This is true, but the landlord may be getting some economies of scale (if they own a lot of property) or have other ways of saving money over a single home owner (it is cheaper to have a maintenance guy as an employee than calling in plumbers, electricians, etc. on a needed basis.)
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When my in laws sold their house to go into assisted living, it was eye opening for them to see how much they no longer had to spend for things related to owning a house. No property taxes, lawn care service, cleaning service, alarm service - and renters insurance costs a lot less than homeowners insurance. No maintenance costs, either. Those costs really did add up.
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I would not want to be a renter and have the risk of needing to move. Everyday I read on Nextdoor of long term renters who need to find a new place as the rental is being sold or the owner wants to move back in. In my area rentals are hard to find and the prices have gotten crazy. Unless you are in an area with rent control you are at the mercy of a landlord.
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Also, Puerto Rico has a huge divide between the haves and the have nots. It makes society somewhat shaky, IMO. My DIL is from PR and her family still lives there. They have to take enormous security precautions to protect themselves and their property.
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True. My point was really just to people who say they do not pay for repairs (at all), ongoing maintenance (at all), etc not saying that there arenât economies of scale. Though your landlord and maintenance company is looking to make a profit so part of cost savings will go there (which tenant will pay). Doesnât mean though that there are no net cost savings.
Same is true of assisted living places. You are paying for landscaping, property taxes, property insurance, cleaning, etc. At this point, I run my dadâs finances. I was paying his costs for his house and when he was paying for assisted living and a house and what he will be paying for assisted living now that I sold his house. Costs were obviously highest when he was paying for both. But will be higher in assisted living than it was when his costs were limited to just owning a house. And that is how it should be given he is getting a lot more service. Now the trick is getting him to stop thinking that he is suddenly homeless for the first time in 60+ years. LOL
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The last 10 years we had a mortgage that was 2.5% through one of our credit unions that had low closing costs, no loan origination fee. We had a very lousy home appraisal but it didnât adversely affect us except the guy was a jerk and I think he undervalued properties due to perhaps increased scrutiny he felt at the time. 3/2013. He told me he couldnât âmeasureâ that the house was constructed with 2 X 6 walls!! Maybe because he knew it was for a re-finance and therefore he did his âchecklistâ to get his fee. We have an appraisal Thursday, and this guy is doing the house measurements himself (the other guy in 2013 sent out his assistant). We also are getting 2.5% interest rate (locked in at another of our credit unions - loan manager said their rates were going up the next day) - we are paying 1/2% loan origination, and the standard closing fees - but they use their own attorney and that is a low #. Interested to see what appraisal will come out to. Most homes being appraised I believe in our area are either staged, decluttered for sale/show ready, empty/new, or not currently lived in with already moved to new place and selling home after. A chore in retirement is to get rid of junk and get organized; either lose weight or toss a lot of clothes. Want to have home looking better for appraisal but will ask for not getting dinged for house contents instead of home value. Our credit union (main office in another city) either picked the appraiser firm, had a list, or delegated this responsibility to an appraiser that gets this done in other areas in the state.
We meet with our Financial guy Don in Feb. Plan to have later in the year meeting with Don after DH starts drawing SS. We believe we are in good shape but always like updated look at our financial picture.
We refinanced about a year ago. We were just looking for a lower rate so no need to maximize our appraisal. In the end home values have soared in our area. They didnât even require an appraisal and instead just went with the âZillowâ estimate to determine we were well under 80% loan to value.
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I asked about avoiding appraisal and this particular credit union always does appraisals. They were aware about some not doing; loan manager said they want to be careful.
Interested in a fair appraisal and we shall see.
We did a refi last year and the appraiser walked in and right back out. Said he didnât even need to come in because the market had skyrocketed, but it was required.
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Appraisals were also deemed unnecessary in some housing markets a few years before '08.
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Re: taxes. H and I are relocating to area where taxes are higher than where we are now. We are not crazy. We are financially able to handle higher taxes ( I realize it is a completely different situation for a lot of folks on more limited budgets. Yes we are privileged). Taxes were not a deal breaker for us. Yes we could move an area with lower taxes, but living in a specific area which has what we are looking for in terms of lifestyle and proximity to family was a higher priority to us.
In addition, when we moved back over to NoVA from Suburban MD years ago we were happy to move to an area where the taxes were somewhat lower - at least for awhile. At some point the taxes went up to support the high growth in the area. Iâm not complaining, but as areas grow that tends to happen. As for schools, we raised our kids in a really good school district and one of our two was able to attend the top US public high school. My SIL in Illinois was meanwhile paying more than us in property taxes on a similar size house and her own kids attended a high school which did not even offer one AP class. So we got a deal IMO. I donât mind moving to new area and paying a bit more as the schools there are also well regarded. Thatâs important to us even though our own kids are grown.
YMMV
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Our property taxes arenât too terrible where we live (we grew up in the northeast so thatâs our frame of reference) but the consumption taxes on sales/restaurant/liquor/gas are very high. We joke that itâs like living in Europe. We feel like itâs a good trade off though in terms of what we have on our doorstep.
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Thatâs a good point. We not only have great schools, but fantastic parks, libraries, etc. The money has to come from somewhere.
My sister lives in a no income tax state. 1. property taxes are high 2. services/schools arenât nearly as good.
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The loan manager pulled up our house on via internet/Zillow or other, and saw that our re-fi is at or less than 1/3 of house value. Didnât matter. Jump through the hoops. This appraiser on the phone sounds like he is interested in spending the time - doing the outside measurements etc.
Has me motivated to organize closets and spaces. One walk in closet and room done last night. Gaining momentum.
I found a small woodworking project via a craft group - low cost activity in an afternoonâs time, that my DH is interested in (he has done a fair amount of woodworking, has a very good workshop and equipment; also has a small carving set) - I told him it was something we can do together. Putting it on the calendar.
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My requirements for a retirement town are different then my requirements for a raise my family town were. Not as concerned with the school system or the daily commuting options. Great library is still very important.
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Absolutely. With work location/traffic, school location/best public schools for home resale plus public school attendance or option, recreational/parks for kids, library, taxes, police, convenience of shopping/grocery and other. Typically real estate is Location, Location, Location on home resale. If you are in retirement home/townhouse/condo want to be able to have it hold value or appreciate some as well - easier to sell when you or your family are ready to do that.
We were in a bad school district (so bad that the city closed that school and built another a bit further away merging two schools which has low income population for school attendance) - original school had military base students which had the school population raising the standard. However less families living on base and choosing to be in better performing schools. We didnât have children at the time, and realized that our home was going to lose value - there was room to build on and we had a nice home situation with inground pool - but after owning 7 1/2 years, we just got out what our original cost basis was, and it took a while to sell. We ended up being almost as convenient of a spot but with the best school district in our area - and the demand is here for selling with appreciation of home value.
There is a couple (DINKs - dual income no kids) that want to buy our home (they live nearby and we have chatted in our front yard, also they sent a note with their phone #/email), but I let them know we will be in the home for quite a while and no plans to sell on the horizon. Once DH decided he wants to stay here. I am fine with being here. Have our medical team all established.
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Part of the problem is that when markets are volatile (either upward or downward), an appraisal based on ârecentâ âcomparableâ sales may be obsolete if ârecentâ was more than a few weeks ago.
Yes! I remind my spouse that while some states have not income tax, they probably also have a lot less services, etc.
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If youâre potentially refinancing a third of what your house is worth why on earth are you worried about the closets or anything else for that matter? Your appraisal could come in at half value and youâd still be good. Maybe you can relax and just let the process happen.
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I am wanting to have the place in good shape - presentable enough. I have a very bad taste in my mouth from the guy we had 10 years ago. Some rooms are still going to not be in terrific shape but it is what it is.