Real Estate

Interesting thread here...

I like to see how difference between Germany and America until I saw Dennis´s and Touis´s post... wow it´s almost same as in Germany.

I would like to share mine with you all here.

We bought land in 1988 cost was 45.00 DM (Germany Deutsche Mark) a square = $ 30.00 and one year later our house built with our wish design cost was 235,000 DM ($157,000.--).

11 years later after that the Expert from house company estimated the value of our house and land in 1989 before we started to extend wintergarden and porch on our house in 2000. It written that my land is value 300.00 DM a square ($197.55) and my house is also over $300,000 value on 1989 than we bought land and built our house in 1988. My house extension was done in 2000 but I estimate it would value more than Expert´s confirmation in 1989. Expert told us that the land increase 5% every year.

We will order Expert to estimate our house again because extend wintergarten for 2nd living room and porch done in 2000 before prepare the will for our children´s safety.

We will NEVER sell our house to profit ourselves because we loves our house.. That´s house, my children were born and raised. We planted fruit trees when our children were babies. Why should I sell our wonderful memory for that profit?

Anyway, we got fixed rate loans for house every 10 years with low interest rates to 30 years.

My ópinon: It´s the best to have house loan fixed when there´re low interest rates.
 
sequoias said:
Yeah u pay property taxes every year, once u own a house. The property taxes doesn't increase much as long u own the house, but when u sell it to someone and they pay MORE property taxes because of the current rate.
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Actually, I think that depend on what state you live in.
 
Banjo said:
Actually, I think that depend on what state you live in.
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Right, even each county and city is different.
 
I won't be suprised when the housing price inflation boom and then bust. The boom is not going to happen forever, it will collaspe no matter what, all of the booms have collasped in the past, Boeing, Sewing, industrial, dot com, and so on.
 
Advise you..

Don't trust BANKS reason there have hide agdeada(sp) their collection profit depend percentage of rate mortgage and also how much you pay large sum amount make look shorter year but carefully watch out their policy written very tiny words.. Can be tricky..

I've learned it lot which we bought condo townhouse from June 1994 and got fusterate the amount reduce faster but still kept tiny reduce.

I've bought 88k and payments bi-weekly.. 87K *wtf* supposed be apporxitily amount reducation left balance 84k and found out that bank took large of sum making their own profit earn percentage. We living there for 9 years... left balance is 74k what the hell.. why doesn't reducation amount.. We've sold my nasty home. We moved to rent a house for awhile...
We went over to see Broker as play our ears.. *discovered learn it lot* Damn We wishes should have taken first place use "Broker" which it's cheaper percentage of rate mortgage cost. Broker doesn't take profit collect large sum.. proprite just pay fee tiny 2% that is it.. Oh golly dang!, After all we are stick w/Broker which the best investment quicker growth and better payments faster goes reducation.

We are still hunting a country house but never found.. *keep going hunting til our taste the house model* :)
 
Meg said:
I agree..that is why I have my own condo so that I know that my money is growing, not wasted on rent. Since buying my place five years ago, the value has gone up by 25K.
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Some condos have small fine prints that they keep 10% if you are selling your condo. You gotta to find out about that.
 
gnarlydorkette said:
I am considering to get a RE license so I can peek in database to see the value of the market so the agent won't bullshit his/her way with me.
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I agreed with you, and I think it is true. All you have to do is to check your town's website, and select an assessor department. It will give you the information about the house that you want to buy or sell it. I was a house inspector for two years, and had to check the database in each town...

(Note: Make sure that the assessor is updated on the website. Some town halls do not have one on the internet which mean that you have to go to the assessor department, and look it up on the computer - of course, it is free for you to look up the database. If you want to print it out the info, it cost about one dollar for each paper. If rather free, then take your own note...) Hope that helps.
 
My husband and I made the decision of buying a house rather than continuing to pay rent - since we felt we would get a lot more from owning a house rather than getting nothing out of renting an apartment whose price kept rising (the landlords' mortage rose, hence the reason for the increased renting price). We gave up a trip to Spain for a new house, and I'm happy with this decision. We were definitely ready for this leap, after having wiped out all of our debts related to school, credit cards, and other stuff.

The house we have is a 69 year old 7-bedroom with an attic and a basement along with two floors of "apartments" with their own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, dining room, and a small pantry room. We bought it cheap, below the asking price since we scared the owners with a house inspector and a bunch of photos I took of all the property damages. The realtor was also on our side. This is an upper fixer house, since the owners did a bad job of maintaining the property.. overgrown weeds, poor insulation, outdated electricity powerboxes, outdated bathrooms that were breaking the current regulations the Norwegian "HOA" had (no approved tiles for wall and floor, broken heating insulation beneath the membrane for the first floor apartment and no membrane or tiles for the second floor apartment), an explosion of bad interior jobs with wallpaper all over the house that were fading 70 percent in addition to being torn in a few places. Those people were on drugs when they did the place, I swear. Actually, hubby found a hidden and old bong in our shed. LOL.

It will take us another year to get the place to be 100 percent better- we're only halfway through, and will focus on the bathrooms and a couple of rooms this summer. It's a good hobby for us (I love ripping those old wallpaper off, covering those holes with cement, painting, putting up new tasteful wallpaper, and seeing the finished product!), and the house is very near to the "sentrum" - downtown of our town, and it has a great scenery of the fjord along with a large backyard full of fruit trees and bushes (mountain cranberries, blueberries, apples, and a few berries I can't remember in English). We need to get some tasteful fences up since we are at the footstep of a mountain, and we just got rid of those spiny bushes at the front... we still have some pretty decent features to our property.. such as the "forever" roof- they used some quality material in the olden days. We'll splurge on an outdoors hot tub next year, too.

We are planning on renting out the second floor apartment and possibly the attic (which has two bedrooms, along with the one bedroom in the first floor apartment)- ideal for a family. While there could be a risk of degrading value with the renters not doing their "part" to maintain the property where they are renting out, we certainly would screen out potential renters we think wouldn't care about the property we are renovating so carefully for them. Apartments are very hard to come by in my town, since my town is considered a "college" town like Silver Spring, MD. So, we want compromise between giving good renting prices and getting good renters... I think this will break even long term, even if it won't pay 100 percent of the mortage monthly. We can afford the mortage, despite making some sarifices. The renting will just make it easier for us to renovate the house at a quicker pace, financially. We have checked around in town- many potential renters complain about renting being so expensive.. especially when the apartment is near downtown. It is important to think about these factors, too. We're thinking long term.

We also have this house insurance where if one of us dies in an accident - NOT a suicide hopefully, heh heh (insurance rules that out actually), the surviving spouse receives about $127,829.55 USD (converted from 800,000 NOK using xe.com) to pay for the house. We paid $119,800.68 (750,000 NOK) for the house- using a bank loan and the amount we would have paid for the Spanish trip. That amount is very cheap IN Norway, believe me! Norway is famous for having very high costs of living. One day in the next 5-10 years, we might be putting the newly renovated house on the market and move to a place closer to the city. Maybe Oslo, Trondheim, or Ålesund. I do adore Ålesund, living 1 hour from it... being a modern/art novueau city in the western coast. Availablity of having jobs in my profession and gas prices are high enough to have me considering the move to be closer even though I'm living 1 hour from a good city... because I do plan on frequent trips to the city. I love being in the big city, in addition to liking the town type. But I'll go crazy if I stay in either too long!
 
its definally a wonderful investment in owning a house. in fact.. not every bank required 10% down... some banks accepts 0% down. like what i did. when i brought my house.. i didn't pay the closing cost or the downpayment
then year later i refinance my home because the interest rates went down.. and the monthly payment is much cheaper.

now been living in my home for 3 years. the value went up nearly $40,000 already :shock: i can't image if the race track in my back yard moved.. and the value will go even more higher because of less noise. but doubt it will happen this year.. but there's been a talk about it.

i asked my apperisal what will happen if the race track isn't there... the value will go up $15,000 its awsome...

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