I can't wait until this real-estate market collapses.......

[photon]

Originally Posted by Reaper

We were in the same situation when we put our deposit on our condo in August 2005. The best part of it was that our sales agreement included no clause for price increases being allowed due to rising costs. So, the developer took a bath on our condo.

I know a guy that just got out of a legal battle with a builder over that.. they wanted to increase the price even though there were no provisions for it in the purchase agreement. Of course he won, took a while but he's happy.

[wpgflamesfan]

If the market ever did colapse so many people would be royally ****ed (i.e. herd some guy talking on the phone about having a 1.2 million dollar morgage). What happens to him when he's stuck with a 1.2 million dollar morgage on a 600 000 house?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by wpgflamesfan

If the market ever did colapse so many people would be royally ****ed (i.e. herd some guy talking on the phone about having a 1.2 million dollar morgage). What happens to him when he's stuck with a 1.2 million dollar morgage on a 600 000 house?

He does what thousands in Calgary did in 1980 . . . . he throws the keys on the counter and walks out the door and lets the bank have the problem.

Cowperson

[photon]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

He does what thousands in Calgary did in 1980 . . . . he throws the keys on the counter and walks out the door and lets the bank have the problem.

That, or they sell it to me at low low prices!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

He does what thousands in Calgary did in 1980 . . . . he throws the keys on the counter and walks out the door and lets the bank have the problem.

Cowperson

I knew a guy who scooped up a whole pile (10 or so I think) of those infamous $1 houses back in the 80s. Just now he's finished unloading them the last of em. Voila - retirement nest egg.

[/me grumbling at my office desk]

Not that it wasn't a lot of work juggling those financial eggs in the time of 20%+ interest.... Luckily he had access to cheap capital back then.

[Red]

reply to the guy living in the basement with his wife.

You wanna buy a house, pay it off and have a nice and unstressful life? Here are a few pointers on how to get there. Things your parents had to do to get their finances in order.

Stay out of the Mall. If you don't see it you don't need it.
Get rid of all your credit cards, just keep one for hotels, car rentals etc. Never use it to buy consumer goods.
Stop spending money in general, pay your bills and save the rest. Set an entertainment budget and live within it.
Stop thinking in "monthly payments". It bugs me when people look at a car to buy and only mention the monthly payment instead of the actual price.

Few other golden rules of life that some people overlook.

You're not saving money when you buy things on sale. Because you're still spending money.
Pay yourself first. Save first, live off of the rest.
A dollar spent = 3 dollars earned. Taxes, living expenses etc, basically, it's a lot easier to earn 1000 than to save it.
A dollar spent on credit today = 5 dollars not earned in the future. Buy on credit today, spend tomorrow's earnings to pay for it thus having less and less disposable income coming in.

And as Cowperson already mentioned, be patient.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I knew a guy who scooped up a whole pile (10 or so I think) of those infamous $1 houses back in the 80s. Just now he's finished unloading them the last of em. Voila - retirement nest egg.

[/me grumbling at my office desk]

Not that it wasn't a lot of work juggling those financial eggs in the time of 20%+ interest.... Luckily he had access to cheap capital back then.

There were a few scams as well. Something about "buying" the property and renting them out, but not paying the mortgage. By the time the property was foreclosed upon the guys had pocketed some pretty good money. I don't know all of the details (obviously) but this is basically what I've heard.

[return to the red]

Originally Posted by Red

reply to the guy living in the basement with his wife.

You wanna buy a house, pay it off and have a nice and unstressful life? Here are a few pointers on how to get there. Things your parents had to do to get their finances in order.

Stay out of the Mall. If you don't see it you don't need it.
Get rid of all your credit cards, just keep one for hotels, car rentals etc. Never use it to buy consumer goods.
Stop spending money in general, pay your bills and save the rest. Set an entertainment budget and live within it.
Stop thinking in "monthly payments". It bugs me when people look at a car to buy and only mention the monthly payment instead of the actual price.

Few other golden rules of life that some people overlook.

You're not saving money when you buy things on sale. Because you're still spending money.
Pay yourself first. Save first, live off of the rest.
A dollar spent = 3 dollars earned. Taxes, living expenses etc, basically, it's a lot easier to earn 1000 than to save it.
A dollar spent on credit today = 5 dollars not earned in the future. Buy on credit today, spend tomorrow's earnings to pay for it thus having less and less disposable income coming in.

And as Cowperson already mentioned, be patient.

Good rules to live by. Something my family has always stressed to me growing up is paying stuff off ASAP. My wife and I save for what we need and when we don't need anything we save and put it on the mortgage or car loan. As it stands now I'm 27 and she is 25 and the only debt we have is 1 car payment and our mortgage. We never carry a balance on our credit cards and student loans have been paid off. It makes it much easier to save and contribute to RRSP's when you aren't paying off 4 or 5 different loans

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Red

reply to the guy living in the basement with his wife.

Dude, I have a name. And the way you phrase it, I don't know, doesn't sound much better than a van down by the river

I get it. I rack disciprine, sorta. When discussing our future money plans, the Basement Wife and I tend to disagree on the whole savings vs. paying down debt debate.

BW says pay down debt: Why put $10 in a savings account or GIC or whatever earning X% interest when you have loans that need to be paid down and are costing X=Y% interest?

I think there's gotta be a middle ground. At some point you're going to get good future value out of your money by putting some away in a safe place AND paying off your debt. Where that happy balance lies is anybody's guess. If I could find it, I might be able to score some points in the debate.

[GreenTeaFrapp]

Originally Posted by Red

Get rid of all your credit cards, just keep one for hotels, car rentals etc. Never use it to buy consumer goods.

I don't agree with this. I make all my purchases on my credit card for three reasons.

1) I don't like to carry around enough cash to cover what I might purchase.

2) It's more secure then a debit card with all the scammers trying to steal your debit card info.

3) I get 2% back towards the purchase of a car. That's 2% free money considering I always pay the full amount at the end of the month.

[photon]

LOL @ Basement Wife

I like debt, I keep trying to find more of it but eventually the banks want to stop giving it to me

[Flames_Gimp]

i dont want my house to go down..

[Red]

Originally Posted by fredr123

Dude, I have a name. And the way you phrase it, I don't know, doesn't sound much better than a van down by the river

I get it. I rack disciprine, sorta. When discussing our future money plans, the Basement Wife and I tend to disagree on the whole savings vs. paying down debt debate.

BW says pay down debt: Why put $10 in a savings account or GIC or whatever earning X% interest when you have loans that need to be paid down and are costing X=Y% interest?

I think there's gotta be a middle ground. At some point you're going to get good future value out of your money by putting some away in a safe place AND paying off your debt. Where that happy balance lies is anybody's guess. If I could find it, I might be able to score some points in the debate.

LOL, sorry, I had the post already up and realized that I forgot to qote you so I just added that line, and yes, I forgot your name :-)

Basement wife

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by photon

I like debt, I keep trying to find more of it but eventually the banks want to stop giving it to me

Debt is fine if you do the right thing with it. It can be what separates the wealthy from the working schmuck. My boss carry's as much personal debt as they'll allow him too. Thing is that he (like you I assume) doesn't use it to pay for his car, go on trips, buy furniture. No, he's used it to build two office buildings and own 25 rental properties.

Most people don't have that vision, discipline, or risk tolerance though. If they did people like you wouldn't be able to keep making money off those folks!

[Red]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

I don't agree with this. I make all my purchases on my credit card for three reasons.

1) I don't like to carry around enough cash to cover what I might purchase.

2) It's more secure then a debit card with all the scammers trying to steal your debit card info.

3) I get 2% back towards the purchase of a car. That's 2% free money considering I always pay the full amount at the end of the month.

Yes, yes and yes, but 95% of people will abuse the card and be in a hole instead of reaping benefits.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by fredr123

BW says pay down debt: Why put $10 in a savings account or GIC or whatever earning X% interest when you have loans that need to be paid down and are costing X=Y% interest?

I think there's gotta be a middle ground. At some point you're going to get good future value out of your money by putting some away in a safe place AND paying off your debt. Where that happy balance lies is anybody's guess. If I could find it, I might be able to score some points in the debate.

Well, when x = y it is a wash, but consider that you can liquify savings or lend against other investments whereas bad debts just get you more interest payments.

It is a very rare case that interest on a loan is less than or equal to what you would be able to earn by holding your money in a GIC, so it is usually best to pay off all of your loan debts first.

The other thing I don't get is why people accelerate their mortgage payments. If the debt is good and cheap (as Photon mentions above), then why do you want to get rid of it? Take more on and leverage it into greater wealth.

[SeeGeeWhy]

Originally Posted by GreenTeaFrapp

I don't agree with this. I make all my purchases on my credit card for three reasons.

1) I don't like to carry around enough cash to cover what I might purchase.

2) It's more secure then a debit card with all the scammers trying to steal your debit card info.

3) I get 2% back towards the purchase of a car. That's 2% free money considering I always pay the full amount at the end of the month.

I think the point is to not spend more than you have, which is something that you do not do, by the sound of it.

Most people abuse credit cards.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Red

LOL, sorry, I had the post already up and realized that I forgot to qote you so I just added that line, and yes, I forgot your name :-)

Basement wife

No worries. Just don't tell her I talk about her like that on the internets. She'd cut off my allowance for sure...

[Red]

Originally Posted by fredr123

No worries. Just don't tell her I talk about her like that on the internets. She'd cut off my allowance for sure...

or your testies :-)

[looooob]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I knew a guy who scooped up a whole pile (10 or so I think) of those infamous $1 houses back in the 80s. Just now he's finished unloading them the last of em. Voila - retirement nest egg.

.

no doubt...grumbles at millionaire next door in office next door. oh well good on them both