i have a question about home ownership. having been a home owner for most of my adult life i now find myself renting. i'm now divorced. kid is grown and on her own. she's educated and married. no worries there. decent retirement pension if i ever chose to retire with a fair amount of cash invested having come out of the divorce. there's enough to either buy outright or lay down a good chunk of cash on a down payment. after being raised with a value of home ownership, i'm now questioning its worth. i find myself really enjoying the freedom of no home upkeep. no huge yard to tend to....no maintenance...no lost weekends because some bullshit problem cropped up that needs fixing. i do enjoy traveling. grabbing a backpack and jumping a plane to florida or wherever for the weekend. it's really kind of nice. what i do miss is having a heated garage for all my tools and equipment. i've started thinking about renting a heated garage for just that and keeping my apartment. 

on the flip side i kind of miss having my own home. waking up in the morning, brewing some coffee, and starting a project or two. life is always filled with trade offs. anyway....you guys have any thoughts about this? i hear the occasional excitement of someone buying a home....yet there seems to be some gripes about owning the albatross. so???

If my kids were grown and gone I would be renting a nice ass apartment,  and a heated storage garage,.. travel more, enjoy life, do somethings you have always wanted to spin_dry.. The hard part about the travel is having a girlfriend or a buddy who is able to to the same..

Wow... lots of variables and unique to each person and location.

If you have enough cash to buy a house outright and invest it wisely you may have enough invested that it will earn a ROI that will cover your rent and monthly living expenses.

If you buy a house outright you will deplete that cash but you will likely see the value of that house rise at a rate higher than you could earn investing the money.

If you buy a new house as opposed to an old resale the condition should mean quite a number of years without any significant maintenance.

On a new house the heating / cooling costs would likely be lower than an old house due to better insulation freeing some cash to enjoy retirement with.

If you own the house you can at some point in time get a reverse mortgage and unlock the equity in the house to spend and still stay living in the house.

Dependent on the location a yard can be a plus. In Toronto the back yard is never used and is just another piece of grass to maintain. At the lake we spend so much more time even just sitting outside than we do in Toronto.

There tends always be something you can putter with in a house to occupy your time in retirement vs bouncing off the walls in an apartment particularly during the in between seasons where it tends to be cold and damp a lot.

I have no problem with home maintenance, I enjoy it as well. Having said that I'm looking for a condo upon retirement because I plan on traveling and don't want to even think about outdoor type stuff when I'm away.

Well you could rent a home.  

Stay where you are, and find a nice young good looking nymphomaniac, that has a nice garage. Ask for pictures of the garage before commiting.

46 minutes ago, spin_dry said:

i have a question about home ownership. having been a home owner for most of my adult life i now find myself renting. i'm now divorced. kid is grown and on her own. she's educated and married. no worries there. decent retirement pension if i ever chose to retire with a fair amount of cash invested having come out of the divorce. there's enough to either buy outright or lay down a good chunk of cash on a down payment. after being raised with a value of home ownership, i'm now questioning its worth. i find myself really enjoying the freedom of no home upkeep. no huge yard to tend to....no maintenance...no lost weekends because some bullshit problem cropped up that needs fixing. i do enjoy traveling. grabbing a backpack and jumping a plane to florida or wherever for the weekend. it's really kind of nice. what i do miss is having a heated garage for all my tools and equipment. i've started thinking about renting a heated garage for just that and keeping my apartment. 

on the flip side i kind of miss having my own home. waking up in the morning, brewing some coffee, and starting a project or two. life is always filled with trade offs. anyway....you guys have any thoughts about this? i hear the occasional excitement of someone buying a home....yet there seems to be some gripes about owning the albatross. so???

How old are you?

31 minutes ago, Frostynuts said:

Stay where you are, and find a nice young good looking nymphomaniac, that has a nice garage. Ask for pictures of the garage before commiting.

3 minutes ago, Mainecat said:

How old are you?

57 

33 minutes ago, Frostynuts said:

Stay where you are, and find a nice young good looking nymphomaniac, that has a nice garage. Ask for pictures of the garage before commiting.

She's young and sweet. unfortunately she didn't come with a garage. her various other assets make up for it.

Just now, spin_dry said:

57 

Your getting to an age where taking care of property is a pain in the ass or cuts into your happy time.

have you considered a condo with a garage? We have many here that are over 55 semi detached that have a 2 car garage and everything outside is taken care of.

For your situation and age why would you want to live somewhere that you need or want a heated garage?  Winter's suck at your age.  At 57 I would assume retirements a year or 2 away.  Sell the tools and shit that you would want to keep in a garage cause it's not likely you need tool and shit.  Buy a condo someplace warm

Edited March 12, 20179 yr by BOHICA

Condo with a full basement, and a garage. 

 

 

 

27 minutes ago, BOHICA said:

For your situation and age why would you want to live somewhere that you need or want a heated garage?  Winter's suck at your age.  At 57 I would assume retirements a year or 2 away.  Sell the tools and shit that you would want to keep in a garage cause it's not likely by living in an apartment you really need them for anything.  Buy a condo or some shit someplace warm

Kind of what I was thinking. Screw the cold.  If you have nothing keeping you up north, why stay?

11 minutes ago, SVT Renegade XRS said:

Condo with a full basement, and a garage. 

 

 

 

I would have to have a garage and pool.

We are going down to Florida at the end of the month to look around.

3 minutes ago, Cold War said:

Kind of what I was thinking. Screw the cold.  If you have nothing keeping you up north, why stay?

I would have to have a garage and pool.

We are going down to Florida at the end of the month to look around.

Lots of condo places have pools   Wouldn't be a must have for me.  Garage and basement, absolutely a must 

4 minutes ago, SVT Renegade XRS said:

Lots of condo places have pools   Wouldn't be a must have for me.  Garage and basement, absolutely a must 

That is what I told the wife.  I am not moving into anything that doesn't have a garage. 

2 hours ago, Mainecat said:

Your getting to an age where taking care of property is a pain in the ass or cuts into your happy time.

have you considered a condo with a garage? We have many here that are over 55 semi detached that have a 2 car garage and everything outside is taken care of.

 

34 minutes ago, SVT Renegade XRS said:

Condo with a full basement, and a garage. 

 

 

 

I agree with this line of thinking. If you're going to be gone frequently on adventures itd be nice to not have to worry about shoveling, plowing, lawn care, etc and you'd have others around to keep an eye on things as well, plus a condo is basically an apartment that your own anyways.

I'm tired of working on houses. For me I think renting a nice apartment or condo. That way if I don't like it or my neighbors or want to move to another state I don't have anything holding me back. 

3 hours ago, spin_dry said:

i have a question about home ownership. having been a home owner for most of my adult life i now find myself renting. i'm now divorced. kid is grown and on her own. she's educated and married. no worries there. decent retirement pension if i ever chose to retire with a fair amount of cash invested having come out of the divorce. there's enough to either buy outright or lay down a good chunk of cash on a down payment. after being raised with a value of home ownership, i'm now questioning its worth. i find myself really enjoying the freedom of no home upkeep. no huge yard to tend to....no maintenance...no lost weekends because some bullshit problem cropped up that needs fixing. i do enjoy traveling. grabbing a backpack and jumping a plane to florida or wherever for the weekend. it's really kind of nice. what i do miss is having a heated garage for all my tools and equipment. i've started thinking about renting a heated garage for just that and keeping my apartment. 

on the flip side i kind of miss having my own home. waking up in the morning, brewing some coffee, and starting a project or two. life is always filled with trade offs. anyway....you guys have any thoughts about this? i hear the occasional excitement of someone buying a home....yet there seems to be some gripes about owning the albatross. so???

i will be in a nice downtown condo for my next place.  once the kids are gone i don;t need a big ass place,  value wise i won;t save much but walking to everything is what i want.  

15 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

i will be in a nice downtown condo for my next place.  once the kids are gone i don;t need a big ass place,  value wise i won;t save much but walking to everything is what i want.  

Yup.. i went from a 3000+ sq ft house to 1000sq ft....just under an acre of land and a half decent size garage.....owning a big house empty is a huge waste of money.

19 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

i will be in a nice downtown condo for my next place.  once the kids are gone i don;t need a big ass place,  value wise i won;t save much but walking to everything is what i want.  

Portsmouth?

4 minutes ago, ckf said:

Portsmouth?

only because i won't live in mass,  newburyport would actually be my preference with a boat parked down on the river

9 minutes ago, Angry ginger said:

only because i won't live in mass,  newburyport would actually be my preference with a boat parked down on the river

I'm sure you could find a place to keep a boat somewhere around Portsmouth.

29 minutes ago, Dave said:

Yup.. i went from a 3000+ sq ft house to 1000sq ft....just under an acre of land and a half decent size garage.....owning a big house empty is a huge waste of money.

Honestly the ol lady I are thinking of just building a 1200 or 1300 Sq ft 3 bedroom ranch with a walkout basement and radiant heat on a big chunk of land. I grew up in less than a 900 sqft single wide most of my life and she not much better and it'd be way easier to heat and it'd be paid for in half the time.

Edited March 12, 20179 yr by GGNHL

16 minutes ago, ckf said:

I'm sure you could find a place to keep a boat somewhere around Portsmouth.

newburyport the marinas are litterally in the middle of downtown,  very few places walking distance to downtown portsmouth to dock a boat.  

 

As I get older, simplicity keeps getting more and more important.  A townhouse with a garage would be the way to go IMO.  Renting would be a possibility is the numbers made sense.  I'm not a big fan of apartment style condos.  Having an 8 member Indian family with their continuous pot of curry simmering on the stove living across the hall doesn't appeal to me.