I grew up on the move. The daughter of a college language professor who found himself having to move each year, I lived in 10 different states before I was 10 years old. My family finally settled in Centreville, VA when I was 10. When I was 13 we moved again - this time into a house we owned. I always kept expecting to move again somewhere inside of me - but my parents never moved again. I did, though. I went to University of Maryland after high school graduation only 5 years later, and afterward moved to Manhattan where I proceeded to move over 10 times more due to the rising cost of housing in the area thanks in part to Mayor Rudy Giullianni abolishing rent stabilization - a very bad move on his part that would have far reaching ill effects on all renters in the area.
I've had over 20 places to live, and counting. I want the place I'm living now to be my last. When I think of how much of my and my family's money was wasted on move after move after move, it's astonishing.
Despite making a descent living, I am underqualified for most loans and mortgages that don't have usuriously high rates due to being self employed and not having perfect credit. My most recent attempt at stellar credit was tragically ruined by a period of sickness - brought on by my most recent landlord's over use of pesticides in the apt right before I moved in. 8 Emergency Room visits and 4 Doctor's visits and counting, some of those not covered by insurance, means lots of 800 numbers bombarding my phone and dings on the credit I had laboriously polished up the previous year. Credit is a losers game, made for people who are either very lucky or who have the means to preserve stellar credit no matter what happens - and I have decided not to play any more. Trying to play by the rules that have been outlined for us by banks and credit companies to secure housing in or close to NYC that will not make you sick or get you killed is very, very obviously not working. This has been amply demonstrated over many years, so other strategies must be employed.
I was not, in fact, looking forward to being a "mortgage slave" and taking that grisly bet that I'd be able to have the wherewithal to keep a 30 year mortgage going, taking a chance on foreclosure and all the hazards that mortgages come with. Seeing how much it had negatively affected my parent's lives and some of my friends, I was in fact dreading it. So I am in a way glad that this episode of sickness has lead to me striking out on my own to find my own way, and jumped off the mainstream track of a 30 year mortgage. There is more than one way up the mountain and I'm finding it.
It feels strange to have a fairly descent income but be considered not eligible for a descent loan. But I feel this will lead me to a position that is better than being responsible for a mortgage - more free and secure. Mortgage means "death contract" - who wants to be involved in a "death contract"? I certainly don't.
Some mortgages take a year to complete the process from start to finish. What if I were to take that year and focus on buying land, then putting a prefabricated cottage, Tiny House or RV on it to live in - then building a house at my leisure? I'd be farther away from NYC than I had originally planned, but I'd be getting the fresh air, sunshine, land and healthy living that I had desired on most definitely. I'd be in a beautiful environment that is much safer than where I had been previously- in NYC and it's boroughs. And I'd have control over my situation in a way that I'd never dreamed possible before.
I think I'm going to do it.
I've had over 20 places to live, and counting. I want the place I'm living now to be my last. When I think of how much of my and my family's money was wasted on move after move after move, it's astonishing.
Despite making a descent living, I am underqualified for most loans and mortgages that don't have usuriously high rates due to being self employed and not having perfect credit. My most recent attempt at stellar credit was tragically ruined by a period of sickness - brought on by my most recent landlord's over use of pesticides in the apt right before I moved in. 8 Emergency Room visits and 4 Doctor's visits and counting, some of those not covered by insurance, means lots of 800 numbers bombarding my phone and dings on the credit I had laboriously polished up the previous year. Credit is a losers game, made for people who are either very lucky or who have the means to preserve stellar credit no matter what happens - and I have decided not to play any more. Trying to play by the rules that have been outlined for us by banks and credit companies to secure housing in or close to NYC that will not make you sick or get you killed is very, very obviously not working. This has been amply demonstrated over many years, so other strategies must be employed.
I was not, in fact, looking forward to being a "mortgage slave" and taking that grisly bet that I'd be able to have the wherewithal to keep a 30 year mortgage going, taking a chance on foreclosure and all the hazards that mortgages come with. Seeing how much it had negatively affected my parent's lives and some of my friends, I was in fact dreading it. So I am in a way glad that this episode of sickness has lead to me striking out on my own to find my own way, and jumped off the mainstream track of a 30 year mortgage. There is more than one way up the mountain and I'm finding it.
It feels strange to have a fairly descent income but be considered not eligible for a descent loan. But I feel this will lead me to a position that is better than being responsible for a mortgage - more free and secure. Mortgage means "death contract" - who wants to be involved in a "death contract"? I certainly don't.
Some mortgages take a year to complete the process from start to finish. What if I were to take that year and focus on buying land, then putting a prefabricated cottage, Tiny House or RV on it to live in - then building a house at my leisure? I'd be farther away from NYC than I had originally planned, but I'd be getting the fresh air, sunshine, land and healthy living that I had desired on most definitely. I'd be in a beautiful environment that is much safer than where I had been previously- in NYC and it's boroughs. And I'd have control over my situation in a way that I'd never dreamed possible before.
I think I'm going to do it.
well land also costs money. the cost of building isnt much less than that of buying a house although imo it's a better value. a prefab house , tiny house or RV must be on properly zoned land, the laws differ by state and county. i dont see whats so different between paying a mortgage or paying a homebuilding loan.
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