Women are not stupid(well at least the ones I've been with)they catch on very quick on things.

Just because someone has money,it does not automatically make them smarter than everyone else.

chances are you tend to end up with someone at about the same financial ground as you anyway though some guys with money do not really care if the girl is from a poor or rich family

That's the thing with people too, they take out a mortgage and think that's owning. If you have a morgage, you do not own the property, the bank does.

So in the end, what does it even matter?

^^^
Equity. Then you can borrow more money! :troll:

Good credit too!

They don't own it forever, right now in this market the bank owns 28% of my house, I own the rest of it. That could of course change if the prices dropped a lot but with the amount of equity I have the market would have to drop by 300% to get me upside down which isn't happening. I should be mortgage free before my kids out of high school which isn't to terrible IMO, just in time for me to remortgage and pay for his University. :)

Don't do it! Let the kids pay for their own university! It teaches them the vaule of money. Besdie they can do a part time job when going to school or maybe even Co-Op to leanr the concerpt of financial and maybe get some connections/netowrk going for their career.

I save a TV show and a lot of parents have to re-mortgage thier house for the exact reason you are going to do. The best I would do is let my kids live at my house rent free while at school but other spendings they have to find their way. What if after you re-mortgage you can't afford the mortgage any longer? What if after your kids garduate they can't hold a decent job to help pay your mortgage......

Better be safe than sorry.

I'm pretty sure Quasi was being sarcastic about the remortgage to pay for school.

for some reason it doesn't sound uncommon for parents to borrow to put their kids through school...

imagine they decide to drop out after 3rd year :lawl:

Word. My parents didn't pay for my school. I moan about it sometimes but I think it makes me a better person than what I would have been.

Do you guys think having kids is an investment?

ya cuz when you die the money needs to get passed onto the kids:fullofwin:

I think what he meant was, having kids is an investment for the parents, meaning the kids will provide some sort of return.

+1 for paying tuition yourself.

Once I'm making baller bucks again, I don't think I would give much to my kids. I would give much of it away to the arts.

I think it's important to leave your kids money to build something with, rather than to pad a lifestyle of opulence

I would not think so.... however, I know my sister and I help pay the mortage to our current house, pay the bills, pay rent, pay property tax, House insurance, uilities....... so I guess for my parents is an investment? Not too sure since we do live together but I figure if I move out I will most likely pay less if I were to rent a place.

I would hope one day if I do have kids I don't have to rely on them when I retire and I also hope they can live on their own as well.

However, I do see my parents relying me and my sister when my dad have fully retire and their RRSP haven't kick in yet (Mom is currently 62 and retired and dad is 63 working part time). So I guess it all depends. But just to be fair my parents already have a will to split everything half/half with my sister and I lol. I think this day and age especially in Vancouver, England and Italy kids are leaveing at home longer. Our parents most likely move out early 20's and have kids at 25 or late 20's while us we aren't having kids till early 30's or staying at home for a much much longer time. Part of it is the increase in living cost, less jobs, and also our parents need us to take care of them.

But that's not 100% true. If I buy a condo tomorrow, I put say $10,000 down. I pay into my mortgage for a few years, and the market crashes. I end up losing my job, and can't make my payments on the mortgage for the forseable future.

The bank can turn around and proceed with forclosure, forcing the property to be sold. Technically if the bank can do this than YOU DON'T OWN THE PROPERTY.

Technically I "own" my vehicle, I can modify it, I can throw a bowling ball through the window if I feel like it. But with $10,000 left in the financed loan, if I can't make a payment eventually, the bank can repo the vehicle, so technically I don't fully own this car do I. Yes I have equity in the car, but I don't own it entirely.

So yes eventually when you pay off the loan, you own the property, but for most people that is 20+ years in the future. At the end of the day more people need to realise that buying a property does not = security. There are a lot of people in the States right now who learned this lesson the hard way.

While in theory this is all true, but what is the likely hood it will happen. If you were smart with your money and didn't over extend yourself and didn't over spend the cheap money, then the chance you default on your loan is low.

Look at our parents. How many of them were paying off their mortgage during the 80's when the interest rates were north of 10%?

Plus, if you paid off (for the sake of argument) 80% of your place and you lose your job, I highly doubt the bank will foreclose, and sell your place and not give you a dime back.

The guy I bought my old Typhoon from had to sell all of his vehicles for this exact reason. This was in Loveland, Colorado. The guy owned 20+ properties and had been flipping them/renting them out and buying cars, going on vacay, living the good life.

...then the bottom fell out of the market. He couldn't rent the places and break even on the payments, and he was underwater about 50k on each property... do the math... 50k x 20+ properties + unable to rent them = perfect storm.

Our folks lived in a much better time than we do, brother. Our folks were paid better in relation to the cost of living than we do. Our folks also lived through one of the best economics times we have had in history. It was viable in our parents time to have only one source of income in a household, and still own a home. Nowadays that idea is completely out the window, unless you are raking it in, it's very difficult to own property on a single income household.

The economic future will be a lot more unstable for our generation, there is no doubt in that. If we have another crash (which they predict will almost certainly happen at some point), it will make 2009 look like a cakewalk, if interest rates go up, most people will be completely screwed.

Like I said, I'm not discouraging anyone from buying, but I think it's a retarded argument to say that "buying" is better than "renting" because it equals some type of mythical security that you own that said property.

So... in unrelated news... going to see two apartments tonight that have been for sale for awhile and are very interesting. One has been reduced from $519k to $449k and been on the market for 270 days, while the other has been on the market for 95 days and been reduced from $500k to $470k... the time for a deal is coming!

Mark

no, the time for less than asking is coming, the time for an economic deal is still a ways off

look at the cash flows that property could yield you, and then tear up

Less than asking is absolutely implied, my realtor figures most units are expecting at least a 5% discount over asking and some even further... And the unit at $449k generates monster rents compared to most similar bedrooms because of the area!

No offense but I can't take you too seriously with such a blanket statement. My parents came here in the 70's with nothing but the shirts on their backs. Through hard work, a single income bought their first home. When the market turned to shits in the 90's, they were forced to sell cause they were not able to make the payments with a family of 5 and only a single income.
My wife's family has a similar story. Her parents came here in the early 80's and through hard physical low paying work, long hours, no vacay's, and luckily for them family help, they were able to buy their first home and struggled but eventually paid off their mortgage.

Really, it wasn't until the early 2000's when the market took off so I don't know where you are getting the idea that our parents lived through some of the best economic times.

Looking at Jason's example, if that person was as smart as he claimed to be, he wouldn't have bought 20 houses, toys and vacays. Cut back on a few things and he could have been fine. Of course, all this is based on what Jason has told us.

^That guy with 20 houses will probably be fine in the states if he didnt over spent and sold half of his holdings to cover the holding costs for the remaining properties.

It's different here in Canada for one major reason: ALL our mortgages are short term adjustable rate mortgages.

Yes you can hold a property for a few years if the market is bad as long as its your principle residence, but come renewal time the interest rate might be what forces you to sell.

for 449K, I am guessing 1+den apt?

@ 2.99 for 5 years and 340K mortgage, the monthly payment is 1607.29.

with maintenance in the 0.30/sqft, and property tax @ 200ish, you are looking at 600 for maintenance.

that's 2200 to break even.

honestly how monster is that rent?

lol half a million bucks for an apartment. You are mad.