6 ms·

If you have to take a job you don't like to be able to afford the house, be aware that nothing changes once you own the house. Most likely you'll still need the

If you have to take a job you don't like to be able to afford the house, be aware that nothing changes once you own the house. Most likely you'll still need the job to afford the running costs of the house. There's no "I'm free once I'm a home owner" thing.

flyteuk 4y ago
> There's no "I'm free once I'm a home owner" thing. I finally signed up to an account to HN to say emphatically that it's the opposite. Owning a house is a huge responsibility that takes up the vast majority of my time, and it's a millstone around your neck if you ever think about moving somewhere else.
- owly 4y ago
  While this can certainly be the case for some houses, it really depends on the place and its condition when purchased.
- pdimitar 4y ago
  That very much depends on where you live. I know what you mean and I partially agree with it but it's not universally true.
- gramie 4y ago
  I was happy to sell my house and trade the loss of equity (and the last 10 years has been outrageously exceptional to the usual appreciation of property) for the freedom that living in an apartment gave me. Leaving for a month? Ask your neighbour to water the plants and walk away. 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week? Now it's 0. Constant accumulation of tools, devices, and products? Not needed. I seem to be an exception, but I have no need to define who I am by my housing, nor do I need the security of owning my own house. I have also lived on three continents, so I appreciate the ability to pull up stakes and move with very little fuss.
  - cortesoft 4y ago
    If I was living by myself or just with my wife I would stick with an apartment. The kids spend so much time in the backyard, and it is hard to find an affordable apartment that has enough space for all of us to live, let alone also WFH that my wife and I are both doing. Plus, how do you build projects without a garage and outside area to work on things?
  - furyofantares 4y ago
    > 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week? What in the world? This doesn't even come remotely close to passing the sniff test. Is your idea of homeownership like, constant remodeling or something? I do zero hours of maintenance/upkeep per week, just like you with your rental. Is your landlord now doing 10-20 hours of maintenance/upkeep per week for every apartment? Of course the answer is no.
    - dijit 4y ago
      10h is maybe an exaggeration, but I sincerely hope that you're checking your plumbing and all your drainage and maintaining your lawn. In Sweden, homeownership vs apartments is quite a large difference.
      - smaudet 4y ago
        I've seen houses which just grow shrubs over the whole lawn (sidesteps lawn maintenance, I suppose you may have to trim shrubs but its not that bad, really, compared to grass which grows almost overnight). The other side of keeping up with maintenance - if you don't have time nor want to, hire away. It will eat a significant chunk of change to hire all the professionals your landlord was hiring, the difference being you are hiring yourself versus being dependent on the landlord. For the DIYer, tools acquisition is definitely a PITA. Hardware stores have a decent selection mostly of what you need, but it would be nice if there were preset of tool maintenance you could order, maybe even save you money over long term buying it all piecemeal. I'd imagine the real time suck would be for planning/research for it all, if you are used to spending your time coding, playing games, or otherwise amusing yourself, yes for the first couple years you will not have any time for these things as you are acquiring your skillset(s). But that could be said for going back to school, etc. I think it's pretty valuable to be able to maintain your own dwelling apparatus, personally. It means you'll never be without reasonable shelter, so long as you have some access to raw materials, tools.
- smaudet 4y ago
  You didn't do enough research into your house purchase, or you weren't able to afford a well built house. Houses like anything else have lifetimes, You don't get to be a 200 year old house without having major maintenance done at least a couple times. Buying a poorly maintained, or constructed, old house is a nightmare, if it's bad enough you've discovered why some houses are condemned. Modern construction often has a longer lifespan and more readily accessible materials, older houses are a mixed bag - some gems that may last hundreds (thousands?) of years, lots of houses that need major repair. Some in the middle too...
- xcambar 4y ago
  Welcome to HN! Home ownership is as much a comfort as it is a fantasy. There are true perks, eg, you're mostly in control of the regular costs (rent vs mortgage) but it also has downsides, like... basically any hazard and everything location-related. PS: I feel weirdly kinda honored that you created your account and replied to my comment. Anyway, I'm just being me ;)
dahart 4y ago
Out of curiosity, why are you assuming that not exactly what parent was thinking? > nothing changes once you own the house Why? What does this mean and is it actually true? The monthly/yearly cost of owning a house is typically much lower than the mortgage payments. If buying a house in cash, the maintenance usually is low enough to consider lower paying jobs. Needing a high salary might enable remodeling but basic taxes and upkeep are very very different from sale price or the payments to a 30 year loan. In my experience something absolutely changes once you fully own the house.
- coredog64 4y ago
  Recently replaced the roof on my house and the cost was equivalent to a year of mortgage payments. Prior to that, had to replace the AC for about 6 months of mortgage payments. Next big expense is windows, which I expect to fall somewhere between the two.
  - dahart 4y ago
    Totally agree there are some sizeable maintenance costs, I’ve had to do a roof, windows, remodeling, plumbing, all kinds of stuff. It’s still lots less than the purchase price. And I had to pay them on top of the mortgage, it’s not like maintenance waits to start until the mortgage is paid off, right? Paying off the mortgage simply eliminated one money drain for me but didn’t change the other, so my average monthly expenditure went down.
  - oceanplexian 4y ago
    Rentals have exactly the same maintenance requirements as owned property. The fact that you pay for a lease doesn’t magically make the roof last forever. As a renter, this overhead is baked into your lease. As a homeowner, I can simply tap into home equity to do a major repair at single-digit interest rates over a decade. Something you will never be able to do as a renter.
- foobiekr 4y ago
  $15k to replace the sewer plumbing. $9k to replace the sewer line. $9k for a replacement roof.... I mean, yes, if you do things yourself it can be significantly less expensive, but most of the housing stock in the bay area is atrocious - good bones and awful everything else. They were thrown up as quickly as possible in the 50s-70s and so there's always something that needs fixing. $18k+ a year in taxes...

flyteuk 4y ago

> There's no "I'm free once I'm a home owner" thing. I finally signed up to an account to HN to say emphatically that it's the opposite. Owning a house is a huge responsibility that takes up the vast majority of my time, and it's a millstone around your neck if you ever think about moving somewhere else.

owly 4y ago
While this can certainly be the case for some houses, it really depends on the place and its condition when purchased.
pdimitar 4y ago
That very much depends on where you live. I know what you mean and I partially agree with it but it's not universally true.
gramie 4y ago
I was happy to sell my house and trade the loss of equity (and the last 10 years has been outrageously exceptional to the usual appreciation of property) for the freedom that living in an apartment gave me. Leaving for a month? Ask your neighbour to water the plants and walk away. 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week? Now it's 0. Constant accumulation of tools, devices, and products? Not needed. I seem to be an exception, but I have no need to define who I am by my housing, nor do I need the security of owning my own house. I have also lived on three continents, so I appreciate the ability to pull up stakes and move with very little fuss.
- cortesoft 4y ago
  If I was living by myself or just with my wife I would stick with an apartment. The kids spend so much time in the backyard, and it is hard to find an affordable apartment that has enough space for all of us to live, let alone also WFH that my wife and I are both doing. Plus, how do you build projects without a garage and outside area to work on things?
- furyofantares 4y ago
  > 10-20 hours of maintenance and upkeep each week? What in the world? This doesn't even come remotely close to passing the sniff test. Is your idea of homeownership like, constant remodeling or something? I do zero hours of maintenance/upkeep per week, just like you with your rental. Is your landlord now doing 10-20 hours of maintenance/upkeep per week for every apartment? Of course the answer is no.
  - dijit 4y ago
    10h is maybe an exaggeration, but I sincerely hope that you're checking your plumbing and all your drainage and maintaining your lawn. In Sweden, homeownership vs apartments is quite a large difference.
    - smaudet 4y ago
      I've seen houses which just grow shrubs over the whole lawn (sidesteps lawn maintenance, I suppose you may have to trim shrubs but its not that bad, really, compared to grass which grows almost overnight). The other side of keeping up with maintenance - if you don't have time nor want to, hire away. It will eat a significant chunk of change to hire all the professionals your landlord was hiring, the difference being you are hiring yourself versus being dependent on the landlord. For the DIYer, tools acquisition is definitely a PITA. Hardware stores have a decent selection mostly of what you need, but it would be nice if there were preset of tool maintenance you could order, maybe even save you money over long term buying it all piecemeal. I'd imagine the real time suck would be for planning/research for it all, if you are used to spending your time coding, playing games, or otherwise amusing yourself, yes for the first couple years you will not have any time for these things as you are acquiring your skillset(s). But that could be said for going back to school, etc. I think it's pretty valuable to be able to maintain your own dwelling apparatus, personally. It means you'll never be without reasonable shelter, so long as you have some access to raw materials, tools.
smaudet 4y ago
You didn't do enough research into your house purchase, or you weren't able to afford a well built house. Houses like anything else have lifetimes, You don't get to be a 200 year old house without having major maintenance done at least a couple times. Buying a poorly maintained, or constructed, old house is a nightmare, if it's bad enough you've discovered why some houses are condemned. Modern construction often has a longer lifespan and more readily accessible materials, older houses are a mixed bag - some gems that may last hundreds (thousands?) of years, lots of houses that need major repair. Some in the middle too...
xcambar 4y ago
Welcome to HN! Home ownership is as much a comfort as it is a fantasy. There are true perks, eg, you're mostly in control of the regular costs (rent vs mortgage) but it also has downsides, like... basically any hazard and everything location-related. PS: I feel weirdly kinda honored that you created your account and replied to my comment. Anyway, I'm just being me ;)

dahart 4y ago

Out of curiosity, why are you assuming that not exactly what parent was thinking? > nothing changes once you own the house Why? What does this mean and is it actually true? The monthly/yearly cost of owning a house is typically much lower than the mortgage payments. If buying a house in cash, the maintenance usually is low enough to consider lower paying jobs. Needing a high salary might enable remodeling but basic taxes and upkeep are very very different from sale price or the payments to a 30 year loan. In my experience something absolutely changes once you fully own the house.

coredog64 4y ago
Recently replaced the roof on my house and the cost was equivalent to a year of mortgage payments. Prior to that, had to replace the AC for about 6 months of mortgage payments. Next big expense is windows, which I expect to fall somewhere between the two.
- dahart 4y ago
  Totally agree there are some sizeable maintenance costs, I’ve had to do a roof, windows, remodeling, plumbing, all kinds of stuff. It’s still lots less than the purchase price. And I had to pay them on top of the mortgage, it’s not like maintenance waits to start until the mortgage is paid off, right? Paying off the mortgage simply eliminated one money drain for me but didn’t change the other, so my average monthly expenditure went down.
- oceanplexian 4y ago
  Rentals have exactly the same maintenance requirements as owned property. The fact that you pay for a lease doesn’t magically make the roof last forever. As a renter, this overhead is baked into your lease. As a homeowner, I can simply tap into home equity to do a major repair at single-digit interest rates over a decade. Something you will never be able to do as a renter.
foobiekr 4y ago
$15k to replace the sewer plumbing. $9k to replace the sewer line. $9k for a replacement roof.... I mean, yes, if you do things yourself it can be significantly less expensive, but most of the housing stock in the bay area is atrocious - good bones and awful everything else. They were thrown up as quickly as possible in the 50s-70s and so there's always something that needs fixing. $18k+ a year in taxes...