Do you own your home?

Earlier this year my wife & I owned our 1560 square foot house in Sedona, AZ that my father-in-law purchased for us as a wedding gift for $350,000 back in 2019. It was located in a private community about four miles outside of the city in the high desert mountains at 4000 ft. And community cost us $1000 per mo. to live there which included our water, use of the clubhouse, the pool, fitness center & other amenities.

Plus we inherited a three-story rental property in Bullhead City, AZ that was worth well over a million as it stands on three acres of riverfront land. I never actually got to see it but from what I understand it's quite beautiful.

When my father-in-law passed we also inherited his one-third interest in a cabin located on the shore of Lake Arrowhead in California. I never got to go there either but from the pics I've seen of it, the place is awesome.

Unfortunately, because my father-in-law's will was still in probate when my wife died in March & she didn't have a will my mother-in-law & my sister-in-law wound up with all three properties. I tried to fight for the Sedona house but due to reasons I still don't fully understand I lost it to them & had to settle for a financial settlement instead.

So, I've found myself back in my native Buffalo, NY looking for a place to rent. I gave some thought to buying but I don't know if I want to set down permanent roots here. So, a rental it will be for now.
 
I rent, but I own land that intend to build a house on when the time is right.
 
IceCold ADCC said:
If so where do you live, what year did you buy, how big is your house and how much land do you own?

I bought my house in 2012 for about $90,000. It's worth about $140,000 now. Three-bedroom, 2 bath, garage, 1300 sq feet. Sits on 1 acre. Huge backyard. It's slightly above average interior. Needs a little work on the siding.

I have three girls and a wife so I'm honestly thinking about upgrading to a bigger place. My buddy is selling his home, 2200 Sq feet sits on a couple of acres, for about 250k.

I'm still undecided tho because I enjoy the low payment and will have it paid off in less than 10 years. I pull in about 100k a year. My wife makes about 35k, so we do alright especially given our cost of living (North east Oklahoma).

What are you guys and gals living in? What are your thoughts on owning a house?
Click to expand...

Bought home for 415 a few years ago. Its now worth 780k. Market is nuts.
 
Im in Yorkshire, England.

Bought a 2 bed apartment for £120k in 2014 then sold for £195k this year and bought a 3 bed house with a small garden in the suburbs for £290k (about $400k).
 
I don’t own my home, I’m paying off a mortgage which set me back $370,000 for a 4x2, 381 square meter home.
 
The bank owns it legally but if I put it in the market today I pay off the bank plus walk away with more than the original amount financed so sorry Im going to take that as if I own it. I also have enough money in the bank to pay it off but I like to live my life knowing I have a lot of money in the bank and if I dont want to work today, well I just dont and nothing happens!... however at the same time I like living a life knowing I have to pay the mortgage next month... that forces me to be productive, forces me to work... I know myself enough that if I live without any responsibilities I go to a very dark place and I can get self destructive... as it is now, with a few responsibilities (as the mortgage and a couple others) I get fucked up many times so nahhh I like having the mortgage, the responsibility of it keeps me alive
 
Bought a 1500 sq ft, two car garage property in 2018 for £325,000, I'm a builder so renovated it myself for about £6-7000, now valued at £425,000.

Paid most of it off upfront, can't wait for the mortgage to be paid, that's gonna be living right there!

The market here in the UK is stupid, someone famous said it was a housing market with an economy attached and they're not wrong.

Honestly housing should be nationalised, provided at cost or as social housing. People make stupid profit off it. I mean my last house I spent £1000 on a new kitchen, and split a room into two for £500 and that added £20,000 to the price of the house. That's nonsense.
 
Yep got it 5 years ago.

3 bedroom condo in downtown Taipei about 1600 sqft valued around 750k USD (prices here are crazy) own it outright no mortgage. I converted it to 2 bedroom with open kitchen. It's just me and wife, so space is definitely enough, but if kids are on the way, I will get a bigger place.

Interesting to note about real estate in Taiwan and China is that it seems everyone wants to buy and few wants to rent so supply/demand make it cheap to rent and pricey to ow.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
Earlier this year my wife & I owned our 1560 square foot house in Sedona, AZ that my father-in-law purchased for us as a wedding gift for $350,000 back in 2019. It was located in a private community about four miles outside of the city in the high desert mountains at 4000 ft. And community cost us $1000 per mo. to live there which included our water, use of the clubhouse, the pool, fitness center & other amenities.

Plus we inherited a three-story rental property in Bullhead City, AZ that was worth well over a million as it stands on three acres of riverfront land. I never actually got to see it but from what I understand it's quite beautiful.

When my father-in-law passed we also inherited his one-third interest in a cabin located on the shore of Lake Arrowhead in California. I never got to go there either but from the pics I've seen of it, the place is awesome.

Unfortunately, because my father-in-law's will was still in probate when my wife died in March & she didn't have a will my mother-in-law & my sister-in-law wound up with all three properties. I tried to fight for the Sedona house but due to reasons I still don't fully understand I lost it to them & had to settle for a financial settlement instead.

So, I've found myself back in my native Buffalo, NY looking for a place to rent. I gave some thought to buying but I don't know if I want to set down permanent roots here. So, a rental it will be for now.
Click to expand...

I still don't understand how that happened to you.

In Arizona, if you are married, and you die without a valid Will, your surviving spouse will inherit your one-half of the community property and all of your separate property if you have no children or if you have children only from your current marriage. However, if you have children from a prior marriage, your one-half of the community property will be distributed to your children ONLY. Your surviving spouse will NOT inherit any of your one-half share of the community property. Furthermore, your surviving spouse will only inherit one-half of your separate property and all of your children will divide the other one-half of your separate property.
Click to expand...
https://www.bivenslaw.com/elder-law...-die-without-a-will-my-spouse-or-my-children/

I don't see anywhere that the mother or siblings would be entitled to anything.
 
I have a unit in Brisbane, a house in my current location, and a 2 story mezzanine house I live in.

Own 2 of them, negatively gearing the third.
 
ralphc1 said:
I still don't understand how that happened to you.


https://www.bivenslaw.com/elder-law...-die-without-a-will-my-spouse-or-my-children/

I don't see anywhere that the mother or siblings would be entitled to anything.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I basically got screwed, bro. I wasn't in the mental state to deal with a long court battle after my wife's death & my in-laws took total advantage of that. It was a convoluted case because our house was still in my father-in-law's name when he died & he hadn't adjusted his will to reflect that it was to go to my wife upon his death. So, his will was still in probate when my wife passed just nine months after he did & it was a legal mess. I could have done much better had I been willing to fight it out in court but I wasn't. Therefore, I took the quick payoff option. Six months further down the road, I'm realizing how badly I handled it but there's no going back.
 
3 bed, 2.5 bath townhouse.

Paid $787k, just under 2 years ago.
Bank values it at $1.08 million (just refinanced).


Wife and 2 kids under 6, maybe upgrade to something bigger when they are teens but otherwise no reason to change.

Buying it was an excellent decision.
I timed the market near perfectly, twas mostly but not entirely luck.
 
yes, yes i do own my own home.

R.ef0e03e2db149ba94ce068ffedd7da43
 
I bought a nearly 30 year old house for 330k in 2006, about to sell is for about a mill (total and utter BS market) Just moved into a new home (last Thursday) 342 sq meters (3681sq ft) home a couple of suburbs away that I have been renovating.

Still have a couple of hundred grand worth of renovations planned but after selling my old house, I should only owe 300k'ish on this one which is nothing these days.
 
Bought in 2015 for 400k. It's currently worth about 1mil.

Also, this notion that you don't own your home if you have a mortgage is nonsense. If your home increases in value, it is you as homeowner who reaps 100% of that benefit. A mortgage is simply a loan secured against your house.
 
Yep and many others. Coincidentally am closing on another new build in under twenty days, bought last year at 650, a smaller property just sold for 1.1 with no upgrades and unfinished basement. Mine is done up. Contemplating selling vs. renting.
 
Yes. I inherited it from my grandparents and renovated/turned it into a duplex for a rental property. I live in an apartment an hour and a half away in another city while I try out a new job but on days off, I return and live in the half I have set up for myself. My girlfriend lives at the duplex full time and my tenant is an older guy who’s not around much. Very well insulated and private, we never hear him.

My mother is also about to leave my childhood family home. Nice place, ~12 acres, large garage and shop on site, ect. She’s going to be moving into an apartment. She’s 76 and it’s too much work for her. Once that happens, I will transition into my family home part time and rent the half in living in out of the duplex too. I will be paying my moms rent as part of the arrangement to the deed of the family home. She’s moving into a seniors specific apartment complex (76 years old).

I spent approx 75k, borrowing 20 for the duplex renovations which I did a lot of the work on myself. I’m very lucky to be in the situation I am. 200k will get you a very nice home here
 
I retired 5 months ago and we bought our retirement house in the countryside. Paid it with savings so we’re mortgage free. Just shy of 3,000 sq ft and a good size lot, overlooking the St-Lawrence river.
 
Bought mine in 2007 for $224,900. 1660 sq ft. sitting on a few acres, mostly wooded. About 1.5 acres cleared and manicured.

Was upside down a whole lot come the 2008 crash, but because of the precious metals markets in 2012 I was able to offload a ton of silver and gold at their all time highs and pay off about 85% of both my mortgage and my student loans.

House is currently worth about $350k.
 
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