When you finally by your own house
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Unless I move out to the middle of nowhere, there's not many options for me that don't have an HOA of some kind. Wish I could avoid them, but unfortunately too ubiquitous in the states.
freedom
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It’s funny that the ‘right to work’ exists to dismantle unions, but somehow no-one has thought of a ‘right to live’ to combat HOAs.
The really shit part about HOAs is that most of the US NEEDS them. Most of the US has little to no zoning laws, and most of the suburbs are in unincorporated areas outside of the cities.
This means that without an HOA, there's nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo. -
Then you pay for it and still come out ahead.
It have a home maintenance plan for more predictable cost and renting like experience, and coming less ahead than renting, but still somewhat ahead.
Yep, factor in that most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself. You actually pay a couple hundred dollars per month to your bank instead of over a thousand to your landlord.
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Unless I move out to the middle of nowhere, there's not many options for me that don't have an HOA of some kind. Wish I could avoid them, but unfortunately too ubiquitous in the states.
Unless I move out to the middle of nowhere,
City folks sure say "the middle of nowhere" when they mean anything other the overpriced suburbs, and stupid cities like New York.
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Youre luckier than you know.
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Yep, factor in that most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself. You actually pay a couple hundred dollars per month to your bank instead of over a thousand to your landlord.
wrote last edited by [email protected]most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself.
This is financial double speak.
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The really shit part about HOAs is that most of the US NEEDS them. Most of the US has little to no zoning laws, and most of the suburbs are in unincorporated areas outside of the cities.
This means that without an HOA, there's nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.WTF is wrong with that? My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
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It's cool right up to the day something breaks and you realize that you are the landlord now.
And every day, something new breaks.
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Yep, factor in that most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself. You actually pay a couple hundred dollars per month to your bank instead of over a thousand to your landlord.
most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself.
That's one way of looking at it, not usually the accurate way, but it is a way.
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The really shit part about HOAs is that most of the US NEEDS them. Most of the US has little to no zoning laws, and most of the suburbs are in unincorporated areas outside of the cities.
This means that without an HOA, there's nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.wrote last edited by [email protected]most of the US NEEDS them.
Why exactly?
there’s nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.
You're thinking of zoning laws, those are different.
HOA's are concerned with what color your walls are, if you have trees of a certain size and shape, and aesthetics as well as minor upgrades and expansions to your home like fucking window shades and gazebos.
And I will also say the zoning laws are ALSO fascist and killing our sense of community. If you think without strict zoning laws your neighbors are going to open a fucking ZOO you haven't left the country once. In many other countries, neighborhoods have markets, people walk around, they sell art or food from their porches, they talk to each other, they share their resources through private stalls, vendors and other small-scale entrepreneurial ventures. They don't abuse their freedoms because they don't want to be hated by their neighbors. Because they have COMMUNITY.
But I will give you this one small point: in the US our car-oriented culture makes it really, really hard to have any kind of residential space that doesn't turn into a fucking parking lot overnight without regulations. This is because, again, we don't have markets and jobs and entertainment in walking distance of most homes so you're forced to drive everywhere.
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WTF is wrong with that? My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
wrote last edited by [email protected]WTF is wrong with that?
While you're correct on this pushback...
My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
This is the contention that drives the fallacy that we need strict zoning laws and HOA's. In most places in the world that don't have these kinds of strict rules, neighborhoods tend to follow community standards held by the community itself. You have markets and food vendors and small businesses mixed into your community which lets people socialize, walk around and meet each other and not have to drive everywhere for everything all the time.
You aren't pounding on your "rights" as a homeowner there, you're abiding by the sense of community and trying to be a part of something bigger than yourself so everyone is happy. This is why not everyone opens a scrapyard and why your neighbors aren't worried you're going to open a scrapyard, because there is a social pressure because people actually care.
In the US and other "developed" places, people are scared that their neighbors are going to stand on their "Rights" to do whatever the fuck they want because they don't know their neighbors and their neighbors don't care if they piss off everyone on the street by opening a crocodile petting zoo. Which is how we got HOA's and laws that dictate what you can and can't do on your property.
Fear. It's all fear, all the way down.
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It's cool right up to the day something breaks and you realize that you are the landlord now.
I'm currently working through getting everything fixed and sorted following an intense hail storm and it's become very apparent that I've taken on the role of property manager by daring to own my own home. Honestly a pain in the butt at times. Long term it's worth while but yikes!
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Buy. It matters. Bring on the downvotes.
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
Just a quick example here. Mortage payment I make (or did make, we sold) was 6k a month.
Now sure, I'm getting equity, but it's by no means quick. The bank is making a killing. Of that 6k, we are bringing down the principal by something like 800 bucks a month. The bank is taking 3k and the rest escrow and PMI.
If you buy a house. Be sure to be able to put 20% down. This will bring your payment down a ton.
Try for the best interest rate you can. It'll be a shitty 7 or higher % for now, and at least until the bubble pops again. Because it will and it's getting close.
Then, you get an endless list of repairs and improvements. But if things start to break, make cheap repairs, then save up to replace. Update your kitchen and master bathrooms. These things sell houses. Never keep your house out of date or you won't get the return you want.
Good luck out there to home owners. It's a good asset to have, but only if you keep up with maintenance and updates.
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WTF is wrong with that? My neighbors have 0 rights to do what happens on my property.
You live in a society. You only "own" property because enough of your neighbors agree that you do. Society gets together and agrees on the rules, and by being part of that society you agree to the rules. If you want to live somewhere with minimal rules, then go ahead and do it. Just don't come crying to the rest of us when your new neighbor decides to do something that makes your land uninhabitable and worthless.
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most of the US NEEDS them.
Why exactly?
there’s nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.
You're thinking of zoning laws, those are different.
HOA's are concerned with what color your walls are, if you have trees of a certain size and shape, and aesthetics as well as minor upgrades and expansions to your home like fucking window shades and gazebos.
And I will also say the zoning laws are ALSO fascist and killing our sense of community. If you think without strict zoning laws your neighbors are going to open a fucking ZOO you haven't left the country once. In many other countries, neighborhoods have markets, people walk around, they sell art or food from their porches, they talk to each other, they share their resources through private stalls, vendors and other small-scale entrepreneurial ventures. They don't abuse their freedoms because they don't want to be hated by their neighbors. Because they have COMMUNITY.
But I will give you this one small point: in the US our car-oriented culture makes it really, really hard to have any kind of residential space that doesn't turn into a fucking parking lot overnight without regulations. This is because, again, we don't have markets and jobs and entertainment in walking distance of most homes so you're forced to drive everywhere.
So, you know nothing about zoning laws nor HOAs, but you still have very strong opinions on them...
And at the same time you have these incredibly naive beliefs about your fellow humans. Like somehow these institutions and systems of rules you despise sprung into existence not because of, but in spite of, these fellow humans you hold in such high esteem.Like I told the other guy, there are plenty of places you can go to live without much in the way of law or other rules, you go on and enjoy them to your heart's content, just don't come crying to the rest of us when you realize what a hellish existence it is to live without laws or rules.
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So, you know nothing about zoning laws nor HOAs, but you still have very strong opinions on them...
And at the same time you have these incredibly naive beliefs about your fellow humans. Like somehow these institutions and systems of rules you despise sprung into existence not because of, but in spite of, these fellow humans you hold in such high esteem.Like I told the other guy, there are plenty of places you can go to live without much in the way of law or other rules, you go on and enjoy them to your heart's content, just don't come crying to the rest of us when you realize what a hellish existence it is to live without laws or rules.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Just admit you're scared of foreigners playing music you're not comfortable with across the street and I'm cool.
I am pretty much done with people like you who are so bloody sensitive and scared of people they don't like doing things they don't want to see that they make it everyone's problem, how about YOU go live in some backwoods rural shitwater place so you can fire shotguns at anyone who drives past your mailbox too slowly.
Go scream into the void about your rights, I've blocked you.
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Just a quick example here. Mortage payment I make (or did make, we sold) was 6k a month.
Now sure, I'm getting equity, but it's by no means quick. The bank is making a killing. Of that 6k, we are bringing down the principal by something like 800 bucks a month. The bank is taking 3k and the rest escrow and PMI.
If you buy a house. Be sure to be able to put 20% down. This will bring your payment down a ton.
Try for the best interest rate you can. It'll be a shitty 7 or higher % for now, and at least until the bubble pops again. Because it will and it's getting close.
Then, you get an endless list of repairs and improvements. But if things start to break, make cheap repairs, then save up to replace. Update your kitchen and master bathrooms. These things sell houses. Never keep your house out of date or you won't get the return you want.
Good luck out there to home owners. It's a good asset to have, but only if you keep up with maintenance and updates.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I just bought mine this year. I got in by the skin of my teeth as a single person in a ridiculously expensive capital city.
In Australia we have things called Offset accounts. This is a regular bank account that you might get your salary paid into, but it's linked to your mortgage loan. The interest you pay on the mortgage is based on the mortgage principal minus what's in your offset.
So if my mortgage is 500,000, and I have 50,000 in my offset account, interest is only calculated on 450,000. I still have access to my $50, 000 to do with as I please, but the more I stack up there,the less I pay in interest, and the less that interest compounds.
So for these first few years it's really important for me to stack as much cash in my offset account as I can, because it will save me huge amount of interest over the life of the loan.
I'm working two jobs, 7 days a week for the first couple years to do that, and I have a couple other side hustles to help reduce cost of living as well. But the bank is still making a killing off me in interest.
I would rather die than be a landlord though, so I have an agreement with my partner. Instead of contributing to the mortgage or paying rent, she loans me a set amount each week, say, $300. This builds up in my offset account and helps reduce the interest I pay. After 5 years, I'll repay this loan to her at the same rate, $300 a week.
This benefits us both hugely, she will effectively have a rent-free period of 5 years AND be getting a boost to her cashflow, while I will have been able to offset my mortgage by up to 78k extra over the course of 10 years.
Yes, she will effectively 'lose' the opportunity to earn interest on her savings by saving that money herself for 5 years, but she won't lose the principal amount, and together we will have robbed the bank of far more interest than she would have earned from saving it.
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The really shit part about HOAs is that most of the US NEEDS them. Most of the US has little to no zoning laws, and most of the suburbs are in unincorporated areas outside of the cities.
This means that without an HOA, there's nothing stopping someone from buying the house next door and turning it into a business, methadone clinic, a literal salvage yard, crawfish farm, or gator zoo.Who told you about my crawfish and gator salvage zoo and rehab?!
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Just admit you're scared of foreigners playing music you're not comfortable with across the street and I'm cool.
I am pretty much done with people like you who are so bloody sensitive and scared of people they don't like doing things they don't want to see that they make it everyone's problem, how about YOU go live in some backwoods rural shitwater place so you can fire shotguns at anyone who drives past your mailbox too slowly.
Go scream into the void about your rights, I've blocked you.
Blocked me? But I thought we were all part of a brotherhood of love where none could or would ever want to do wrong to each other.
It's always interesting how "anarchists" like yourself love to preach about how great anarchy is right up until someone points out a fallacy in their logic and then they immediately flip to fascism and try to do everything in their power to silence the other person.
It's almost like anarchists and the entire concept of anarchy is a complete red herring used by fascist to try to free themselves from the pesky rules that stop them from openly forcing people to do what they want.
