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Old 04-20-2007, 07:44 AM   #2 (permalink)
braisler
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Location: Midway, KY
Buy it. Get into the market now! Don't waste another cent on rent. I bought my first house when I was 19. It was the best decision I ever made. I thought at the time that I would be in that location for at least another 3 years, so it made sense for me. I ended up being there for 11 years. In that time, the value of my house went up 150%.

I would take issue with a few of your 'cons' on the side of not buying. Selling a house is EASY and can be fun. Realtors like to make it harder than it needs to be or at least make it seem like this impossibly complex process that only they can help you get through. It isn't. I have sold two of my houses for sale by owner now. Saved THOUSANDS of dollars, no hassles at all. The fun comes in mostly when you realize that you are going to make $50000 on the deal. That is completely possible if appreciation is decent in your area and you are willing to put in the sweat equity to make some repairs and improvements to the place.

Being a homeowner will teach you lots of things. About how to repair things, how to budget, about yourself as a person. It is certainly not for everyone. Your level of involvement in repair and maintenance will be directly reflected in how much money you will have to pour into the place. If you can do some or all of the labor yourself, you can get most projects done for pretty reasonable amounts of money. And you will have an enormous amount of pride in accomplishing the work yourself.

Homeowner's insurance is an expense, but shouldn't be much more than you are paying now for renter's insurance. Or are you one of the large percentage of renter's who don't have renter's insurance?

Chicks dig financially stable guys! Well, maybe that depends on the kind of chick you are trying to date. Still, there is a point of pride in being able to tell the chick you are chatting up that you could have her over to your house sometime. Yeah, your house, you don't rent it.
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