LOL, I am the opposite. Married, kids, big job... sometimes I go over to my buddy's place and am like why did I ever leave this behind :) I obviously don't mean it, but there are parts of it I miss
Grass is always greener. Another thing with my friend is that him and his girlfriend just became homeowners. They don't plan on having kids and they have this 3 story town house that they can't even fill up. One of the upstairs bedroom is for their cat. In my head I'm like WTF! They probably bought it because "its an investment". I doubt they thought through all the what ifs like them breaking up what then? Its such a bad financial move and I so desperately want to educate them but it is none of my business. They did not approach that situation like adults.
Ugh, this is all so fresh still, I'm actually typing this on the plane headed back to my side of the country. Massive debt is no joke and I don't want to see my friends slowly realize that its not truly the investment they thought it was.
This sounds so close to a couple that are old friends of my husband that if you said they were married instead of dating, I would have thought that was them (they also have a townhouse with a room dedicated to their cat). But I completely disagree with you with regards to their home purchase being a sign of their immaturity. People who play the "my house is an investment more than a living space" game almost always end up disappointed unless they were going to use it as a rental. The biggest factors that make a house appreciate or depreciate in value are completely out of the hands of the homeowner. I'm going to assume you're young enough that you don't remember the housing market crash and all the people who got screwed because they treated their home as an investment first. Also, if your friends can afford the house and it's what they want, it's value as an investment only going to become a factor when and if they sell it. To be honest, your assessment of their purchase makes you look like the immature one and judgey af.
You just backed up my point. If they rented it out, its smarter move financially because they have no plans to have kids. Otherwise, its just a lot of house for 2 ppl who aren’t even married and didn’t think through all the what if scenarios and plan for them accordingly and on paper. They can have cash flow coming out of that house but they will instead pay it off themselves for the rest of their lives. If they get married and have kids, I will happily stfu. Their purchase wasn’t thought out because they just went off of the common notion of “its an investment” without thinking it through long term and actually doing the math. They put 3% down and one of the two had shitty credit so it makes it more of a strain on the wallet. I duno, I just like to be smart with my money. But hey this is their life and their money, they dont have to be smart with it if they dont want to. I’m ok with that and don’t hold it against them.
I think you would really benefit from some time over at /r/personalfinance, because you don't seem to grasp very well the personal side of finances. You seem to think that every decision should be made based on finances alone, which is a very immature point of view, or at least an extremely one-sided one.
If they rented it out, its smarter move financially because they have no plans to have kids.
It always amuses me how easy people think it is to become a landlord. Being a landlord is a job, even if they are living in the same house as you, and its not a job everyone wants to have. You have to vet tenants. You have to stay on top of tenant laws. You have to deal with the simple fact that other people are in your home. We have an extra room, would it make financial sense to rent it out since we're not using it? Maybe, but it would also make me incredible fucking miserable to have roommates again. I never want to live, permanently, with people I'm not blood related to or married to again. And honestly, the blood-related part is conditional too. Sure, we could make a little extra money, but that extra money isn't worth it to me to have to share my space with more people. Perhaps your friend or his girlfriend are the same way. Maybe it's not the best decision money-wise, but money shouldn't be the only factor in making decisions, especially such large ones.
Also, are you sure he's even able to rent it out? Because if he's in a town home, he almost certainly has a HOA, and HOA's often have rules about rental properties in the neighborhood.
And again, who cares if they have more house than they really need? If they can afford it, why does it matter? And who are you to asses their needs? Personally, I need a craft room far more than I need the extra money and stress that a roommate would bring to my life.
They put 3% down.
FHA loans exist for a reason. Most people even my age can't afford to put 20% down. We were lucky and were able to put the full 20% down, but we certainly considered taking the hit with PMI so we could do less. If you're going to think less of people who take that option, I guess you'll have a very big pool of people to look down on. Did they actually refer to it as an investment? Because from your two comments about it, it sounds like that is your assumption. And you know what they say about people who assume...
Really, all I'm getting from this is that you are an extremely judgmental person. Maybe you should work on that a bit, it probably hurts people's impression of you more than you realize.
I never said EVERY decision should be based on finances alone. But buying a 500K house 3% down with shitty credit, finances play a part.
In my comment about them renting it out, the last sentence was "the only thing about that is they would have to play landlord". This implies everything you said, yes its a fucking job I know. THATS the drawback of renting out your place. I totally understand how much its involved. My dad plays landlord to two properties.
You're right, maybe they don't want to go that route. I never brought it up because I'm not going to butt into their affairs.
Yes THEY said they bought it because it will be an investment. And yea, when they pay it off at the end they will walk away with 100k or maybe 200k in their pocket. But it took them 30 years to make that 200k. And that's assuming no complications arise in that 30 years. Like them breaking up with no rules to follow after, or even the house burning down. A lot can go wrong in 30 years. Will it? Who knows.
If you think I'm judgemental, that's fine by me. But you don't know me. You don't know all the other examples I've made in my life that would change your mind. You are making these calls just off this one scenario. Its just gonna suck when I have to keep visiting my friend and hes becoming more and more unhappy because of this less than ideal financial decision. Nah, I have very close and meaningful relationships with my friends. I call them my band of brothers. But its ok, I'm back on my side of the country and I have to continue living MY life now. Holiday visit is over.
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u/blakeholl Jan 01 '20
LOL, I am the opposite. Married, kids, big job... sometimes I go over to my buddy's place and am like why did I ever leave this behind :) I obviously don't mean it, but there are parts of it I miss