I've Lost It!

[JERRY2KONE]

Brian I am not disagreeing with ya at all, but nearly everyone who owns a house at this moment is up-sidedown with their loans because of the real estate crash. Normally things are not like this. The way I look at it is if I purchase a home sure I would like to think that there is going to be some level of profit on the other end, BUT I do not focus on that point. I figured if we can invest into our own home and get out from under it without losing the clothes off of our backs we are golden. We get the pleasure of owning our very own living space and can do whatever we like to it, and pretty much tell others to stick it if they don't like the way we live. Unless you have a homeowners ass. Then you can get screwed.

I have always come out on top, until now. Once again this is because of the housing crash over the last few years. Oh well what are you gonna do, right? In fact we just invested even more money (about $40K) into our remodel this past year just so we could get the place rented out for a decent monthly income $$$$$. There are pros and cons in every sales deal, and you really have to be careful just like buying a car. Do your homework and if anything looks even slightly suspicious or out of sorts, walk away. There will always be a better deal somewhere down the road. There is no one house that is made perfect just for you unless you had it built. You have to buy what you want and make it yours.

I watched my mom & dad struggle and fight there way though home ownership, foreclosier, and did not know how to fix anything on their own. So I made it a point to learn everything I could about home building and repair as I was growing up so I would not have to depend on anyone else to take care of our house, nor would we have to spend enormous amounts of money paying someone else to make those repairs. That is just how things worked out for me. We saved over $100K on that remodel just in contractor fees, because I did 90% of the work myself. I busted my butt for 6 weeks straight, 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, and we are very pleased with how it turned out. It was tough work and I paid for it physically, but it was worth every minute and cent spent. I learned a lot and got so hone my skills even more.

Now we finally have it rented out for nearly what the monthly mortgage is, and the house looks beautiful. If we end up selling the place and break even I will be happy. Because I learned a ton owning and working on it, and we had taken out money on the house 5 years ago. I look at it this way. Now we are paying back that equity by fixing the place up. We used the equity to buy new cars for all of our older kids, and paying off credit card debt all around. Not every deal is perfect, but you have to take chances sometimes. Life is a gamble.