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I really appreciate this video because people always act as if being a homeowner is this amazing, perfect, financially sound experience that always trumps living in a rental. I'm grateful for my house but there are definitely a lot of things I miss about my last apartment - maintenance, amenities, some of the utilities paid by the complex, community activities and events, etc.
@@Ammut6 I definitely don't want to get rid of my house but I have considered renting out my home for a year and taking a job/moving to an apartment in another city since it was my original plan after graduating college but I ended up buying a home instead. So not sure, it may be possible. I'm also married though so it's not easy to just pick up and do other stuff on my own accord. 😅
I would like to point out that your rent included the utilities and the average anticipated repairs each month, as well as a profit margin for the landlord.
Same here. I have an apartment in a really nice area now, and it would be at least a grand more a month to own a condo where I am. I’d still be dumping money into HOA and interest on the mortgage. I looked at one for sale now, and basically they made $7500 a year on it from when they bought it to when they sold it. I can put the equivalent amount of the principal I’d be paying off into the market and be better off. I like the flexibility as well, and having repairs done. It’s a better option for me.
We own our home and the maintenance is expensive but when I was renting my landlord did not do maintenance at all so for me is a plus to have the home that I can make changes.
This has been the best part. I always fixed my apartments as a renter (LA landlords never fix things). I find the repairs so satisfying. Even planning for the projects I can't afford feels reassuring.
@@coachkrish Its very satisfying, but frustrating at the same time. I enjoy doing my own Maintainence on a rented unit, but isn’t that a cost of doing business as a landlord? I don’t own the property so I’m not benefiting financially from the repairs being done and the value if the property increasing as a result. If anything, I may have just raised my own rent.
Came here to say this. In my experience landlords and rental companies (in Florida) were dismissive, and months delayed in repair and maintenance to a point where an issue that could have been fixed early on had I the clearance to address it myself would have been an easy fix, but in their negligence, escalated to a far more complex issue. Like an entire termite infestation 🙃
This. I am agog at the lucky people with landlords who actually do good, timely maintenance on units and buildings, even though I have lived in two such buildings, because I'm so much more used to my previous renter's life being dominated by people who were cheap and did not care. I laugh when people say renting is better because your landlord takes care of repairs. A friend who bought her first home last year posted her *delight* in being able to call a repair person the minute her washing machine died, and just paying a couple hundred to have it working again 24 hours later. In her last rental before buying, the washer died, and she had to call the landlord every couple of days for six weeks to get it fixed and in the meantime schlep to a laundromat and pay for loads she should have been cleaning at home. Immediate service of her choosing was worth the cost compared to aggravation and neglect from a landlord.
This!! One of our biggest frustrations while renting was never being able to fix anything ourselves. For example, we weren't allowed to turn the water off in order to do a minor plumbing repair, which was not only inconvenient for us but more expensive in the end. The landlord also discouraged us from just communicating and finding mutual agreements with our neighbors. They preferred to just set hard rules to "avoid fights" (such as not allowing us use of the basement even if we offered to Kay because the basement was only accessible to one unit) even if we could have just worked it out amicably with our neighbors ourselves.
The sticking point for me is when people look at homeownership as a moral issue. I am a renter in a suburban area with a lot of NIMBYism, and the general consensus (minus me) in this area is obsessed with keeping as much of the area as possible zoned to allow only single-family, owner-occupied properties. The logic seems to be that renters tend to be irresponsible given that they do not have a financial stake in the community. To that point, I would say that if I do not pay my rent, I will come home one day to find my stuff on the front lawn and the locks changed. If that isn’t a financial incentive, I would appreciate someone explaining to me what is. I can definitely afford to buy, but I choose not to since a) that would require putting up a large down payment which I need to keep in my emergency fund, and b) would tie me to this area for 5-10 years to mitigate the risk of substantial losses if property values go down. I don’t think my decision to rent for the time being makes me irresponsible or a detriment to the community, and I don’t like being spoken to as if it does.
Hi! I would say that renters might have less of an incentive to invest in the community - beyond rent. Eg: for a condominium situation, if the owner is renting, they are less concerned about maintaining/investing in the building. Or if there are any votes for investing if street cleaning, schools or else... short term renters might not be concerned and willing to put money whereas owners should be investing to maintain the value of the zone. It is not only about not paying rent / be irresponsible, but doing more. Also I might add "I can definitly afford" would not be right if needed to use the emergency fund. This being said that is what I did :)
@@rubama Yeah, it's naive to imply otherwise. Also, condos and buildings mean more people and more stress on shared resources, which isn't what homeowners expected to buy into. The anti-NIMBYers tend to lack nuance on what is a complex issue.
It is also the issue of taxes. Homeowners pay a ton in property tax ro manitain the area. Also, renters dont do things like maintain yards, etc. Ive done both and in many ways prefer to rent. But there definitely is not the same commitment to community. Just paying rent is not a huge responsibility- that is the bare minimum. Just IMO.
@@mariahsmom9457 That is a common misconception. As a renter, I pay the same property taxes and HOA assessments as my neighbors do - just indirectly. It is part of overhead costs of doing business as a landlord, all of which my rent payments have to cover, plus a profit margin. As a renter, if property taxes go up, I will pay the same tax increase as a hypothetical homeowner occupying the same property, since my landlord will need to increase my rent to cover the difference. It is actually more likely that she will increase it *more* than the amount of the tax increase in order to maintain the same profit margin on a percentage basis. These are many things from a business standpoint that homeowners don’t have to think about, and this is one of them.
I love owning my home, but maintenance concerns are for sure the number one thing I miss about renting. Repairs and replacements can get expensive fast.
While this is absolutely valid, I am very ready to own instead of rent. My townhouse is falling apart and my landlord drags his feet when it comes to emergency maintenance. He left us without a working washing machine for a month and has made zero progress on fixing our patched up water main. At this point I would much rather be in control of necessary repairs rather than be stressed about someone else's lack of effort.
I want to own a home but have no idea when this will happen, so the unexpected mainteance fees are something I think about a lot. I've already resolved that whenever I do get my own place that I'll set a schedule for checking things around the house frequently in hopes that preemptive upkeep will at least be marginally cheaper than handling broken stuff.
@@ariwl1 Good on you for thinking ahead like that! It's very wise. So many things that I just wasn't prepared for - I didn't know that a hot water system needs maintenance. Some people don't know gutters need cleaning out. It's little things like that which will make a huge difference! Even if you don't own a home, it applies to other belongings - a fridge, a car, a sewing machine - all can have their life prolonged by appropriate care. I tried to make a schedule for these tasks but so far havent gotten beyond putting their manuals in a folder, haha
@@TS-yd6cn Thank you. ^__^ It does seem daunting being responsible for everything relating to your home, but I'm kind of a homebody anyways so once I learn it will probably go ok. *fingers crossed*
Being locked into a mortgage sounds like a dream right now, because whilst repairs and maintenance might cost a mini fortune, most homeowners I know are paying half (or less) than what I pay in rent + utilities. And they're paying towards ownership, whereas I'm paying to line my landlord's pockets and have zero control over the property and how things work in my home.
100%! We rented for sooo long and just got SO sick of dealing with slacker landlords who would “cheap out” and let things slide because “it was good enough” (it wasn’t). We bought our first house this past January and i’m so grateful for it, our mortgage is miles cheaper. Yes, we have sunk a good chunk into home ownership, but it’s worth it. No more “asking/begging” for things to be fixed & kept up, because now we do it ourselves.
We bought small and it was rough when 2 kids were teens. But now that the kids are gone, it's perfect. By buying small, we wanted to know that if one of us got sick, hurt, or died - the remaining spouse would still be able to afford it. Now that house is paid for, we still put that amount in house fund. Aside from taxes and insurance, we need to save up for big ticket items. The roof ($8k). Tree removal ($6k). BUT local rents are $1800 or more a month. Plus we could sell it someday.
Something else to mention is that since making a profit on a home relies on holding for at least medium term, there is a potential opportunity cost on your career. Obviously Chelsea runs TFD but for those of us who don't own online businesses, being tied to one geographic area can limit our ability to take advantage of career opportunities in other cities/countries. This is especially relevant to young people/ people early in their careers.
You are correct, my husband and I built a custom home expecting it to be our home for the next 30-35 years, 4 and a half years later we moved to a different continent. We rented out the house, but after 2 years we sold it. We didn't make any profit on it, we had over capitalised on it when we built thinking that it would eventually make us a profit. But his job changed and we moved, we have other friends in similar situations.
Yep, we could probably have swung buying a few years back in terms of getting the money together, but it is a known factor that my partner’s job (medical residency) is only for four years. We expect to move at the end of that. Fortunately we have a landlord who actually does their job; handles all maintenance without us having to be there in the middle of the day. Hasn’t slapped us with any insane rent hikes. It’s nice knowing when we sign the lease exactly how much housing and utilities is going to cost us that year.
Coming from a rental experience with...not the best landlords to say the least, I've really kind of embraced the "it's all on us" feeling and mindset associated with being home-owners. Previous landlords would not address issues, or blame us for not coming to them sooner (please someone tell me how to notify a landlord of a leak before it is happening??). While it's a pain in the neck, I prefer that my partner and I are choosing when / how to address problems as they arise, and hiring someone what we select that we feel will be reliable and trust coming into our space (no more landlord's acquaintance that gives off weird vibes). That being said, we do have an emergency fund and have budgeted for home expenses and repairs.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one. I was watching it like, "who has landlords like this?" I had one who wouldn't fix the toilet until I threatened to tell the health department, and we had to walk a quarter mile to a public restroom at a park for a whole week
@@shadowhunterartemis I'm sorry you've experienced that. I have only had 2 different landlord experiences and I really have no vouch for a competent system serving the residents The landlord (from the post mentioned above) had the tub 'redone' and it was chipping paint upon touch (which would really be a health and safety risk to kiddos but we only had a cat soooo 🙃). The tub would get clogged with paint chips and even though this was a KNOWN ISSUE this would be something she wanted us to fix on our dime. We had doors that didn't latch, or didn't unlatch- My partner and I locked ourselves into our bathroom and he had to crawl out onto the roof through the kitchen window to open the door Granted this is only some of it, and that was all from my first rental but I know it is rough out there
We bought a house during the low of the housing market in 2010. (We joke that we got a house off the clearance rack.) Brand new, builder foreclosed. Paid $110K for it. It's since doubled in value, and because our financial circumstances improved drastically in the interim thanks to better jobs, we went ahead and paid the whole mortgage off. We stuff a few hundred into a fund for taxes, insurance, and emergencies each month, but being mortgage and rent free has allowed us to reach our retirement saving goals and still have plenty of money left over to play with each month. That said, we made the mistake of dropping about $40K of the home improvement fund into the markets (seemed like a good idea at a time) and now that we'd like to do something with that money (enclose a back porch) we are reluctant to pull it back out at a loss. Waiting for it to at least even out. Lesson learned.
I bought (the shares of my apartment in a co-op) my apartment during the pandemic and even though I just got hit with a 9 percent increase in my maintenance for next year, my maintenance fee is still way less than the majority of other buildings in NYC. I still love my apartment and am glad i make the choice to buy it. I don't view my apartment as an investment, like i have investment accounts for that. I bought my apartment because I wanted to control my housing cost which I am. I've always lived in a rent control or rent stabilized apartment so i know the great benefit of not paying high housing cost.
Something Chelsea didn't mention (probably because it gets too close to "tax advice") is that the interest part of your mortgage payment is a deduction on federal income tax, and for many states the property tax part of your mortgage is deductible for state income taxes. So, it is quite possible to spend less on income tax as a home owner.
I've only ever had one mortgage high enough that itemizing my deductions let that amount (over standard minimum deduction) count. And that reduction isn't the full amount (which people seem to imply), it's the tax rate your highest income is in. So I think it was around 22% back then on the difference (over std deduction). Not a significant amount compared to the way it's touted. We do have credit for property taxes in Indiana, but as the income tax is 3.5%, you're net expense is 96.5%.
When I was renting, 90% of the time I've been the one doing or paying for repairs because landlords just won't do them. Busted heater, too bad. Falling apart stairs, fix them yourself. Rotten roof? Maybe they'll fix that because water damage can affect the resale value of the house in a big way. This behavior is especially common in non-luxury apartment buildings, in areas with high housing demand. In the SF Bay area, for example, the slumlords abound, even with high rents, and even with stronger tenant legal protections. Oh, and tenants do foot the bill for repairs. They just pay via rent rather than directly to the vendor.
Coop insurance is way cheaper than homeowners insurance for a singe-family because the coop has its own insurance that covers stuff lie the roof, foundation of the building, etc… You only need insurance to cover stuff in your unit.
Buying a fixer upper almost ruined me financially. Supplies and materials have been stupid expensive and finding a legit contractor who wouldn't rip me off and was available was almost impossible
As a homeowner, I often day dream about all the money I had as a renter 😂 That said, recently we had a significant leak in our fugly bathroom but our home owners insurance claim paid for a full renovation so 🤷♀️
Okay Architect here. PLEASE g*d Do NOT DIY the removal of walls, plumbing fixtures, or electrical fixtures, without consulting a professional of some kind. Be that an architect, plumber, electrician or engineer. Just because the HGTV Bros made it look like an afternoon project, doesn’t mean it will be. I have seen people structurally condemn their own homes. Please, Do NOT.
One cost you didn’t touch is property tax. I would imagine property tax is negligible in a co-op as it’s typically charged by frontage (how much space on a street the building takes up). But for those of us in free-standing single family houses, property tax can be a pretty significant bill. Our house is on the outskirts of a bigger city in Canada and my property and education tax is $3K/year. My rural in-laws pay $1500 for their bungalow in a town of about 10 000 people. My parents property tax is in the $6K-$8K range, it’s almost a mortgage payment on its own. Of course, even $10K isn’t that bad when it’s split among 100 households, so mid or high rise buildings don’t pay much per unit. And many condos will cover it under a blanket “condo fee” along with certain other maintenance costs, so someone in that style of home-ownership might never know how much they pay
I enjoy TFD‘s videos, but my favorite ones are ones with you in them. I will just be in the car or be doing my make up and listen to you talk. I really appreciate your true transparency on this channel.
We own our home (purchased in 2015) and were hoping to sell and upgrade this year or early next year. However, it seems like interest rates are going to keep us in our house longer. So, I'm making a list/plans for our house and what we can do to make it more enjoyable to live here longer than we intended. I think renovations/upgrades can make a huge difference in the liveability of a space :)
@@cabayern9416 Since the pandemic, I work from home and having to fit a good work space into our home was tough because our house is small. It's manageable to stay, just have to make some decisions about what to change to make it a better fit.
@@parkerlynne as a question, not as a way to shame you but, could you add an office space in your backyard? I was in the same situation where my house is a little smaller now I work from home, so an option that I decided on.
@@starbrite526 I wish I could. A she-shed or something similar would be so cool! Our backyard has flooding issues so I'm not sure it would be safe to build on and there's no space on the ends. After doing some deep ikea searching, I think I'm going to try and revamp my space. Switch from a wide dresser to a taller one and rearrange where everything is placed to give me a more useful space. Thank you for sharing a good idea
European here, I bought my home this year, just a when prices started to rise (now it is much worse), also had the mortgage signed when the economy was still ok and also had the incredible luck of signing a electricity contract at a fixed price for various years, so the current mayhem of the cost of electricity here doesn’t affect me (yet). The mortgage, with home insurance, building maintenance, taxes, etc factored into a monthly expense, is still lower than my previous rent (and it was tied to inflation, the mortgage is with fixed interest rate). As you said, a lot of cost upfront, specially the reno, I’m doing the DIY route cause cannot afford to pay the full reno made by professionals, but some things that are beyond my skills (like the tiling and all furniture of the kitchen) are handled by professionals. And yes, not having a landlord to fix things haunts me. There is the insurance, but I live with fear that something brokes and it is not covered or it’s tossed from one insurance company to another (the home vs the building vs the neighbour if it’s his fault). But on the other hand I have a place that I can call mine and do whatever I want without been limited to the state of the place when I entered.
Gawd the repairs! There’s nothing like your first major rain storm in a new to you house. We’ve always bought single family homes while crisscrossing the country and we’ve found one of the best ways to add value is to add solar panels. We install them when we first move in so we can get some benefit before we go. We moved during the pandemic and with shortages we’re just now locking down a contractor to get them installed. This may be our last home until retirement, so I’m excited to get it done.
What's funny is: Majority of people don't have the luxury to use their home as an investment, most buy their home because that's where they plan on living for the rest of their lives. The phrase "Buying a home is great asset/investment" comes with way more context.
Yep we bought at the top, an outrageous price for a single family home. But 2021 was always the year that we were going to do it, the timing was right for our life. I really hope the high principle value doesn't hurt us later.
I think having the skills (or generous people in your life who have the skills) to fix things around the house or do home renovations makes a huge difference in being a homeowner. As a homeowner myself, my father-in-law used to be a contractor on homes and my partner works in the construction/engineering field, so it’s much faster and cheaper for us to fix things because we save on labour costs. I think our expenses would be much higher if we were constantly outsourcing for things like renovating our bathroom or installing pot lights.
Thanks for mentioning how you don't do many DIY stuff. Neither myself nor my husband is adept at it, and my sister-in-law chides us for paying professionals to do it. Like, I know if I attempt anything, it will look crap. I'll very happily pay someone to make it look *good*.
SAME. Even painting the apartment after I bought it - I was told it was a waste of money to pay someone. Except that the someone not only had the skills and equipment but the time. And it got done in 2 days as promised. I consider myself a reasonably handy person but even I will only hang pictures - anything more advanced gets outsourced: I don’t want to end up with giant holes in my walls, thank you.
We carry a small home warranty that costs about $25 per month and covers all major appliances, water heater, furnace, and AC unit. Our oven broke the first month in the house and was cheaper to fix because of the warranty.
We basically had to repair gas leaks literally right after moving in our house and even with help from the home warranty, still had to pay $1300 out of pocket.
The advice I give is to get a mortgage(tax, insurance, hoa,condo included ) at least $500 less than your rent. You will need it. Save it in an account that is separate from your spending.
I agree with a lot of commenters, we closed a year ago and while we absolutely love it and have no regrets, we definitely underestimated the amount of work and stress this first year brought. We are still getting our footing financially and are constantly adjusting a year later. We will be just fine, but it's definitely a more massive undertaking than I originally expected.
Agree… we bought in January and have sunk upwards of $10K on things that needed upgraded, fixed, etc… 2023 should be much better at least! 😅 Also, still worth it!
It really depends on the month cause sometimes it can be a small thing like a napkin but if you break a window or decide to buy some new things around the house it gets a lot bigger, so i think this always fluctuates
Love the idea of strategic renovations. I am surprised that she is paying less on a mortgage than she did in rent in NYC, I would have thought it would be the opposite. People really do fetishize homeownership when renting has lots of perks. As a millennial I have switched jobs so many times renting gave me the flexibility to try out different areas before committing to one single location. I think both have value and you just have to determine which option is best for your situation.
Is the $2,365 mortgage payment include Taxes and Insurance? I usually think of my mortgage "rent" payment as PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes, and Insurance) + maybe those Co-op fees to compare it to a rent payment.
Well said, regarding the single demographic. $725K is probably doable for high-earners in NYC who are DINKs, but for single people, it’s impossible barring exceptional circumstances.
One advantage for American homeowners is that you can use mortgage interest (on your primary property) as an income tax deduction. In Canada you can’t do this.
Just bought an apartment for the first time. What I regret is that most people don't have the luxury of asking of buying is right for them. For most people it's just not a conceivable option - and I absolutely could not have done it without higher than average dual income and a lot of help from parents - but I'm glad we were able to do it. Because we were able to put more than 50% down, we have a bigger apartment than we ever could have rented (50m2) and the mortgage is less than we were paying previously and will stay the same where at the rate things are going our rent probably would have doubled in the next ten years. I don't even have to regret having to fix things now, since my landlords always made me pay for repairs anyway. No regrets so far!
I mean 800k is definitely expensive. Especially for someone who says they only pay themself 90k or whatever: the math isn’t mathing. That being said, I think condos are a good option bc less space to maintain, and that’s what I plan to do if my partner and I can ever afford to buy anything as costs rapidly outpace our savings and salary rates
Great video as always! Forgive me if this has already been covered in another video, but I'd love to see some advice on how to track the housing market and understand when the best time to buy is - I'm still a long way off from buying my first home, but I want to keep an eye on things so I don't miss any 'opportunities'
We bought our first home in Berlin in early 2020. It was one of the cheapest listings in the neighborhood then. Now there's little inventory and the cheapest comparable is DOUBLE what we paid! We updated it and contractor costs... 😳 We ended up doing most of it ourselves and we love it. Our real estate said he would put it on the market for 2.5 times. This market is crazy and we were so lucky. It'll be our forever home bc we are millennials and starter homes don't exist for us anymore 😅
I live in a popular tourist town outside of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Our housing prices spiked up to 50%, and people were outbidding asking by 100's of thousands of dollars. It was a bananas time.
I like TFD but I don't understand why Ikea stuff always gets called 'crap'. Maybe it's a US thing? Because here in Europe me and everyone I know keeps Ikea furniture in a good state: it lasts more than 10 years and we move with it often between apartments.
This is a really nice reminder that the fact that we're choosing not to buy right now when things aren't perfect might be the best decision for us. A mortgage would basically double our housing cost PLUS the increases in utilities and maintenance, and right now that just doesn't feel feasible, and that's okay.
First of all before doing any major renovations not only do you need your building co-op approval you also need to have construction permits by the city and state you live in because you live in co-op you just might not be able to do the larger renovations that you want
I'm in a town of 36, 000 in Oklahoma. California investors recently bought 14 different complexes here, which is pretty much everything, and jacked the rent. I think they will be sorry. They are displacing their long time renters, and the new people are going to have to bunk in! Whatever the pros and cons are, I feel like you have a better chance of survival if you own a place. You could get a roommate, whatever. You have zero control as a renter.
I think it's understandable to be apprehensive about buying a home, but for me renting can be scary. Dealing with horrible landlords and the uncertainty of being put out at short notice is a real thing. Ownership is important if you need to be able to make the decision for yourself, but whether it's the best financial decision is a different story.
Yes!! We were evicted last Christmas during the pandemic when rents had skyrocketed to 3x what we were paying… 🚀 We finally bought our first house in January & it was the best thing we’ve ever done.
It all depends on your expectations. Chelsea’s place is the size of a postage stamp and is on ground level. The HOA is also insane, we’re talking adding an additional 50% onto the monthly mortgage payment. It’s not ideal for most.
There are people that are getting a rude awakening here in Canada with interest rates going up. Mortgages are suddenly hundreds of dollars more per month. The real estate market already stretched people here.
How do you buy an apartment? I thought an exclusive living portion of a larger building owned by one person was a condominium and apartments were always rented? Do I misundertand this or are things a little different in condominium vs apartment classification in Canada and the States? I'm a Canadian apartment dweller.
Generally, in big cities, where space is limited but demand is high, apartments are available for purchase. In places where homes are more afforable and there is plenty of land for them, most people arent really willing to shell out a mortgage payment for an apartment. So it really comes down to where you are
@@Pomagranite167 the commenter underneath you answered my question. Also I did read an article explaining that coops are considered apartments rather than condominiums with shared ownership of the common facilities. Also it sounds like New York is a state where the typical "apartment unit means rented while condo is often owned by the occupant" deviation breaks down.
In Canada if you own a home, you have to pay property taxes. Depending on where you live, those taxes can be astronomical. Add to that maintenance fees, upfront costs, rising mortgage rates, etc. and I can't see a financial benefit for me, personally. But heaven forbid you DON'T want to own a home in Canada. I'm treated like I'm a freak and an irresponsible person who isn't contributing to society. (Un)surprisingly, none of these people pay my bills, so why they think they have any right to tell me how to live is a mystery. It's the same with the people who scoff at my decision not to have children. They're not paying for those kids, so back off. I'm happy for people who want to buy houses and have kids--I'm even in awe of them for having the guts to do those things--yet many of them aren't happy for me when I choose not to. Thank you again, TFD for showing us the pros and cons of home ownership! I'm very happy that you're happy with your purchase! It's a beautiful home!
I just want to say that I hate owning my home 75% of the time. But I love my neighborhood and block and likely wouldn't sell or move anywhere else in my city.
Scared of home ownership, I am a college student rn so cant entertain it in the coming years, but I LOVE hosting. I am on the market for a couch in my college town, but I am allergic to cats and everyone who has cats does not want to clean their furniture before selling it….it is like ppl dont know how allergies work. I will not acceot the furniture unless it is clean of their dander. AND ikea couches are easily too expensive for my situation to begin with. So, I am stuck with my desk chair and bean bag chair for now and no hosting.
A friend who has horrific allergies has all non-upholstered furniture in their house. I regularly see secondhand wooden chairs and benches for sale secondhand at college budget prices, and cushions can be made or bought affordably. As a bonus, separate cushions can be cleaned far more easily than upholstery, whether the issue is dust mites or pizza grease. Floor pillows are also inexpensive new, great for movie/game nights, and don't take up much space. College is prime time for eclectic and eccentric style (and some of us don't really grow out of it). Just give hard surfaces a good wipe down before bringing them in, slap on an inexpensive cushion or folded throw blanket, and you'll be guest-ready in no time.
Wait, you’re only paying ~$2350 for your mortgage?? How could that be possible with a $700k+ home? Here in Madison, WI a $400k house equals about $3k per month including tax and other fees. I can’t imagine this is accurate in NY, having lived in Brooklyn with a $2450 rental price. Is this halved ? Does your partner pay another $2350? Cuz that would make more sense, but even that feels low for such an expensive home… 🤔
Mortgage payment depends on the size of the mortgage, not the value of the home. I took out a 300k mortgage for my home and our payment is only a little less than hers (also have to factor in interest rates though). She might've put a few hundred thousand dollars down.
@@Pomagranite167 first off: kinda racist. Second: my mortgage is under $700/month for 2 bedrooms. I think I can afford some entertainment and gas, which is under $4/gal still where I live.
How is your mortgage 2300 for an 800k house? Ours would be 3000 for a 370 k house? And no house is that cheap anymore. That’s why we don’t think we can ever buy. Your math isn’t mathing again.
I'm a new home owner myself, 1 year in as well. I click on your video cuz I wanna gauge my own spending compared to your experience of home ownership. 5 minutes in, I'm still being lectured about the housing market up and downs due to pandemic, inflation, etc. If I wanted to hear about that, there's already a channel with a guy walking around in Florida talking about that every time. Immediate dislike, stopped watching. 😒