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Hello all,
I am going to be a home owner very soon. I have been house hunting over the last month. I submitted an offer. They excepted and sometime next month I will have my own house.
My Dad is going in with me on the loan as repayment for all the help I gave him when he lost his job several years ago. My parents will live with me and pay me rent towards the mortgage.
The house is wonderful. It is four bedrooms, two full baths, and has hardwood floor through out. A huge yard plus a huge two car garage. I will be able to restore my Dad's old 86 Bertone X1/9 as I will have a place to work on it.
I will have more room for all my computer / audio stuff too. :-)
Mike
Good luck!
Your house sounds AWESOME, Mike!!! I especially love your description of the garden, as I desperately wish to have a plot of ground of my own to plant an old-fashioned English-style rose garden (you know, "cottage-style", --- where you get a variety of different perennials, annuals, vines, herbs, etc. poking their flowering heads up and through roses to create different shapes and textures to look at besides the round-shape of the rose flowers)...
Can I move in? Can I?? Can I?? Oh, PLEEEEEEEEAZE, can I??!!! I promise I'll be the best live-in gardener you'll ever have, --- and, I'll even pay you rent!!!
Now.... where in the heck do you happen to live, BTW? (Lol)
- Ken in San Francisco
Ken,
You would like the property, there are rose bushes planted on the side and back of the house. I am sure my Dad will plant more stuff and for sure plant a garden for growing and canning of fresh veggies. :-)
I am in the Hampton Roads area of VA.
Home ownership is smart. You'll watch your house go up in value over the years. In 10 to 20 years, your house will be worth several times what you paid for it.
Hopefully your parents living arrangement is temporary. Parents can be hard to live with at times.
Ed
Ed,
I agree, buying a house is a smart choice. I'd rather have a house that will go up in value then to rent some place. Hence why I stayed with my parents so long. My parents won't bother me too much, we have been together for a long time and through the roughest of times too.
Plus, with the large plot of land, I can easily add onto the house in the future. Most likely this will happen if I ever get married and have kids. There's a scary thought, I bunch of little Linux hippies like me running around. :-)
Mike
The usual argument is that you're better off getting equity every month rather than a rent receipt, and along with that is a comparison of what it costs to buy vs. rent. What is seldom spoken of is what will happen when you retire. If you have a paid-for house, you can go on and live your life much as before. If you don't, you may find yourself forced to move to an area where rents are very cheap, at an age where you really don't want to be uprooted, especially to an area not as desirable to you as the one you chose to live most of your life in.
Congratulations on getting your new home!
Bill
A paid-for house gives one freedom of choice. It is the American dream.
Ed
That sound's fantastic!
If all goes well, maybe you can eventually post some pics up?
That rules. After my condo experience, I am definitely waiting until I can afford a decent house. In the Bay Area, I'm holding out for a place with a nice view of that lake the Devil skates on. You know, in the area that's nice and quiet because it's not too close to where the pigs take off and land. :)
Haha. It's not really that bad; but it definitely makes more sense for me to rent here than it does to try and swing a mortgage. Ah, the price of paradise.
Anyway, congratulations. It sounds like an ideal setup.
Steve,
Isn't a shack in the bay area around a million bucks? that's one of the downers about living there that's turned me off. It's a fantastic place in many ways but buying a house isn't one of them. I've always wondered what regular people like teachers and mail carriers and librarians do for houses around there.
In our zip code last week, there were only two single-family homes under a million, and both were over 900K. Two dozen others were in the one and two mil range. You can find condos or other share-the-building arrangements for 600K and up. Prices can be half to two thirds of that in outlying areas.
Bill (Castro/Noe Valley districts, San Francisco)
That sounds about right, but the tide is turning a bit. Check out the Craigslist link. IIRC, there were not so many "short sales" a few months ago. That's where the seller is not getting enough to pay off the mortgage--they need to bring cash to closing when they sell! Ouch!
Of course, you'd really want to kick the tires on these places. There is probably a good reason they are unloading, aside from the market having topped. You have to love the real estate spin:
"close to transportation" = "there's a freeway in your back yard"
"close to bay" = "smells like dead fish"
"near the beach" = "fogbound all the time"
"nestled" = "15 minutes on winding side streets just to get to the only state road out"
IANA economic forecaster, but the market should bottom when foreign investors realize that their now stronger currency can buy them some very nice investment. I don't think we're there yet. We have a lot more war-driven inflation and bad loans to work out.
Another major quake is an interesting wildcard in this market--people selling out on irrational fear. Bill, weren't didn't you say something about $300,000 houses in the Marina district after Loma? And then they rebounded really quickly, right?
short sales on the peninsula
Yes, how soon they forget. The prices were depressed for only a few months after we saw all those houses in the neighborhood falling down and burning on TV.
Bill
is La Honda expensive? (I like the name)
La Honda is a little cheaper relative to some areas, but it's "coast side". Coast-side gets more fog, although La Honda is far enough inland that it might not be as bad as some other areas. I've been by there quite a few times now, because if you want to get to the beach from where I am, you go right through it.
If you can deal with the isolation, the longer commute, and knowing that you are fogged while others have sun, then maybe La Honda is for you.
It might also help if you are a romantic and fascinated with the hippie culture: it was the stomping ground of the "merry pranksters".
Personally, if I could afford to buy there, I'd keep waiting and save up for something bay-side. That's just me though. I suspect that people who are happy there are a peculiar breed. Maybe Bill has more insight, having been around here a lot longer.
it sounds awfuly opportunistic, profiting from disaster etc. but I think I'd save my $$$ and wait for a quake. seriously, I think you have to be patient, get connected and find out about sales that are unadvertised. That's the impression I have gotten re the situation out there.
when I was out on my job I seen a house with a free house sign on it. Woulda, coulda, shoulda but it needed some major repairs and I don't have the money for that.
Free house! You move it! Do not disturb occupants!
From Headlines on Leno. :-)
Hi Bill,
I'm surprised there is anything under $1 million. I read the newspaper article and noted that the city program it covered helped with down payments. That's very good but the monthly mort. payment on a $ 1 mil. house has got to be killer unless you have a 60 year mortgage : ) S.F. is like Manhattan.
Mike,
Congrats!!! I bought my home just 9 months ago...first time on my own. There's nothing like it.
Be prepared...Home Depot is going to be your newest friend!
Best o' luck!
Brett
Hey EDSI,
Congratulations! Where I live (Silicon Valley) homes are so expensive that I gave up hope long ago of buying a home. It's also gratifying to see that you have a good relationship with your family.
I wish you great joy with your new home and garden.
Cheers,
Don
Congratulations Mike, thats great news!
Its very hard at the moment for first time buyers here in the UK to get themselves on the propery ladder. House prices have increased dramatically since the 1990's.
Mogh
Hi ESDI,
Well good on your and buying your own "mansion" you don't get manty people here having a place with 4 bedrooms. I'm sure it's a part of the "american dream" to own you own bricks and mortar. It just would be nice if they have people more vacation on there, the EU have just agreed that people have 25 days a year off.
Do send some pics once you more in.
Cheers,
John.B
Hi John
Ah but the "American Dream" is a myth from a few generations ago.
I agree with you it's too bad we con't have national standards for vacation over here like in Europe but the buisness world will say we can't compete with the world if we do that. Always an excuse of some kind.
Kevin
Kevin
Hi Mike
Way to go on the house buying. I took the plunge two and a half years ago and am glad I did. It's a great feeling and like you I took on roomates, yours being your parents mine being a friend.
When you do the deal make sure you have a few thousand on hand for "surprises" or at least room on the credit card. My house was totally re-done on the inside but still the washer died, and it needed a few other things.
Good luck
Kevin
You guys are proving that longhairs aren't a bunch lazy slackers. You are hardworking an ambitious just like everyone else.