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The bank:
“Awe, that’s cute!”
and the HOA.
and climate change induced superstorms and wildfires
And my axe?
Die Axt im Haus erspart den Zimmermann. - The axe at home lets you skip the carpenter.
Is it a requirement in the US to join the HOA?
If you buy a home in which an HOA is already established, then yes, it’s required. And good luck finding a neighborhood where one isn’t already established. If you get a small enough town or cheap enough neighborhood, maybe.
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.
Who told you about my crawfish and gator salvage zoo and rehab?!
I’ve been keeping track of it, because of my deep guilt caused by the insane number of crawfish that I have damaged beyond the point of any salvage.
Also I like to get gators hooked on opioids.
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.
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.
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.
In many neighborhoods; yes.
Mortgage is just rent with another name (I know it’s not quite that simple, but it feels that way sometimes)
Nah. Pay off your house and its yours.
When do you pay off your rent? When you die.
Most people never do pay off their house.
You have a citation? At least when they sell the house they definitely pay it off and then some.
Been living without mortgage or rent for over 10 years myself.
No I don’t. I hope you’re right, cause mine feels forever away at this point.
Mortgage ends one day. Paid off my mortgage 10 years ago.
Even if you don’t stay long enough to pay off, when you do sell, you get to have more proceeds from the sell than you owe.
If you only are going to stay in a place 2 or three years though, probably not worth it.
Squatters have entered the chat.
Debt pay back time.
HOA gonna pop that bubble real quick.
PSA to homebuyers: Even if the HOA has reasonable rules now and is run by your neighbors, don’t expect that to continue when they get older and want to pass off management to a company who will make life a living hell.
much better PSA, don’t buy a house that is in an HOA. HOA’s are the devil, and they are a great example of why the adage that local control is best, is total bullshit.
Agree. Moral of the story is basically that every HOA has the potential to suck, so don’t take the extremely substantial risk that it will in your lifetime. Just buy a different house.
What about like multi property buildings? Like townhomes or condos?
Don’t those always come with an HOA?
I’ve owned a townhome that didn’t have an HOA. It’s not super-common, but it does happen.
I get possession of my first house this Friday, very happy to say HOAs aren’t really a thing in Canada
They sure are out in places like Vancouver. Unless you buy detached at like 2M+ you have a strata corporation, which is an HOA by another name.
Fees are typically 400-1000/month
Imagine buying a house with an HOA.
Imagine buying a house.
Thank god I was able to. Was sick of paying for someone else’s investment.
Annoyingly house prices decided to surge right when I got a job that would have allowed me to afford one (pre-surge).
Yeah dude, same boat.
Imagine living in the US … Awful
Thank god I don’t.
Imagine even knowing what an HOA is.
Youre luckier than you know.
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.
freedom
It’s cool right up to the day something breaks and you realize that you are the landlord now.
My landlord will fix any problem I point out to him, as long as I am willing to wait somewhere between 2 weeks and however long I hold the lease.
And every day, something new breaks.
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.
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.
lol
most of your mortgage is in actuality payed to yourself.
This is financial double speak.
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!
The new landlord still won’t do the repairs!
This
*buy
Bye.
a yes grammar fascists finding ways to ruin jokes.
Not your joke to begin with mate.
touche
*ah yes
Well, that’s an overreaction if I saw one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That was an orthographic mistake, not a grammatical one.
lol you literally reposted this minutes after I made it.
ok ok, you have good joke, I turn into bad joke.
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.
I own a home and its insane how people who have never owned underestimate the cost of actually owning a property. “I can pay $1500 in rent, but apparently I cant afford a $1500 mortgage”… like… you probably cant. Banks arent not lending to you because they dont want to make an assload off interest. They tried lending out money to everyone who swore they could keep up the payments and 2008 happened.
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.
“When”
lol
Buy. It matters. Bring on the downvotes.
Congratulations! You will now work off that debt for the next 40 years! 🥳
Better to work off that debt over 10-30 years (which is what mortgages usually run for, not 40) and then be able to sell the house and get your money back than paying rent for 10-30 years and have nothing.
True, also best to not pay off your mortgage. It is a line of credit if worth more than you owe. Once you pay it off that credit line is gone.
If you have a HELOC, yeah but the rate isn’t great. If you do pay off, you can always open a new HELOC.
Funny story, I had a HELOC as part of buying a house with no closing cost on it I paid the balance off but kept it open. They called me one day and asked if I would close the account. I said that I don’t think I should, because I’d suddenly owe the money for closing costs for paying off early, and they confirmed I could either sit with a zero balance for two years for free our pay a few thousand dollars for the privilege of choosing the account…
I paid my Car note and owed like $250 more for it to be paid off. My lender sent me a bill for $250 + $50 late fee. I called them and explained I just paid $430 and was going to pay the remaining next month. They said my 72 month contract ended is why. Okay but a late fee? I told them I will never do any business with them again.
