See, and people are always yelling at me. "“Renting is wasting money! Buy buy buy!” And they don’t think that the the mortgage isn’t the only cost to buying a home.
I hate that sort of attitude, anyway. Renting’s good for me, who are you to tell me your way is better? Eh?
Anyway, sorry to hear it, Wiles.
I know I promised I’d be back. Just haven’t been in much of a chatty mood today. Perhaps tomorrow. I do come bearing another story though:
A story of Hanuman
Hanuman was a servant to the Lord Ram, and eternally faithful. He helped Ram regain his throne. After the throne was regained, Ram & Sita honor all of their friends at a grand ceremony in court. Hanuman is called forth, and Ram says he can never adequately repay him for his loyalty.
Sita insists on giving Hanuman a pearl necklace (snerk) adorning her own neck (double snerk) and Hanuman takes it, but he immediately takes it apart and begins examining each stone.
Shocked, the onlookers demand to know why he is destroying such a beautiful necklace. He says he is looking at each stone to be sure Ram & Sita are in them, for if not, the necklace is of no value to him. At this, some of the people make fun of Hanuman, saying his loyalty to Ram and Sita couldn’t quite be that strong. In response, Hanuman reaches up and tears his chest open, and everyone is stunned to see the very image of Ram and Sita literally in his heart.
**'mika ** - far be it from me to judge your choice of residence, but what those pushy people aren’t * saying is that, depending on where you live, you could get a mortgage for about what you’re paying in rent, and have the bonus of building equity. Major home repairs are, in most cases, few enough and far enough between that they don’t overshadow the pluses of owning your own.
*unless you’ve bought a very old home or a starter house (aka ‘fixer-upper’)
Howdy, everybody. You have my sympathies, Wile E – how is it that homes know the moment we have enough money to do something we want to do and instead present us with something we have to do? I dunno, but it’s not nice of it!
Isaac’s get-out-of-jail visit was, to say the least, cursory. I parked the car at the back of the lot by their stretch of lawn (that I assume is where they walk the dogs from the shelter) and Alice took them for a walk/sniff/pee while I went in and got the clerk. Who walked out with me and, about 20 feet from Isaac, said, “Oh, yes, he looks fine.” Since the whole purpose of the visit was to verify that he doesn’t have rabies, and she was holding his paperwork with his rabies certification and he has his current rabies tag on his collar, it was all kinda pointless. But I at least managed to get him a new dog license tag – for a whole dollar! outrageous of 'em to charge so much – and got them to correct his records; they had him as a golden retriever, which he most definitely is not. So at least that’s all taken care of.
And speaking of Isaac with his Kong, he’s lying here optimistically next to me. Apparently he has decided it’s afternoon playtime. I guess I should obey.
Wile E – that sucks Hope it doesn’t turn out to be too much of a money-sucker.
**Jahdra **-- retro-active appendage crossing has occurred :); hopefully the interview went as well as you feel it did.
**Tigs **-- yay on getting your baby out of jail!
**Mindfield **-- enjoy the phone SNAFU while it lasts
**Mika **-- another great story. And don’t let anybody give you too much crap about renting or buying. Over time, it almost has to balance out, or people would all be renting or they would all be clamoring to try and buy… market has to regulate itself. So basically it’s up to each individual to figure out what works (marginally or significantly) better for them
Li-Li – doesn’t “missing” someone mean you need to take better aim next time?
**Haze **-- is an MMP’er calling you “adorable and cute” OK for your street-cred at school?
Me, I got nuttin’. Tomorrow I’m devoting another half-day to my reserves unit, so I’ll see if they have any inside information about what is or is not expected to happen over the summer. Except, I most likely won’t be able to share what I learn… sorry guys!
you could always say “Blank will happen in Blank by blank. We will have to blank the blanks in order to blank the blank, but I won’t be blanking until blank.”
rosie, it really depends on where you live as to whether or not it’s worth it to own. There is no way I could get a mortgage for what I pay in rent. I’ve been seeing a lot of rooms for rent, not for housemates or granny units, but rooms, lately that are $100 - $200 more than what I pay for my 1 bedroom. It’s much better for me financially to rent and invest the extra money. There are a lot of people here who bought or refinanced in the past couple of years, who are now finding themselves upside down in their mortgages. Some of those people were encouraging me to do whatever it took to buy. Short answer is if you can’t get an affordable mortgage for what you pay for rent, it’s better to rent. Positively un-American, isn’t it? Plus, I hate home repair and home improvement projects. I’d rather call the landlord.
You know, it didn’t really occur to me before, but it might be a bit awkward if they declined to hire me for a position I’m currently in. I guess I’ll worry about that later.
Well and good. What pluses of owning a home, exactly, would there be?
Mowing the lawn
Shoveling my own snow
All repairs, minor and major, under my own belt
Stuck living in one place, no matter how the neighborhood changes*
Stuck with my neighbors
I mean, there’s lots more like that. I’m just not that ready to commit to a house. Jeez, I’ve been with my SO for 10 years and haven’t gotten married yet. I just don’t commit easily.
besides EVERYONE jumps to buy. And they don’t think about it. I should think people like me who think long and hard before making life decisions would be more valued.
My family is after me too - to marry and to buy a house and settle down. I wanna say Guys! Marry in haste and repent in leisure! My motto!
Being able to change anything (from paint to location of walls) without prior approval (except maybe a building permit)
Knowing that I’m not at the whim of some idiot landlord (a friend of mine has had the worst luck with landlords - they all seemed okay at the outset, but they turned stupid and mean along the way)
and if you have the space for a separate apartment (which I do) - having the potential for extra income
as for
my landscaper mows and shovels (sometimes my tenant shovels, too)
as for the repairs, they’re inevitable. (One place I rented had me offset the cost of some of the repairs even tho they weren’t caused or exaserbated by me)
I guess I’m lucky - I like my neighborhood, and it has changed little (and only for the better) since I moved in - and I don’t really know my neighbors, so they don’t bother me.
But then, at the time I bought, it was the right decision for numerous reasons. **Jahdra ** has good reasons to continue to rent. There are pros and cons on both sides. I was just trying to point out that sometimes owning is good.
Jah appropriate/inappropriate appendage crossin’ for the job from Jawja. Go get 'em!
Yay for Isaac bein’ out of jail! Go play BioTigs. He needs to celebrate.
LiLi, young lady, go vacuum! I mean now! Those cats are not going to terrorize themselves you know!
Wiles, yuck! It’s all part of the joy of homeownership. For me, it’s worth it to have my own place. Specially since in three and a half years now it’ll all be mine. Then again, I like the idea of being able to do what I want, when I want to the place. However, everyone’s MMV, so it’s just what works best for each person, I say.
Oh geez! Now we’ll have to hose down Special1yet again!
I understand about the not being able to tell us stuff, Special One. I learn all kinds of things about what goes on at Papa Tigs’ place of employment that he trusts me with only because he knows I won’t spread it around on the internet. Or even to my mother. Of course, I also hear a lot of really confidential stuff in my work that can’t be shared, so it all comes out even.
Isaac has been played with and now I’m just waiting for the messenger to bring the congressional [del]drivel[/del] work out for me. I should be working on something else, but thus far I can’t bring myself to. That nap is really calling me. I may have to give in to it shortly if I want to stay alive tonight long enough to get through all the [del]drivel[/del] transcript I’ll need to finish.
The biggest advantage to owning a home that I can think of is that you can fix up the house any way you like. Of course, that can also be true in rentals, except that I’m not willing to invest money in a rental to do things like add insulation or remodel the kitchen, both of which are things this house needs done desperately. At least we could safely paint any color we wanted to in this house and our landlord would be pleased; he really likes us as tenants because he’s in and out of the country all the time with his military duties, and he knows that we’ll take good care of his property whether or not he’s available. If we had a real emergency, he knows we’d take care of it and then give him the bill afterwards if we couldn’t get hold of him or his proxy in advance.
But we’re thinking of moving closer to BWI so Papa Tigs can start taking the train in to work; it would save him time and $$ (since he’d get reimbursed for trains but doesn’t for driving), plus he could get a bit more sleep in the morning! So we shall see. We have to find the right place first. And then be willing to undergo the aggravation of moving, which is also a major consideration, obviously.
I’m with the other renters here. Yeah, we’ll get around to buying someday, but there’s no way we could afford to buy a place with all the amenities that we have right now: two bedrooms, two bath, two car garage, BIG closets (This is a must as far as I’m concerned, but a lot of places - even those built as recently as the '80s - have teeny little closets), pantry with W/D, and a pool (obviously for the whole complex, but many times when we go there, there’s no one else there so it’s like having our own!). Plus, as others have said, whenever something breaks, or something as mundane but annoying to fix as regrouting the tub, we just call the property manager and it gets fixed. So we’re paying less, putting the extra into savings, and not having to deal with crap. What’s wrong with that?
Plus, I’ve seen a couple articles recently of the financial-advice-for-young-people variety saying that it may be better to wait before buying a home. I feel vindicated.
I don’t need/want to change my paint or walls. I would do everything I could to never rent a piece of my home to anyone else. I value my privacy way too highly.
It’s just too much responsibility to own. And I have also heard that young people should wait now before buying a home.
Apartments are fairly cheap around here. And besides to get a decent mortgage we’d need to get married first, and that’s a whole 'nother issue.
We renters are a bit defensive about the subject, in case you can’t tell. It just seems to be one of those subjects where everyone has advice and thinks that we’re screwing up our lives and our futures will be full of doom… DOOOOOM I say!.. if we don’t buy a house.
No, but if you were wearin’ a white seethrough speedo it would.
OK, I just got informed that I was bein’ taken out to eat bbq (not Sonny’s FCM) and that I was spendin’ the night at ol’ y’all know who’s place. See, he called earlier today and I told him about Miller. Just now he called back and said, “Ya know that coupon for Wagner’s that’s expiring next week? Let’s use it tonight and let me treat you to supper. (Supper was gonna be leftovers from last night) Also, since that means you gotta come to town to go to Miller, just meet me at my place to go eat and we’ll just come back here for the night.” I think he has ulterior motives. No not that though that will happen. I’ve been fussin’ at him to go ahead and renew his antivirus subscription before it expires and I just know he ain’t done it yet even though it’s within ten days of happenin’. Also, knowin’ him as I do, and since it’s been two weeks since I’ve actually been in his house (when I mowed I didn’t go inside) I know he has not run a virus scan or checked for updates to stuff like I tell him to. I swear if it weren’t for me nuttin’ would ever get done to his puter cause he does not use it much and forgets about stuff like that.
Anywho, I’ll be hollerin’ back at y’all from his puter tonight. Matter of fact think I’ll head on over and be there when he gets there just cause.
ETA: Though I do think the benefits of homeownership out weigh the benefits of renting, to each his/her own. When I was younger renting made more sense at the time. Y’all will know when or if owning a home is the right thing. Until such time, ignore all other sage advice.
Seriously, I have seen so many people sink all their money into a house which then rapidly depreciates. And I HATE being told what to do. I know no one in this thread is lecturing me, but IRL I get it ALL the time - and from people who have made poor decisiions in the rest of their life! Ugh!
In other news, I went out today and bought peppermint patties for the office. I’ll fax one to anyone who wants one.
looks over at swampy and special1 Is it just me, or is this thread heating up quite a bit? For once it’s not me doing the flirting, nor Sean!
Oh yeah, taxi, your yarn finally went out today. It was real strange putting your married name on there, I gotta tell you. And boy did you go from an easy one to a toughie.
Hope it doesn’t turn out to be too much of a money-sucker.
but not confirming it!)