Owning a home can be frustrating sometimes. Owning multiple homes can multiply these frustrations as well. However, many people fear these stressful situations, preventing them from buying a house or a rental property.
Getting involved in real estate is one of the most accessible wealth generators that ordinary people can participate in- for wealth creation. To help you overcome your fears, I want to go over some of our most stressful home buying and owning real estate incidents. Hopefully, looking over some of our situations can ease some of your fears and show you that it will all be okay in the long run. With no further ado, let’s get into it.
Building a house in 2008. In 2008 Kris and I bought 3 acres of land in Arizona. We then proceeded to construct a hefty-sized house atop of the land. We didn’t know what we were doing, and looking back, we bought a place that was too expensive for our budget at the time. I was recently able to find one of my pay stubs from around that time, and we were paying over 50% of our income towards our home and expenses. So when I write an article like Mortgage Zero, there is a reason why. We could have done this in a better fashion.
Buy Land, Start Farm
No power. While building our home in 2008, our budget was tight. Our general contractor approached us about two weeks after starting to give us some bad news. We would need to build a new power box that ran from the street box to our home- which set back from the street. The regulations had changed overnight. This cost, $6,000, had not been factored into the house and would have to come out of pocket. The contractor and I decided to split the price, but $3,000 was a lot of money in 2008. Hell, it is still a lot of money.
Can’t use wife’s income. Buying a second home is even worse than buying the first home because you have to prove that you can pay for both houses. In 2017, Kris and I were stationed in Japan and buying a home in Flordia. Kris was working, and all of our income metrics were going well. Everything was on track until we got a call from the bank. “Your wife has not been working at this location for more than two years, so we can not include her income in your analysis.” It was so ridiculous because she was working for the same company, we had just relocated to Japan. It was stressful, but we got the house. They never make it easy.
Buying the third house was a nightmare. If purchasing a second house was horrible, buying the third house was terrible. I might have been the most stressed that I have ever been throughout the process of purchasing this home. The VA appraiser took two weeks too long, causing me to pay extra to keep the mortgage interest rate locked. The house appraised low, and the seller wanted us to pay the difference. The day before the closing, the title company said that my closing cost out-of-pocket would be $11,000 when it was really $2,000. To this day, I still don’t look at these moments fondly- maybe one day I will cherish them. Not!
Create.
Crisis all around. We closed the first home we bought in October 2008, which was the exact start of the financial crisis- The Great Recession. During the close, interest rates were fluctuating, and lending standards were tightening. In March 2020, we closed on our third home, right when the pandemic was gaining steam. It wasn’t fun, and we are lucky to have been able to complete it on March 23rd, 2020. If the close had taken longer, things could have gone differently.
Money, money all around. The air conditioner died in our Arizona house in 2019, a $6,000 repair. We got a squirrel stuck in our attic in Florida, and it cost $1,400 to trap her and cover-up all entrances into the house. Hurricane Sally caused a termite problem in our second house, and that costs $1,800. Always be prepared for the unknown.
Nobody Owes You Anything
Where are the washer and dryer? In 2017, I was able to visit our future home before we started the home-buying process. We were stationed in Japan. The house write-up said all appliances included, so I figured that the washer and dryer were included. Six months later, when we arrived at the house, there was no washer and dryer. It was very disheartening, but we made the best of it by purchasing brand new equipment and getting a five-year warranty. It cost us $2,000, but it has been very lovely having a brand new washer and dryer set.
As you can see, strange stuff comes up during the home-owning phase of your life. But don’t let these deter you- I wrote them to share some of my personal experiences. In the end, most of our wealth has come from owning homes, and becoming a homeowner is a great way to beat inflation.
In the end, I would not change anything about our experiences. Now that we have been through so much, we don’t have any fear left to feel. As we continue, we will meet new real estate ventures with positivity and a great outlook. What’s the worst that can happen? (That is rhetorical)
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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