Single guys, do you rent a home?

Think long and hard about it.

 

Hi jabber, I never attack you. It seems some guys get off on picking on someone, makes them feel like a big man, but I've found, it's usually the person doing the attacking is the one with the real issues.

 

I was living at my dad's house/no rent due when I went out on the road the first time. Then I transitioned into local LTL work and had all the usual trappings to pay for...car, apt, utilities, etc.

Now I have a local/regional gig where I'm gone 6-7 days at a time and pay $400/mo to crash on the couch at my apt in Brooklyn. Had one of the bedrooms for $800 when I was local but rented it out to somebody else since I really didn't need it and could use the extra money.

Even if you can live your truck to dodge rent there are practical considerations that make it difficult to essentially be homeless. Namely You need a permanent address for sake of simplicity for tax purposes and to tie all your personal business to and some place to store your stuff you don't want or need out on the road. Sure there are ways around it such as PO boxes and storage facilities but none of that stuff is free either mind you. Permissive parents or relatives are ideal but a cheap living situation like I have is 2nd best option.

 

Yup. I sold my house recently. My $.02...a mortgage is like a boat anchor on your finances. Unless you buy well below your means and/or put down a hefty down payment...once you buy a house...you're generally stuck there for 5+ years. I knew that getting into it, but figured "I'd rather have my money go towards something tangible than just paying rent." I bought at the tail end of the market sliding (2010) and managed to sell during an up-tick (2014). I would have preferred to be out of the house earlier than that though (my marriage grenaded shortly after my dumb *** bought the house), so that ended up being a long four years. If the market hadn't rebounded this year and I didn't decide to sell when I did...I'd be completely ###### though.

The company I'd been with long-term grenaded three months after I sold the house. Salaries suck in my area at the moment, so staying in the same field would have netted me a salary that was 25%+ lower than my old one.That ties into my biggest issue with having a sizable mortgage. You lose the flexibility to live your life on your own terms. You want to try a new career? Good luck with that. It's difficult to start out in a new field where you're going to be lucky to gross $45k/year...when you did your budgeting for 5+ years based on a $65k+/year income if you've got that boat anchor/house on the books.

That's not even getting into the fact that a house is a bottomless pit. If you own a house, you will constantly be replacing or repairing something. If you're not...take a step back...I can pretty much guarantee that unless your purchased a brand new home...the place is falling down around you. It's always one thing or another. $500 for a washing machine, $100 for a dishwasher (got the hook-ups from a buddy), $50 for a new porch column, $20 for lattice, $350 to repair a hole in the roof from a tree branch, $600 to repaint or replace the shutters (if you were a dumb *** and purchased a home in an HOA community), etc. It's never-ending.

If you are going to buy...buy something that you can put up a BIG down payment. Big...as in 50%+ of the purchase price of the home. By that, I mean save up for a few years...pinch pennies along the way...and buy something small or something that needs some work. It's not like the place has to be perfect if you're OTR, as you'll only be in it for a few nights a month. Get the bathroom and kitchen up and running quickly...then get to the rest when you've got the time.

 

If you live in the truck will the company make you take home time. Like can you just day out 52 weeks a year and save the cash?

 

You can do that. Or take home time some other place you want to spend some time.

 

I bought my house if you think about it in the long run when you rent you could make someone richer and also I and home some of the time probably im home 2 weeks a month and i can still make enough money to have profit this year alone i made 90,500 but in jaunary im switching over to reefer hoping to raise rates because flatbed freight is at the low and im tired of tarping and straping in 30 weather

 

Home time has always been an option. If you're otr, you can take home time whenever wherever. Since I was single and didn't have my own place, I saw 'home time' as an opportunity to take a true vacation. Sometimes I went to Cancun or Guadalupe for 3 weeks and partied like a rockstar. The good times I had trashing hotel rooms.

 

I took the advice of... well, everyone when I was 26 and bought house. I sold it 7 years later when I moved overseas and even though it had risen in value and I walked away with a fat check (in excess of $50K) I was still worse off than if I had rented an apartment and stuck the extra money in just a regular savings account.

Interest
Property taxes
Maintenance and repairs
Utilities

I added all those up and it was significantly more than what I would have spent on a decent apartment. What I couldn't put a price on was the stress and headache of dealing with the maintenance of the house and I was living in it everyday and was able to tackle the issues as they arose. I couldn't imagine owning a house that I was away from for weeks at a time. As for renting (which again, some suggested I do when I was moving), no way!. I have seen and heard the horror stories of tenants ruining properties or refusing to pay rent on time or at all and it taking months to evict them.

 

I shoulda done that when I was younger!