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Not everyone should own a home. Here are some ideas to ask if you question Should You Own a Home

Rosemary
Editor

Great article Rosemeary

We bought a home when I was married. I've refinanced it many years ago so now it's in my name. Big difference and major responsibility. No landlord to fix leaky pipes, keep the landscape up, fix the roof that needs fixing and the bills can be crazy sometimes...etc

But it's great to have the privacy and a place to call my own.

I have found it wonderful to own a home, but i think the way i went about it was right for me. I found a house in pretty bad shape on a nice piece of property in a location i liked. The price was very good since no one wanted this house. Living in my RV in the driveway is pretty easy. Over time I can make my house livable, and in the meantime my mortgage is only $300 a month. You can't rent a place cheaper than that!

I think too many of us buy into the idea of getting the largest mortgage we can secure. I think that is a backwards way of going about it. I'd rather take my extra money and travel with it, or save it, or heck, buy more books.

Often times people don't realize how much of a liability a house is. In addition to mortgage and insurance, everything that goes wrong is the homeowner's responsibility - maintenance, upgrades, losses (such as leaks, sewage backups, etc...) and so forth. I realize that owning a house is the American Dream, but whenever my friends start bringing up the subject of purchasing a home, I always recommend that they get educated and do their due diligence to make sure that owning a home is right for them, or right at the current stage in their lives.

I agree. You should not own a home because it seems like the 'thing to do'. People get sucked in, over their heads and stuck underwater that way.

Do due diligence!

I agree. Home ownership can be expensive, and you need to make sure it fits in the budget. Even something as simple as getting the lawn mowed when the lawnmower breaks can be expensive. A new lawnmower or pay the neighborhood kid $25 - just for the front!

my answer to that is zeriscaping. Use local plants that don't need maintainence or watering. The US obsession with lawns is hugely unsustainable and expensive.