NOW, Next thing !! Save up for house ( really don't even need a down payment closing cost sayyyy about 5,000) Sign the deal then rent out the rooms. Pocket cash Get more houses!

Game on

 

wow your post motivated me to put an extra $400 towards my car payment today. A total of $1200 extra I put towards car payments just this month. I am also on the fast track and hope I can pay it off within 2 years. Then it's time for a downpayment on a home, err..condo. (~$500,000, damn u socal!) Congrats!

p.s.- haha i did it so hastily that i just realized rent is due next week. doh!

 

I wish california rent wasn't so expensive.....1400/month wont get u 800 sq. feet where i live

 

LOL I have 750sqft =)

 

Anne Arundel County.

 

Ha, my place looks NOTHING like yours. Good for you, bad for me

 

I forgot the best picture of them all (of my apartment that is)

 

Yea man why rent when you can own for a few bucks more possibly less depending on where which I'm sure you're aware of. Buy a rental property live in one of the apartments and as someone said earlier and Game On!

 

Becuase right now at this ponit of my life If I buy a house it's going to be for short term. 3-4-5 years. I'm 23 who the heck knows where I'll be in a few years.

If I buy a house right now at the top of this market and lets say the rates go up (starting to happen) people who have interest only loans start to miss payments due to the rates going up (that's also starting to happen) and the housing market slows down (once again its starting to happen) well sooner or later depending on what happens with the rates this market is bound to do a pull back. at the very least it wont do anything at all. If I happen to buy a house now and in 3-4 years I have a kid or get married or... who knows what, lets just say I want to get out of the place, welp depending on how the market goes I could take a loss on it.

Real estate guys will never say it, brokers sure as hell wont say it, however I have family that has a few millions worth of real estate and they agree, buying right now isnt the smartest thing to do, in fact they wouldnt do it as in investment its too risky right now UNLESS of coures you plan on staying there becuase over time the market will always go up. And for the people who have their heads up their butt about real estate never going down. back in the late 80s my parents knew a handful of people who lost a lot of money when trying to sell their houses.

Bottom line, right now I pay rent, I can get out with in 6 months at any givin time in fact I could leave today by paying a small fee, on top of having that option I dont have to do jack chit other then clean my apartment, everysingle thing is taken care of.

And FYI in this area $1500.00 a month will get you a small condo that is a piece of chit. In fact the townhouses on my street range from 400K-600K+

For what I want I would have to go from $1400.00 a month up to around $2500 BEFORE tax and insurance. so Im guessing around $2800 a month.
and that would be for a townhouse!

Also, my family hasnt had the greatest luck renting out houses. besides at this time no one is willing to rent a place at the prices I would have to ask in order to break even.

renting is great when you bought a house before the boom and are able to rent it at a good price that's able to pay off your monthly payment.

My aim is to wait for the market to slow down some more and turn into a buyers market. Then I can have my pick of the liter=)

 

Very true, and good analysis.

We bought our house in 1988, at the (then) top of the market. If we had had to sell within 5 years, we would have lost money, and possibly quite a lot.

However, we bought and hold, intended to stay there long term, and now the house is worth roughly 3 times what we paid for it.

Timing is everything in real estate. It's never a bad time to buy if you intend to stay put for 10 years; for less than that, who knows, you could make a killing or you could get skunked.

 

oh but that never happens..... the real estate market always goes up..... bah Im tired of hearing that. only people who make money off you say that. =)

Im keeping my eyes open for a nice home in my area to go up for sale with the people trying to get out fast before the bank takes their house.

 

Yeah, that kind of thing will probably happen, as too many people got into ARMs or interest-only loans that they didn't really understand.

Long term, the real estate market almost always does go up. Location counts, of course. Buy in the path of progress is always good advice. And don't over-extend yourself.