To Buy or Not to Buy; Comments please...

[calmloki]

Always hard on the interweb to know who is savvy and should be listened to. Hear me now and smell me later: if Honobob (the biggest negative cash flow, make da big bucks in appreciation cheerleader i know) says don't buy - mmmmmaybe you shouldn't buy. MHO

 

[Enuff2Eat]

thanks for all of the suggestion. One last, last, last question.... how about at $340 to $350k for an upgrade in housing for me and my family. we sell our current house (21yrs old) and pick up this 3 yrs old house, assuming that i can sell our for close to 300k is it still a good buy?

advantage: almost spanky new house, away from the in law (jk)

disadvantage: worse school but more diverse (meaning more minority); longer commute, higher taxes.

 

[OAG]

I think you know the answer to that question. If you can "steal" the new home what makes you think you can "luck out" on the old one? If you jump on the new house BEFORE selling the old one you could end up with BOTH of them; could you or would you want to carry both of them, and if you do, how long?

Of course this would raise the question of renting the "old" house. Could it be rented at 1% or, if you own free and clear, could at least cover ALL expenses and BREAK EVEN before depreciation? It may work that way. Still IMHO you are heading down a "shaky" financial road - however; you may have talked yourself into the "new" one. Both of these properties have a business aspect AND a psychological aspect you need to consider the business aspect ONLY IMHO.

 

[Enuff2Eat]

I think you know the answer to that question. If you can "steal" the new home what makes you think you can "luck out" on the old one? If you jump on the new house BEFORE selling the old one you could end up with BOTH of them; could you or would you want to carry both of them, and if you do, how long?

Of course this would raise the question of renting the "old" house. Could it be rented at 1% or, if you own free and clear, could at least cover ALL expenses and BREAK EVEN before depreciation? It may work that way. Still IMHO you are heading down a "shaky" financial road - however; you may have talked yourself into the "new" one. Both of these properties have a business aspect AND a psychological aspect you need to consider the business aspect ONLY IMHO.

thanks oag, yes it does seems like i am looking for confirmation than information. yes, i do feel like i am "talking" myself into the deal. who knows the bank might laugh at me and say "get out of my face" or they might say yes to $350k ... i am not sure but i do know that i do not wish to be in the situation of carrying two houses the way thing market today.

i will sit on it and think..

thanks

enuff

 

[honobob]

if Honobob (the biggest negative cash flow, make da big bucks in appreciation cheerleader i know) says don't buy - mmmmmaybe you shouldn't buy. MHO

Hey, I'm not fat, I'm just retaining equity.

But I have to agree with everyone else that there's no equity there to buy and the upside seems limited. Next property!

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

Enuff, you did mention that you can pay cash for the second property. If you have that much cash lying around, you can easily buy 20 slum properties at 20% down and rent them out at $600-$800 a piece, and you can get on the local section 8 housing list to get the government to pay for most of the rent. You'll net maybe $500 per property a year initially, but that's a lot better than -$20,000 a year on one property.

 

[Marquette]

If your current house doesn't fit your needs, would you be able to get it to that point with a remodel? Tally up the closing costs if you sell your current house and then figure out if you could make the current house more enjoyable for less.

 

[jazz4cash]

thanks dreamer, the house is located at outside (whitemarsh) of baltimore. i plan to keep it for about 5 years or so. what attract to me was the equity in the house, yes over $100,000.00 in equity. One of the family friends lives about 6 doors down and told me about the property. he paid $560,000.00 for his, the house that i am looking at is smaller and smaller lot.



enuff

Im pretty familiar with that area....B'more has pretty decent values compared to DC and you can actually easily find cash flow positive rentals. I am shocked that the taxes are so high....doesn't sound right. Don't buy.

 

[Enuff2Eat]

Im pretty familiar with that area....B'more has pretty decent values compared to DC and you can actually easily find cash flow positive rentals. I am shocked that the taxes are so high....doesn't sound right. Don't buy.

jazz4cash, the taxes is high just because the house is base on new houses price, i guess. My personal property only $2600/yr. i too was shock to hear taxes is that high, may be my friend exaggerated.

buns, slumplord is a hard job, section 8 is even harder. i dont have any experience with section 8 and just a little scare since i heard they tend to bring a village to live with them and they tend to have victim mindset which could be a ton of headache.

marq, thanks for the advice and will do as u say, start remodel my old house rather than buy another one. it's cheaper this way.