Housing

[Lindsey]

Thanks Gayle. It is pretty much impossible to take out anything less than a 20 year mortgage here unless you have at least a hundred thousand sitting around for a down payment. It's not that you would have the place for 40 years, but it makes the payments low enough to afford, and the bank ends up making a lot of money on interest.
The reason for getting it would to have something to live in for 2 or 3 years and maybe by that time have another somebody to buy a real house with. I would hopefully be able at that time to sell the property for close to as much as I bought it for, so I wouldn't be losing a lot of money. With renting, sure I have a nice place to live, but when I move I don't get anything back.
Oh and mobile homes up here are built well for winter I actually know one family who lives out there now, and we also have a very old mobile home as our current cabin at the lake. We do use it in winter and have a nice wood stove to keep it warm The main thing is to make sure you insulate underneath the home as well as using insulated skirting.
But... my heart is set on travel. I think I may end up spending half my paychecks on rent for the next few years.

[gja1000]

The problem with the 40 year loan and payments that you can afford is that with mobile homes that do not increase in value as quickly as homes or even lose their value, is that you are paying such a tiny amount in principle each month, that in the first few years, you owe more than the mobile home is worth. So, when you sell it, you either do not make any money, or you lose money. That happened to friends of ours. They lived in the mobile home for 3 years and it cost them $2000 to sell it.

I'm glad you are opting for travel!

[Lindsey]

Thanks again Gayle! I just told Scott everything I learned and he agreed... we're both still young and I want to travel, and he wants to still go on his winter snowboarding trips, and the longer we both wait the more we'll have paid off (his car, my college line of credit and motorbike)... and if things work out between us we may have the optioin of buying something nice together. And if it's not together, there may be other people in our lives by then. Eventually I'd hope to be married and then able to afford a nice family home on two incomes instead of just one.

[Blueyes]

Originally Posted by Lindsey

Thanks again Gayle! I just told Scott everything I learned and he agreed... we're both still young and I want to travel, and he wants to still go on his winter snowboarding trips, and the longer we both wait the more we'll have paid off (his car, my college line of credit and motorbike)... and if things work out between us we may have the optioin of buying something nice together. And if it's not together, there may be other people in our lives by then. Eventually I'd hope to be married and then able to afford a nice family home on two incomes instead of just one.

Great decision

[Janet]

I think Gayle's advice is good. I'm glad you're going to travel too, so much more fun...lol

[Lindsey]

lol yeah... and I'll be spending most of my weekends this summer working on fixing up my parents' new (old) cabin. So when would I even have time to enjoy a house of my own??

[DianaB]

I think that Gayle gave you some really good advice. I know that mobile homes are not a very good long term investment because they're not built to last or maintain their equity.