tuxedocat

Before you buy a home here I really recommend the FHA First Time Homebuyer Education Course. It's about six hours but it's time well spent. They had different speakers come in who had experience in different areas of real estate or banking. They gave great advice on how to avoid mistakes and made you aware of hidden costs of home ownership.

Ruth16

I've just come back from house hunting in Roswell Ga , the new constructions there are so big, no one seems to build small homes anymore, I'm not too keen on Condo living just yet, hoping to sell my home in Connectucut this year, some lovely homes for sale in Roswell .

Havnfun

In Canada the 3rd switch at the door was for an outside plugin for the Christmas lights. That way you didn't have to go out in the cold to unplug the Christmas lights

Charma1ne

What is this?? Is it in the UK for expats or the US?

I didn't have a clue about the location thing haha oops! Sorry guys I know now at least :P

Yeah it seems everyone is in favour of renting I guess I was just always brought up to get on the property market as soon as possible and stay there? So the idea of rental is very foreign to me. All very valid points though! You have all been there and done that so I do actually really appreciate it. Such a U turn from my initial mind set though! But I guess that’s what these forums are for

Cx

lansbury

I'm like you I think renting is a waste of money, especially when rent is often a good bit more than a mortgage. People can put whatever spin on it they like, but consider the size of the US and how people move around, and people sell and but in a new place all the time. These days the amount of information avaibale make an informed choice much easier.

We went one better we purchased our house only having seen it on the internet, and having a contractor friend check it out for us and send photographs. Wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

Derrygal

I think it used to be that renters were throwing their money away but not any more - not after the housing bubble burst. I bought a condo in 2005. It has lost between 30% - 40% of it's value. I regret the day I bought it. I wish I had rented. It will take many years to bring it up to the value of what I paid for it. I am well and truly stuck as I cannot afford to take a big loss if I sold

lansbury

I take it you never buy anything that devalues then, such as a car or just about anything else for that matter.

The house we purchased has lost $50,000 since we purchased. A rough estimate of the cost to rent it over the same period $117,000. If we had a mortgage $50k plus the mortgage payments would come to about $110k over the same period.

Bob

Thing is, as you say, all depends on location. But in New England area, where cost of owning is much more than renting, it does make sense here, generally.

The big saving is cost of renters insurance being next to nothing compared to home owners, added by rent being a set amount that you can't be turfed out during winter months etc, so don't have to worry about cost of replacing the heating system which can easily cost you $10-20K here. Plenty of other general maintenance costs that won't apply in the UK or other parts of the country, so without experiencing them you just wouldnt' think about them.

Where we were renting across town, it was only a tiny condo, but the value had dropped $175K over a few years and I don't think to many people can afford to take that kind of hit, especially when selling a place also costs 6%.

And we're not talking about the cost of renting for life, but for a year or so, where around here that cost in rent is just a rounding error. It also gives you time to build up credit history, which would have a much bigger impact on the type of mortgage rate one can get.

lansbury

Yes but no-one was saying that before. Just don't buy. Horses for courses.

yellowroom

I worked out that I would have to own a house for a minimum of five years here in Virginia for the total cost to make it worthwhile for me to buy versus renting a house. That was assuming the house value stayed the same.

Given all the variables and risks already mentioned unthread, I'm happy renting - I'm on an L1-B visa, it makes sense to me. I still have a foot on the property ladder back in the uk.

Bob

Aye, for those of us in the north east, would need to keep the place usually for at least 5-8 years to make it worth the cost, without taking a hit from all the associated costs of buying/selling a place.

Sometimes a risk is worth a punt, but it's all down to risk tolerance and generally speaking, unless someone is willing to take a large hit, it's generally much more financially safer to hold out, certainly for the first year or two.

WEBlue

I know people who have done this too, and more power to them if it works out. But I don't think it's so easy to sell up these days as it was even 5 years ago. The risk if you don't pick the right house is that you're stuck with it in a still-uncertain market & you lose all your mobility. Why not rent a while & have a good look around an area? I don't think it will hurt as much financially as rushing into the wrong choice could.

Linda44

So it depends on the type of visa you have, your long term plans, whether you still own property in the UK (and how much that costs you), the cost of renting v buying (whether you need a mortgage plus if you're only buying in the Us you don't pay any realtor fees), the property market etc etc.

We bought in 2006 and despite the fall in the value of our home would still have been worse off renting.
Plus the other thing to note is that if we had to sell to go back to the UK now because of the $/GBP excahnge rate we would come out with almost exactly the same as we paid.

Ruth16

Yes realtors will try to stage a house inside to look nice, it's all cosmetic, that
Wouldn't impress me at all, I would be more interested in seing what shape the windows were in, easy open /close, what condition the chimneys in, take a flashlight in the attic and basement to see if any damp spots, try all the light switches and the plumbing, how olds the AC and the furnace ect, take a good look at the roof shingles, all things realtors don't want you doing, I wouldn't care one bit how the furnishing look, in the US you can do all this in the walk through .

lansbury

In the current market a mortgage on our house is $689 a month. On the rental market you'd pay $1485. You can rent in an area, then buy and find where you chose the neighbors are a nightmare. Also in our town most of the rentals are in the less desirable parts. I'll buy every time not waste money putting it into someone else's pocket, but each to their own.