costs of making it in America as well as availability of spare parts for repair makes it more cost effective to throw away making people think they are getting some sort of deal on their ever diminishing wages always buying new.

Add up the environmental costs of pollution both in production and disposal, non serviceability, diminished wages, how cheap are those electronics and small appliances in the end.

Made in China—Cheap at the Store, Costly for the Earth

Because of antiquated manufacturing processes and reliance on coal energy, Chinese-made goods come with an increased emissions price tag.

www.takepart.com

Just like no one wants to buy a Kirby vacuum anymore, even tho they are made from metal, built like tanks and last 20+ years. Instead it's cheap, plastic vacs that break after a couple years and the whole piece of shit goes into the landfill.

When's the last time you've seen a vac repair shop?

But it's easy bc Kirbys are over a thousand bucks and no one wants to shell out that kind of cash. Well, that and vacuum salesmen are snakes, but that's another story...

 

[glenn1]

Just like no one wants to buy a Kirby vacuum anymore, even tho they are made from metal, built like tanks and last 20+ years. Instead it's cheap, plastic vacs that break after a couple years and the whole piece of shit goes into the landfill.

When's the last time you've seen a vac repair shop?

But it's easy bc Kirbys are over a thousand bucks and no one wants to shell out that kind of cash. Well, that and vacuum salesmen are snakes, but that's another story...

That and the fact that anyone smart enough to afford a $1k vacuum cleaner isn't stupid enough to put carpet into their house in the first place and would spend that money towards installing hardwood or another solid surface material.

 

[Jhhnn]

Just like no one wants to buy a Kirby vacuum anymore, even tho they are made from metal, built like tanks and last 20+ years. Instead it's cheap, plastic vacs that break after a couple years and the whole piece of shit goes into the landfill.

When's the last time you've seen a vac repair shop?

But it's easy bc Kirbys are over a thousand bucks and no one wants to shell out that kind of cash. Well, that and vacuum salesmen are snakes, but that's another story...

We have a plastic Panasonic upright we beat the shit out of for 25 years & it still works great. These guys sell Riccar, who bought the design from Panasonic some years ago-

Vacuum/Sewing Machine Shop | Central Vacuums Sales & Service Denver

All Ray's Vaccuums is Denvers best location for vaccuum, central vacuum, sewing machine sales parts service.

www.allraysvacuum.com

So we now have one for upstairs & one for downstairs. Fucking heavy beasts.

 

[Jhhnn]

That and the fact that anyone smart enough to afford a $1k vacuum cleaner isn't stupid enough to put carpet into their house in the first place and would spend that money towards installing hardwood or another solid surface material.

That doesn't work well in old houses with squeaky uneven floors. And who wants to listen to kids thumping around upstairs, anyway?

 

[sdifox]

We put down 70k on a 277k house first time around, second time around was 300k on 650k... The idea that you can buy into real estate with 3% down is ludicrous.

 

[skull]

Just like no one wants to buy a Kirby vacuum anymore, even tho they are made from metal, built like tanks and last 20+ years. Instead it's cheap, plastic vacs that break after a couple years and the whole piece of shit goes into the landfill.

When's the last time you've seen a vac repair shop?

But it's easy bc Kirbys are over a thousand bucks and no one wants to shell out that kind of cash. Well, that and vacuum salesmen are snakes, but that's another story...

Bunch of complainers in this thread. Stuff these days is fine. I bought my vacuum 8 years ago for $80 and its still kicking strong. Had to take it apart clean it out and put it back together a couple times no big deal.

Washer and dryer are hand me downs from my parents. See the washer started making a squeak so they thought like you guys broken unrepairable, we should buy a dryer too because its probably on its way out. Didn't do a thing to the the washer, things still kickin 5 years later squeaks the same as it was. If it does break and its not an easy fix I'll go buy a used one for $125 because people throw them away at the first hint of trouble thinking they're throw away when they're perfectly fine.

I got my microwave in 2012 second cheapest one at walmart. When I was checking out the old lady cashier asked me if I wanted the warranty, said no I'm good, shes like you really need the warranty this things junk, I'm like nah i'm good, shes like I really just trying to save you some trouble and kept going on. The girl behind me in line gets agitated, goes come on lady he doesn't want the fucking warranty would you keep moving. Cashier looks back at me whats her problem I'm just trying to save you some money you really need this warranty. Finally had to be like I don't want the goddamn warranty lady can you please finish checking me out. That $55 microwave finally kicked the bucket 7 years later well past the expiration of even the extended warranty. Its actually repairable, just the interlock switch but I wanted an inverter microwave.

 

[drnickriviera]

I'm running into these corporate owned rentals a lot lately. Mostly tenants wanting to get out of their houses. We couldn't figure out why people kept asking if we were a corporation. Their service and maintenance are horrible. I first thought some of this was just sob stories to get us to rent to them. I figured what landlord is going to let their house fall apart? I guess it is all about getting max profits right now. Last tenant we rented to said her house flooded with a water line break. They fixed the leak, ripped out all the carpet and just left her with dirty bare concrete. That's all they were going to do

 

[Bitek]

We have a plastic Panasonic upright we beat the shit out of for 25 years & it still works great. These guys sell Riccar, who bought the design from Panasonic some years ago-

Vacuum/Sewing Machine Shop | Central Vacuums Sales & Service Denver

All Ray's Vaccuums is Denvers best location for vaccuum, central vacuum, sewing machine sales parts service.

www.allraysvacuum.com

So we now have one for upstairs & one for downstairs. Fucking heavy beasts.

We've had a number of cheaper floor machines and there is always some small part that breaks (usually plastic gets
worn and brittle), and the cost for the part is as much as a new machine.

Worst to wear have been the hard floor machines I think due to the water and cleaning chemicals.
You feel bad as the whole thing just gets binned.

Don't get me wrong, cheap tools have their place, I certainly shop harbor freight time to time, but just for certain things and not others.

Anyway, that's a whole other thread.

 

[Bitek]

I'm running into these corporate owned rentals a lot lately. Mostly tenants wanting to get out of their houses. We couldn't figure out why people kept asking if we were a corporation. Their service and maintenance are horrible. I first thought some of this was just sob stories to get us to rent to them. I figured what landlord is going to let their house fall apart? I guess it is all about getting max profits right now. Last tenant we rented to said her house flooded with a water line break. They fixed the leak, ripped out all the carpet and just left her with dirty bare concrete. That's all they were going to do

I think this is one of the biggest scourges of these poorly regulated companies. Profit is number 1 concern and they'll just let the properties go to hell which screws all the people that actually live in the neighborhood.

You would think local townships would want to control this better, but corruption overcomes i guess

 

[Bitek]

Bunch of complainers in this thread. Stuff these days is fine. I bought my vacuum 8 years ago for $80 and its still kicking strong. Had to take it apart clean it out and put it back together a couple times no big deal.

Washer and dryer are hand me downs from my parents. See the washer started making a squeak so they thought like you guys broken unrepairable, we should buy a dryer too because its probably on its way out. Didn't do a thing to the the washer, things still kickin 5 years later squeaks the same as it was. If it does break and its not an easy fix I'll go buy a used one for $125 because people throw them away at the first hint of trouble thinking they're throw away when they're perfectly fine.

I got my microwave in 2012 second cheapest one at walmart. When I was checking out the old lady cashier asked me if I wanted the warranty, said no I'm good, shes like you really need the warranty this things junk, I'm like nah i'm good, shes like I really just trying to save you some trouble and kept going on. The girl behind me in line gets agitated, goes come on lady he doesn't want the fucking warranty would you keep moving. Cashier looks back at me whats her problem I'm just trying to save you some money you really need this warranty. Finally had to be like I don't want the goddamn warranty lady can you please finish checking me out. That $55 microwave finally kicked the bucket 7 years later well past the expiration of even the extended warranty. Its actually repairable, just the interlock switch but I wanted an inverter microwave.

Lol , extended warranties are scams.

People that are moving, people who are getting divorced or bored rich housewives are also good sources for used appliances.

esp the bored rich housewives trying to "match" their remodel, or just want the latest greatest.

 

[Jaskalas]

You would think local townships would want to control this better, but corruption overcomes i guess

Government control... to protect people? Take those ideas back to Russia, Commie!
You can pry our right to be enslaved by our god given corporations from our cold dead fingers!

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Lol , extended warranties are scams.

People that are moving, people who are getting divorced or bored rich housewives are also good sources for used appliances.

esp the bored rich housewives trying to "match" their remodel, or just want the latest greatest.

He does make a valid point though in that people today are just INCREDIBLY unlikely to ever try and diagnose + fix something themselves. So they say "Eh, it would cost $200 minimum to get a guy out here to look at it - plus another hundred or so for them to diagnose + repair it... might as well toss it out and buy a new one".

Our dryer started giving us an error code a couple years back. Tossed that code into Google with the model# and found that all I had to do was replace a temperature gauge inside... Voila... runs great now.

 

[Fenixgoon]

He does make a valid point though in that people today are just INCREDIBLY unlikely to ever try and diagnose + fix something themselves. So they say "Eh, it would cost $200 minimum to get a guy out here to look at it - plus another hundred or so for them to diagnose + repair it... might as well toss it out and buy a new one".

Our dryer started giving us an error code a couple years back. Tossed that code into Google with the model# and found that all I had to do was replace a temperature gauge inside... Voila... runs great now.

welcome to the economic reality of making everything less expensive, or alternatively the reality of buying things that people continually get rid of.

i originally got a $100 couch off of craigslist. my dog tore it to pieces. its replacement? a couch set a guy wanted to get rid of. got it for $20 delivered to my house (he just wanted gas money).

it would be insane to have someone try and fix my old couch. it's simply not worth it.

as for other items, components are now integrated in such a way that you can't always just buy a lone part, you have to purchase a whole assembly, which is much more expensive. this also makes people decide something isn't worth fixing.

 

[shortylickens]

So first they hyper-inflated the housing market and wrecked it, now they're just buying out everyone and raping their bank accounts to death?
Thats nice. So glad we have that big corporate buster Donald in the White House to drain the swamps and protect us from those darn corporate elites!

 

[Greenman]

So first they hyper-inflated the housing market and wrecked it, now they're just buying out everyone and raping their bank accounts to death?
Thats nice. So glad we have that big corporate buster Donald in the White House to drain the swamps and protect us from those darn corporate elites!

Grossly oversimplified view is grossly oversimplified.

 

[brycejones]

Grossly oversimplified view is grossly oversimplified.

Irony