Rant: Home ownership

[jim]

It sucks. And it's nowhere near the "investment" people make it out to be, I think that is a story.

Woke up at 2:30, noticed a light on in the back where the furnace/water heater are, and went in to turn it off and saw water. Water heater leaking, just got off with Home Depot, and by late this p.m. I will have a brand new water heater and be out $1000. The big scam is the permit with the city - $100. They aren't even freaking open, but they have it setup so that you can get the permit within 72 hours. They don't care about code, they care about the $100.

[slide_into_first]

They are not hard to replace. I would get a cheap one at grsndpa pigeons or somewhere like that and skip the permit

[jim]

For me they are not hard to replace, they are impossible. I am not handy.

[slide_into_first]

What if you bought one from Home Depot in Beloit, would they skip the permit?

[M1IRONMIKE]

no friggin way i pay that permit fee....i would take cold showers until i found someone to install it.

[33anda3rd]

It sucks. And it's nowhere near the "investment" people make it out to be, I think that is a story.

It's always struck me as absurd that a brand new home should start appreciating in value after it's not brand new anymore. Other than, like, extreme vintage collectors stuff like an old Rolex or violin or limited run car or baseball card, I can't think of anything that should get more valuable as it gets older.

[JackofDiamonds]

It doesn't appreciate intrinsically; market conditions drive price, as do renovations. You're a land owner more than a home owner, people are willing to pay X to live where you live. X increases if that area becomes more attractive.

[IMADreamer]

I have never looked at owning my home as in investment. Who the hell would want to buy a house where I live? I get it if you are a in a big city or maybe hot neighborhood or boom town, but I think most people are going to be hugely disappointed in when it comes time to cash out on their home.

Not to mention it's one headache after another. It's why I'm looking to permanently move to my cabin. Downsize, less crap to take care of and I paid almost nothing for it so who cares if it ever goes up in value? There are people in my town buying/building 3 and $400,000 homes. This is insane in a county were almost no one makes six figure incomes. In fact the average household income here in around 30k. Which tells me there will be a lot of vacant $400,000 homes in the future.

One doctor came here and built a $600,000 home. When she got transfer the home sat vacant for nearly 10 years. It still is in fact.

My point I guess is homes here are not investments.

[jim]

Downsizing and simplifying I can recommend. We just moved into this house 1.5 years ago, much smaller and we really enjoy it. He halved the square footage from our last house. Very easy to clean, harder (but not impossible) for me to lose my wallet and keys, cheaper, lower taxes, etc..

[Socnorb11]

Downsizing and simplifying I can recommend. We just moved into this house 1.5 years ago, much smaller and we really enjoy it. He halved the square footage from our last house. Very easy to clean, harder (but not impossible) for me to lose my wallet and keys, cheaper, lower taxes, etc..

+++

I've learned that simplifying life, in general, is a good thing.