just bought a house and I am freaking out

[IMADreamer]

Speaking of the horrors of home ownership. My central air quit yesterday. Sometime between when I left in the morning and came home at night. The good news is I would have turned it off anyway because it was a nice sleep with the windows open kind of night. The bad news is it's still August so I'm gonna need to fix it before it gets 100 degrees again. The guy is coming in the morning, hope he brings the lube.

[Diddy]

I own three homes, looking at buying another but not sure I want the mess. I'm fairly handy and can do most home repairs myself. I'd say the only thing I can't do is HVAC. I enjoy working on the homes and making them what I want them to be. Knocking out walls, redoing the wiring to work with modern living, just like having the freedom to make changes I couldn't if I was renting. Redid the bathroom in my rental last weekend, had never been happy with it since I'd bought the place.

[JCShutout]

Sure you may only break even, or sell your house some day at a loss, taking into account fixing it up costs, but guess what? If you buy a house for $100k, spend $30k on it over 30 years, and then sell it one day for $80k... Oh no, you lost $50k! ... except had you rented, you would be out all of the money you spent on rent ($600/month for 30 years is $216k), instead of being up $90k. Just buy something within your means.

That said, I don't look at a house as an investment, I just see it as, worst case, even selling for a loss, I'm not worse off than renting. Like GW, we bought at way less than what we were approved for. Its basically about $30 more than our rent. (taking into account taxes, sewer, water, etc etc etc) For a dollar a day we get privacy, a 2 car garage, no shared walls, the ability to do what we want with a place, and did I say privacy? No hearing neighbors through the walls! Oh yeah, and a giant basement, doubling the size of the house, for storage, workshop, extra rooms, etc. Not bad for a buck a day.

Also, do you people remember being renters? Leaking sinks that are "fixed" in the cheapest and crappiest ways, and the problems come back again and again, because the realtor wants to do it the cheapest way. "Upgraded" bathrooms which were done hastily. Walls that have been painted dozens of times and have had dozens of tenants who don't care? How many ugly paint jobs? Or maybe you can't paint, so you are stuck in a whitewashed boring home? Neighbors below you smoking so many... "cigarettes" that your whole apt smells funky? The neighbor attracts roaches? The dumpster overflows and attracts rodents?

Renting has its perks, but can also really suck. I assume ownership also has its pluses and minuses.

[jim]

My problem is I just don't give a [expletive] where I live. I'd be perfectly happy in a trailer. So all of this money and work is just for stuff I really could care less about.

[lukethedrifter]

My problem is I just don't give a [expletive] where I live. I'd be perfectly happy in a trailer. So all of this money and work is just for stuff I really could care less about.

You do care in that you want to keep your wife and she cares. QED.

[jim]

My problem is I just don't give a [expletive] where I live. I'd be perfectly happy in a trailer. So all of this money and work is just for stuff I really could care less about.

You do care in that you want to keep your wife and she cares. QED.

That is true.

What I care more about than the house is space of the lot. We downsized recently and not only is the house smaller which is fine (actually more than fine because when I lose stuff it doesn't take me as long to find it), but the lot as well. The last house we were in 16 years, same neighbors on both sides and I really liked both of them. Guy on one side loved to fish and the guy on the other loved baseball. Now, smaller lot, and the neighbors are ... well not as good as our previous ones. The one [expletive] next door to me is just a busy body.