4 ms·

Regardless of age, needs and priorities change. There's no joy in moving, but it's still better than the time suck of hiring a contractor, electrician, and/or p

Regardless of age, needs and priorities change. There's no joy in moving, but it's still better than the time suck of hiring a contractor, electrician, and/or plumber. AND having to pay them. Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that.

ghaff 5y ago
As you say, needs and priorities are different. Yes, home maintenance is a pain--and at this point I have pretty much no interests other than maintenance or otherwise proactively dealing with issues. But I dread the thought of moving. And I probably have too much stuff but things are as they are.
Johnny555 5y ago
Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that. I'm not sure I agree that owning is limiting, it can be more time consuming if you don't want to hire people to do the work that the condo gives you "for free", but there are few limits. In my last condo, a neighbor spent months trying to get approval to put a pre-fab sauna on her outdoor patio, she submitted the architectural review forms, made several changes so it would "fit into the character of the complex" even though it was on a back deck facing a natural area, no one would see it unless they walked in that 5 foot strip of land behind the complex. I'm not sure if it ever go approved, I moved out before she had final approval. On the other hand, my wife and I decided on a whim a few months ago that we wanted to put in a hot tub in our new house’s back yard. We talked to a contractor, he came out and did a site survey, then put us on a wait list for a hot tub. A few weeks later, he had a returned unit (new owner didn't like the way it looked) that matched what we wanted, the next week he brought it out and installed it. The whole process took about a month from start to finish, and probably could have taken a week or two if demand wasn't so high.
- sokoloff 5y ago
  I very much identify with this. During COVID, we wanted to get a trampoline for our youngest kid who really enjoyed using a friend's. How much aggravation was it? We own our house, so it was: Order it on Amazon, wait a couple days, then spend 90 minutes putting it together. The hardest part was finding one with fully enclosed springs that was in-stock. He's jumped on it an average of at least 5 days a week, including sometimes in a light rain if he had excess energy to burn off. If we had a rented place or a shared yard or an HOA, who knows whether we'd have ever gotten it done?
- chiefalchemist 5y ago
  Limited as in, you can't simply upgrade or down grade in say BRs or baths or location, or yard. Owning is a commitment. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that commitment; other than the fact there are costs associated with that. Those forgotten costs are often significant.
  - Johnny555 5y ago
    Ahh yeah, that's mostly true, but it's still possible to add a room to a house, or change the yard to suit your needs, so I still think owning a house is less limiting. Though what you're calling a "limit" is really lack of stability -- you're free to pick up and move at any time when you live in an apartment, but your landlord is also (usually) free to ask you to leave at any time, so you can't count on having a long term stable place to live. I was forced into leaving my last 2 apartments, one was was the owner wanted to stop renting and move back in to her place. The other was when the owner raised the rent by nearly 50% at the end of the lease term. Now that I'm a homeowner, it's much less likely that I can be forced out of my home.
MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
I dont like the process of moving, but the cleanup, and starting again is a wonderful relief from a previous burden.
- throwaway803453 5y ago
  And the elimination/ebay'ing of items that you realize you haven't touched or unpacked since your last move. Arguably untouched junk in American households has better housing than most people in this world.
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    People have way too much junk here. I'm more of the mind "will I get my dollars worth out of this?" before I buy. I prefer the liquidity of cash over having to deal with owning, monitoring, moving, or selling another asset. I assume best case I can get half of what I paid for it. If it's super niche, I'll be lucky to even find a buyer. If it's expensive, I just assume I'm gonna take a huge loss. That's why I don't like buying too many things. Stuff is great...until you have to move.
- tuananh 5y ago
  i guess you love total code rewrite too :D
  - MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
    I love reform so much that I'd make Martin Luther look like a Catholic apologist!
tuananh 5y ago
> Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that. I'm living in SEA.the cost of owning a house isn't a lot where i live. so I'm surprised to keep hearing this from those living in US. can you elaborate a bit more what kind of cost do have when owning a house?
- prewett 5y ago
  Mow the lawn, water the lawn, tend the flower bed, paint the house (or replace the siding), replace the shingles on the roof after the hailstorm, fix the A/C, replace the refrigerator, etc. Some of the those are more frequent that others, of course, but things break over time. Other costs of ownership are property tax (generally about 1% of the property value per year), gas/water/electricity are more expensive than renting because the house is bigger, there is home owners' insurance, and possibly neighborhood association fees. And then when you sell, you have capital gains tax and seller tends to pay the broker's fees for both the buy and seller, which totals up to about 6% of the selling price. There's probably sales tax, too.
  - tuananh 5y ago
    house in Asia is rather small so no lawn :D you gotta be quite rich to have lawn. we use concrete to build houses here so fixing roof is not needed. AC and refrigerator rarely broke down.

ghaff 5y ago

As you say, needs and priorities are different. Yes, home maintenance is a pain--and at this point I have pretty much no interests other than maintenance or otherwise proactively dealing with issues. But I dread the thought of moving. And I probably have too much stuff but things are as they are.

Johnny555 5y ago

Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that. I'm not sure I agree that owning is limiting, it can be more time consuming if you don't want to hire people to do the work that the condo gives you "for free", but there are few limits. In my last condo, a neighbor spent months trying to get approval to put a pre-fab sauna on her outdoor patio, she submitted the architectural review forms, made several changes so it would "fit into the character of the complex" even though it was on a back deck facing a natural area, no one would see it unless they walked in that 5 foot strip of land behind the complex. I'm not sure if it ever go approved, I moved out before she had final approval. On the other hand, my wife and I decided on a whim a few months ago that we wanted to put in a hot tub in our new house’s back yard. We talked to a contractor, he came out and did a site survey, then put us on a wait list for a hot tub. A few weeks later, he had a returned unit (new owner didn't like the way it looked) that matched what we wanted, the next week he brought it out and installed it. The whole process took about a month from start to finish, and probably could have taken a week or two if demand wasn't so high.

sokoloff 5y ago
I very much identify with this. During COVID, we wanted to get a trampoline for our youngest kid who really enjoyed using a friend's. How much aggravation was it? We own our house, so it was: Order it on Amazon, wait a couple days, then spend 90 minutes putting it together. The hardest part was finding one with fully enclosed springs that was in-stock. He's jumped on it an average of at least 5 days a week, including sometimes in a light rain if he had excess energy to burn off. If we had a rented place or a shared yard or an HOA, who knows whether we'd have ever gotten it done?
chiefalchemist 5y ago
Limited as in, you can't simply upgrade or down grade in say BRs or baths or location, or yard. Owning is a commitment. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that commitment; other than the fact there are costs associated with that. Those forgotten costs are often significant.
- Johnny555 5y ago
  Ahh yeah, that's mostly true, but it's still possible to add a room to a house, or change the yard to suit your needs, so I still think owning a house is less limiting. Though what you're calling a "limit" is really lack of stability -- you're free to pick up and move at any time when you live in an apartment, but your landlord is also (usually) free to ask you to leave at any time, so you can't count on having a long term stable place to live. I was forced into leaving my last 2 apartments, one was was the owner wanted to stop renting and move back in to her place. The other was when the owner raised the rent by nearly 50% at the end of the lease term. Now that I'm a homeowner, it's much less likely that I can be forced out of my home.

MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago

I dont like the process of moving, but the cleanup, and starting again is a wonderful relief from a previous burden.

throwaway803453 5y ago
And the elimination/ebay'ing of items that you realize you haven't touched or unpacked since your last move. Arguably untouched junk in American households has better housing than most people in this world.
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  People have way too much junk here. I'm more of the mind "will I get my dollars worth out of this?" before I buy. I prefer the liquidity of cash over having to deal with owning, monitoring, moving, or selling another asset. I assume best case I can get half of what I paid for it. If it's super niche, I'll be lucky to even find a buyer. If it's expensive, I just assume I'm gonna take a huge loss. That's why I don't like buying too many things. Stuff is great...until you have to move.
tuananh 5y ago
i guess you love total code rewrite too :D
- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y ago
  I love reform so much that I'd make Martin Luther look like a Catholic apologist!

tuananh 5y ago

> Owning is nice. But it's more limited and more time consuming. There's a cost associated with that. I'm living in SEA.the cost of owning a house isn't a lot where i live. so I'm surprised to keep hearing this from those living in US. can you elaborate a bit more what kind of cost do have when owning a house?

prewett 5y ago
Mow the lawn, water the lawn, tend the flower bed, paint the house (or replace the siding), replace the shingles on the roof after the hailstorm, fix the A/C, replace the refrigerator, etc. Some of the those are more frequent that others, of course, but things break over time. Other costs of ownership are property tax (generally about 1% of the property value per year), gas/water/electricity are more expensive than renting because the house is bigger, there is home owners' insurance, and possibly neighborhood association fees. And then when you sell, you have capital gains tax and seller tends to pay the broker's fees for both the buy and seller, which totals up to about 6% of the selling price. There's probably sales tax, too.
- tuananh 5y ago
  house in Asia is rather small so no lawn :D you gotta be quite rich to have lawn. we use concrete to build houses here so fixing roof is not needed. AC and refrigerator rarely broke down.