Going to the Rio Grande Valley is hard on Señor Dog. His Spanish is not great. To him the food is either greasy cheese, weird animal parts, needlessly spicy, or all the above. And then there are the kids. Just so many kids. You can feel his relief when we leave.
That's why it was such a surprise that somehow, driving back from the Valley, we talked about adding a baby in the next 2-3 years. And then it got ugly.
Señor Dog was really upset that we can't buy the house we want. Again. It's always the same fight. We don't want some generic townhouse we'll have to move out of anyway, we can't afford a mansion, we don't want to move to the burbs. There's no solution. It's disappointing.
So, we talked ourselves into our current, cheap rental again. We do this every time.
It's 1,300 sq. ft, but it has the worst 70s layout ever conceived. It also has lousy closets, a crappy 70s kitchen, the windows leak (bad for summer cooling bills). OK, so we get our cars broken into every other month. There's nothing there. I even heard someone got their Christmas presents stolen, but that's third-hand and I bet they don't have a giant dog. So, really it's just so very cheap. So cheap. We should be able to purge our stuff, and just make it work.
Sure, it's tight with a business in here, but we just need more time.
Monday, December 28, 2009
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10 comments:
For the life of me, I cannot figure out - with all the money you are supposedly making - why the heck you are still living in the ghetto?? I can't believe that you've exhausted all your options. Listen, the real estate market is in the dump. Get smart. Educate yourself on the foreclosure auction process, keep saving your $$, and learn how to bid on internet auctions. You don't even need a lousy real estate agent to mess things up for you. You can do it ALL yourselves. Pick your neighborhood and the radius from ground zero in which you want to live. Then, get online and do some hard work. Yes, it will be hard work and a lot of luck will be involved too. BUT you just might get lucky and get what you want for a lot less than dicking around with some incompetent realtor (as you previously described) who won't get the job done. I know this to be true because I've done it as have thousands of others.
You can tell a foreclosure from a mile off: abandoned/empty/dead landscaping/etc. Public records will tell you which bank owns it. You can try to find the one person within the bank's maze that will actually return a phone call and get the house sold quicker but don't count on it. Google the address and KEEP GOOGLING THE ADDRESS. This is very important. Many banks list the house for auction with online companies who list these home online ONLY with the lowest reserve price. Even if an agent has the house listed, the same property can still be advertised by an auction house for thousands of dollars LESS than the realtor's brokerage is asking. This approach is time consuming and you must be dedicated but it WORKS. You never know. You might be able to get out of the ghetto easier and cheaper than you think. Good luck.
I'm excited you guys are getting closer to starting the adoption process, how exciting! I think renting gets a bad rap but it's a great way to keep saving while you figure out what kind of house you want and can afford. Good luck!
Dog, while you can't afford "the house you want" (which from your list, must be the mansion) for heaven's sake you're miserable where you live. You hate the layout, you hate there's no garage, and your cars get broken into regularly. So why on earth would you stay? Just find another rental. And yes, if you can't afford "perfect" straight off (either in buying or renting) you WILL have to compromise even though you seem to think it's below you.
You're a smart woman, and you've more than once derided people who make silly decisions, and yet here you are doing it again. I doubt it'll be a month before you're complaining about your apartment again.
You're being too picky. What's wrong with settling and moving up when you can afford it?
Do you ever watch property virgins on HGTV? I saw that with my mom tonight -- food for thought on evaluating "must haves" against "can affords" when shopping for a first home. I hate that your current neighborhood is more 'hood than you'd like, and echo the thoughts of other commenters. Surely, there has to be a better rental somewhere, right?
I don't see anything wrong with continuing to rent until you find a place you actually want to buy. But couldn't you guys put a little extra money into the budget and get a nicer place to rent?
I know cheap is great, but not when you're dealing with the aggravation of cars being broken into and hating the place you live. Especially if it causes high utility bills.
I've seen you write about how the break-ins are frustrating and how much you hate the layout and the closets and all that great stuff. Surely there's something a notch or two nicer that won't overly interfere with your ability to save?
Despite all the arguments for equity, I can completely understand not wanting to buy a townhouse if you know you're going to be moving on up soon enough. It's a hassle, and the last couple of years have proved that it's not always something you can get yourself out of easily, let alone make a profit from.
Still, there is no law saying you have to stay in a crappy rental just because you've decided not to buy a house.
OK--for once, learn from your elders! You have SO MUCH more time than you think--time enough to one day find the perfect home, mansion, whatever. In the meantime, if you hate it where you are, move a slight step up--rent in a better neighborhood or buy into something better than what you have even if it isn't the mansion you dream about. You have a lot of time to one day get into that mansion. Trust my 60 years of experience--you do NOT have to attain your goals or perfection overnight. Instead you can take smaller steps toward what you hope to have in the future. Try it--it might cut down on the whining.
I don't understanding extending the rental either. Why do you have to have your dream home in your 20s? Don't you think your tastes/ideas might change? (hint - they will. No one stays the same their entire life) We are in that generic townhouse right now because we don't have kids yet and do not need to move when we do have kids until they are a few years old. Your "logic" isn't making sense. How much are your car windows and/or increases to your car insurance costing you vs. a slightly better rental?
Or, here's another option: buy the generic townhouse, but with an eye to it becoming an investment property in a year or so. That way you're not throwing money away in rent (I presume that's why you don't want to upgrade your rental), but you don't have to sell the townhouse either. And you don't have to stay in the ghetto either :-)
It's what we did when we moved home a couple of years ago. It takes a lot of the emotion out of the purchase too, if you know you're not looking for your dream house. I wrote about our experience here: http://notmymother.net/blog/?p=198
Whenever and whatever you do buy be sure to budget very well for the unforseen repairs and replacements that will come to pass as a home owner! And they will come at you VERY FAST!
That's why I think sooooo many people get in trouble these days with buying instead of renting. They don't account for all the repairs and maintenance that THEY are now responsible to make happen. Even if you do the work yourself it still costs in time, materials, and tools.
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