ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 23,784
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
Several Docs bought rent homes when their kids went off to UCLA and Santa Barbara and Berkeley.One thing I had to consider was I was getting married when my then fiancé and I bought our fist house. I wasn't going to put my wife in a sketchy neighborhood. So we bought on the EDGE of a sketchy neighborhood.It served us well for 11 years, but when our child turned 3 we saw the neighborhood getting rougher, so we moved.
Now some would say the neighborhood we moved into is sketchy, but it's not. It's lower income, but very little crime. A good mix of adults of every ethnicity. Can't say I ever see teenagers out and about anymore.
We thought about keeping our first house as a rental. Instead, we put it in a blanket mortgage with this house to get over 20% equity in the total so we could buy this house with no money down and no need for the mortgage insurance. Then we sold that 1st house and put it all down on this house, which gave us about 60% equity in this house, which we would have paid off in 5 years, had my father not passed away. He left us enough to pay it off 2 years early, so that was a nice 2 year boost in savings.
As I've mentioned before, I'm not cut out to deal with renters due to my past experiences helping my father manage and liquidate the units his parents could no longer manage due to bad tenants.
I have no regrets on that decision and neither does my wife.
About the only regret I have is not purchasing a duplex or triplex in Lafayette, IN before my kids went to Purdue! Had I known both of them were going to go there, it would have saved $80K in rent over 9 years, plus the other tenants would have helped towards the purchase cost, plus the housing market went nuts right after the last one graduated, and we could have made a small fortune by selling it.
Ah good old 20/20 hindsight.
My first little 1910 cottage of 600 square feet was in the heart of the worst neighborhood in what is called deep East Oakland.
Came home and said I made an offer on a house… you did what???and the next day the Realtor called to congratulate me!
When I bought the neighborhood was 100% African American and now is 100% Spanish Speaking… it never went through the Asian ownership phase as many others in the city.
My step grandfather came to take a look and told my grandmother I had just flushed my life savings but I was young and would learn the hard way.
She asked if he shared his thoughts and said no because I was so excited about being a homeowner at 21… sure it was to be condemned but I had 10 days to reverse that and did.
That little home no one wanted cost me $11,500 to buy and last year was over 400k but even if it drops 50% I’m still good… only second renter since I moved.
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