The Absolute Insanity of Not Buying a Home When You’re Young
Summing this up be careful and do your research.<p>This is a sore topic for me. I bought a home in 2013 at 25. I did it because the rent for the attached duplex was 1600, and my mortgage was 900 at the time. Now my mortgage is 1300 and their rent is 900. I was constantly told I could sell or rent it, within five years. So I bit.<p>Five months after I bought my home a medical condition came out of remission. I lost my ability to drive, and the area was extremely difficult to live without a car. Jobs were limited without a car, etc. So I wanted to move, so since 2013 I&#x27;ve had it on the market for rent or sale.<p>&quot;Nonsense! If you want to travel and be free, then rent your house out and have someone else pay the mortgage while you’re away.&quot;<p>Renting has got to be the worst experience in my life. I had my house listed for two years, I was priced losing 300 a month with property managers. I moved 5 hours away, by transit (20 minute drive) and was living off couches. So I could be within 20 minutes of work. I owned a home and lived out of a backpack for 1.5 years. It was a massive time sink showing the property. I blew so many weekends traveling, for one or two showings.<p>A majority of the people said I was priced too high. I was just 100 above market in the area, and taking a loss each month. I finally placed tenants last December, and evicted them in April.<p>The tenants paid a single month of rent. Destroyed all my appliances, windows, floors, etc. In short they rendered me completely bankrupt, flushed my saving and shackled me with debt. I did reference checks, budget review, background checks etc. But you can&#x27;t account for the fact that they were laid off several weeks after moving in, and people react badly to that situation. They fell into drugs, using and dealing. I can&#x27;t even espouse the stress I had to deal with receiving calls from state police about my property while I was at work. I practically had panic attacks when my property managers called me. Wondering what was broken now, and seeing money just fall away from my savings. December of last year I had 35k in the bank, now im 21k in debt. Having worked for six years that should be more. But there were a number of costs, each time I tried to sell the home, sprucing and cleaning it up.<p>It doesn&#x27;t end the other day I finally got the water company to send me a bill, as they hadn&#x27;t sent one since Decemember of 2015. The tenants had racked up a 800$ water bill in one quarter, all on me now.<p>This is just one case. I have a friend who owns and rents 8 properties in the same city. All of his tenants have been there for pretty much their life. Pay on time no damages, some light maintenance etc. All in it&#x27;s a positive income with just the effort of mowing lawn, and occasional repairs. He bought his homes at foreclosure and repaired them. He was in his 50s and had been a contractor a majority of his life.<p>This brings up another ancedote. In my state you have to be licensed to do pretty much any house repairs. Electrical for example, last I reviewed has a clause where if you&#x27;re not a licensed electrician doing repairs you&#x27;re liable for your entire mortgage up front. The biggest benefit of owning a home, is buying cheaper and repairing. But with all the regulation that&#x27;s pretty much out the door. How feasible is it now, to buy land and build your own house unless it&#x27;s also your career? You can redo the electrical, and leave the walls open. Then pay to have it inspected by an electrician. Then a contractor to approve the drywall patch. But that&#x27;s close to just having the electrician do it all.<p>I have another friend who bought a home 15 miles from me. Unable to rent it, unable to sell as it needs to be modernized, but not worth the money. He just accepts 1800 a month is gone into the ether. He changed jobs and now lives about 1.5 hours from the house, so it&#x27;s empty. If it&#x27;s marked as vacant there are some tax benefits, but insurance increases.<p>The only way I can even see rent as viable, is buying a home rather under market. Then repairing it and renting it out. Usually you&#x27;&#x27;re looking at a 10% cut each month for property managers. This usually entails buying a slight fixer up. Which back to regulations adds up quickly, because you&#x27;ll be lucky if you can do much of anything in your own home. You can try a FHA 203 renovation loan, but those usually use pricier contractors, and take a while.<p>I&#x27;m not saying buying is all out a bad idea. Just approach it very very very carefully. Rent is not a guarentee, selling is not a guarentee. You&#x27;re rolling the dice. I am now looking at bankruptcy or foreclosure. I have pretty much burned working in Philadelphia, turning down so many job offers. Because the salary didn&#x27;t allow for an apartment + mortgage. I know this is long winded, and sorry for the diatribe. But I want to provide insight from a negative vantage point, and what is the worst case scenario.