Hi St561W,

FWIW,

When my parents built a brand new house they had nothing but trouble.

When they purchased 2 different 30+yr old houses, sure, there were "issues" but no real "troubles."

Not all home inspectors are thorough. If you had sheer bad luck problems (hurricane ripped off the roof, entire neighborhood's cesspools backed up due to 500-year rainfall) or construction of a new freeway overpass, then that's not something a good inspection could have caught. If you've spent $100K over the course of 20 or 30 years on two houses added together, well, some of those items such as roofs, HVAC, and sprinkler systems could have reached the end of their normal lifetime.

That sounds like quite a lot. I'm not there, but as a guess, I suspect a few factors may play into this.

First is that you may be buying larger, relatively high end homes. I'm guessing that from the fact that you mention having a sprinkler system, but of course I could be wrong. In any case, there's often just more to go wrong with such homes in terms of size and features. I sometimes think that some contractors bid higher when they know that you can afford it, and when they suspect (correctly or not) that you might have especially high standards that could mean more callbacks for them.

Also, perhaps your homes have been newer ones. My experience mirrors Janie's. Among my rental properties, the newer they are, the more maintenance and repair they require. I will never buy another home built after 1970.

Finally, you've probably just had a run of bad luck.

Home ownership isn't for everyone. Renting is like having a budget plan gas bill -- in the long run, you still pay for repairs (plus something for the landlord's profit). However, what you pay is predictable, leveled out from month to month and from year to year.

Neither renting nor owning is inherently more virtuous; it's just a matter of your own personal situation. In fact, I know some folks who are better off than I am who prefer the financial predictability of renting. À chacun son goût, as the French say.

I've had most of those things happen between 3 older houses (1932 to 1973) in 12 years. But they are all small houses in a low cost of living area, and we DIY a lot of repairs, so I haven't spent that much money. I have plenty of less handy friends who rent and will always rent to avoid having to fix anything.

I’ve discovered owning homes is just a pain in the butt no matter what, after a certain amount of time everything seems to start going. I had flooding after my water heater went too (after 14 years), things fall apart, but it sounds like you take care of these things same as I do...some people just don’t fix things or don’t care.

Things deteriorate unpredictably. I’ve found it to my benefit to have home service providers on speed dial. After establishing a relationship with the AC guy, plumber, appliance repair, etc... things even out. Everything is so expensive now, but reliability and confidence in the vendor is priceless. Nevertheless, sometimes renting looks appealing.

There is always maintenance to any house, and is responsibility of the homeowner when something fails. If it fails and you are renting, well, then it is responsibility of the landlord, and thats when you hope you have a good landlord that actually cares. I couldnt rent. I like having my own house, and being able to have things the way I like them, , so I just accept when things go wrong no matter how annoying it is. At our last house, the water heater went out, the first night we spent in the house. I got up to carpeting full of water. Hubby turned the water off, and we spent the rest of the night with a wet vac. and fans. We had it replaced the next day. Other than a couple other minor things, that was the only real problem we had. House was built in early 70's. With this house, the water heater went out about a month after hubby passed away, but, no leaking, so that was a plus. I had it replaced a few days later. The one in it was very old. I know, my replacement will not last nearly as long as the old one did. Nothing does. We lived in the last house 18 yrs, and I have lived in this one 10 yrs.

We are the 3rd owners of our home, which we purchased 20 years ago and was built in 1973. I've come to realize the 2nd owner was a genius. He bought it when it was about 10 years old, spent 15 years in it, and then sold it to us. Since we've bought it, things have really started to wear out. . . I will say that it was very well built and we have no children here so that has helped. But 45 years is 45 years. . .

I think people glorify home ownership and tend to black out on the parts that are less desirable. Spending money on repairs is part of that. It gets glossed over and tossed aside when people boast that RE is a great investment ( most often, for most people, it is not).

Don’t buy home a home with a rock (or cement block) foundation, or a slate roof (yes, they must have periodic maintenance and do need replacing after 125 years), steam boilers with cast iron radiators, or galvanized water lines from city. Ugh.

Home ownership isn't for everyone. We had neighbours who were fed up with house upkeep and sold their home and moved into an apartment nearby. I was mildly horrified as I take pride in my home and love being a homeowner, but they were in heaven and couldn't stop talking about how it was the best decision they ever made.

Functionthelook, we had the same experience as your son with our inspector. None of the real estate agents liked him and that was fine with us. I wouldn't be surprised if those same real estate agents that discouraged us from using him, brought him in when they were buying their own homes.

Systems need replacing every so often. It’s not hard to find out what brand and how old a system is. Water heaters have a sixth sense for going up when you are out of town or have company coming. You seem like you’ve had a bit of bad luck, sorry for that. There are other things that can go wrong that are not even house related - I have 5 huge mature blue spruce trees that are dying from needle blight that I need to have taken down. Who saw that coming when I bought the house? Nobody.

Buying a home is like having a baby. You do all the right things for nine months, you deliver, and from then on you tend, care, spend, love, and PRAY.

Otherwise, you rent the kid ala you are the aunt, uncle, or you RENT your roof.. literally. Whacking either with a baseball bat in frustration is always a guaranteed fail, and one of those is downright illegal. Some disappointment is a guarantee on both house, and human. You can move from a bad house, it's a lot tougher to get rid of the humans : )

Most people try too hard to buy above their actual means when buying a home. They forget about the associated required upkeep. That same dollar figure as the mortgage needs to go in the bank as savings for home repair every month.

And you should have a preventative maintenance program in effect that replaces things BEFORE they die. How many drain your water heater annually? Change out the anode rods? Inspect your HVAC ducts? Use your shut off valves on every fixture? Drain the drip leg in your gas appliances? Clean off debris and inspect your roof? Replace your caulk at windows and doors. And that is in addition to replacing a 12 year warrantied water heater before it gets to 14 years of age, or replacing a 20 year old AC condenser before it dies on you in a July 4th 1000 degree weekend.

Home maintenance and repair should avoid most of the surprises and associated damage. It won’t avoid the expense. Which is why you should always buy the smallest and cheapest house that you can afford in the best location. Skip the 6000 sf “bargain” house with the pool that you can barely afford the note, and can’t afford to furnish it, or keep it up.

I’m sorry for all the trouble that you have been having. I bought my house a little over 4 years ago and the only real problems that I have had are a basement window that leaked after torrential rai and just recently my dishwasher went out. My homeowners insurance didn’t cover my basement window because they consider it flooding and that is separate insurance They did, however, pay for a restoration company to rip up the carpet and remove the insulation and bad drywall the rain caused. And my home warranty is repairing my dishwasher. I don’t care about my appliances because I plan on doing an addition that will add more space to my kitchen and I am getting new ones then so it could completely die for all I care.

My home was built in 1979 and built very well but the previous owners did not replace anything major. I replaced my roof in 2017 because I knew that it was in desperate need of anew one and they had to replace $3000 worth of damaged plywood (they were actually surprised that I wasn’t having buckets of water falling in my house when it rained). I just replaced my windows because they were aluminum (which I loved) but single pained (which is not good AT ALL and especially in VA hear) and got my retaining wall redone because the one that was there was a timber wall that was leaning and falling into the street in the front. These were things that I knew that I was going to have at some point when I bought my house, I just decided to address them early on before they caused any real issues.

Now I have moved onto more exciting things like redoing my deck, redoing the fireplace wall, installing recessed lights, redoing powder room, new floors.... you are right, the costs add up and the work seems to be never ending but I enjoy it. My rent was as much as my mortgage is and my house has increased in value substantially. I couldn’t see giving someone $23000 a year for 1/4 of the space and freedom to do what I want. I agree with a lot of what the previous posters have said, bad inspector referred by realtor, new homes have more problems, some things have just reached the end of their shelf life, alleviating some of the costs by tackling some repairs yourself....

How is this for irony.... I JUST posted how I have not had any major costs and I went downstairs and my hot water heater is leaking... Thank god for my home warranty!

Although I love my house I am looking forward to moving into an apartment when enough of my elderly cats reduce their number to two. Thinking beyond the costs I am also thinking of the ease of family. There will be no need to sell this house. In an apartment they can simply select or not anything they want to keep then have everything put into a dumpster. Of course there is the realization that I may end up in a nursing home or be dead before that time comes.

I have spent A LOT of money on my present house because all the former owners didn’t take care of the infrastructure. I don’t think an inspector could have found most because they were hidden problems created over years of neglect.

On the other hand, my daughter rents a house that is now a disaster because the owner won’t fix what’s wrong... which is why she’s finally moving.

Then there is my friend who lives in a lovely apartment and lives with the noise from the people upstairs.

Right now I figure I could sell my house and use the proceeds to pay for rent for about 8 to 9 years; what I would do to pay the rent after that would be a problem. If I stay in my house, which I own outright, I may have to pay for occasional repairs, but I will still have my equity when I do sell... at age 99.

The scenario of staying in your house when you are older has tripped up many. I by virtue of being my husband's driver for years have friends in that age group. There are several things that happen. The house is in an older neighborhood filled with houses of similar age that few want to purchase into the area. It not a matter of repairing anything. Most things you have to replace. While you could use your equity to purchase those things sooner or later for several in my group that used this method to finance repairs the equity is gone. Unless your house has the wide door frames and other things that an older person may need it would be unsafe to live in it. There is also the small thing that income does not match expenses as you age. If you or your spouse, if married, has a pension under many plans if the spouse dies you may receive 50% of that pension which drastically cuts down on income. If you have a pension it may not increase. There is always the thing that you may become ill and your doctor will not allow you to return home. Of course then it becomes another persons problem.

As others have said, always choose your own inspector based on your own research, not one recommended by your real estate agent. Having said that, no inspector will be able to spot every problem or guarantee that nothing will go wrong. It's just the nature of houses being a complex arrangement of systems and structures. You don't say how old the houses were when you bought them, but you will minimize (but not eliminate) problems by buying new or almost new. You will always have maintenance costs as an owner. BUT, in most situations in most locations, you will build more equity and more wealth by owning rather than renting. Try purchasing another house, third time's a charm...

100K on repairs of heating system, AC, and the like? That sounds like a lot.

I have not spent more maintaining my home than I would spend putting money in somebody else's pocket by renting, so I am okay with home ownership. Yes, it is a hassle at times, but it's mine.

Well...............In this state, it is YOURS until you skip the exorbitant property taxes payments. Then you find out who really owns it. So along with a whole lot of others, you flee to anywhere cheaper. And warmer .

My dad used to joke "If anyone tells you they made a pile of money on a house, they're either liars or they can't ADD... or have convenient memory lapse".

Where I live, real estate taxes are still cheaper than renting.

Ugh, I’m sorry and I feel you.

We currently own two houses: one that has been super easy to maintain and that we’re selling to family friends, and the new to us house, which is almost 100 years old.

We just learned that the house that we’re selling needs a brand new roof before we can close that deal. We had no idea that there was anything wrong wtih the roof, and took a lot of pride in how well we’ve maintained that home. This week we get to deal with that. $$$$$

The new to us house is still under renovation, but we moved in a week ago. In that time we’ve learned that we have a bat colony in our attic (we love bats, just not INSIDE OUR HOUSE) and we currently have invasive ivy growing into our downstairs bathroom through the window (no one had been in there for a couple of weeks due to aforementioned renovations). We’ve also replaced the garage door motor ($$$$), dealt with faulty HVAC stuff causing mold to grow in duct and vent, and we are currently attempting to fix the tiles/caulking in the kids’ shower so that it is water tight. This is in addition to the optional stuff that we’ve done like refinish the hardwood floors throughout and paint every inch of the place.

We love the new house and the location could not possibly be better, but have totally opened ourselves up to a whole new world of home maintenance. It’s our 6th house, but the previous houses have all been fairly well-behaved and have not had fauna grow inside of them just because we’ve ignored a small room for five minutes.

Jan, sometimes dear old dad is just wrong. I have made money on houses,sometimes a pile of it, and so far not lost on any. But that is mostly a function of age and stage and yeah,location. (umm I bought (as a singleton) and still own my first place in San Francisco in the late 1980s) I also think that homeownership isn't right for everyone. And just about no one should build or buy planning to make a pile,especially on a primary residence.

OP, sounds like you have had a run of awful luck. (100k in repairs alone! yikes) I hope that is over.

Well, that's home ownership. Just like owning a car or a boat. Things wear out, especially water heaters. I replaced mine before anything happened, but it was 16 years old by that time, so about $50/year. Not bad. I do a lot of the regular maintenance myself, so no labor cost. My house is 130+ years old (but all renovated). And it's worth 3 times what I paid for it 18 years ago, so good deal.

It is rare for anyone to give the advice that GreenDesigns did. Most just ask if you can afford the mortgage, the taxes and the insurance. No one ever talks about what it costs to maintain a house, and it DOES cost! In the 35 years I've been in this house, I've replaced the hot water heater twice, the AC condenser on the upstairs unit twice, the downstairs AC entire HVAC system once. I've also replace the roof 3 times (the 3rd time was due to hail damage 11 months after having replace the roof! - Insurance covers less a 1% deductible of $6,500). I've also replace the gutters and down spouts twice. It's a brick house but the trim/windows were painted innumerable times. I now have aluminum-clad windows so only trim has to be repainted and is probably due to be done in a couple of years. The driveway has had the asphalt re-done once and needs it again - I may get by with just a good top coat. Whomever buys this house someday, will most likely repack the brick sidewalk as there are some cracks in the mortar - probably also the brick front porch that has moved away from the house over the past 71 years. I'm not doing this.

I've also had to have part of the basement floor and a long stretch of the basement garage floor dug up and the main waste pipe from the house to the sewer replaced. Over the years, it had settled and was now draining back TOWARD the house, not AWAY from it. I've replaced two toilets, innumerable toilet seats, faucets in baths and kitchen, and tile (floor and walls) in one bathroom. I've also had to have new glass put in the sliding doors on the sun porch when they lost their seal. I'm hoping the ones put in 16 years ago, last until I sell the house in a few years.

I've replaced plaster ceilings with wallboard in two rooms and one wall in another, where a leak from the gutter caused massive plaster cracking damage.

This is a very well-built house, built in 1948 when houses were well-built and it was an expensive one at that time. We won't even talk about the appliances I've replaced.

In addition, I've done extensive re-modeling multiple times. Will I "make money" when I sell? Probably $20-30,000 over what I have in it in total, but then I've also had the ability to live here all these years, so yes, it was a good investment for me, as I will most likely get $450-500,000 from the sale after the mortgage is paid off. All that other expense was spread out over all these years so that will be a welcome chunk of change that can pay for my nursing home for 4-5 years, if I live that long.

I did wonder how many people owning homes knew how to do those things that GreenDesign mentioned or know what they are, or even owned the tools to do them. I have books that tell you part of what he mentioned but they are not complete.

A comment above suggests home ownership is like a car or a boat. Well no; with both of those things there is an immediate and dramatic depreciation in value as soon as you drive it away but then, more or less, an approximate value based on its condition and age after that when you go to sell

With homes, There isn’t the dramatic depreciation but there is major upkeep, and no taking your house into the shop to have someone else tell you that X needs attention, Y needs replacing, and Z needs to be cleaned or else you’ll have to replace A, B and C. And then W all of a sudden explodes.

And we haven’t even touched on market changes which are so ephemeral and shifting. I think people assume that they will get out of their house approximately what they put in, less some expenses, and maybe they will make money. But when you realllllly tally it all up....are people even breaking even?

I've owned seven homes built in the 1920's, 1940's, 1970's, 1990's, and 2000's. Two of them were brand new. I've been fairly lucky, but houses are expensive! Even new homes need window coverings and landscaping, which ain't cheap.

It seems to me that homes, like people, go in cycles. Owners update/remodel/improve homes in a burst of activity, then 10-15 years later things begin to fall apart and the cycle starts again. I've put over $100k into my current 1928 cottage but because I was experienced I understood what I was buying. Now I'm calculating how many more years I have before it's time to replace the roof, appliances, etc. My plan is to sell before the home improvement cycle begins again. Wish me luck!

I'm surprised by the negativity toward home ownership. I love owning my house, no one can make me move, I can do anything I want with my house.

I'm also surprised by GreenDesign post, I don't even know what an anode rod is, nor a drip leg. I have no mortgage payment so I guess I needn't set aside maintenance funds. My water heater is 18 years old, but it works fine why do I want to replace it now, it's in a separate outside closet, so I'm not worried about a leak. When it goes out, I can get it replaced in a day.

I know (by past experience) real estate is a good long term investment I've owned house rentals, apartments, spec builds profiting each time. As far as home ownership, we all need to live somewhere, over time in my area the original purchase price starts looking like a bargain as do our property taxes. As mentioned this time I bought my house with no mortgage, but in the past we've always mortgaged our purchase giving us better leverage on our invested funds.

I think you are experiencing bad luck.

I don't think it's reasonable to attend to all the items Greenspace suggests.

Homeownership can be a huge financial advantage because the payments are generally level and there's a chance to pay it off. This is helpful when you aren't able to work for a living and must rely on fixed income.

Rents ALWAYS go up, and there is a risk that you can get priced out of a place to live, either 30 years from now, or much sooner, e.g. if a tech company moves to town. This is a big problem in San Francisco area.

Some homeownership costs are State-specific. There are snow issues, or cockroach issues, or water-in-basement issues. That won't be about that particular house.

Before you purchase a house, check to see if there are old photos or news stories, e.g. of floods or big storms. Also, visit the home every chance you get to see how water flows over the property.

I have generally had a handyman I can trust and call if I need help. These don't cost like a builder. They can tell, e.g. if the toilet leaks and figure out why and put in a new one (I do the $99 version).

"If anyone tells you they made a pile of money on a house, they're either liars or they can't ADD... or have convenient memory lapse". Wrong again Jan. Now the two homes I made a pile of money on were in California, so it is kind of cheating...But you have to know when to buy and when to sell. Tatts says " And it's worth 3 times what I paid for it 18 years ago, so good deal" Only if you sell and get the money, otherwise you are just dreaming. I sold one of my homes in CA in 10/2005 right at the peak. Everyone said I was crazy,,then after a couple of years "what a genius". I did not buy again until 2015 in Waco. Today if your buying, your are paying peak prices and they will fall, again. There is nothing wrong with renting, now. It is harder as far as having to move more, neighbors, etc, but it's better than being underwater on a home with expenses..And this "forever home" stuff is pure nonsense. Downsize when your older, no yard, no maintenance and have fun...When I sell this Waco home, or give it to my kids, who knows it could be "Winnebago Kid",,,,

"My dad used to joke "If anyone tells you they made a pile of money on a house, they're either liars or they can't ADD... or have convenient memory lapse"."

Yes, sometimes dear dad is just wrong.

Would I really file tax returns showing a profit because of lying, faulty math or an inconvenient memory lapse?