Back in the early years of owning Pegasus Books, when we were merely struggling to expand and survive, but hadn't racked up the big debts, Linda used to mention trying to buy a house.
We had friends or knew of people who had managed to buy houses with FHA loans which weren't all that much more than our rent.
But....the houses weren't much, in my opinion. Starter houses, to be sure.
I always resisted this notion because, 1) I suspected our situation was different, and that we wouldn't have qualified, and 2.) We were already struggling to come up with enough money to pay for our business, and 3.) I didn't want to be house poor.
There was a big difference, I figured, between being barely able to make the payments and actually being able to take care of the house.
Our recent run-in with the sewer line reminded me of this. It cost us nearly 5000.00 to fix. What if our credit had been maxed out? What if we hadn't had the resources to pay for it?
I'm looking at a roof that has maybe one or two years left in it's usefulness. Our lawns need to be replaced. Our downstairs bathroom has discoloration on the floor where the toilet leaked. Things like that.
I can see that as long as we own a house, these issues are going to constantly arise.
But we bought a home that wasn't overly large -- just about the right size for a couple.
It's been manageable.
So, anyway, I wonder about all the people who bought at the upper limits of their qualifying, when times were flush, but who are now struggling just to make the basic payments. I'm assuming that repairs are being delayed or neglected. Which only makes their situation worse, and makes the house worth less, and so on.
Seems to me to be an aspect of home ownership that not many people are talking about.
Being House Poor can't be fun.
We had friends or knew of people who had managed to buy houses with FHA loans which weren't all that much more than our rent.
But....the houses weren't much, in my opinion. Starter houses, to be sure.
I always resisted this notion because, 1) I suspected our situation was different, and that we wouldn't have qualified, and 2.) We were already struggling to come up with enough money to pay for our business, and 3.) I didn't want to be house poor.
There was a big difference, I figured, between being barely able to make the payments and actually being able to take care of the house.
Our recent run-in with the sewer line reminded me of this. It cost us nearly 5000.00 to fix. What if our credit had been maxed out? What if we hadn't had the resources to pay for it?
I'm looking at a roof that has maybe one or two years left in it's usefulness. Our lawns need to be replaced. Our downstairs bathroom has discoloration on the floor where the toilet leaked. Things like that.
I can see that as long as we own a house, these issues are going to constantly arise.
But we bought a home that wasn't overly large -- just about the right size for a couple.
It's been manageable.
So, anyway, I wonder about all the people who bought at the upper limits of their qualifying, when times were flush, but who are now struggling just to make the basic payments. I'm assuming that repairs are being delayed or neglected. Which only makes their situation worse, and makes the house worth less, and so on.
Seems to me to be an aspect of home ownership that not many people are talking about.
Being House Poor can't be fun.