Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > What makes you happy?

What makes you happy? (Page 2)
Thread Tools
knifecarrier2  (op)
Baninated
Join Date: Mar 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 21, 2012, 05:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Our definitions of "nice" might be a bit different, $100K won't get you that. My property will increase in value. A 15 year old Audi won't.
And every car has a negative cashflow attached to it.
Actually... I bought it for 7500, and 2 years after that, cars in similar condition with similar mileage were going for 10k on ebay. Now... I did just spend a lot on paint... so I won't get it back YET, but considering there are less than 300 S6 Avants in the country and the paint is STELLAR now, as long as it stays mechanically nice I don't see the value ever dropping on it. Numbers wise it's more rare than most ferraris.
     
shifuimam
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: The deep backwoods of the PNW
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 21, 2012, 05:49 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post

Prices for properties don't always increase. Especially if you adjust for inflation and include the additional incurred costs due to your mortgage. Owning a car is a necessity to many, and owning a 15-year old car which you repair yourself seems much more cost effective than buying a new one.
Also there's the fact that people are a lot less likely to stay in one place for decades. If you only put $5k down on, say, a $100k house (which is impossible in NOVA but completely feasible in the Midwest), you have barely any equity and there's no guarantee your house will increase in value over the next three to five years following the purchase.

Which means that if shit happens and you need or want to move, you can end up losing money when you sell your house. A lot of money.

I get flak from people for being almost 30 and still renting. In an area where the median single family home price is in the $700k-$1mil range, though, I think we're doing pretty good for ourselves by renting. BF still has a house he's trying to get rid of - and because of plummeting home values, we're not even banking on breaking even when the house does sell.
Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
     
knifecarrier2  (op)
Baninated
Join Date: Mar 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 21, 2012, 07:48 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
Also there's the fact that people are a lot less likely to stay in one place for decades. If you only put $5k down on, say, a $100k house (which is impossible in NOVA but completely feasible in the Midwest), you have barely any equity and there's no guarantee your house will increase in value over the next three to five years following the purchase.

Which means that if shit happens and you need or want to move, you can end up losing money when you sell your house. A lot of money.

I get flak from people for being almost 30 and still renting. In an area where the median single family home price is in the $700k-$1mil range, though, I think we're doing pretty good for ourselves by renting. BF still has a house he's trying to get rid of - and because of plummeting home values, we're not even banking on breaking even when the house does sell.
My ex's sister purchased a house a few years ago. They had a kid. Wanted to raise a family. Then he was laid off. 2009 happened. Then they had to move to a different city. The house was on the market for almost a year. They lost about $40,000 on it. Ouch.
     
Laminar
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 01:51 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Prices for properties don't always increase.
Perhaps you missed the point of my post - owning a car is rarely an investment and in nearly all cases, the value of the car depreciates. This is not true of most properties, especially if you consider long-term ownership.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 02:09 AM
 
Meh. I bought a house last year, and made well over 30 grand on it a few months back. Tax-free of course. No, turtle, it wasn't "owned" - LOL - but it was still 30-odd thousand dollars in my pocket after a year, as opposed to $1300/month rent. Not a bad way to supplement the income a little and stick a chunk of money into the savings portfolio.

Sure, it's not always the wisest move - but anyone can be smart about finding an under-utilized and poorly-designed house, and then fixing those problems to suddenly make it very attractive. Especially someone with Rob's undeniable talent for design and working with their hands - I'm a complete amateur in comparison.

I guess it always depends on the time and place.
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
Face Ache
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jul 2001
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 03:04 AM
 
I made good money flipping houses for ten years. Not a great market these days though.
     
turtle777
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: planning a comeback !
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 05:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I get flak from people for being almost 30 and still renting.
Pfff, you're doing just fine. I have been renting for years, although I could afford a house.
I just wanted to keep my flexibility in the job market, and it has served me very well.

I have former colleagues who had to take a significant hit to their career because they couldn't move because of their houses being underwater.

-t
     
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Great White North
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 02:07 PM
 
I think Stability is something that makes me happy. Honesty, solid friendships as well.
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
mattyb
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Standing on the shoulders of giants
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 02:15 PM
 
Not bothered searching, but IIRC, there's an economist that put forward the argument about an economy would be better if more people rented - dynamic job markets, less overall debt etc. instead of buying.

Cooking-up a BBQ with beer in hand in your own back-yard makes me pretty happy as well.
     
Shaddim
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: 46 & 2
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 02:31 PM
 
Home again... that makes me happy.
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
     
kimosABE
Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Aug 2012
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 02:51 PM
 
Being de-banned from the PWL. THAT makes me happy!

     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 03:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Perhaps you missed the point of my post - owning a car is rarely an investment and in nearly all cases, the value of the car depreciates. This is not true of most properties, especially if you consider long-term ownership.
No, I didn't miss it, and in my opinion, I have addressed that point: I wrote that (especially in the US), a car is a necessity but not an investment. And owning an old used car which you repair yourself is probably the most cost-effective solution.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 05:55 PM
 
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I get flak from people for being almost 30 and still renting. In an area where the median single family home price is in the $700k-$1mil range, though, I think we're doing pretty good for ourselves by renting. BF still has a house he's trying to get rid of - and because of plummeting home values, we're not even banking on breaking even when the house does sell.
It's just that most Americans are used to the idea that they »own« stuff (well, in most cases, the bank owns the majority of the house you live in). My hostmom, for instance, would move quite a bit, but with the exception of a rather short period, she'd always buy a house. Took her ~45 minutes to spontaneously buy a house.

In Germany, buying a house is expensive, you usually pay in the low 5 digits (the amount depends on the amount you pay for the house) to just have your contract certified by a notary. And in many cases, people pay for experts to check the structure of the house (4 digits). If you buy a house or an apartment, you want to keep it for a long time (decades).

Edit: I was off by an order of magnitude, sorry. People pay >10,000 € for the notary and >1,000 € for the building inspection.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
Laminar
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 09:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
No, I didn't miss it, and in my opinion, I have addressed that point: I wrote that (especially in the US), a car is a necessity but not an investment. And owning an old used car which you repair yourself is probably the most cost-effective solution.
I agree. But that's not relevant to the discussion.
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 22, 2012, 09:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
I agree. But that's not relevant to the discussion.
I think it is pertinent to the discussion: I read this post as you saying that Rob should »stop wasting his money on a car and a boat« and use the money as a down payment for a house. And my argument was that the money he put in the car (a necessity, unlike the boat) was actually prudently spent.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 02:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Originally Posted by shifuimam View Post
I get flak from people for being almost 30 and still renting. In an area where the median single family home price is in the $700k-$1mil range, though, I think we're doing pretty good for ourselves by renting. BF still has a house he's trying to get rid of - and because of plummeting home values, we're not even banking on breaking even when the house does sell.
In Germany, buying a house is expensive, you usually pay in the low 6 digits (the amount depends on the amount you pay for the house) to just have your contract certified by a notary. And in many cases, people pay for experts to check the structure of the house (5 digits). If you buy a house or an apartment, you want to keep it for a long time (decades).
Errrr.....not sure if I read that right. Was this in euros? Over 100,000.00 just to have an agreement of purchase and sale certified? And over 10,000.00 for a simple home inspection that takes less than a day?

Is this a guild or something?
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
Uncle Skeleton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Rockville, MD
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 02:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
I agree. But that's not relevant to the discussion.
I think it is pertinent to the discussion: I read this post as you saying that Rob should »stop wasting his money on a car and a boat« and use the money as a down payment for a house. And my argument was that the money he put in the car (a necessity, unlike the boat) was actually prudently spent.
No it means that X is not out of reach if Y is not out of reach and X and Y cost the same
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 04:28 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Errrr.....not sure if I read that right. Was this in euros? Over 100,000.00 just to have an agreement of purchase and sale certified? And over 10,000.00 for a simple home inspection that takes less than a day?
Is this a guild or something?
Sorry, I was off by an order of magnitude: I meant that the feels are usually in excess of 10,000 € (not 100,000 €). And that's not for the inspection, that's for the notary. An inspection (which is voluntary, but often makes sense if you buy older houses) costs you several thousand €.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 04:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton View Post
No it means that X is not out of reach if Y is not out of reach and X and Y cost the same
That makes more sense, thanks for clearing that up. However, I'm curious, can you really get a mortgage with a down payment of only $10,000~$15,000? That's either one very cheap house or a very, very low down payment.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 05:22 PM
 
Yeah. Crazy. Generally in Canada, legal costs for a house transaction average around $1000 or less. Housing inspections give or take around $500. (After all, that is an inspection that takes about 5 hours to do, including prep and report time.) The only big fees are of course realtor fees, if applicable.

Crazy that they cost so much there. Different system, I suppose.....sounds simply like pure price gouging to me, though.
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Great White North
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 06:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Yeah. Crazy. Generally in Canada, legal costs for a house transaction average around $1000 or less. Housing inspections give or take around $500. (After all, that is an inspection that takes about 5 hours to do, including prep and report time.) The only big fees are of course realtor fees, if applicable.
Crazy that they cost so much there. Different system, I suppose.....sounds simply like pure price gouging to me, though.
Closing costs for a typical house in Vancouver is in the 60-80k range if you factor in all legal fees, inspections, and taxes. Condo's in the 30-40k range....
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
OreoCookie
Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 07:17 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Yeah. Crazy. Generally in Canada, legal costs for a house transaction average around $1000 or less. Housing inspections give or take around $500.
Note that the inspections I'm referring to are not mandatory, but if you spend €300k-500k (or more in some cases), you really want to know what shape the house is in and it is prudent to hire an expert. (Houses in Germany are built to last an eternity and then some, so if you move to an older house, you may have to put in some money before moving in.)

Also mortgages are much harder to get, it takes a long time to prepare a purchase and unless you're working for the state, you have to cough up some serious cash (unless you live in the countryside). These days, average people living in urban areas and who are not working for the state have a really hard time to afford buying reasonably-sized real estate in the first place.

All of this contributes to making real estate an asset you keep a long time while to my observation in the US you sell your house and then buy a new one.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
Uncle Skeleton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Rockville, MD
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 23, 2012, 08:38 PM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton View Post
No it means that X is not out of reach if Y is not out of reach and X and Y cost the same
That makes more sense, thanks for clearing that up. However, I'm curious, can you really get a mortgage with a down payment of only $10,000~$15,000? That's either one very cheap house or a very, very low down payment.
My internet sleuthing suggests that is about 7% down payment. Five years ago, that was common here, even 3.5% was a thing people do (but you had to pay extra "mortgage insurance" until you bring the loan down to 80%, which in my mind totally kills the deal). Today, you would probably not get approved. Next year, who knows? Note also, Lam didn't say it was the "out the door" cost, merely the down payment. However, it is certainly far less dire than "forever out of reach."

All of this contributes to making real estate an asset you keep a long time while to my observation in the US you sell your house and then buy a new one.
That is by design. The observation that only empire-builders had the ability to own real estate was the "problem," and Fannie Mae was the "solution" (pooling the risks from lending with enough leverage to let people like knifecarrier and Laminar get their foot in the door). If the vast majority of us mobile American road warriors were forever treating houses like we treat rental cars (shabbily), then (it was thought) there was room for improvement if only more of us had skin in the game (the game of not wrecking things). Of course, this "fix" is ultimately futile, because it leads directly to increased prices, negating the increased accessibility from super-charged lending. But before the other shoe drops, we do enjoy the rewards of our newly (briefly?) expanded ownership culture...

... so if houses live so long over there, what is stopping all the renters from smashing things up?
     
Laminar
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Iowa, how long can this be? Does it really ruin the left column spacing?
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 24, 2012, 01:30 AM
 
Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton View Post
That is by design. The observation that only empire-builders had the ability to own real estate was the "problem," and Fannie Mae was the "solution" (pooling the risks from lending with enough leverage to let people like knifecarrier and Laminar get their foot in the door).
Meh...a couple years of saving and I could have paid cash for something. We had only been saving up for a few months at that point but the perfect house popped up and we jumped on it. Glad we did. Refinanced this year to a 15 year at an even lower rate.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 24, 2012, 06:05 AM
 
Originally Posted by Athens View Post
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Yeah. Crazy. Generally in Canada, legal costs for a house transaction average around $1000 or less. Housing inspections give or take around $500. (After all, that is an inspection that takes about 5 hours to do, including prep and report time.) The only big fees are of course realtor fees, if applicable.
Crazy that they cost so much there. Different system, I suppose.....sounds simply like pure price gouging to me, though.
Closing costs for a typical house in Vancouver is in the 60-80k range if you factor in all legal fees, inspections, and taxes. Condo's in the 30-40k range....
Bullshit. You don't know what you're talking about, as usual.

That amount includes realtor fees, which are usually at least 5% of a sale price. Those are paid by a vendor, if a realtor(s) is involved. Legal fees are no more than $1000 in Vancouver.

GST applies only to new houses, and property transfer tax (if it applies) is no more than a couple percent.
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 24, 2012, 08:18 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Yeah. Crazy. Generally in Canada, legal costs for a house transaction average around $1000 or less. Housing inspections give or take around $500.
Note that the inspections I'm referring to are not mandatory, but if you spend €300k-500k (or more in some cases), you really want to know what shape the house is in and it is prudent to hire an expert. (Houses in Germany are built to last an eternity and then some, so if you move to an older house, you may have to put in some money before moving in.)
Yes. I'm in an older area of Canada and home inspections are recommended but not mandatory on houses here. I've gotten two in the past year or so - wouldn't buy a house without my inspector having a look first.
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Great White North
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 24, 2012, 12:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Bullshit. You don't know what you're talking about, as usual.
That amount includes realtor fees, which are usually at least 5% of a sale price. Those are paid by a vendor, if a realtor(s) is involved. Legal fees are no more than $1000 in Vancouver.
GST applies only to new houses, and property transfer tax (if it applies) is no more than a couple percent.
2% on a 750 000 home is $15000 alone for the property transfer tax, which does apply.
Mortgage Insurance Premium @ 2% $13,236

HST on a new home of the 750 000 range even with the rebate credit still leaves a tax bill of 40k

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/tools/mortgage/rentvsbuy.html

Vancouver Sun Calculator put a $750 000 home at 80k for closing costs with HST and $20k with out HST
Blandine Bureau 1940 - 2011
Missed 2012 by 3 days, RIP Grandma :-(
     
ShortcutToMoncton
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: The Rock
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 24, 2012, 05:07 PM
 
Well, it was specifically mentioned to be old homes - but you're right, if you add 5% GST to a brand-new build it gets higher, but (at least under the HST system) that tax is specifically paid for by the builder and simply factored into the price of the home and is thus not a closing cost. Is it different under GST?
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
andi*pandi
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: inside 128, north of 90
Status: Online
Reply With Quote
Aug 27, 2012, 11:52 AM
 
Doc HM, can I be friends with your friends with the lake island? Looks lovely.

Stayed this weekend at a lake in maine. In a kayak, in the middle of a quiet lake, looking up at an eagle, I was happy. No one was bugging me to do things, or making messes for me to tidy, or randomly revising my web designs. The sky was blue. The water was crisp. The eagle looked like he had a good life up there in the clouds.

Permanent lake house not in the cards for me though.
     
Doc HM
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: UKland
Status: Offline
Reply With Quote
Aug 27, 2012, 12:21 PM
 
Originally Posted by andi*pandi View Post
Doc HM, can I be friends with your friends with the lake island? Looks lovely.
Stayed this weekend at a lake in maine. In a kayak, in the middle of a quiet lake, looking up at an eagle, I was happy. No one was bugging me to do things, or making messes for me to tidy, or randomly revising my web designs. The sky was blue. The water was crisp. The eagle looked like he had a good life up there in the clouds.
Permanent lake house not in the cards for me though.
Tell me about it.

Recent lake near our friends one came up for sale recently. Was about a 10th the size of this one with planning permission for a holiday house. Went for £800,000.

Dreams!
This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
     
 
Thread Tools
 
Forum Links
Forum Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Top
Privacy Policy
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 11:43 AM.
All contents of these forums © 1995-2017 MacNN. All rights reserved.
Branding + Design: www.gesamtbild.com
vBulletin v.3.8.8 © 2000-2017, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.,