Home Owners Thread

[pacotaco345]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

I’m always curious to hear what people make in other parts of their country. Is that middle class or upper middle?



This should just be called the Growns Folks Thread.

Lol, well I think if I lived an hour further south in LA it’d be lower middle class. We don’t live together and we aren’t splitting living expenses or anything so we’re probably both smack in the middle. If we do move in together when I leave this place I figure we’ll be pretty well off.


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[dbeiler]

Originally Posted by pacotaco345

Combined we easily clear $150K/yr, so I know we'll be able to get into something decent, especially if we sold both the houses we have now, but I'm worried about where the market is gonna be in DFW 3-4 years from now when I'm ready to buy again. I wish I woulda done stupid like bought a house my freshman year of college.

No way you make $75K in the service. Obviously she makes $125K and you make the other $25k.

[pacotaco345]

Originally Posted by dbeiler

No way you make $75K in the service. Obviously she makes $125K and you make the other $25k.

It definitely helps that I'm commissioned and a good chunk of my income is tax free. I'm not loaded by any means but it would take 6 figures before tax for me to comfortably leave.

Idk how some of the junior enlisted with a wife and like 2-3 kids can afford to live..

[ghost_silvia]

I'm considering moving to Rockwall simply for the fact that you get way more house for the money. I should be in my career in 3 years so that should be the time I expect the market to falter a little.

[TheRealSy90]

I had 12k saved up at the beginning of the year for a down payment for my first home. Relationship things ended up falling through and I lost the motivation to buy one and ended up spending most of that 12k finishing my drift car instead. Well, now that it's finished i'm starting to save up for a down payment again, and things are looking good with the new girlfriend too.
Only issue with me is I probably listen to Dave Ramsey too much, and he recommends not having a mortgage payment that's over 25% of your take home pay. Since I make about 45k a year before overtime that sticks me in a 100k home.

I've been told by people to not factor in a spouse's income when home shopping because anything could happen and they might not always be there. How many Zilvia home owners have to rely on their combined income? Is a mortage at 25% of take-home pay just too much to ask for nowadays?

[gbaby2089]

If I'm reading your post correctly, you've been seeing new girl for less than six months & are already looking at buying a house with her? lol that's a terrible idea.

Dave Ramsey's a buffoon.

[TheRealSy90]

Originally Posted by gbaby2089

If I'm reading your post correctly, you've been seeing new girl for less than six months & are already looking at buying a house with her? lol that's a terrible idea.

Ah that's not really what I meant to say! The new relationship was kind of off topic lol.
I was just curious if most people try to stay at a mortgage of >25% of their take home, and how many people buy homes based off of joint income vs. single income.


What's wrong with Dave? I mean I've never seen any proof that what he teaches isn't beneficial. Preferably 20% down payment on the home with a mortgage no more than 25% of your take home pay. That leaves a lot of money to be invested into retirement and not having to worry about your mortgage every month.

[slider2828]

Originally Posted by TheRealSy90

Ah that's not really what I meant to say! The new relationship was kind of off topic lol.
I was just curious if most people try to stay at a mortgage of >25% of their take home, and how many people buy homes based off of joint income vs. single income.


What's wrong with Dave? I mean I've never seen any proof that what he teaches isn't beneficial. Preferably 20% down payment on the home with a mortgage no more than 25% of your take home pay. That leaves a lot of money to be invested into retirement and not having to worry about your mortgage every month.

I am a home owner and its <25% of what I earn net (not gross), but I was a beneficiary of timing when we bought. I live in the bay area where a piece of land is 800k or a burnt down shack is 900k.....

I don't think its possible to own a house in the bay area and not spend >50% of your income.....

so I think depends on the area

[TheRealSy90]

Originally Posted by slider2828

I am a home owner and its <25% of what I earn net (not gross), but I was a beneficiary of timing when we bought. I live in the bay area where a piece of land is 800k or a burnt down shack is 900k.....

I don't think its possible to own a house in the bay area and not spend >50% of your income.....

so I think depends on the area

Should I be going off of net income and not gross income? I was basing what I could afford off of my gross pay (take home).

[pacotaco345]

Originally Posted by TheRealSy90

Should I be going off of net income and not gross income? I was basing what I could afford off of my gross pay (take home).

You should calculate your minimum monthly take home income, then set up an excel spreadsheet and lay out ALL of your expenses, to include how much money you spend on hobbies and other random incidents that always come up, how much you want to save/invest, etc. If you're renting now don't forget to factor in some $$ for home maintenance and the extra cost of utilities you'll be paying for a larger space.

Once you do that look at how much money you have left over and figure out what YOU are comfortable paying on a monthly mortgage. The 25% thing is just a rule of thumb, if I made a million dollars a year I'm sure I could afford 2/3 of my income going to the mortgage and still have plenty left over for myself.

[gbaby2089]

I just think Ramsey & 'gurus' like him are never going to be as useful as just educating yourself & finding a solution that works for you.

(For what its worth, I make similar money to you & bought a $90k house. I would not want to buy anything pricier without a second income or a big pay raise)

[TheRealSy90]

Originally Posted by gbaby2089

I just think Ramsey & 'gurus' like him are never going to be as useful as just educating yourself & finding a solution that works for you.

(For what its worth, I make similar money to you & bought a $90k house. I would not want to buy anything pricier without a second income or a big pay raise)

That's about the price range i'm comfortable with for a 15yr fixed rate. Problem is finding a house in that range with a garage is difficult. 2-car garage homes around here are usually starting around 150k.

[slider2828]

Originally Posted by pacotaco345

You should calculate your minimum monthly take home income, then set up an excel spreadsheet and lay out ALL of your expenses, to include how much money you spend on hobbies and other random incidents that always come up, how much you want to save/invest, etc. If you're renting now don't forget to factor in some $$ for home maintenance and the extra cost of utilities you'll be paying for a larger space.

Once you do that look at how much money you have left over and figure out what YOU are comfortable paying on a monthly mortgage. The 25% thing is just a rule of thumb, if I made a million dollars a year I'm sure I could afford 2/3 of my income going to the mortgage and still have plenty left over for myself.

Net for sure for budgeting, but when buying a house, credit is extended based on gross income. Just saying.....

Buying a house is always about compromise. Like everyone said 25% is just rule of thumb. Shit if you live on cup of noodle, you can probably totally spend 50% of your income, but if you live on steak and lobster, then you better use the 25% rule.

It always depend on where you are in life and the compromises you make. Not sure where you live, but figure whats most important in your life 5 years down the road.

[exitspeed]

Yeah 25% of take home seems comfortable. My mortgage is about $2200 and that’s less than 25% take home for us.

[TheRealSy90]

Jesus! You're making a killing my friend haha.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by TheRealSy90

Jesus! You're making a killing my friend haha.

We have 3 kids though. And those mf’s ain’t cheap.

Also, we put a shit ton of money away in 401k every month.

I really really want to start buying rental properties.

[bardabe]

Errr, guess I should contribute into this,

so after splitting partnerships back in 2013 I took all of the capital we had split from the business, and had to sit down to think about where to next. Option one was the obvious and open up a shop on my own without investors, partners etc. Or I could take all that money and buy a nice house.

my dad and I found the current house I live in. It's a 1 Acre lot in Perris. I live in the rural area of town so it's quiet and separated from society at only 84K. I can make all the noise i want since my surrounding neighbors have truck yards and other businesses in their lots. I basically took all of the money i had and just paid for the house no mortgage no lenders dead broke for a bit BUT no home payment to worry about.

about 4 months after that I landed the gig at Fontana Nissan and basically started re-modeling the inside of the house. tile floors, new carpets, windows, doors etc. then about two years ago water main busted and flooded the inside of the house. Insurance picked up a nice bill and remodeled my kitchen, bathroom and living room for me. that bill was little under 20K. House is currently worth around 270K according to zillow which i estimate actual selling price could be anywhere between 250-280 it fluctuates.

[codybene]

Originally Posted by bardabe

Errr, guess I should contribute into this,

so after splitting partnerships back in 2013 I took all of the capital we had split from the business, and had to sit down to think about where to next. Option one was the obvious and open up a shop on my own without investors, partners etc. Or I could take all that money and buy a nice house.

my dad and I found the current house I live in. It's a 1 Acre lot in Perris. I live in the rural area of town so it's quiet and separated from society at only 84K. I can make all the noise i want since my surrounding neighbors have truck yards and other businesses in their lots. I basically took all of the money i had and just paid for the house no mortgage no lenders dead broke for a bit BUT no home payment to worry about.

about 4 months after that I landed the gig at Fontana Nissan and basically started re-modeling the inside of the house. tile floors, new carpets, windows, doors etc. then about two years ago water main busted and flooded the inside of the house. Insurance picked up a nice bill and remodeled my kitchen, bathroom and living room for me. that bill was little under 20K. House is currently worth around 270K according to zillow which i estimate actual selling price could be anywhere between 250-280 it fluctuates.

Very nice! My brother had a similar experience. He bought a place for a cheap price, paid off with no debt but broken for a while. Did some renovations and the housing price went up. Housing is a great investment and if you buy a house, you dont hv to worry about rent and stuff. It would be even better if you have a basement to rent it out for a lil bit of extra cash!

[exitspeed]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/09/home...apping-it.html

Sounds like we’re all in good shape right now...right now.

All the reasons they mentioned (including the previous crash) are reasons why we’ve chosen to remodel vs sell and buy.

[ZenkiKid]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/09/home...apping-it.html

Sounds like we’re all in good shape right now...right now.

All the reasons they mentioned (including the previous crash) are reasons why we’ve chosen to remodel vs sell and buy.

I wish I were fortunate enough to be a part of this club.

Still looking for jobs closer to riverside so I can justify moving up there to be able to actually afford something decent.

[gbaby2089]

1.33 years into home ownership.

I've planted a bunch of flowers (and some vegetables too), added some furniture & done little else. I hate being in debt, but I like being limited only by what I can or cannot afford.

I also like taking pictures of the place.






(My cat also loves having a whole place to himself)

[RalliartRsX]

I LOVE tall windows! Something about natural light (and lots of it) makes it a home IMHO

[[240sx]]

Originally Posted by RalliartRsX

I LOVE tall windows! Something about natural light (and lots of it) makes it a home IMHO

^ This. First thing I do when I get home from work, or wake up on my days off is open all the blinds in my home. Dark rooms are depressing.

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[TheRealSy90]

Man that house looks so comfy inside.


I'll just keep looking for the 2 bedroom 2 car garage house in my town that probably doesn't exist lol.

[gbaby2089]

Thanks all, I tried to balance my belief in not owning many things & general minimalism with owning enough things that bring me happiness and make a home feel lived in.

[exitspeed]

Man this remodel is a PITA.

We've had two contractors bid on it and two architects do initial drawings. The whole project on the low side is $350. $50 over our budget. That's without appliances, landscaping and a couple other bells and whistles (like a second fireplace). Once contractor came in $550-$625. lol. But they are arguably the highest end contractor in WI so that was expected.

Tough thing is my wife and I only get one or two days to even talk about this stuff in person since she works in NY all week.

No idea what we're going to do yet but I think we'll skip the garage portion ($125k) of it. We're leaning towards:

First Floor Master Suite - $95k
Kitchen/1st Floor - $80k
Exterior LP Smart Siding - $35k

That gives is $40k for additional stuff and still be under our $300k budget.

Shit is stressful.

[RalliartRsX]

Rule of thumb; baseline what it cost and add +30% to the financials and +20-30% in times.

We have reno'd two houses now and as much as I hate to admit it, those home remodeling shows on DIY are 100% spot on in that regard.

Not at all surprised by the issues you are running into as we have had that very same problem in the past . Frustrating at the least, infuriating at the worst as once you start, you gotta finish.

I feel your pain man

[Dolph_KYAS13]

Originally Posted by RalliartRsX

Rule of thumb; baseline what it cost and add +30% to the financials and +20-30% in times.

Frustrating at the least, infuriating at the worst as once you start, you gotta finish.

I feel your pain man

We are just going through that now. we were quick to move out of our place and then once the demo started all the little extras started piling on. so far we have had to:

Run a new (larger) waterline

Remove the 4 (?!?!)) layers of existing subfloor and level everything up and put a full new floor down.

Some structural elements of the house were rotted and needed to be replaced.

we have managed to move things around in the budget to accommodate all these new costs as there is no way around it.

The whole process is good but super stressful as we are moving larger sums of money around than we have ever done before.

Makes old nissans seem cheap

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by RalliartRsX

Rule of thumb; baseline what it cost and add +30% to the financials and +20-30% in times.

We have reno'd two houses now and as much as I hate to admit it, those home remodeling shows on DIY are 100% spot on in that regard.

Not at all surprised by the issues you are running into as we have had that very same problem in the past . Frustrating at the least, infuriating at the worst as once you start, you gotta finish.

I feel your pain man

This is our second house we’ve remodeled too (we’ve stuck about $70k into in the last 4 years). The difference is this time I just want to pay a contractor because it’s a LOT of work. Adding huge additions is beyond my scope.

In regards to the shows though, I just wanted a Property Brothers show and for $110k they redid this whole damn house including fixin foundations and structural issue a from termites. I have to think that those are only hard cost numbers and does not include labor.

[gbaby2089]

Watch Grand Designs on Netflix.

It seems much more transparent/honest about costs & hurdles.

The houses are also so, so, so much more interesting/varied/beautiful (and sometimes failed & awful)