Mortgages

[CorbLand]

I can whole heartedly agree with the last statement. And don’t get me wrong the deals that were available, especially out west were astounding! Buddies dad bought 90 acres of land, backs to NF, 35 min outside the front range for 20k in 92’… even adjusted for inflation that’s like 78k today… haha couldn’t touch that land for less than 700k now…

My grandpa bought half an acre to put a cabin on for 3500 bucks. We have to redo the waterline from the well this year and its double that. I would hate to see what that ground would cost today.

 

[SDHNTR]

Marry a doctor…

I tell my kids, you can marry more money in 5 minutes than you can make in a lifetime!

 

[92xj]

@Vandeman17 Sell this guy your current house, should be in the right price range. Avoid Realtor fees since I just set up the connection for you two. Go buy that orchard house. Win win for both you guys.

 

[SDHNTR]

Good point. There actually is data supporting renting and investing the difference actually leads to greater wealth over the long run than owning and investing less.

Do I think that's what people should do? Not really. How practical is that? Not so much. It is interesting though.

This can absolutely work, but it takes discipline the vast majority of humans lack.

There are a multitude of studies on real estate vs stock market investing. The conclusions are all rather similar. Give or take a negligible amount, after a multi decade analysis period, you arrive at about the same place. They both work.

The difference is, a stock portfolio is marked to market instantaneously every business day. That leads to price volatility that a lot of people can’t handle and it causes them to make rash and improper decisions. OTOH, no one calls an appraiser out to their house every day, and the fluctuations in value seem far less volatile. Plus, RE is more illiquid. It’s hard to sell a roof over your head so most people don’t over many, many years. A stock portfolio can be liquidated in a few key strokes and as such, that happens far too often, which obviously hampers growth. If people applied the same kind of staying power to their stock portfolios that they did to their real estate, they’d see the true benefit and those numbers absolutely could work in their favor, much in the same way as equity in a home. It just takes emotional fortitude and discipline most people do not have.

 

[NDGuy]

I am not going to get into boomer versus millennial debate...

 

[Hnthrdr]

I tell my kids, you can marry more money in 5 minutes than you can make in a lifetime!

Haha kind of in that boat… had no clue what my wife made, then she co owned, now sole owner of a practice… she works her ass off and deals with an insane amount of stress, but makes good money, I make what I consider decent money, but it’s all relative. Biggest thing like you said is prioritizing stuff, you will make time/ money for what you prioritize

 

[CorbLand]

I tell my kids, you can marry more money in 5 minutes than you can make in a lifetime!

Marry for money. Money can fix looks.

 

[Mish-pop]

My wife and I are currently trying upgrade from our starter home. We kind of want to wait because it would be tight if we tried to make it work now and mortgage would be more than our 25% after taxes. However, where we live isn't slowing down any either and if we wait I don't think its gonna be any better if we wait. Like someone said, if rates go down are current lender has 1100 people waiting to get a house. Rates may be down but prices will go up. Even with selling our starter home and using that as down payment we would just get to 20%. The upgrade would be 1 garage stall and 500 more square feet. Not a huge jump in house size but descent jump in mortgage payment. Rock, meet hard place!

 

[Mish-pop]

Marry for money. Money can fix looks.

All good and dandy but let's not forget you kinda got to like each other! Ha

 

[ddd-shooter]

Lmao I know silly me. Should have bought a house instead of worrying about highschool English.

Seriously appreciate everyone’s insight. Finances have come up a ton. Some background on me, 155k last year DTI 2 vehicles, 45k and 18k 3 credit cards 1 is currently 80% 1 is at 30 1 is 0. Which isn’t a huge deal can 0 those out. Credit is sitting at about 720-730 depending on where I look at it. Home market here is rough. Low inventory and it’s all pretty much brand new homes in the 4-550 range. Moving isn’t an option because of work. And adding my finance isn’t an option because her credit is absolutely worthless. We are aggressively trying to get hers built up to atleast get the 18k car potentially off my credit and under her name, but not sure what the time frame of that is.

Don’t buy a house with someone you don’t have a legal contract with (spouse).
Sell the cars and buy something cash. Pay off credit cards. Take the money you were spending on cars and credit cards and you’ll have a good chunk for down payment in a year.
It’s a terrible market for first time homebuyers and anyone who doesn’t see it is crazy. The most expensive market relative to income since the 18%inflation days of the early 80s. You don’t just overcome that with a cliche.
(work harder, etc) I really don’t think anyone whose bought a house in the past thirty years can fault a first time homebuyer today. It’s just harder.

But it won’t fall into your lap while you’re living like the average American either. You’ve got to be different

 

[CorbLand]

All good and dandy but let's not forget you kinda got to like each other! Ha

Give me enough money and I could find ways to like anyone.

Although, dont listen to me. I did the direct opposite. My wife and I joke all the time that generally you gain money when your parents die but we are going to lose money.

My cousin married into a very wealthy family. She has everything she could ever need and most of the things one could want. The amount her in laws meddle in her life though...yea, I will take my life.

 

[HuntHarder]

Phew! I just read, I think, every response in this thread. Here is my take, do with it, what you want. I bought my house in 2008 for $141,000. Even then, I did not have 20%, so I did 5% with a FHA loan. I paid the PMI and easily covered my monthly payments. I was pre qualified for almost 300k based on my DTI as well as having an exceptional credit score. Times are different now, so my situation would be harder to come by in our current market.

Year 3, my house was worth enough to refinance and get into a conventional 30 year fixed loan, I think it was 4%. My income when I first bought my house was roughly 50k and my wife was also making 50ish k. We were young, we were both 23, she was still in college and I had graduated with some worthless degree I never used.

Fast forward to 3 or so years ago, I still live in the same house, it is worth $450,000- $500,000, I owe less than 70k and refinanced yet again to lower my interest rate and get into a 15 year. The rates had dropped so much that I was able to refinance into a 2.25%. My income around the time of my last refinance had more than tripled from when I first purchased my home.

I am not a fan of debt, my only debt is my mortgage ( which I could easily pay off, but my investments are doing far better than the low APR on my mortgage) I have a very healthy savings account and various different investments. I still drive a 2014 ram 2500 gasser that I paid 42k OTD in 2014. A good buddy who is very wealthy once told me, "you never finance a depreciating asset."

I guess the point of my long winded reply is waiting for 20% is a thing of the past IMO. As long as you can make the payments and have 6 months to a year of payments saved up in case of hard ship, do it. I personally do not believe Housing prices are going to drop any time soon. The saying of "Marry the home price and date the interest rate, is absolute truth." I have been "keeping my powder dry" for years now hoping to buy a larger house and rent out my current house. Just waiting for the market to drop..... It hasn't and if I would have bought 3 years ago, I would have paid much less than current prices. I hope I am wrong and prices drop significantly, but I doubt it.

Oh yeah, 1 more thing, I have never and I mean never, paid a single cent of credit card interest. I put anything I am allowed to on my credit cards and pay them off each month. Credit card debt is a no no and shows you may need to get your finances in line first before proceeding ahead with a Home purchase. I lived in 3 different apartments before I bought my house. IT SUCKED, but I was disciplined and knew I had to save up a rainy day fund so I could buy a home.

PS: Dave Ramsey is for people that have no self discipline.

 

[Fowl Play]

This can absolutely work, but it takes discipline the vast majority of humans lack.

There are a multitude of studies on real estate vs stock market investing. The conclusions are all rather similar. Give or take a negligible amount, after a multi decade analysis period, you arrive at about the same place. They both work.

The difference is, a stock portfolio is marked to market instantaneously every business day. That leads to price volatility that a lot of people can’t handle and it causes them to make rash and improper decisions. OTOH, no one calls an appraiser out to their house every day, and the fluctuations in value seem far less volatile. Plus, RE is more illiquid. It’s hard to sell a roof over your head so most people don’t over many, many years. A stock portfolio can be liquidated in a few key strokes and as such, that happens far too often, which obviously hampers growth. If people applied the same kind of staying power to their stock portfolios that they did to their real estate, they’d see the true benefit and those numbers absolutely could work in their favor, much in the same way as equity in a home. It just takes emotional fortitude and discipline most people do not have.

I actually put together a very thorough spreadsheet for this. As I was considering it myself. And still am. It 100% does work in many markets right now.

I would like to move, but am not sure if I would want to stay there long period. It 100% makes sense for me to rent out my current house (2.15% 15 year that we will probably never ever see again). And then rent a 3-4 bedroom out west somewhere.

You’ll hear some say “own where you can rent, rent where you live” and it is contrary to normal opinion but does work if you are diligent and make sure the numbers pencil out.

 

[Mish-pop]

Give me enough money and I could find ways to like anyone.

Although, dont listen to me. I did the direct opposite. My wife and I joke all the time that generally you gain money when your parents die but we are going to lose money.

My cousin married into a very wealthy family. She has everything she could ever need and most of the things one could want. The amount her in laws meddle in her life though...yea, I will take my life.

Well I love my wife and like in-laws. My mother was the more meddling one in our relationship and it drove my wife nuts! So it matters some. Curious, how much money would it take to like someone who said you couldn't hunt anymore!?

 

[Moosehunter]

I may have sounded discontent.
I was more joking than anything. But I've working in excavation for 8 years. Working on a two man crew. Can run any piece of machinery with some finesse.
Have no added benefits other than access to machinery. Work 40-50 hour weeks.(Nothing crazy)
And don't make anywhere near 100
Is this normal?
I have normal rent. Have a wife that has some side jobs but no real cash flow. (Which is fine).
And id like a house to. Lol
Or do I just need to go whole up in an office and poke buttons to make the real money.
Do people enjoy their jobs? Or do u work for the paycheck?

 

[CorbLand]

Well I love my wife and like in-laws. My mother was the more meddling one in our relationship and it drove my wife nuts! So it matters some. Curious, how much money would it take to like someone who said you couldn't hunt anymore!?

A lot more than I would have to pay you to recognize sarcasm.

 

[Mish-pop]

A lot more than I would have to pay you to recognize sarcasm.

I never was good at that on the internet

 

[Hnthrdr]

Well I love my wife and like in-laws. My mother was the more meddling one in our relationship and it drove my wife nuts! So it matters some. Curious, how much money would it take to like someone who said you couldn't hunt anymore!?

no amount of money… what would you do with all your time if you couldn’t have your hobby or passion

 

[Mish-pop]

no amount of money… what would you do with all your time if you couldn’t have your hobby or passion

Same. Go insane. I think we kinda got off the rails of this thread a little bit. My bad

 

[ianpadron]

I may have sounded discontent.
I was more joking than anything. But I've working in excavation for 8 years. Working on a two man crew. Can run any piece of machinery with some finesse.
Have no added benefits other than access to machinery. Work 40-50 hour weeks.(Nothing crazy)
And don't make anywhere near 100
Is this normal?
I have normal rent. Have a wife that has some side jobs but no real cash flow. (Which is fine).
And id like a house to. Lol
Or do I just need to go whole up in an office and poke buttons to make the real money.
Do people enjoy their jobs? Or do u work for the paycheck?

People are compensated in direct proportion to the magnitude of the problems they solve.

Get your skillset in front of people who value their time and they'll pay more than you could ever comprehend for the solutions you can offer.

That's a paradigm shift that most will never experience, and they end up trading their time for money their entire life.

Food for thought, without derailing the thread too much.