Do you rent or own your home??

[feralmerril]

Life is a **** shoot. No matter what position we take on whats smarter, buying or renting we can come up with figuers and storys to support it. If single the alternative to renting or owing is a job with a barracks or bunkhouse, maybe the overpass or jail. In my case I had a good paying job with tons of OT for 35 years. Yet looking around me I see young people in huge expendsive houses that no way would I ever have considered buying or renting in my finest hour. I feel like knocking on their doors and asking them how did you get to this point or level? Where do you work and what does it pay? I feel I must have missed something somewhere. One thing I do take exception to is this: I have seen people that I knew, even executives, that have went bankrupt or walked out of houses, NOT BECAUSE they lost their jobs or even because their income went down, but because the houseing market went down and now their house is underwater, upside down. Their once $300,000 house is now worth $150,000s. Well, they feel justified in stiffing the lender because in theory they can get a like house for half the payment. Good math but bad morals in my book. They have the same job and income that was used to qualify and still have it! That type person that defaults on their debt, (without medical disaster or the like) to me is no better than a thief.
If you dont have a paid for house when you retire, you better have one hell of a retirement income comeing in!

 

[russp1]

Swore I would never own a home but when rent on a 1 bedroom went higher than the mortgage on a three bedroom house, I felt it was something I had to do financially.

 

[Badquaker]

I am in construction, and move where the work is. So owning a home is not an option for me.

 

[mike from st pete]

Mortgage paid years ago, but I still have to rent/taxed from/by the State, County and City.
I'll never have property FREE & CLEAR.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

A contented renter. It would be nice to own my own place and have more space-which I would fill with more stuff. I have worked on my share of "fixer uppers" to know how much work is involved, if I have a maintenance I problem I place a service call. Not into gardening or landscaping. I have known-and know at present-too many people with underwater mortgages or have houses they can't sell.

 

[JOERM]

Cool Home GA1911. I live in a small so called "shack". Can't complain though, keeps me warm and dry. Not worth much and as some have said, yes, it does for sure cost to upkeep. To me that's part of the fun. I just cannot imagine living in someone else's house. Did it for several years and ended up building a $250 8x8 shelter out of plywood one day after work on my moms back woods property prior to living in my current home. Lived there over a year, no power, water, potty. did have a small wood stove to cook on but in the winter my nightly water glass would freeze solid, I can take the cold. Had a few gal friends and parties up on that hill though. Lots of wild life did not like my presents though. OOPS! Now when the fed's or lawyers do a check on me when I get in trouble they'll now know where I was during that period and my old girl friends will know that they were not the only ones!!!

 

[COL Jagdog]

Homes -- a great place to store your stuff and have a little privacy but often overrated. We own several (handy if you have 6 dogs as we do),
but I have been as happy or happier the times my residence was a cot in a tent in the middle of nowhere and everything I needed was in 2 duffel bags. I even lived in a stadium (LSU's Tiger Stadium actually has dorm rooms on the exterior, under the seating areas -- non-air-conditioned but with a fan, very comfortable.) Lived in a palace (a real, certified palace) in Iraq -- we used to say "See you around the palace"
as an end of day salutation (kind of an inside joke to us) -- only time in my life that I've been able to say that.

 

[writerinmo]

I've owned a couple of houses over the years. Bought them on contract from the owners, after I got into them found out why they wanted out from under them so cheap. Now, I don't mind working on my house, I just wish the owners had been a bit more forthcoming with some of the hidden problems that they had so I would have been a bit more prepared. As of the moment, one house was bulldozed by the city as an eyesore.(true fact there), another one I gave back to the owner so he could do what he wanted to with the money pit, the other as far as I know is still standing, I turned it over to the wife in the divorce as it's 6 1/2 hours away and I don't feel like messing with it anymore, plus she wanted it SO bad... it's just a shanty in a small Kansas town that's dying, if they haven't bulldozed it already they probably will.

When I moved to Missouri I was tired of home ownership, I'd rather pay more for someone else to have the headaches. I have a great landlady who will take care of any problem that I find, so no complaints there. That being said, when the wife gets her workmans comp suit settled, we will be heading back into owning a home of our own since I now have a wife that's worth a **** and knows which end of a hammer to use. Nothing fancy, we're looking at buying up 50-60 acres of forest so we can hunt and shoot as we want, probably just clear out just enough trees to get a mobile home in there and a nice shop for me to tinker in.

 

[OK Hog Shooter]

Fort Hog Shooter... it may be a sty but it's my mud hole!

HG

 

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

In my life span I have owned and sold 9 homes. When the ball & chain and myself moved back to Penns Wood in '84 we took the profits from our Montana home sell and paid cash for the house & remodeling of our current place. But, in todays market you couldn't pay me enough to buy another house.

With the way the housing market is now I would hard pressed to make much of a profit on this property as it seems to deceasing in value every year. This is an old 8 bedroom three story farm house on a fair amount of land and now that children are out of the nest and on their own this house is toooo big for our needs and we are only using the first floor of the house unless the kids and grand kids stop by for a stay. 2 years ago we put the house on the market for chuckles and giggles just to see what type of offers we would recieve (we would have sold to a reasonable offer)...Everyone that looked low balled the price offering about 45 to 50% of the value of this property.

We told everyone up front that the house was paid for and we didn't need the money..the only reason for the sale was that it was too big. We still own it and we decide it time for a smaller place it will either sell for it value or I have the house tore down and just pay taxes on undeveloped land. I refused to be ripped off.

 

[Chik a Boom]

We are happy (all paid for) home moaners.

 

[Faulkner]

3100 sq feet with basement plus 1500 sq foot shop sitting on 6 acres in the Ozark Mountains. Had a 30 year mortgage that we doubled up on and paid off in 10 years. Not having a monthly payment is a form of finacial freedom if you ask me.

 

[Sprefix]

My worth is in myself, not what I "own". Just a thought...................(no offense to anyone that chooses to "own, or own big".)

 

[blujax01]

Think about it.
Do any of us really own anything?????? We start out as two incomplete cells-each contining 23 chromosonesthat somehow join and grow in an incredibly random cosmic accident and in the end-a breath of air blows away what is left of our decomposing corpses. In between we possess/use/sleep under/eat lots of stuff but what,if anything is actually ours that cannot be taken away on a whim by anyone or thing????

Doood ....

Oh wow, Man ...

 

[quneur]

My work history has been spotty at best. Drafter for a longtime but changed careers due to too many up and downs in architecture. But bad luck and bad timing; went to school got a degree in Physics - Clinton became president and all the defense jobs dried up; went back to school for a software programming degree - IP crazed went bust and dumped all those computer people on the market. Then got sick and had to go on disability. So, forever a renter.

The other reason is the cost of real estate here, where I want to live. Faulkner ranch would be appraised at around 2mil atleast. A three bedroom rambler would be appraised at 1/4 mil; even in this market.

 

[frbeall]

I would say the government owns mine. If I don't pay the taxes, they take it. Hey buckeyechuck, my shingles cost me $5000.00 alone. I lucked out, we just had a hail storm and my 23 year old roof was replaced by insurance at a cost of $9000.00. I'm only talking 35 squares too.

 

[Wiredog]

How about those of us that own the house (mobile home) but rent the lot it sits on ?

Renter = Pay the man Shirley whichever man it is you're always giving your paper money to somoeone. I wouldn't mind living in a huge bus/camper and living on the sides of beaches in CA.

Peace Out~

 

[Wiredog]

Doood ....

Oh wow, Man ...

whoa dude..You just blew my mind...

 

[forresth]

another thing to consider in the own vs. rent argument is that not only do you have to cover all the landlords expenses and give him some profit, in many cases a landlord pays more taxes on the same property than a home owner would.

however, in some areas of California at least, you can't make home payments for what you can rent a place for. Its an odd situation that can't last forever.

 

[BuckeyeChuck]

I would say the government owns mine. If I don't pay the taxes, they take it. Hey buckeyechuck, my shingles cost me $5000.00 alone. I lucked out, we just had a hail storm and my 23 year old roof was replaced by insurance at a cost of $9000.00. I'm only talking 35 squares too.

And this is why my homeowner's insurance has skyrocketed in the 8.5 years I've owned my current residence. I'm subsidizing everybody else's roof and they all cost a *lot* more than mine because they are all larger and/or more complex.

At least your roof lasted 23 years. The roof on my house was built to minimum code (like everything else in the house) and the pitch is low enough that the roof just won't last past 20 years.