OT - NO POLITICS Memorial Day & Here Comes Summah edition

[Ladyfan]

I think in the own vs rent battle there's no slam dunk either way. It depends on location, circumstances, personal preferences, pets, the state of the rent and housing markets etc. as to which one may work out better. There does tend to be a stronger case for a couple or family to own as opposed to a single person, mostly because it can be simply be easier to manage a mortgage with two incomes as opposed to one and the incentive to make long-term investments in a particular property is often higher.

Having done both, personally I'm glad to own now. Just nice to have a place where we can do whatever we want with it, be entirely our own masters and not have to be bothered about inspections and the like. You do have to worry about interest rates and extra bills, but being able to settle in and know this is very much our home suits us.

That said, the rule that just when you think you can save some money or you'll be in the clear for a while, something will break or an unexpected bill arrives is very much true. There's always something!

I was a single Mom and owning was cheaper in the long run. I have a condex so I pay no condo fees.

Nice yard with woods behind. Only thing is you have to get along with your neighbor (house is attached) and agree on snow plowing/ yard work etc.

 

[Kate08]

I think in the own vs rent battle there's no slam dunk either way. It depends on location, circumstances, personal preferences, pets, the state of the rent and housing markets etc. as to which one may work out better. There does tend to be a stronger case for a couple or family to own as opposed to a single person, mostly because it can be simply be easier to manage a mortgage with two incomes as opposed to one and the incentive to make long-term investments in a particular property is often higher.

Having done both, personally I'm glad to own now. Just nice to have a place where we can do whatever we want with it, be entirely our own masters and not have to be bothered about inspections and the like. You do have to worry about interest rates and extra bills, but being able to settle in and know this is very much our home suits us.

That said, the rule that just when you think you can save some money or you'll be in the clear for a while, something will break or an unexpected bill arrives is very much true. There's always something!

Normally I like owning. It's nice to have the freedom to want to make a change and just do it. Not have to worry about getting kicked out of your place because a family member needs a place to stay. Dealing with increasing rent and and overall sense of not being in a permanent spot. We also bought our house ourselves, without help from family (unless you count putting wedding gift money towards a down payment), and that's something we're very proud of.

My mom rents and her rent has skyrocketed - it's more than our mortgage and she's in a (granted, very nice) apartment complex whereas we have a single family home. It's stressful to worry about having to move her around which I've put the kaibosh on until she retires. Not looking to make her commute any longer than it is today for her last few years of work. Once she retires, we'll look at communities more outside the city but for now I like where she is.

Just been an expensive few months. And, because I'm totally crazy, want to buy a second home down the Cape within the next 10 years

 

[LouJersey]

Owning is expensive but worth it in the end. Pay off the mortgage and you only have to pay property tax which is $1400 a month by me. To rent a 2br/2ba you're looking at $2500 plus.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Owning is expensive but worth it in the end. Pay off the mortgage and you only have to pay property tax which is $1400 a month by me. To rent a 2br/2ba you're looking at $2500 plus.

Beyond that you get the benefit of the equity while paying it off. Obviously it's not an infinite money glitch and folks get in trouble treating it as such, but having the equity behind you to pull from in the case of an unexpected large expense is key. As is the fact that recently home values have appreciated as much as any other investment channel.

I was a buy over rent person when I was younger mostly because I wanted to have where I live be mine, but pocketing nearly $200k from selling it after 9 years of ownership killed any "maybe I'll try renting" I had in me.

 

[RoccoF14]

Beyond that you get the benefit of the equity while paying it off. Obviously it's not an infinite money glitch and folks get in trouble treating it as such, but having the equity behind you to pull from in the case of an unexpected large expense is key. As is the fact that recently home values have appreciated as much as any other investment channel.

I was a buy over rent person when I was younger mostly because I wanted to have where I live be mine, but pocketing nearly $200k from selling it after 9 years of ownership killed any "maybe I'll try renting" I had in me.

1000% agree. One piece of advice that I got a long time ago, is that you should try to keep your mortgage payment to less than 25-30% of your total total income.

That advice has served me well over the years.

 

[LouJersey]

1000% agree. One piece of advice that I got a long time ago, is that you should try to keep your mortgage payment to less than 25-30% of your total total income.

That advice has served me well over the years.

I think for us that may have been easier because my house was 150k at the time. Nowadays the issue is people buy things up and rent them to younger people and charge so much the tenants cannot save for a house. It's really unfortunate.

 

[Kate08]

We purposely "underspent" when we bought our house. We went up $20k on our self-imposed budget to get the house we own, but were hundreds of thousands under what we were approved for. Granted, this was in 2015 so interest rates were great and while we thought the market was bananas, we had no idea how insane it would actually get. We didn't want to be house poor. As we've both advanced in our careers, our mortgage is ~15% of our monthly take home that goes into our joint account. We each have money that goes into personal accounts as well.

Our house isn't the biggest or the newest, but we're making it our own and 1400 sq feet is just fine for the two of us. Rather have the extra money to travel, put away for the future, and invest in a second property.

 

[Troublesome 85]

This is the final time

This page is helping me immensely

TikTok - Make Your Day

Im just tired…….

It will sting awhile. Havent heard from them all which speaks volumes to me. Hope I dont hear from them again.

Seeing this woman last few weeks has helped. Someone who genuinely likes me is a fresh change

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

heads up for potential severe weather in New England between Thunder and remnants of Beryl late tomorrow into Thursday..... mid 80s here and humid

 

[Alicat]

Thank you.

It was a stressful day, but I made it through relatively unscathed. I live on a small street with good drainage, but the one drain clogs. So I was out during the brunt of the storm in rubber boots un-clogging the drain.

The miracle is that I have power, as so many don't. That will be an issue today, as the hurricane brought cooler temps Monday; but Tuesday will be hot.

The one good thing is, amidst so much hostility in our world today, everyone comes together to help their neighbors.

To answer the question, I've been through too many of these - Alicia, Alison, Rita, Ike, Harvey, Beryl, etc.I remember Alison hit the night Ray Bourque won his Cup.

And speaking of which, as Beryl left Houston, it headed toward Dallas, Chicago, St. Louis, and Montreal. Sort of a Bruins theme. Of course, I wish safety to everyone in those cities, and others along Beryl's path.

Glad you're ok! Also really glad this thing stayed east. We got a good bit of rain on Sunday and had we gotten anything from Beryl, it would have gotten ugly. People here can't quite grasp turn around, don't drown.

I did enjoy the cooler temps yesterday. Was a nice break from the heat.

 

[Alicat]

Owning is expensive but worth it in the end. Pay off the mortgage and you only have to pay property tax which is $1400 a month by me. To rent a 2br/2ba you're looking at $2500 plus.

Depends on the area. I got very lucky to get into my place when I did because the rent for someone moving in now is a good $500+ more. I would easily be paying close to $3k/month if I was still in Boston.

Renting is definitely not for everyone but for someone like me, who is finally getting out from under some self inflicted issues, renting gives me peace of mind and lets me continue to grow my savings and provides stability.

My biggest issue these days is trying to figure out how to organize wverything because I went from 685sq ft to 1019sq ft. I still can't believe I live in this place.

 

[Morris Wanchuk]

We purposely "underspent" when we bought our house. We went up $20k on our self-imposed budget to get the house we own, but were hundreds of thousands under what we were approved for. Granted, this was in 2015 so interest rates were great and while we thought the market was bananas, we had no idea how insane it would actually get. We didn't want to be house poor. As we've both advanced in our careers, our mortgage is ~15% of our monthly take home that goes into our joint account. We each have money that goes into personal accounts as well.

Our house isn't the biggest or the newest, but we're making it our own and 1400 sq feet is just fine for the two of us. Rather have the extra money to travel, put away for the future, and invest in a second property.

2015 was a good time to buy looking back. You were not getting any "deals" but if you made a full price offer before the open house, the place was most likely yours plus you could still get an inspection.

Best decision we made was 2019 we pulled a lot of equity out of the house we sold in Marblehead, only put 20% down on a house half the price in VT, and invested the rest. S and p 500 has returned 85% since 2019, crazy. 2.75% mortgage rates help.

Would you guys ever consider moving to the cape full time? Every time I go down in the offseason it is more and more year round place. Can't remember if your jobs are remote.

My dream place to live if I could swing it is a small house surrounded by trees in Wellfleet or Truro.

 

[McGarnagle]

Owning has advantages like being able to design things your way, also the freedom to have pets, etc. plus getting that equity as a nest egg.

Our first house had a converted garage ADU, so we rented that out to help lower the monthly payment. Now we have a second house and kept the first one and are prepping it to rent out.

Landlording sucks though. Financially it's a great long run decision, but I don't like it in the day to day. Most of the time everything's good and on autopilot, but some months you have tenant turnover, constant painting and repairing shit, or just late payments and whiny tenants.

 

[Kate08]

2015 was a good time to buy looking back. You were not getting any "deals" but if you made a full price offer before the open house, the place was most likely yours plus you could still get an inspection.

Best decision we made was 2019 we pulled a lot of equity out of the house we sold in Marblehead, only put 20% down on a house half the price in VT, and invested the rest. S and p 500 has returned 85% since 2019, crazy. 2.75% mortgage rates help.

Would you guys ever consider moving to the cape full time? Every time I go down in the offseason it is more and more year round place. Can't remember if your jobs are remote.

My dream place to live if I could swing it is a small house surrounded by trees in Wellfleet or Truro.

Eventually I could see us down the Cape close to full time, but that would be a long ways off. I can work remotely but my husband can’t. He could easily get work down there (he’s in Hospitality Management), but he’s been where he is for 18 years and is done with weekends and holidays which is unheard of in that industry so unless he pivots into more of a consultant role, he’s going to be onsite and it makes sense to stay where he is.

We have very close friends here so even when our parents pass and aren’t a consideration anymore, I think we’d have a hard time not having some kind of a home base here, especially if the house was paid off (or close to it).

Owning has advantages like being able to design things your way, also the freedom to have pets, etc. plus getting that equity as a nest egg.

Our first house had a converted garage ADU, so we rented that out to help lower the monthly payment. Now we have a second house and kept the first one and are prepping it to rent out.

Landlording sucks though. Financially it's a great long run decision, but I don't like it in the day to day. Most of the time everything's good and on autopilot, but some months you have tenant turnover, constant painting and repairing shit, or just late payments and whiny tenants.

Yeah landlording doesn’t sound like my cup of tea. Managing the upkeep for someone else to live there is a lot of work, Nevermind the managing people aspect.

Tonight’s “what can I make that requires no refrigerated ingredients” dinner is spaghetti and meat sauce with garlic bread from the freezer.

 

[GordonHowe]

View attachment 893514

I do not possess that kind of strength.

 

[Alicat]

Got back in the pool yesterday and went back today, Not only do I want to eat everything in my pantry but my legs are on fire (in a good way). The place I go has a "rec" pool and a "competition" pool. The rec pool is for people like me who need to ease back into lap swim or for aqua workouts. The competition pool is where I will eventually swim in once I get my legs and breathing up to par.

One thing I wasn't expecting was that all too familiar shoulder clicking when doing back stroke. I do have arthritis in my ac joint and a slap tear in my labrum that can't be operated on so I suspect that is what is causing such an awful racket. My chiro adjusted it this afternoon and it seems to have resolved. Anyone have any shoulder stretches/warm up exercises that I could possibly do prior to my swim?

 

[TD Charlie]

Add me to the “i don’t wanna be a landlord” column.

I haven’t lived in my apartment in almost a full year. It’s been sitting vacant, i continue to pay for it. Pops still lives downstairs. We have just started the process of finding tenants for the second floor, and i think it’s already starting to stress my father. I live an hour away and he’s handicapped, so maintenance and such are difficult to keep up with. I have a feeling the whole tenant thing will be too much in a hurry.

Would love to sell just to be done, although I do recognize how good this house could be for me long term. To me, it’s just already served its purpose. I don’t need the rental income. I don’t want the headaches. But pops needs somewhere to live

 

[Shaun]

Add me to the “i don’t wanna be a landlord” column.

I haven’t lived in my apartment in almost a full year. It’s been sitting vacant, i continue to pay for it. Pops still lives downstairs. We have just started the process of finding tenants for the second floor, and i think it’s already starting to stress my father. I live an hour away and he’s handicapped, so maintenance and such are difficult to keep up with. I have a feeling the whole tenant thing will be too much in a hurry.

Would love to sell just to be done, although I do recognize how good this house could be for me long term. To me, it’s just already served its purpose. I don’t need the rental income. I don’t want the headaches. But pops needs somewhere to live

you can usually find a property management company in your area that will handle all of that for around 10% of the monthly rent

 

[TD Charlie]

you can usually find a property management company in your area that will handle all of that for around 10% of the monthly rent

That’s…appealing. I’ll have a look!

 

[Aussie Bruin]

1000% agree. One piece of advice that I got a long time ago, is that you should try to keep your mortgage payment to less than 25-30% of your total total income.

That advice has served me well over the years.

I think the 30% rule is a good one. For us it's somewhere in the 20s and that's a reasonable place to be. Even then as interest rates and inflation have gone up more than wages post pandemic we feel the pinch, but it's manageable. Lots of folk who are much closer to the edge in terms of being able to continue to afford mortgage repayments and I don't envy them at all, even if some have 'nicer' houses as a result.

That said, as much as some people blatantly buy well beyond their means and well above the 30% mark and banks have long been complicit in facilitating this, the current state of the housing market does make it really difficult for even more moderate folk to secure a home without being tied to a really big mortgage. And that's the case across most western countries at present. We were fortunate to build our current house 6 years ago when things were certainly not cheap but at least were manageable with some sensible saving and budgeting. To build the same house on the same land now would cost a good 70% or so more than it did in 2018. That's a pretty crazy increase. Tough going for those trying to get on the ladder now while keeping it realistically affordable.

 

[caz16]

I found a duck with the number 99 on the bottom - in one of my potted plants.....went to bed and when I woke up I remembered my daughter telling me about a year ago about this great prank where 100 ducks were hidden around a house....lol She was here on the weekend and I just found the first one last night. I have found 3 more this morning. So much fun!!

 

[Morris Wanchuk]

Add me to the “i don’t wanna be a landlord” column.

I haven’t lived in my apartment in almost a full year. It’s been sitting vacant, i continue to pay for it. Pops still lives downstairs. We have just started the process of finding tenants for the second floor, and i think it’s already starting to stress my father. I live an hour away and he’s handicapped, so maintenance and such are difficult to keep up with. I have a feeling the whole tenant thing will be too much in a hurry.

Would love to sell just to be done, although I do recognize how good this house could be for me long term. To me, it’s just already served its purpose. I don’t need the rental income. I don’t want the headaches. But pops needs somewhere to live

My grandfather is 93 and still manages 20 apartments. His trick is only renting to "old timers" as he calls them (lol). He only advertises in the newspaper and at the senior center and makes people fill out an application (without Social security number) before a showing.

The results? Tenants forever basically. He just had one woman die at 100 who was there from 1972-2022. You cant raise the rent as aggressively but man do they take care of the place. Not sure if reverse ageism is illegal but its worked for him.

Eventually I could see us down the Cape close to full time, but that would be a long ways off. I can work remotely but my husband can’t. He could easily get work down there (he’s in Hospitality Management), but he’s been where he is for 18 years and is done with weekends and holidays which is unheard of in that industry so unless he pivots into more of a consultant role, he’s going to be onsite and it makes sense to stay where he is.

We have very close friends here so even when our parents pass and aren’t a consideration anymore, I think we’d have a hard time not having some kind of a home base here, especially if the house was paid off (or close to it).

Yea, I can see it being easy to get off in the winter but you probably need to write off seeing anyone in the summer.

Awesome on the no weekends. Does he work for Sam Lagrassas? I always thought that would be the best food service job haha.

 

[Terrier]

‘Everything is urgent’: Local rental agents talk jobs, housing market ahead of Sept. 1 lease turnovers - The Boston Globe

With the housing market facing low inventory, high prices, and a plethora of college students, rental brokers are swamped with transactions.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Kate08]

My grandfather is 93 and still manages 20 apartments. His trick is only renting to "old timers" as he calls them (lol). He only advertises in the newspaper and at the senior center and makes people fill out an application (without Social security number) before a showing.

The results? Tenants forever basically. He just had one woman die at 100 who was there from 1972-2022. You cant raise the rent as aggressively but man do they take care of the place. Not sure if reverse ageism is illegal but its worked for him.


Yea, I can see it being easy to get off in the winter but you probably need to write off seeing anyone in the summer.

Awesome on the no weekends. Does he work for Sam Lagrassas? I always thought that would be the best food service job haha.

Hahaha I wish. He runs the dining program at Harvard Law School. He works occasional nights and weekends for big events, but it's a handful over the course of the year. When he started he worked Saturdays and pretty much all holidays. When he moved up the chain enough to be M-F it was strange because I was so used to having Saturdays to myself. He's been with Harvard Dining Services since 2006, he's eligible to retire from Harvard in 7 more years so we're trying to hold out for that at least so we don't have to worry about benefits for the rest of our lives. Their pay is meh but their benefits are outstanding. Much more flexibility for both of us after that!

 

[TD Charlie]

My grandfather is 93 and still manages 20 apartments. His trick is only renting to "old timers" as he calls them (lol). He only advertises in the newspaper and at the senior center and makes people fill out an application (without Social security number) before a showing.

The results? Tenants forever basically. He just had one woman die at 100 who was there from 1972-2022. You cant raise the rent as aggressively but man do they take care of the place. Not sure if reverse ageism is illegal but its worked for him.


Yea, I can see it being easy to get off in the winter but you probably need to write off seeing anyone in the summer.

Awesome on the no weekends. Does he work for Sam Lagrassas? I always thought that would be the best food service job haha.

Now i want a corned beef pastrami combo at Lagrassas. Pretty sure their prices have doubled since I worked in the city 7 years ago.

Oddly enough, I think our best prospect at the moment is an older couple. They were looking for a small 2 bedroom just to have an extra room for when one of their kids was in town, but only came in to check on my place because the rent was less than any 2 bed apartment they’ve seen this year. We have a 3br