beowulf
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2003
- Messages
- 1,176
- Location
- Central California Foothills
- Tractor
- Kubota L3410 HST, J Deere riding mower
Puffy, what you say lines up with my thinking. We could finance without a loan but a loan made sense because of the interest rates right now, and because I am 77 and want to protect funds for my wife when I am gone, because I want our daughter and SIL to be a bit more directly involved in the finances, and finally - and this is important - we have another daughter and we have always managed things fairly between them- I told the home building daughter that whatever we 'give' them I have to find a way to impart similar value in some way to the other. They understand this. So, in a way, if we use savings for this build, it costs us twice as much as we have to give the same amount, at some time and in some way to the other daughter.I would guess it's a little of both. Finding someone who will write a loan on land anywhere can be tough and with the market like it is I'm sure that just compounds the problem. Doing a cash deal is the easiest by far but with interest rates as low as they are now the last thing you want is a bunch of equity if you can avoid it. An extra couple thousand for an appraisal is insulting but in the long run financially irrelevant so that's what I'd do. There's no way I'd finance it myself unless I just had way more money than I ever needed, plus loaning money to friends or family is usually a quick way to make either hate you even though everyone always thinks they'll be the exception.
We have always been willing to help, as both daughters have turned out really well, they both worked two jobs during college, have always found jobs on their own, and mostly paid their own way. After college we told them we would pay their car insurance and cell phone bills for six months and they had to take it over then. Same with other things. It has worked out well. We also gave them each $500 into a Vanguard account at HS graduation, explained investing, and how contributing would build that up. They have contributed over the years and now, they each have over $60,000 in those accounts - part of their current savings.