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Great info thanks everyone!
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I'm very nervous about the prospect of owning a house so any help/reassurance would be greatly appreciated.
Owning a home is equity; paying rent is throwing away money.
When you leave for residency, you'll likely be able to sell it and break even (the market in TX is fairly stable, depending on where you are) but doubtful you'll profit from a house sale after only 4 years.
You can, however, rent it out if there's a market for that (military families are great for house rentals!).
Depends on the price of the house. Ours was a little over 100K so the buy/sell costs will be about 12K. Between that and property tax it's still much cheaper than paying rent. But there is some risk involved and we're in a great housing community.The general wisdom, as I understand it, is that buying only makes financial sense if you plan on owning the place for at least 5 years. This is to offset closing costs and mortgage interest if you hope to break even. Now, this calculation may be different if you factor in savings on tuition.
I would echo what @bc65 said. Owning a home can be a money pit. When you rent, if something goes wrong, you call the landlord. When you buy, it is all on you - the time, the money, everything. Also, I have never been a landlord, but I know people who have, and it can be painful.
Depends on the price of the house. Ours was a little over 100K so the buy/sell costs will be about 12K. Between that and property tax it's still much cheaper than paying rent. But there is some risk involved and we're in a great housing community.
Meh, it really depends on savvy.
You can typically buy a house with a major issue - leaking roof, mold, termites, anything with more than a day's worth of repairs needed - for a very deep discount even with repair costs factored in.
How are you running to ad hom so quickly?
If you don't know the basics of scoping or how repairs are actually performed, or how to run the hoi polloi that finds itself in day labor or lightly skilled trades, yes, you can and probably will get hosed in attempting a rehab.
especially if you are working with BELFOR.
I bought a house for 61k for exactly this reason, in a not-terrible neighborhood. I put about 3k in materials in it, paid 3600 for the mitigation and clearance, and probably 150 hours of legwork. New flooring, new painting, cleaned the yard, updated kitchen and bathroom hardware from the 1970s. Sold it through a realtor the next year for 102k.
This is the limiting factor for med students and residents. And, I don't know about others, but I didn't have much extra cash lying around for materials, mitigation, etc when I bought my first place.I bought a house for 61k for exactly this reason, in a not-terrible neighborhood. I put about 3k in materials in it, paid 3600 for the mitigation and clearance, and probably 150 hours of legwork. New flooring, new painting, cleaned the yard, updated kitchen and bathroom hardware from the 1970s. Sold it through a realtor the next year for 102k. Lived in the house for about 9 months, place would have rented for $1200 easy.