I will be starting school next July and my fiancé and I are strongly considering buying a house. I was wondering if anyone has experience with this or has any advice?
Buying a house in medical school
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Most likely rent it out to students down the road or at least that is the plan right now.
There's too little information about your situation to give advice, and I wouldn't take advice from a forum anyway. In my experience I wouldn't have bought a house had I been a single medical student without a stable source of income from my s/o and without a plan for the next 4-8 years in case things didn't work out in my life or in s/o's. The most generic advice I could give to an anonymous medical student in a random geographic location is don't buy a home in medical school if you can help it.
Sorry yes I just wanted to see if any medical student had done it before. My fiancé will have a steady income from a full time job and we have a pretty good chunk of savings to lean on if something were to happen with his job. We are looking at buying a cheap house in Kirksville as I am planning to attend KCOM and the houses we are looking at are under $80,000 so it isn't like we would have an enormous mortgage that would be more expensive than rent
I don't know what 80k will get you in Kirksville, or what the market is like. In Atlanta you can't get much more than a shack for under 150k.
Are you younger than 30? Do you have children? What sort of life are you looking for in medical school? What would buying a house give you that renting/apartment living cannot offer?
Do not and I repeat DO NOT buy a house because it might save money in the long run compared to renting.
Are you younger than 30? Do you have children? What sort of life are you looking for in medical school? What would buying a house give you that renting/apartment living cannot offer?
Do not and I repeat DO NOT buy a house because it might save money in the long run compared to renting.
The housing in Kirksville is very cheap. There are many houses under that price range actually. We are under 30 don't have kids and we have 2 dogs that we want to be able to provide a yard for which would be one perk of a house especially as it doesn't seem like many places allow pets. Just with our pets apartments are not even in the equation so we would have to rent a house anyway. We are looking at the house as an investment not just saving money but actually putting money toward something and then renting it out later.
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I know a few people who did it, bought a house MS1 and sold it MS4. Real estate is so location- and time-specific that it would just be anecdotal, but they did ok. People I know who've had to move without selling, and rent their homes to other students, say it can be a headache but usually works. This is in two major West coast urban areas. I don't know to what degree the Midwest would be different. NYT has a good calculator (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0) that factors in maintenance, insurance, taxes, etc and tells you how long you'd need to own a home (making assumptions about economic growth) for the return to be profitable after all these expenses.
On a more personal level I can understand why you'd want to buy in your situation, even if it wasn't profitable. If you pay rent, you lose at least $6000 - $10000 per year anyway. If you buy, you'll have a stable place for you and your wife, the dogs can run around, you could have kids there. Makes sense to me.
On a more personal level I can understand why you'd want to buy in your situation, even if it wasn't profitable. If you pay rent, you lose at least $6000 - $10000 per year anyway. If you buy, you'll have a stable place for you and your wife, the dogs can run around, you could have kids there. Makes sense to me.
Have you owned a home before? Do you know the expenses and time for upkeep/maintenance and potential emergency repairs?
Have you started saving for retirement?
I personally don't think it's a good idea as med school is only 4 years and applying for residency and matching, especially with a significant other, is already stressful enough I wouldn't want to add in "what are we going to do with our house" during that process.
I think a steady income is only a minor portion of what should go in to the decision of whether to buy a house in med school.
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You're about to start medical school, which is about $80,000/year, and you're already thinking about buying a house? Looks like someone's rich here. Here's my take on this:
If your intention is to help out medical students by offering them a significant cheap rent, then kudos to you. Go for it.
If your intention is to make money off medical students with a high rental fee...then what the hell are you thinking? Just focus on doing well in medical school
I think you are underestimating the difficulty of doing what you propose. First off you will have to leave Kirksville for the third and fourth year of your medical education. So you will be living in this house for 2 years. And renting out places from a long distance away is not easy. You have to constantly find new tenants, clean up in between tenants, work out a payment method that works, keep an eye on the place to make sure they aren't utterly trashing it. When you are in medical school and residency this isn't crap you want to be dealing with. If you were going to a school where all the rotations were close by and there were good, attainable residency options within a reasonable distance then it would be more reasonable.
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OMS-II in Kirksville here.
I have friends who bought a house here. They are also a young couple with pets. They don't regret buying, but have expressed some discontent with the extra work accompanying it.
You do not necessarily have to leave Kirksville during rotations as Kirksville is a rotation site. I assume you're consulting more than studentdoctor forums before you make or don't make your purchase. It is up to you whether you think buying is worth it. Don't discount the time commitment of owning a house. That time stuff is precious in medical school, especially around exam time.
For the record, I live in a small two-bedroom house rental with a dog. Many of the landlords rely on ATSU and Truman students to fill their vacancies. Before ruling renting out, try contacting some of the lessors and try to strike a deal as far as pets go. Rent IS cheap and as the other users have noted, you'll only be here a few short years. Heck, you can even have my place when I leave in June.
If you have any questions, message me and I can try to answer any questions. Congratulations on being accepted.
I have friends who bought a house here. They are also a young couple with pets. They don't regret buying, but have expressed some discontent with the extra work accompanying it.
You do not necessarily have to leave Kirksville during rotations as Kirksville is a rotation site. I assume you're consulting more than studentdoctor forums before you make or don't make your purchase. It is up to you whether you think buying is worth it. Don't discount the time commitment of owning a house. That time stuff is precious in medical school, especially around exam time.
For the record, I live in a small two-bedroom house rental with a dog. Many of the landlords rely on ATSU and Truman students to fill their vacancies. Before ruling renting out, try contacting some of the lessors and try to strike a deal as far as pets go. Rent IS cheap and as the other users have noted, you'll only be here a few short years. Heck, you can even have my place when I leave in June.
If you have any questions, message me and I can try to answer any questions. Congratulations on being accepted.
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Ron Swanson would recommend that you full-ass one thing, rather than half-ass two things.
It might work out and you might be glad you did 4 years from now. However, if you can't afford the worst case scenario, don't.
It might work out and you might be glad you did 4 years from now. However, if you can't afford the worst case scenario, don't.
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This. My husband and I owned a home where we lived before I got into medical school, and it was a lot of work. Selling it once I got in was even more work, and while it worked out financially in the end, there were some pretty significant costs in the process.
Your mortgage may be cheaper than rent, but you also have to worry about upkeep and potential repairs-- things like water heaters and furnaces are NOT cheap, and neither are electricians or plumbers. And if you move out after fourth year and have people renting it, those kinds of things will still be your responsibility.
I think purchasing a home can make sense if you're prepared for the potential extra costs, and if it's where you honestly plan/hope to end up after medical school and residency (I have classmates who are in this scenario), but I don't think I'd recommend buying otherwise.
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Haven't even been accepted to any med school yet and my fiancé wants to buy a house (we live in Pittsburgh) in June at the end of our lease. I'm all for having our own house, but I don't even know where I'm going to be in 3 years.
On the plus side, he's an electrician and can fix/update just about anything. He's made basically all of my Pinterest DIY dreams come true and can do basically anything to a house that j want done.
On the plus side, he's an electrician and can fix/update just about anything. He's made basically all of my Pinterest DIY dreams come true and can do basically anything to a house that j want done.
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http://whitecoatinvestor.com/dont-buy-stuff-you-cannot-afford/
"First, don’t buy a house if you’re not financially ready to buy a house. Most students and residents shouldn’t be buying houses. Period. 3-5 years is usually only enough time to break even on it. Despite what you think now, it would be unusual for you to continue living in it on an attending salary even if you stay in the same area, which you probably won’t. Plus, you really don’t get any significant tax breaks for owning a home until you’re an attending. If you don’t have 20% of the value of the home saved up, you should really think long and hard about whether you should be renting instead of owning. That would be a very rare medical student/resident, or even a new attending."
http://whitecoatinvestor.com/10-reasons-why-residents-shouldnt-buy-a-house/
While I realize his articles are directed toward residents, it is even more true for students I believe. I have friends who sold their homes in Kirksville with ease and friends who REALLY struggled and sold at a loss. 2 years really isn't enough time to make it worth it in most cases.
"First, don’t buy a house if you’re not financially ready to buy a house. Most students and residents shouldn’t be buying houses. Period. 3-5 years is usually only enough time to break even on it. Despite what you think now, it would be unusual for you to continue living in it on an attending salary even if you stay in the same area, which you probably won’t. Plus, you really don’t get any significant tax breaks for owning a home until you’re an attending. If you don’t have 20% of the value of the home saved up, you should really think long and hard about whether you should be renting instead of owning. That would be a very rare medical student/resident, or even a new attending."
http://whitecoatinvestor.com/10-reasons-why-residents-shouldnt-buy-a-house/
While I realize his articles are directed toward residents, it is even more true for students I believe. I have friends who sold their homes in Kirksville with ease and friends who REALLY struggled and sold at a loss. 2 years really isn't enough time to make it worth it in most cases.
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I asked my financial planner this same question. He handles finances for a lot of physicians and the majority of physicians regret their decision to buy a house during med school mostly because they had or are having a very difficult time selling the property after med school is said and done.
You also don't want to rent to students anyway, they are filthy animals and you'll end up having to do renovations every time one moves out. If you think "oh med students are more mature...I am not worried about them destroying my place," I can tell you as a current med student who sees how many other med students act...you are wrong.
You also don't want to rent to students anyway, they are filthy animals and you'll end up having to do renovations every time one moves out. If you think "oh med students are more mature...I am not worried about them destroying my place," I can tell you as a current med student who sees how many other med students act...you are wrong.
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Speaking as another of the many KCOM folks in this thread, it was a tempting prospect to just buy a house when looking at it on paper since the mortgage was in some cases cheaper than rent. However, I didn't want to be trying to sell a house all while trying to study for boards and arranging a move for rotations. Don't forget that aspect, when you are trying to sell you will be in thick of board prep. Also, I decided that I didn't want to be responsible for the day to day upkeep. There is enough to worry about in school without having to worry about eventualities like taking care of broken pipes, yard work, a leaky roof, vermin infestations etc...
