my first house

[wolfy-hound]

Then you get friends who have kids who LOVE your snakes. Then they'll come over to "help clean" the snake's bins.. and while they are there, they can do the lawn too.
Play it right, and you get free lawn maintance, free snake bin cleaning AND you don't have to care for or feed the kids either. The parents will even THANK you for taking the kids a few hours. Win- Win.

[JKExotics]

What about those of us who don't have or want kids?

Then you should get off your b** and do it yourself Bi-weekly summer lawn maintenance is not that hard to do. Yes I said bi-weekly we don't skimp on chores around here, and that's a good thing. Or do as the poster above me advised, get the local kid to give you a hand and give the kid a few bucks, I personally don't mind doing it myself, but my kids do it for extra allowance money so...

[wolfy-hound]

Or you do like I did and mulch the front yard. No mowing, no real maintanance. I have raised flower beds to fill with plants come summer.

[WizzySRT10]

Congrats on the house. In a few years I'm gonna be looking for another house. In the Springfield Mo area. Evansville in is pretty nice area...

[Blu Mongoose]

Another thing about owning a house. If you don't like the walls you can rip them out and change them. If the kitchen decor gets boring you can gut it and totally do your own thing. It has been a bit expensive, but we found the neighbor hood we liked and are now making our house just what we want.
You can't get most landlords to bother with repairs in a timely manner, let alone upgrade anything. You will love having that freedom to do it your own way.

[Ladydragon]

Congrats on your first house. Yes, owning a house has its share of problems and work, but the best reason for owning a home is it is an investment in yourself. Can't beat that. Yes things break, fix em. If you can't, hire a pro. Its definitely much nicer owning than dealing with landlords. I am my landlord.

[Typical_08]

I sure can't wait to own my own home.....but I don't understand why people get sick of rent...?

Mortgage, property taxes, interior decorations, lawn maintenance, bugs, fixing things that break, general home upkeep.....

That has to add up to atleast 3-4 times MORE than the cost of renting a place and letting the landlord deal with all that.

Mortgage. Equity
Property Taxes. Live in county, they are lower.
Decorating. I have a wife. She decorates things, I fix them.
Lawn Maintenance. I enjoy yard work. Kind of a pride thing. It is good to know you have the best lawn in the neighborhood.
Bugs. Orkin.
Fixing things. I sometimes intentionally break things just so I can go into the garage to get away from the kids. Plus it gives me an excuse to go to Home Depot.
Rent. Money that you will never ever see again. It is kind of like burning money. There is no point.

I bought my first home in 2000 for a hundred and twelve thousand. Then I deployed to Afghan shortly after 9/11. The wife moved back home, and we sold our house for a hundred and fifty thousand. We then rented for a few years after I got back while we waited on prices to drop, and bought our second home for a hundred and thirty thousand. We have been living here for just over a year, and with some minor fix ups it is now worth a hundred and forty.

But my case is not the norm in this economy. Being in a military town is akin to living in a transient community, and as the Corps is increasing its total strength, more people are moving here, and needing houses.

All in all if left to its own devises, the economy will recover, and buying a home is pretty cheap now, it is an investment.

My parents bought their home in 1977 for 62k. After some remodeling and what not, the house is now worth over 250k.

ETA: My rent on a two bed one bath apartment in a good part of town was 1100 a month. My mortgage, insurance and what not are a thousand a month for a four bed, two bath one car on a three quarter acre lot. Buy within your means and you can not go wrong.

[Typical_08]

Then you should get off your b** and do it yourself Bi-weekly summer lawn maintenance is not that hard to do. Yes I said bi-weekly we don't skimp on chores around here, and that's a good thing. Or do as the poster above me advised, get the local kid to give you a hand and give the kid a few bucks, I personally don't mind doing it myself, but my kids do it for extra allowance money so...

My oldest boy is five (well was four during the summer), and already pushing the mower. It is a good father son time thing.

[Lucas339]

I sure can't wait to own my own home.....but I don't understand why people get sick of rent...?

Mortgage, property taxes, interior decorations, lawn maintenance, bugs, fixing things that break, general home upkeep.....

That has to add up to atleast 3-4 times MORE than the cost of renting a place and letting the landlord deal with all that.

ill give it to you like this. last year i rented a 2/2 in bradenton for $985/month a month. im currently renting a 4/2.5 now for $1000/month. the housing market where im at is finally dropping like its hot and now i can get a morgage for around $500-600 each month of which goes toward me owing my own home and not someone else paying off their boat.

to the op.....congrats!!! hopefully i will have a house this year! my lease is up in sept.

[Typical_08]

ill give it to you like this. last year i rented a 2/2 in bradenton for $985/month a month. im currently renting a 4/2.5 now for $1000/month. the housing market where im at is finally dropping like its hot and now i can get a morgage for around $500-600 each month of which goes toward me owing my own home and not someone else paying off their boat.

to the op.....congrats!!! hopefully i will have a house this year! my lease is up in sept.

Very good point. If you (and this is not directed at you specifically) have a stable job, and buy within your means, you can not go wrong. I can't count the number of Marines that I have seen loose their houses because they puchased over their budget.

Ya know, young guy, new wife and kid, just bought a 40k car a year ago (before they got married), buys their wife a 30k car, then goes out and buys a 200k house. Mortgage 1300 a month, car payment one 500 a month, other car payment 400 a month, all on a Lance Corporal's pay. Just does not work.

I don't want to preach, we are all intelligent individuals. But live under your budget, and factor in cost increases over the next five years before you buy.

We had a hard time over the summer because we did not factor in the raise in fuel prices. Normally I take ten percent of my pay and put it away, then another ten percent goes to the church, that left us (with our original budget plan) with about 300 a month slush fund (after expenses). Well when the price of fuel rose, so obviously power and of course driving. It was costing me 4x as much to drive to work every week and 2x as much to cool our house. If we would have planned like we were living paycheck to paycheck like some people do, we could have very easily lost our home.