Property Ownership Wakup Call

It used to be that it was a great thing to own property. And by great i mean it was a good financial option, the average person could afford it, and other long term benefits were looked at as a positive.

But i am beginning to think that owning property is more than i can handle financially.  Such as i just found out that my water bill (even if i dont use a drop of water) will be $40.00 per month and then what i use is ontop of that at about $7.00 per 1000 gals.  And $70 a month for sewer as just a base rate which i did not budget either.  So even if i dont live on the property its gonna cost me $100 per month for just water and sewer.  And other costs that i did not anticipat such as huge utility deposits.

So it looks like ill either have to come out of retirement to afford to eat or ill have to cancel TV, internet, and cell phone.  That will give me another $300 per month but my contracts dont end until later this year.  And i certainly wont have enough to finish my fence any time soon or start other projects, even cheap ones.  I may have to turn my 4 rail fence into a 2 rail fence in order to have the lumber to finish the one side and forget about the other side all together.

I thought i had planned this so well in advance, but seems everything i anticipated is not how it turned out....  I am not gonna give up but its sure gonna be hard living, and i hope i dont have any truck or serious RV issues or im sunk.

what a bummer!  So where is the positive now days about property ownership, is it really just for the upper middle class now!

Is this your first time owning property? Did you not research the cost of utilities, services, taxes, restrictions, etc. Sorry to sound harsh, but these and other things you should have researched.

Sell and move.  We bought here almost 5 years ago.  Im on a well and septic.  So OK $425 every 4 years to pump the septic. $180 dollars for water filters about every 4 months.  Taxes?  One third what we paid in town.  In fact I just checked, taxes last year at my last house was almost 5000 dollars.  Im paying far less than 2 grand.  Before buying you really need to do your home work.  On top of that I have a clear view of the mountains over a hundred miles away.  Whats more to like?

ChasA said:

Is this your first time owning property? Did you not research the cost of utilities, services, taxes, restrictions, etc. Sorry to sound harsh, but these and other things you should have researched.

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Yes my first time.  I had the salesperson break down the costs for me approx when i first looked.  I called the utilities, some of them gave me amounts, others could not give me any amounts, so i had to guestamate. 

Also i had planned to conquere the large deposits by refiancing my truck and getting my credit rating back up where it was before, but that did not pan out either.  So i did not plan for large deposits but i am told by others locally that the credit rating does not matter, if you are a first time customer you will pay the deposits regardless.  I ask them how much the deposit would be a month ago and they could not tell me until i got the service turned on.

What you say is not harsh, i know and i tried to do what i could, but it just seems there are so many things i did not count on.  Remember i only make $1300 a month.

donn said:

Sell and move.  We bought here almost 5 years ago.  Im on a well and septic.  So OK $425 every 4 years to pump the septic. $180 dollars for water filters about every 4 months.  Taxes?  One third what we paid in town.  In fact I just checked, taxes last year at my last house was almost 5000 dollars.  Im paying far less than 2 grand.  Before buying you really need to do your home work.  On top of that I have a clear view of the mountains over a hundred miles away.  Whats more to like?

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Yeah and this is even before property taxes and that scares me.  I dont even had the deed yet i cant sell.    They tell me that RV's are not taxes so i am hoping that my taxes are less than $200 a year.  I am working on gettting an estimate from them but they cant do anything until the deed is done and in the system.

TV i wont miss at all because heck i can cook dinner and then finish my dinner before the commercials are over with so im not missing anything but constant commercials.

I own two houses. Well, the bank and I own two houses. I have a truck payment. It seems every time I turn around I have to spend money on a house. Mortgages are $2000 per month. Truck is about $600. Utilities average more than $300. Internet/TV $130. I know what you mean. I tell my wife all the time I wish we would have rented a nice apartment. At least someone else would be responsible for the upkeep.

Sell it and find a place you can afford.
You get the deed when you pay off the loan, which is at the closing of the sale.

jack L

First off you never really OWN property. You may have the deed but you don't really own it, you just think you do. I sold my last house in 1989 and I will not own another one. I have a paid for fifth wheel and it costs me $425 per month rent to stay on one of the most beautiful lots in Florida. That includes water, sewage, trash and yard maintenance.

JackL said:

Sell it and find a place you can afford.
You get the deed when you pay off the loan, which is at the closing of the sale.

jack L

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No we get an owners deed, its a special deed i dont remember the tech name of it.  Then once the loan is paid we get the official deed.



I guess i really had a good deal leasing where i was before at $1600 per year plus electricity.

I did not realize until i read the land docs that i dont even get mineral rights, those go to someone else.  The thing is this is not even a house its just a lot of land, i have my own house (RV).  I just didnt realize it would be so much expense. 

Even if i sold it right now i would lose my butt on it as i have only made 1 payment so far.  I wont be able to sell it until its worth enough to pay off the loan and that will be awhile.

I wanted to own because of the freedom of it, but freedom does not come cheap. Oh well!!  one day ill laugh about this lol

djw2112 said:

I wanted to own because of the freedom of it, but freedom does not come cheap. Oh well!!  one day ill laugh about this lol

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There is no freedom to owning land. In fact you become a slave to the property. When I owned a house I had to spend many hours a week doing yard work and keeping the house operating properly. Much easier with just a fiver. I have a friend who rides motorcycles and he was bragging about the freedom of riding a bike. I was confused and asked him what freedom that was and he could not answer. I think I am freer in a car.

SeilerBird said:

the freedom of riding a bike.

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It's the wind in your hair. Except I have very little hair so I drive a truck 

How is having wind in your hair equal freedom? It just means you can't wear a hat and you must comb your hair when you get there. I don't see the freedom in that. Don't get me wrong, I love riding on a bike, I just don't get the whole freedom thing.

I would have given up home ownership many years ago if not for ex-wives who felt it was important for them.  When Lin An said this home ownership thing is not all it is cracked up to be lets move on, we sold our house a year and a half ago and have gone full-time and have not regretted it or missed owning a house.

We certainly don't miss having the house and property with it. We have a small lot in a campground we own, and we have our fifth wheel on that. It seems like that is getting to be a pain more and more every day. If we had a class A instead of a class C, I think we would just move into that and sell the lot and fiver. I'm getting closer to retirement, so thinking maybe sell it all and start over. 

Property ownership is indeed getting beyond the lower middle class, especially in metro areas.    However, there are much less expensive places than your experience.  My water runs $15/month + $1.25/1000 and I have a septic tank so no sewer fees.  Cable tv and internet cost me more than all my utilities together.

Water on my lot is about the same per month, but no extra for gallons used. We have our own septic also. Cable/satellite is $0 because we don't think it's worth it for us. We usually just do OTA, but the booster in the antenna on the fiver just went up. Sensar IV replacement head coming soon. Internet is our two phones, and we debate that once in a while.

I did ask about septic tank and its about 10 grand to install and about $120 a year to pump it out, however since i am in such close proximity to the lake they wont allow septic tanks. 

What gets me more is that i dont have a choice of utilities.  The water company (southwest water) which is a multi state conglomerate does the water here and i dont have another option to go with anyone else.  I thought that the feds or the utilitity commission did not allow that anymore?    There is no competition so they can charge whatever they want and we are stuck with it.

Maybe the freedom referred to when riding a motorcycle can be explained by comparing to walking around wearing a suit to walking around naked..it is the lack of confinement, which is why cars are referred to as "cages"

Agree on never own property, the government owns it and if that is not believed then stop paying property taxes. Homeowner ass ociations  can bring suit and take your property. A man died here in florida and had no next of kin so the IRS took his property, claiming that there was no way this man could have lived that lifestyle on the income he claimed.....

If I didnt have the property and all my toys here I would be able to leave, and I would leave in a heartbeat. but I hate to leave the homestead where I have grown up....slave to the property.

Most of us have bought into the ?American Dream? of owning a home. But how many really actualize that dream. Most of us do not ?own? our homes and if you do it still costs you a butt load due to utilities and upkeep. A lot of folks are upside down on the home and vehicles. Couldn?t sell if they wanted to.

Some of that is because of buyer overreach.  A "starter home" used to be 1000-1200 sq ft on a postage stamp lot in a cookie-cutter subdivision; now homes twice that size are considered too small. Everybody wants that ultimate dream house first rather than waiting til they can afford it. And the real estate & mortgage sales people all encourage it.