Why Rent When You Can Own

Why Rent when you can own for around the same price or cheaper.

1. Get more space for the money, typically when you rent you pay a lot of money for not as much space as you could have for the same money. 

2.When you are paying rent, you are covering someone else’s mortgage payment. (If the house is not already paid off)  If the house is paid off its straight cash into your landlords pocket.  If you don’t own or want to own, you are probably thinking I don’t want the responsibility if things go wrong or you don’t want to take care of the lawn or maintenance. 

3.You can easily purchase a home warranty at closing that will take care of most appliances or items in the home that go wrong(items that could be costly repairs).  If a warranty is purchased, there is a minimal fee to have a technician come out to fix the items for a fraction of the price opposed to not having a warranty and potentially paying a ton of money to an unknown company to get the items fixed.  If you don’t want to take care of the lawn, buy a home with a small yard or pay a teenager $20 to mow your yard or look at condos that take care of the mowing for you. 

4.As a home owner you could save money on your taxes, receiving deductions for interest paid on a mortgage and many other possible deductions for owning.  If you stay in the home long enough to pay it off, then you only owe taxes and insurance, which could be minimal- saving you hundreds or thousands monthly. 

5.With owning you have the potential to build equity in the home- doesn’t always happen, but could!  6.Also, some landlords are extremely strict and don’t let you personalize the home by painting or hanging pictures or don’t allow pets. You can avoid landlords, and become the owner by purchasing and making your own rules.  Since it will be your own place you can do whatever you please, inside and out. (within reason if you live in an HOA with restrictions) 

7.FHA has a lot of programs currently that allow as little as 3% down payment to purchase a home, making it a little more affordable for everyone to own a home. If you negotiate to have the seller pay closing costs and the house qualifies for FHA you will have very little money tied up in the house right off the bat.

 

My thought- if you have to pay to live somewhere, you should be paying your own mortgage payment down by owning it yourself, instead of paying someone else's mortgage down.

Is Your Neighbor a Sex Offender?

Do you know if a sex offender lives next door to you?  If you currently own your own home or looking to purchase a home you should take a look at the below website.  This will give you an idea if you live or would be moving next to a sex offender.  You might be surprised by your findings.

Sex Offender List:
http://www.nsopw.gov/en-US/Search/Verification
You can check a specific individual or a radius from your property

What is THAT?

Common things found in and around homes that you may not recognize or know why its there.

Crawl space- crawl space is another name for a basement you typically cant stand up in.  The surface can be concrete or soil.  The crawl space gives you access to pipes, electric and more.  A crawl space can be used for additional storage if you have a dry crawl space.  Crawl spaces are typical in geographic areas that have damp soil where basements might otherwise flood. 

Water softener-typically found in finished basements, storage closets, or garages. Water softeners use sodium to help reduce minerals, magnesium ion and calcium in hard water.  Hard water can build up on pipes and reduce water flow. Softeners can be pricey

 

Sump pump- sump pumps are found in basements. They are used to collect accumulating water and remove with a pump that leads outside the home away from the house.  You want to make sure you have a battery back up to insure the sump pump will function properly.

 

Radon fan- A radon fan is used to reduce/remove radon, typically found in basements.  A radon fan can be tied into the sump pump.  The fan is on the outside of the house connected with plastic piping, as seen below.

Roof vent- roof vent are used to create air flow in the attic, with out air flow problems could arise in the attic, they need to breathe.

Furnace humidifier-  Humidifiers added to the furnace help put moisture in every room of your home.  This can help with allergies.

Termite damage- Termites can create extensive damage to homes made of wood.  It is a good idea to have termite inspections regularly to insure they don't take over your home.  They can be easily treated with extermination.

GFCI- AKA Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter- help prevent electric shock by breaking the current when there is a difference in the hot and neutral wires. When a GFCI senses an issue it shuts off and then has to be reset.  GFCI's are typically near water in bathrooms and kitchens for safety.

Attic fan- Attic fans are used to bring in fresh air and remove heat from the attic to help regulate the heat level

Central vacuum- Central vacuums have outlets in the wall, you plug in the vacuum hose to the wall outlet to conveniently vacuum.  These outlets are typically found in every room of the home or hallways.  There are also under kitchen counters.  To use the vacuum you tap a button with your foot to activate and sweep in the dust and dirt.  They come in handy!

Return air vent- aka a cold air return. The vent grabs the cool air and returns to the furnace, this helps provide proper air circulation. The vents also help to prevent pressure to reduce heath issues.

Tankless water heater-a small unit that attaches to a wall, highly powered water heater that continuously and instantly heats water to the entire house.

Are You THAT Neighbor?

Are you the neighbor everyone wants to move away from?  When you purchase a new home it is usually hit or miss if you will move next to good neighbors or bad neighbors.  There is no way of knowing unless you know someone who lives in the neighborhood that can fill you in with all the neighborhood details .  If you are thinking about putting an offer on a home,  its good to visit the property several times, at different times of the day and different days of the week to see what the neighborhood is like.  Is there highway noise you weren't aware of, is there a train a few miles away you didn't think about,  does the high school football field lights shine in your backyard, is it a high crime area, are there broken down and rusted cars in the drive way, does the neighbors have frequent parties/gatherings, is there loud noisy traffic around the corner or busy restaurants in the area. If you have an opportunity to visit the property at different times of the day you might get to meet the neighbors and ask them some questions to see what their opinion of the neighborhood is.   If you are driving by and see lots of clutter, uncut lawns, deferred maintenance, or run down properties keep this in mind, as these could be your future neighbors. 

Growing up we lived next to the neighbor that everyone dreads.  He called the cops for every little thing.  If our backdoor screen slammed from the wind,  he would call the cops or if there was motorcycle driving down the block revving their engine, the cops where called.  The entire block knew him and what to expect.  It got to the point where the cops would not show up when he called.  The cops told him if he called again on a non emergency situation he could face jail time for calling with a false alarm.  Eventually the neighbor stopped calling the cops and the neighborhood was quite.   My family has moved several times over the years and we have had great neighbors ever since.  Our current neighborhood doesn't have a home owner association with all the neighborhood restrictions, but it seems like all the neighbors compete for the best lawn, best curb appeal and the most up-to-date house, which makes it an even better neighborhood to live in.  You get lucky every once in a while.  On the other hand you could have your next door neighbor calling the city on every violation, making your life harder.  Unfortunately I hear about these people all the time.  To avoid neighbors, move as far out in the country as you can- problem solved!

Habitat for Humanity Kansas City- Volunteering

My dad and I had a great opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity today!  Our task was to frame a basement, since it was snowing outside.  We hammered nails, cut boards, cleaned floors, and moved insulation.  It is great to see the community helping fix houses that might other wise be neglected or torn down.  All of the volunteers were there because they wanted to help out, not because they were required to complete community service, which is nice to see.  See our hard days work below:

 

Habitat for Humanity is a great non profit organization, they help low income families become home owners. The potential owners have to take classes and work sweat equity at the ReStore, the Habitat office, or physical labor working on the Habitat houses.  Once the families fulfill the requirements and get a house, they are required to pay back a loan at %0 for the cost of materials purchased to complete their house.  The loan payment made by the new homeowner goes into a Habitat fund they use to build and fix other Habitat homes in the area.  Habitat also has three local Habitat ReStores.  You can donate leftover material from projects such as: old appliances, vanities, unused or left over paint, toilets, windows, wood, carpet and more.  Habitat resells these items to help fund their local projects.  Not only does it save these items from going to the landfill it also creates funds for their projects helping the community all year round.  I urge all of you to get out there and volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.  You might learn some new skills and techniques you can use on your own home.  Check out their site to get started: http://habitatkc.org/