Still think TITNC3: Return of the Iceberg was peak

We look at other houses with a bit more space but it just doesn't make sense anymore. We got in when the getting was good.



If we just moved 1:1, today, sold our house and bought another one the same(ish) size and features, we'd be paying 25% of takehome.

 

im locked in a 2.99. our neighborhood was the best kept secret until about 2 years ago. its an older neighborhood and starting to turn into a renters neighborhood where investors are just buying to rent out the homes. currently dealing with drug addicts being across from us. what once was a nice quiet corner is now becoming a nightmare. i thought i was in our forever home, but my wife now wants to move to a higher status neighborhood to keep our kids away from the nefarious activities.

i was once adamantly against HOA's but i'm contemplating starting an HOA with rules being very strict on renting. if possible id make it impossible to rent a home in our neighborhood.


end rant

 

I'm not sure I could afford my house if I had to buy it on the open market today lol

 

my house is hands down the smartest thing I've EVER done. In my early 20's, never thought I'd get in one. In my late 20's I started to get a slightly better pay. Literally scraped by, sold things on craigslist and pawn shops to barely make my closing amount in 2013. Refinanced like 3 times from 7% down to 2.8% during covid. And now have a renter in there while I'm working out of state. Plan to keep a renter in there until I retire, and hope the housing market never implodes.

Still working to get the rest of my finances in order like a real adult...

 

Unobtainium in my area.

Was approved for 207k in 2017. Looked at a nice house and really liked it (new construction). Problem was it was 211k. Both realtor and bank said you NEED to come up with the 4K or else you may never see an opportunity like this again. Was 27 and had managed to save up 32k on my own for a down payment. Had too much pride to beg for money from family.

Fast forward to now and that house is pushing 650k.

Since then I’ve managed to save up 120k for a down payment, my salary has doubled and I don’t even qualify for entry level homes in the region lol.

 

IF

1. Zillow estimates are to be believed
2. I would have zero equity in the home to work with, because the mortgage was less than rent would have been, so it's basically a wash - that equity wouldn't exist
3. The remainder of our investments stayed the same

THEN

1. Our entire investment portfolio outside of retirement would be knackered. A 20% down payment would be half of that.
   
2. Our monthly payment for a 30 year 6.875% would be a few pennies less than twice what it is today
3. Our monthly payment would be 29-30% of our take home
4. I would be paying mortgage down early, so more would go into that, vs right now, the bank is stuck with my mortgage, not the other way around.

So it would be doable, but hot diggity.

We bought in 2017, we were 24.

ALL. LUCK. I wish I could say it was skill, it was NOT. We scraped every last penny we could into a ~10% down payment, paying PMI. The ONLY skill was that calculation that PITI+PMI was less than or roughly equal to rent, so it made sense financially.

1. The house itself got Hubbarded back onto the market
   
2. The house itself - we were about to put an offer + earnest (I think, I can't remember the whole process) on another house that day. Mother in law came down to see the house, so she tagged along with us to see some other houses too. We were planning on another house nearby, more woods-y, trees, but hey this one has an open house 3 doors down, let's go check it out. She initially intended to try to talk us out of it, rent another year, and don't rush into it. She turned around and said "buy this house".
   
3. The sellers realtor was a family friend who didn't bring in a pro photographer, so the photos were trash - to be blunt.
   
4. We lucked into finding 1/3 acre in an area where the biggest lots behind this are at most .25 acres. More on this in a second.
   
5. We lucked into a 4.25% 30 year
6. We lucked into a 2.625% 30 year, because we were just going to go for a re-appraisal to bring the LTV >20% to kill PMI, but someone mentioned lumping that into a refi. So we nailed it, Jan 2021

About point 4 - this house I found earlier looking for comps/if we were to move for numbers. This is a bit more than ours is on Zillow estimate, about 50k more..... but it has a full basement, and a bit more space. Anyway.... This is google street view, the realtor (wisely) didn't include how (in my mind) pathetic the back yard is....




Our back yard, with bonus dog:








All luck.

 

Buying a house is just a myth you older generations tell mine about


I've mostly ignored my account recently, but im gearing up to buy some stuff. Probably isnt done going down, but ill drain the cash thats in it right now, and then figure in about a month Ill be ready to put some extra cash in. Maybe I coulda waited for my roth contribution for the year lol. In recent years, I've just put the max in on January 2nd and slowly spent it lol. Its been rewarding to be able to max it right away with recent market trends.

 

Dick around with GME and stuff, go ahead.

Your retirement accounts? Fully fund those as soon as you can at your age, and DCA.



I'm sure you've done math and I've talked about it before, you're what, 22?

If you invest 7500/year (assuming it doesn't go up) until you're 30, you'll land on a shade under 100k when you're 30.



Now, if you then say "I'm out, bye felicia" or whatever your generation says, and retire at 65:



There's your retirement.

And if you have coworkers who start finally buckling down at 30, and doing 7500/year:



They'll never catch up.

So, take advice that I can give, and advice that I took and took to heart and acted on and am SUPER happy I did: Invest every single damn cent you can today at your age.

 

That 7500 bucks basically went poof. well, cut down its value quite a bit. but Yea Ill keep doin that. My low end each year is max the roth and put half of whatever that years limit is, into the other account. Which Ill have done by the end of May for this year, and I've been less diligent with work and spending wisely enjoying my one semester out of school.

I just used about 1/3rd of the cash in the accounts on mixed amounts of XYLD SPYG XOM and starting a small AMZN holding.



I use 7% and 11k (7500*1.5 is 11250 but whatever)for my projections, and I like the 20 year out number cus I liked your idea of take a few years around 40-45 and enjoy life then go back to work when I'm too old to do anything fun anyway

 

I did do that.

 

COMPOUND INTEREST

 

I bought my last house in 2016 and sold it last summer. In hindsight I should have rented it and pulled equity to buy another. Needless to say shopping for another home right now isn't an enjoyable experience.

 

that's my plan. move back to CO and live with Cousin while paying down some debt. And in a few years pull equity for another house to live in.

 

What UI is this through?

 

Shit, what was the last title?

 

Got to do what you got to do. Renting here in the springs and shit is Colorado pricey. If I was back in Texas my COL would be so much cheaper…

 

I was eyeing Colorado Springs when job hunting but couldn’t find anything nearly as good of a career starter. And compared to here in Reno rent prices and gas cost I was like oh shit I got this. But I’m not an electrical engineer who can work for a defense contractor lol

also that UI I think i just googled Investment calculator and it came up

 

Man, I'd really like to believe them, but I think they are a bit high, at least for my area. I find it hard to believe my house has doubled in value in 7 years, but comps don't seem to be that far off, and I'm in a great location in a desirable neighborhood with one of the larger lots.

We will likely be here for 5 or so more years, then I'll be on my own and looking to downsize significantly and retire. IF things don't change significantly, I should be able to get into something with my equity, or at least have a sizeable down payment, low mortgage, and invest the rest. Kinda depends on interest rates at the time.

We had to rent until our early 30's. I don't understand the expectation of home ownership earlier than that. For some it is possible, but I don't think that's the norm. You gotta start small, but it's a good investment.

 

Dude...my rent in Plano is $2,049 for a 2 bedroom duplex. It's not a whole lot cheaper than CO considering the quality of life in difference! I hate the metroplex so much!

 

Wha? What does that mean?