S/O buying and selling homes

khill86 · June 2013

Do you consider your home as an investment to be made money on?

OR

Do you consider it primarily as a place to live and enjoy, and not only do things considering the ROI?

khill86 · June 2013

We got a great deal on our house and have renovated almost every room, and plan to renovate the rest to be exactly what we want. We have never considered it an investment, even though we thought we'd only be here for 5 or so years.

Our dilemma now, is that we love our house and what we've done to it. Which means if we ever do sell and look for something new, the reality is that nothing will ever compare to what we have. And trust me, this was not our dream/forever home going into it. And we're just not interested in doing it all again. I feel like the only way we'd sell is if we build new, and commission an architect. No way could I pick a 1 of 3 floor plan and be happy.

penguingrrl · June 2013

We haven't bought yet and won't for a while yet. I consider a home somewhere to live and enjoy. Once we buy (aprox 5-6 years from now because that's when we'll have locational stability) we plan to stay 30+ years so we will do what we want to make it ours.

I do intend for our home to be part of our retirement plan in that either we'll have paid it off before retirement so we won't have large housing costs when we retire (just property taxes) and if at some point living in our house is no longer practical we can sell it and buy something for cash and still only pay taxes or bank the money and use t for rent. So in that way it's also an investment. I assume we'll eventually sell for more than what we bought for considering how long we will stay.

I think a home is a really bad short term investment though. The housing market is too unstable to count on earning money through it short-term.

spring_time · June 2013

I used to consider it an investment. I bought my first house for a very reasonable price, put 20% down, and spent a lot of money to update it. My DH did the exact same thing with his house. He was able to sell his house just before the entire economy tanked and made a bit of a profit, I ended up having to short sale my house for half the price I paid for it...not to mention the money put into it. After that, my house is now a place for me to live. Updates to it are for me, not for future buyers. I really got burned and am still bitter two years later.

memali26 · June 2013

penguingrrl:
I do intend for our home to be part of our retirement plan in that either we'll have paid it off before retirement so we won't have large housing costs when we retire (just property taxes) and if at some point living in our house is no longer practical we can sell it and buy something for cash and still only pay taxes or bank the money and use t for rent. So in that way it's also an investment. I assume we'll eventually sell for more than what we bought for considering how long we will stay.

Mostly a place to live and enjoy, but also an investment in the way penguingrrl explained. We bought our house 2 years ago and intend to have it paid off in the next 10-12 years. At that point, depending on DH's job, we may sell and relocate, hopefully paying cash for the next house, or we will stay here without a house payment for the foreseeable future.

Mrs.Hizzo · June 2013

I guess both? Although it's a pretty crappy investment. We bought out house intending to stay until the kids are gone, at which point we might downsize. Whenever we do anything to it, I do what I like but also with resale value in mind, in case we had to get out in a month. (I don't know why we would, but the economy is still pretty sucky.) But more than an investment, it's our home, and I like enjoying where I live.

liz&adam · June 2013

Our house is mainly a place to live and enjoy. We will have it paid off before retirement, so we can buy the next house with cash so that's an investment part. When we make updates, we put some thought into resale, but mainly into what is best for our family to enjoy and best use the house.

But we do see the house as a way to make some money when we sell it instead of just paying rent and never seeing the money again.

MrsBalletStar05 · June 2013

We just bought our first home. We haven't moved in yet. We're planning on living there for a looooong time, so it will get lived in and things will not be done with future owners in mind. I would love to live in that house until I die, but we'll see. I think I just really dislike moving....

brachysira · June 2013

We used the NYT rent vs. buy calculator (google it--I love it)...and it's more for us to buy than to rent unless we live in our place for a very long time, and then we still won't be too far ahead by buying. And that's assuming we get a 2% annual increase in property values. You must account for the price of taxes, home improvements, home emergencies, home insurance, mortgage ins if you need it, and any renovations you do now or ever. If you invest your downpayment in the market, you can probably do better renting (assuming no market crash), depending on where you live. For us, we would have continued renting except that we wanted to have control over things like the yard. So in our case, we chose to buy exclusively because we liked what buying could give us. If you can't keep from spending the extra money you have in your pocket when you rent, then buying can be a good choice since the downpayment is essentially invested and inaccessible, although at a pretty low rate. But if you can invest and you don't love home-ownwership, it may well be more to you to rent.

ta78 · June 2013

We bought this house not long before the housing market dropped with no intention of living here forever. We've sort of been stuck, trying to pay down the mortgage to get out from under it. It could be a good family home, but we want to move to a different school district. So the work we are doing is primarily for resale. Right now we owe about what it's worth and do need it to be an investment to help with our down payment on our next home. Our next home will more than likely be our forever home.

sbevmc09 · June 2013

Well... we bought before the market crashed, back when houses were an investment. Now... no, it's a place to live and we're hoping to get out from under it soon without having to bring too much to closing.

Back when we bought it we looked at it as a starter home. We were planning to put our money into it and walk away with just a tiny bit extra in a few years. Because, you know, that's usually how it went. We would have been far better off paying rent for a few more years.

hayleydeee · June 2013

After losing 200K on our last house in the two years we owned it I will never go into owning a home thinking it'll be an investment. The value dropped so fast.

If it does earn money that'll be great, but that old wisdom about a house being an investment just isn't true these days.

S/O buying and selling homes

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