Yeah, they do have the apartment "feel", definitely! This wouldn't bother me at all unless I'm living next to a psycho. I'm not planning to have a family at anytime soon anyway so no family planning here. I've always wanted to rent properties out and make some money from it. This seems a good idea when I get married or have a family. I'll look more into this. Living in a good area is A MUST. I'm thinking about 1960's area or Jersey Village. I'm afraid of the dangers of living on my own. Maybe I should refer to the handgun thread. Thanks! Haha, I see that you pay attention well. It's a little bit complicated at this moment but if he wants to live with me then all by the means, he can! (see how I put a spin on that instead of me moving in with HIM? Women power!)
I'll steal some of HOOP-T's Thunder... Cons: Property Tax like a Single Family Home Sharing Walls (less walls for Townhouses, more walls for Condos) HOA Monthly Fees (what HOOP-T was referring to as management, the HOAs take care of things external to your Townhouse/Condo) Small or no Yard (as HOOP-T alluded to) Pros: Tax Benefits like a Single Family Home HOA Responsiblities (they take care of the landscaping, external property issues (e.g. roof), shared-facilties (pool)) (but you pay for) Less Expensive Investment Rental Property (as HOOP-T alluded to) Comment: There are several other pros and cons that I may not have mentioned. Those are the ones off the top of my head (@ work atm, and I better get back to it). Bottom line is do your homework...find out what the HOA Monthly Fees are, are there any other special taxes local only to that area (i.e Mello-roos, this is a California thing, but I thought I bring this up just in case y'all have something similar in Texas), etc. etc. A good real estate agent will help, but the more you know what to ask and what's out there, the better. It all depends on how important it is for you to have your own pad, because that will be your driving force. If it's about money and making more money in the future, given the current climate, you'll have to judge whether it's better to put your money in a property, or live at home and put your money into like a Vanguard account and put your money in funds or what nots. This is just my 2 cents, and take whatever I've stated only for consideration. Good luck.
If you're choosing between a townhome or a condo. I'd definitely go with townhome. In a townhome, you also own the land underneath you. In a condo, you don't.
A couple key points: 1. Renting is not necessarily throwing money away. The most economical place we lived in was our first apartment @ $500 per month. You don't need insurance, repair money, or much for utilities. 2. Rental properties are great in theory. However, they are only a good investment IF you get a really great price on the property AND you can do 90% of the repairs yourself. 3. Historically, real estate as an investment has only matched inflation. Much like stock picking, it is possible to beat the market by doing intense research and/or getting lucky. Needless to say, most people won't beat the market. Considering the run-up in the last 10 years of housing prices AND the increasing difficulty in obtaining sub-prime loans, it's probably not a good time to get in the housing market AS AN INVESTMENT. If you absolutely need the space and relative freedom that a house gives you, go ahead and buy a house - but get one that leaves you some budget breathing room. That way you'll be able to put your money where you can get more reliable returns. Take our case for example - we have a two-story house completely paid off in a nice neighborhood, and we are wishing we had bought less house. Why? Because now our yearly nut (what we need to survive) is locked in at around $50K and we have no reasonable way of reducing it to increase our savings.
Say you found the perfect place to buy in a good location and it's priced right, BUT there's a fire station right behind it. I personally have a good threshold for noise as long its not constant ear piercing, then again I've never lived near a fire station or railroad tracks. And then I was thinking later when I try to sell it will it be a pain to sell. I was thinking of offering 20k less then the asking price for this just because of the fire station, is that unreasonable?
