Hunting The Muse

Well. I've thought a

Well. I've thought a bit more. Here's how the thinking goes right now.

From what I recall, the prices here have not appreciated all that much over the last couple of years. And they probably won't, not like in other places. Plus, we're probably not appreciating all that much in general in the future due to the market slowing down a tad.

To me, that rules out buying it and then selling it soon. Plus, I know that selling property is just a huge pain in the ass. I'd like to avoid that if I can.

Next is buying it with the intent of staying long term. I just don't want to do that. If it's apples to apples, why not just buy something that I really like. The only thing I am costing myself here is that I would be having to put up with people coming in to view my place, and the time of looking for a new place. And it might even be tough to sell - it has a strange garage where it's very difficult to fit something like an SUV into it.

So I don't seriously see myself buying it to keep long-term. That just feels depressing. I'd like to buy something that would even have perhaps a bit of room for a couple of years of married life.

Next is buying to rent out. The first flaw is that if I don't want to stay long term and then I'd want to have a permanent place, I'd be moving out only to move again to buy my house to live in, which is the ultimate goal. Third... with the amount down I can afford, my mortgage is going to be at least a couple hundred more dollars per month than what I'm currently paying in rent. I think it would be a stretch to get myself above water in the short term.

Finally, it just sort of feels like I should be focusing my investment instincts on my business, not on investment property. Not yet. Buying with the intent of renting it out or buying with the intent to sell both treats this as an investment property, and in general my dad thinks that condos just aren't very good investment properties, not unless you hold on to them for a WHILE. Because of stuff like homeowners fees I would be underwater for a while I think.

I'm not as convinced about that as other options - I could still buy it with the intent of moving and renting out later... but it just feels kind of painful. Delaying the piano because of the buy, then delaying the piano again because of the quandry of figuring out how to buy a new house and perhaps renting a place in between. Ugh.

So it looks like I am just planning on staying while looking for another place to buy. I'm one of those dream buyers who has a "negotiable closing date". I guess I'm going to step up my search. The rest of my lease gets honored no matter what. I don't have to leave before next June. So I can just take my time looking, or find something more quickly.

It looks like I am officially delaying buying my piano, though. :( Because now I need my cash savings to help me with down payments and closing costs. Sigh. Hopefully this is the last time. Posted by Curt at August 30, 2002 06:35 PM