Mike and I have been renting for a long time, and we feel like we are just throwing money away. People keep telling us we should buy, so we aren't throwing money out the window, but the thing is... buying freaks me out!
What if Mike gets a new job/loses a job? What if we need to move far away? Where do we buy? What type of house do we even get? How do we know it will be a good house? How do we know the neighbors won't suck? Do we buy for location or land?
I don't really want to stay in UT for the rest of forever, Mikes job is here. Do we buy somewhere in the city, or in the country with lots of land? There are so many things to consider, and these aren't even half of them.
I really feel like buying would be a good idea. It is a great time, Mike has a good job, we are wasting money on rent anyway, and my Mamma and Papio approve. Seems like we should, right?
So I'm turning to you guys, what are your thoughts? Please share and help us out!
5 comments:
I have been both a home owner and a renter. Pros and cons to each. What I like right now about renting is that when stuff breaks... the landlord has to pay to fix it. We have had to get a new roof, new stove, new dishwasher, new floor, and it would not have been cheap for me to pay for it. On the other hand... at the moment I don't feel like I'm wasting money on rent because houses are losing their value so until that gets better.... rent is cheaper.
If you plan to move around a lot, renting is better. If you plan to stay put... then buy. Don't buy anything extravagant. Fixer - uppers are fun and George knows how to do a lot of that kind of stuff and would love to help you out. (I can say that without even asking him because I know he would).
I bet my comments did not help you one little bit in making a decision. LOL But I want you to STAY PUT IN UTAH. Just my personal preference. :-)
A guy in my ward is a professor at byu for something involving finances. He taught a great seminar recently about home buying. He said the rule with building equity/homeowning is if you plan to stay for more than 3 years, buy. Any less than that and you wont build equity anyways because the first few years of house payments pretty much just pay mortgage interest anyways. It's complicated but that is a good rule to follow.
Oh that was me- Katie medley- by the way with the 3 year rule comment. :)
No, it is helpful, thanks :) It's good to know that if we do buy a fixer upper, that George would help! This is because we are talking about doing a rent to own on the house we are in right now. Sugar House is such an ideal location, if we ever needed to rent it out or sell, we most likely would not have any problems doing so. But then I wonder, do we want to be in this house for so many years?? And then my Mom reminded me, that you can always "flip" a house. Fix it up, live in it, rent it, go somewhere cheaper for a while, then sell it. Not a bad idea. We haven't talked to banks or our landlord yet, this is just a thought in our heads. So anyway, thank you for your advice!!
Haha! My sweet cousin, I just love you! Thank you for your comment, that is good to know. All the advice/knowledge anyone has is helpful. Do you and Gideon own your house? How are you and your cute little family doing?
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