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You really shouldn't be making purchases assuming you'll have a FAANG salary forever. As we've seen, layoffs will come, random PIP come, and you might be forced

You really shouldn't be making purchases assuming you'll have a FAANG salary forever. As we've seen, layoffs will come, random PIP come, and you might be forced to take a huge pay cut. Worst case, you'll be unemployed. Sure you can sell, but you'll have to hope the housing market has stayed good, and that you've made up for all of the fixed costs when buying and selling. It's often not worth it until you've owned it for several years. That's not even considering the stress of buying/selling, or how it locks you into one geographical location. Cool offer in SF? Hope you don't mind going through the process again.

j7ake 3y ago
Just lawyer and closing costs of a house can be 2 percent of the house. Do this two or three times (one to buy new, one to sell, and one final to buy the downgrade) is easily 6 percent of a house. So the house needs to go up 6 percent just to break even in the most ideal scenario.
- thfuran 3y ago
  Typical transaction costs for a sale with agents are 6% before closing costs.
- delfinom 3y ago
  Meh, the lawyers I've dealt with for real estate only charge between $1.5k-$3k per transaction since it's largely all boilerplate review for them that they do a lot. It's the real estate agent that take a 6% cut. Lol
rhelz 3y ago
Exactly how are you supposed to buy a house without a steady FAANG salary for 30 years?
- zeroCalories 3y ago
  You probably just don't? If you really want to, wait until you're married with dual income and buy significantly under your budget. That might mean a longer commute and your kids sharing a room, but you won't be having panic attacks during every performance review for the next three decades.
  - throwaway5959 3y ago
    That’s what we did. We should have bought sooner, we would have saved a lot. But we’re happy owning now and not having to worry about what rent will be next year. Hopefully in a few years we’ll refinance at a lower rate and have a lot more principal paid down. If you’re having kids and you want a big place (we want neither), there are plenty of places in the country where houses (big ones) are a quarter of what they are in the Bay, Seattle, etc. Sure, you won’t be making $350k/year as a senior but the schools will be excellent, your kids will be safer and if one of you lose your jobs it won’t matter because you’ll have a massive emergency fund and lower expenses.
  - diarrhea 3y ago
    > dual income > kids Pick one!
    - salil999 3y ago
      What do you mean? You can have kids and two working parents.
      - rhelz 3y ago
        You can have 10 kids as a single parent. Doesn't mean its a good idea.
      - sieabahlpark 3y ago
        [dead]
    - indemnity 3y ago
      I picked single income, two kids and a mortgage. Oops!
  - rhelz 3y ago
    So I commute 3 hours a day, to a job I work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for, while my son and daughter are sharing a room... When I left grad school in 1997, the biggest problem me and my friends had was figuring out whether or not Microsoft, Intel, Google, or Amazon had the best stock option package. Was it going to be 4, or 5 years before we'd be able to buy a million dollar house? Now the advice is to just roll over. Lets call it what it is: POVERTY
samjohnation111 3y ago
[dead]

j7ake 3y ago

Just lawyer and closing costs of a house can be 2 percent of the house. Do this two or three times (one to buy new, one to sell, and one final to buy the downgrade) is easily 6 percent of a house. So the house needs to go up 6 percent just to break even in the most ideal scenario.

thfuran 3y ago
Typical transaction costs for a sale with agents are 6% before closing costs.
delfinom 3y ago
Meh, the lawyers I've dealt with for real estate only charge between $1.5k-$3k per transaction since it's largely all boilerplate review for them that they do a lot. It's the real estate agent that take a 6% cut. Lol

rhelz 3y ago

Exactly how are you supposed to buy a house without a steady FAANG salary for 30 years?

zeroCalories 3y ago
You probably just don't? If you really want to, wait until you're married with dual income and buy significantly under your budget. That might mean a longer commute and your kids sharing a room, but you won't be having panic attacks during every performance review for the next three decades.
- throwaway5959 3y ago
  That’s what we did. We should have bought sooner, we would have saved a lot. But we’re happy owning now and not having to worry about what rent will be next year. Hopefully in a few years we’ll refinance at a lower rate and have a lot more principal paid down. If you’re having kids and you want a big place (we want neither), there are plenty of places in the country where houses (big ones) are a quarter of what they are in the Bay, Seattle, etc. Sure, you won’t be making $350k/year as a senior but the schools will be excellent, your kids will be safer and if one of you lose your jobs it won’t matter because you’ll have a massive emergency fund and lower expenses.
- diarrhea 3y ago
  > dual income > kids Pick one!
  - salil999 3y ago
    What do you mean? You can have kids and two working parents.
    - rhelz 3y ago
      You can have 10 kids as a single parent. Doesn't mean its a good idea.
    - sieabahlpark 3y ago
      [dead]
  - indemnity 3y ago
    I picked single income, two kids and a mortgage. Oops!
- rhelz 3y ago
  So I commute 3 hours a day, to a job I work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for, while my son and daughter are sharing a room... When I left grad school in 1997, the biggest problem me and my friends had was figuring out whether or not Microsoft, Intel, Google, or Amazon had the best stock option package. Was it going to be 4, or 5 years before we'd be able to buy a million dollar house? Now the advice is to just roll over. Lets call it what it is: POVERTY

samjohnation111 3y ago

[dead]