Source
r/financialindependence•
justnfree

Soooooo I just saw a shit-box house online for 30K....

I realized if I were to buy this shit bucket house in cash I'd own it free and clear. I could pay my mortgage in repairs to the home. Over the course of a year I could do close to $20,000 dollars worth of repair. That's a new foundation year 1!

Sure it would fuck up my commute and everything, but I'd never have to worry about if I lost my job where I would sleep again. I can't get the idea that I've done everything financially all wrong out of my head.

Posted Apr 28, 2015, 1:23 PM UTC

625
Iwilltellyoutrue•

Shit bucket houses that need new foundations are money pits you're now responsible for. And fucking up your commute isn't worth it.

Are you handy and doing the work yourself? Or are you about to put your GC's second kid through a year at Tulane?

13
justnfreeOP•

I'm fairly handy, there's stuff I wouldn't do, but you could spend 1K a month on the place. That's a lot of repair.

5
Livingmylife96•

Side note: oh my god Tulane is crazy expensive!

1
Quasimonomial•

Dude, long commutes damage the happiness of people I know pretty much more than anything else.

8
justnfreeOP•

so does working for 30 years to own a home.

5
Quasimonomial•

No, you are absolutely right and I agree with you. But you might not consider how much a long commute can wear on you, so I think you should definately consider it carefully.

If it works out for you, that's awesome! :D

1
greyGoop8•

I live in a sub $30k house that I put less than $10k into. It had a solid roof and foundation though. A little rot around a couple windows where the siding wasn't done right, all new plumbing that I did myself, and lots of cosmetic stuff like paint and new flooring and it's a nice little place in a quiet small town neighborhood.

After seeing how comfortable I can house myself for $30k I can't fathom spending the $200k-$300k+ that my friends and family seem to always spend.

5
tuzki•

How may beds/baths? How large is the lot? How long does it take you to drive to the nearest grocery store?

30k is a remarkably low price!

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
DontBuy123•

depends on how big the house is. 30k house is probably tiny. I would question how badly it actually "needs" a foundation.

If the house is on level ground and you just plan to live there. No need to replace the foundation.

4
justnfreeOP•

No of course not, my point is that you could save a ton of money quickly and never be in debt.

1
DontBuy123•

I more referring to the comment below about the house being a money pit. People who talk about things like house needing a foundation are not on the same FI mindset.

So yeah I would do it. How long would that make your commute?

3
justnfreeOP•

1.5 hours maybe.

1
LoyalLuBu•

That'd be brutal. I'd "nope" that one. ~10 minutes by car or ~20 minutes by bike is too luxurious to lose for me though.

3
travelgnomic•

Something to consider re: commuting

1
medikit•

How long is your commute now?

1
sofakingdead•

Location?

Spending 30K then 20K in repairs in a bad neighborhood is throwing money away. If you can get your repair money and investment back then consider it. You could house flip yourself into a mansion :)

3
justnfreeOP•

There are other homes of reasonable repair in the area going for 100K

1
sofakingdead•

Sounds like it could be fun. If you're into that sort of thing. Plus a good excuse to buy tools :)

2
justnfreeOP•

now to convince the wife.....

2
Brubeckian•

Here's my situation: I have a bid accepted for a 50k house that is literally a five minute walk to my job at a university. It's slightly more than 1000 sq ft, and another house on the same street at identical square footage is currently listed at 85k. That second house has had some basic renovation done. My house has slight sagging floors in two rooms because two rim joists need repair, and I have no idea at all how much that will cost. I'm also in an extreme time crunch because the house is a foreclosure, and I have less than 24 hours to make a decision.

The house also needs new window screens, a window pane is broken, the hardwood floors need to be completely refinished, there's a busted pipe under the crawl space, and it likely needs a new water heater. The house comes with no appliances, and the HVAC unit is in working order, but is 17 years old.

Because the house is within walking distance to campus, it'll be incredibly easy down the line to rent it out. For the immediate future, though, I have to figure out if I can afford to renovate it to a liveable level.

2
Minemose•

Make sure you get multiple bids on the sagging floors. On stuff like that we have had HUGE ranges in the bids, like from 2K to 12K.

A 5 min walk to work is pretty much priceless IMO.

2
lhbtubajon•

Sounds like a good deal to me. For maybe 10k you can get it up to snuff, if you do most of the work yourself. Maybe less. That includes appliances. I don't see much downside. Even a very modest rent would cover any mortgage that exists. What are rents going for in that neighborhood?

1
Brubeckian•

Probably $600 or $700 a month for a similar house. My monthly payment will be $350 including taxes/insurance. 10k in repairs will just about wipe out my savings, after the down payment, but the monthly payment is so reasonable that I'm not too worried about it.

1