Current Events > Anyone else gonna rent for life?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I dont see any need to buy a house

Its gonna be a waste of money. Im someone who is going to be single for life so I just need a regular small place. People are saying to buy a nice house....but why? Id rather rent than waste hard earned money.
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well you do get all your maintenance and stuff take care of so theres that. i wouldnt want to rent all my life tho
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Your rent payment can go towards a mortgage.
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muchdran posted...

Your rent payment can go towards a mortgage.

You forgot about house insurance and property tax if that isn't included in the mortgage.
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If you get a modest place with a big down payment, you can end up with a paid off house within 10 to 15 years if you try.

That means that you'll have a much lower cost of living since your only obligation for your residence will be the property tax, which is usually a reasonable amount unless you live in a truly awful state like Illinois.

That sets you up for a much more secure financial future because when you don't owe anything to have a roof of your head you can put more money into investments/bank account.
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wouldn't renting be more of a "waste" considering the money is not going into anything long-term?

There are pros and cons to both, though. There's benefits to buying a house or renting. Depends on what you want.
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Yeah.
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Caution999 posted...

wouldn't renting be more of a "waste" considering the money is not going into anything long-term?

There are pros and cons to both, though. There's benefits to buying a house or renting. Depends on what you want.

But I dont care about a long term house for 1 person.

Unless I get a small 1 bedroom house. There is no benefits I can think of honestly. Right now the place I rent has a living room, kitchen, washer/dryer, garage, and 2 bedrooms.

Whats the benefit for a single male to buy from 30s until death?
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Forgot to mention that with a mortgage, you can usually recoup a good deal of the money you put into it when you go to sell the house. Assuming you put down a healthy down payment and bought the property at a good price, you should make money when selling.

Whereas with rent all of that money vanishes. It's fine to rent because most of the maintenance is the landlord's responsibility and your only problem is to pay the rent. In fact for some people/lifestyles it might be better to rent, because you have less worries/responsibilities.

But if you want to be a savvy investor, then owning your own property after putting down a healthy downpayment and paying it off in the next 10-15 years (30 year mortgage is fine if the interest rate is competitive) is a no brainer
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knuxnole posted...

Whats the benefit for a single male to buy from 30s until death?

Can have people over, can do whatever you want without being afraid of making too much noise, you will likely have more money in the long run once your property is paid off and that cash flow is freed up for other things, you can get money back from equity when you need/want/move.
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

Can have people over, can do whatever you want without being afraid of making too much noise

Dont have to worry about that if you rent a house.
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DirkDiggles posted...

FLUFFYGERM posted...

Can have people over, can do whatever you want without being afraid of making too much noise

Dont have to worry about that if you rent a house.

Renting a house is usually not that great since you're going to have to pay for more repairs than if you were renting a condo. But true, you can rent a house and have people over like if you owned it.
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I wanted to own.

Last month my garage door springs snapped. That was about $300 to fix.

A couple months before that my shower started leaking a constant stream from the handle. About $100 to fix.

Two days ago I walked into the laundry room and noticed a big puddle near the water heater. It's leaking from the bottom of the tank. Luckily just one small very slow leak and everything's still working so I can put it off for right now as the leak happened to be right next to the drain in the ground so no worries about water damage, but I'm gonna have to replace it soon and it'll probably be several hundred dollars.

Fuck homeownership.

But on the bright side we are gonna be selling it in the next couple months and the housing market skyrocketed in the last year. We bought it with no down payment two years ago and are set to net $35k to $40k from the sale.
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Rather put the money in stock market than tied up on a down payment
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FLUFFYGERM posted...

Renting a house is usually not that great since you're going to have to pay for more repairs than if you were renting a condo

I've never had to pay out of pocket for anything for repairs in any house I rented Unless I did something reckless and punch a hole in the wall. That is what security deposits are for. If I wanted to beautify it or slap a fresh coat of paint on the walls (with permission of course), then yeah, that would come out of my pocket.
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SaltyWet posted...

Rather put the money in stock market than tied up on a down payment

If your down payment is large enough, you free up so much cash flow from your monthly living expenses that you could get a beefy brokerage account in no time by investing the extra. Plus you have the equity and peace of mind knowing that the money won't be lost.

Mathematically there are certainly situations when it's more efficient to put extra money into the market rather than into a downpayment fund or an emergency fund or etc, but sometimes life is not the optimal mathematical scenario.
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Caution999 posted...

wouldn't renting be more of a "waste" considering the money is not going into anything long-term?

There are pros and cons to both, though. There's benefits to buying a house or renting. Depends on what you want.

Houses are money pits. Interest, insurance, taxes, HOA and maintenance are all waste. Houses can be a good investment but you need to be smart about it and not have bad luck.
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Caution999 posted...

wouldn't renting be more of a "waste" considering the money is not going into anything long-term?

How is owning a home not a waste? You're paying a mortgage.

FLUFFYGERM posted...

knuxnole posted...

Whats the benefit for a single male to buy from 30s until death?

Can have people over, can do whatever you want without being afraid of making too much noise, you will likely have more money in the long run once your property is paid off and that cash flow is freed up for other things, you can get money back from equity when you need/want/move.

I could have people over now tbh

If I buy one house I would want to stay in it forever. I dont wanna move, invest, buy a second house.

Especially if only ONE person is going to live there for the rest of my life. Do people even buy houses for singles intending to stay single forever....?
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Imo renting is better. Landlord pays for all expenses except like electricity, you can move much easier, no repairs needed, no yard work or outer maintenance. I think it depends on lifestyle, but it's less expensive to rent than to own in the long run.

i will rent for life unless something drastically changes with my lifestyle or health.

i am transitioning my lifestyle into one of a digital nomad (i hate that term because it's degenerated into a buzzword recently) and doing extended month to month rentals in various countries soon but i do plan to put aside a portion of the year to reside where i consider home. i am not the type to stay in one place for long periods and a mortgage would constitute a complete contradiction to my personality.

over the past few years i've been embracing this part of my personality and allowing myself to travel for 4-5 months out of the year and it's been very rewarding in many ways. it turns out renting (furnished) month to month or on six month leases are actually just fine and really makes sense with how i want to live my life.

i've experimented with other work that will allow me to travel more but working remote on a computer is where i am most content and at home so that's why i see this going where it's going. it's already going this way if the last few years have been any indicator, i've just been keeping it in the united states.

and before the critics come out of the woodwork my motivator is predominantly new experiences, encounters and exposure to different ways of life. this is not some dark escape or running away from myself like you often see with some of these people with the compulsion to keep moving. wherever you are, there you are.
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