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Old 08-07-2009, 06:40 AM   #19
sh0n
I bringith the lowerballerith
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Vancouver
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Definitely lots of words of wisdom on this thread regarding the apartment purchase.

You see life is pretty funny because there are certain times in your life you want certain things (i.e you are in certain stages)

Typically the natural progression for the home buyer is:

Live at home > Rent > Buy apartment/condo > Buy townhome > Buy House

Depending on your life style, I can see why you want to buy a 1000 sq ft + apartment. But do keep in mind you have all these extra fees involved (maint, utilities, prop tax)

Like Chuck said does it make sense really to buy a super large apartment just to realize you don't need the extra space yet you are still paying for it? You are very fortunate in that you are debt free, have good savings and making decent money. Personally I would think about getting a house because you will have literally bypassed all those stages I posted above. Yeah you'll have headaches with maintaining it and doing this and that. But I certainly see more value buying a house as first off you don't have the monthly sunk costs of maintenance fees - those add up at 500 a month thats 6K a year (you can buy so many things or go on a nice vacation). You can even try to get value out of your property by taking the cookie cutter approach. Did I also mention you get ownership of an actual sizable piece of land? (last I heard they don't make land no more except for this one place called Dubai). Of course with being a home owner there are also lots of headaches you gotta deal with to - maintaining the place yourself, dealing with theft/neighbors

Anyways that's just my opinion and you could take it for what its worth.
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