Quote:
Originally Posted by Simpler=Better
Thanks for the input. Rent/utilities around here are ~1500 for a 2 bedroom, and I'm not even allowed to keep my rusty project car in the parking lot! :p
Not a lot to drop from the budget. Moving out of my area would reduce my car insurance though-when I moved from the rural area north of Baltimore to the Baltimore area it went up $400/yr, which is insane.
I can pull my retirement with minor repercussions-basically it would be as if I just started working here.
|
I recommend an emergency repair fund of between 5-10k cash available for disasters.
As Mr Kenny pointed out, disasters will come.
Still, its way worth it to own your home, but make sure you examine the property tax rate while you look around.
Couple examples, I rented out a house in southern CT after working for about a year fixing it up. put about 35k into redoing tons of stuff, house was beautiful when done.
As soon as I rented it out, sandy blew through, knocked down a couple trees, the ovens failed, the countertop stove had to be replaced, the well pump failed, and I just had to go through the entire house and put new seals in every sink and toilet as the replacement well pump caused them all to leak.
call it about 8k of disasters in the first 3 months of renting.
Every piece of the house is a system, and if any one part of the system is in trouble, it usually affects other parts of the system, or other systems all together.
Another example from the same house, small leak in tub drain fills ceiling above attached garage, wallboard ceiling gets saturated, and without prior signs of any kind, suddenly falls en mass onto a 50k convertible with a brand new top.
Stuff like that happens all the time.