First, I know exactly what Greg is talking about having been there myself a couple of times, but he didn't finish the sentiment in his statement. Yes, you reach points of despair, but there also comes a point where you see the finish line, and when you come out the other side, it feels great. We have bought 2 old houses in the past that nobody else would touch. People thought we were crazy I'm sure. We could see past the piles of garbage, the filth, the the crappiness to see the potential. Our first house was $4000. We lived there happily after a summer of fixing it up, and then some ongoing improvements for 3 years. Even after the repair costs we doubled our money on the place, and didn't even have to list it to sell it. The second, another bank repo, was on a bigger scale because it was "in town" and a bigger house. Even in this market we sold it in two weeks after living there 6 years and doing improvements, for 4 times what we paid. We took the money we made in cash, bought some beautiful land where an old house had burned down a few years ago (but had a new well & septic), found a repo'd mini home and have been working on that all summer. Mind you, the bigger task was the setup and preparing the neglected land - the mini home is actually not bad, just needed some new flooring & paint mostly. Suffice it to say that when we're done here it should be worth at least 3 times what we have invested, well into the 6 figure range - and we will have no mortgage, having paid for it with profits from the last place. But again, nobody was interested in the mini home we bought because it was repo'd, dirty, in a very bad spot, and "had to be moved". Now, it's (almost) renovated, fresh & clean, on some nice country acreage, and we own it outright.
TL,DR Moral of Story: Yes old houses & mobiles can be frustrating and sometimes soul sucking, but with enough persistence the end result can be well worth it, especially when you don't have a large income to being with. Sweat equity can be a real asset in the end.
feeeeline wrote:Greg... this isn't my first barbecue. I apologize for being flippant, and I genuinely appreciate and am taking to heart what you're saying... but with all due respect, you, like me, do not have enough information about the situation to go on. I concur that the task ahead of me is incredibly stressful. I also apologize for my choice of words "no alternative". Lets just say that the available alternatives, with the time and money constraints I was dealing with, my life experience/skills/resources led me to believe that this was by far the most attractive option that I could come up with.Greg S wrote:
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There are always alternatives but often people can not see past the one directly in front of them. They then mistakenly take it for their only option regardless of how bad a decision it may be.
You have likely taken on a money pit that will not only consume your money but eventually your spirit as well. I have seen this many times.
Owning a home becomes a anchor that pulls you down, drains your financial and emotional resources and prevents you from moving forward.
I view life from a realists perspective.
I'm not sure, by what you wrote, that you think this is about "home ownership". If you were thinking along those lines, I assure you, that's not what this was about.
You've given me something to think about, and for that, my sincere thanks.
I'll forgive you blocking or ignoring the rest of my posts.
