Anonymous wrote:I am 45 and don’t know many people who purchased their first home before age 30.

I'm older than that, and the only people I knew who purchased their homes before 30 without family help were people who bought in Texas during the S&L crisis when prices crashed.

I was a BigLaw Associate and didn't buy my first house until I was 30.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. Buy a condo then move every 2 years until you land softly.

Or move in with parents and save rent.

Stop paying $3500 for rent. You don’t need a fancy apartment not that $3500 even gets you one nowadays.

This is just terrible advice in any market except a rapidly appreciating one.

Seriously, we were renting a condo in 2010 for $2.5k; the next door condo was for sale and we did the math that the property tax and condo fee ALONE would be $2.5k/month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a real estate attorney who oversaw the closing of more than 50,000 properties over 2 decades. There is a home in almost every budget. When people are ready to buy they can certainly find something. Whether they are willing to buy in the budget they can afford is an individual preference. IMO younger people today are far less likely than previous generations to do so.

There are pockets of neighborhoods in NYC and Boston that are not considered desirable. They are old triple deckers or two family. The people who are buying them are immigrants. They will fix the houses and neighborhoods and make a killing when they eventually sell.

Some areas never improve, look at Capital Heights or East Palo Alto.

Anonymous wrote:I’m 35. We first bought at 25 in a townhouse. Best decision we made that set us up for success.

If we had bought at 25 we would have been buying a condo in PG county in 2005, peak of housing bubble. We would still be underwater.

As long as you can afford to buy a long term house (ie townhouse, SFH, something few simple with good schools and safe neighborhood), do it as early as you can, so that if values do decline you are still happy where you are.

I assume you had no student debt or have Big Jobs? A townhouse 10 years ago in DMV were still $750k, which is $150k in after tax cash savings and a $3k monthly payment. Hardly 3rd year Fed employee range of options.

Anonymous wrote:I am a real estate attorney who oversaw the closing of more than 50,000 properties over 2 decades. There is a home in almost every budget. When people are ready to buy they can certainly find something. Whether they are willing to buy in the budget they can afford is an individual preference. IMO younger people today are far less likely than previous generations to do so.

There are pockets of neighborhoods in NYC and Boston that are not considered desirable. They are old triple deckers or two family. The people who are buying them are immigrants. They will fix the houses and neighborhoods and make a killing when they eventually sell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought our first home at 33/31 with no family money. That seemed to be around teh same time as many of our peers. I think people who do it before 30 have inheritance or parents who give them a down payment.

That is just something you tell yourself to justify why you didn’t buy earlier. Truthfully peer group tend to do things together. So once one friend buys a house they all tend to buy. Same thing for getting married and having kids.

The first in my peer group bought a studio apartment right out of college. We all bought within the next 18 months.

Lol, what? No, friends don't all buy a house, get married or have kids just because one friend did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 42 now but was a grad student in Engineering at VT. Bought my first investment condo at the age of 26 and then bought my primary residence in Fairfax at the age of 28. I never used to(sometimes do now) waste money on anything useless, save and invest, rinse and repeat. Own 14 rental properties now and still live in the same house I bought in 2009.

That’s amazing. Good for you! I’ll encourage my kids to start early with investments. We are same age and own two homes and feel we are doing well!

Thanks! For rental real estate, you just have to be in the grind, take calculative risk and learn from your mistakes.

Being a landlord is just owning a shitty small business. You might as well become an owner/operator of a 7-11.

What price is considered a starter home that a person under 30 could buy in the DMV?

Anonymous wrote:No. Buy a condo then move every 2 years until you land softly.

Or move in with parents and save rent.

Stop paying $3500 for rent. You don’t need a fancy apartment not that $3500 even gets you one nowadays.

This is just terrible advice in any market except a rapidly appreciating one.

Yes, I do rent it out to VT students and do individual leases but could also do to a group if they approach me. No, I give clear instructions on what I would expect from them. Yes, it needs very good deep cleaning at the end of the year but it comes out of their security deposit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 42 now but was a grad student in Engineering at VT. Bought my first investment condo at the age of 26 and then bought my primary residence in Fairfax at the age of 28. I never used to(sometimes do now) waste money on anything useless, save and invest, rinse and repeat. Own 14 rental properties now and still live in the same house I bought in 2009.

That’s amazing. Good for you! I’ll encourage my kids to start early with investments. We are same age and own two homes and feel we are doing well!

Thanks! For rental real estate, you just have to be in the grind, take calculative risk and learn from your mistakes.

Do you do long term rentals or short term rentals? Nearby or out of state?

Mostly long term as I self managed and have a full time job in R&D. Depends on the state, I have a few THs in Blacksburg that can go $650-700 per bedroom per month, DC is more stable with voucher and then other THs in Fredericksburg and Stafford have long term tenants.

Do you rent to VTech kids? Do you do separate leases for each room then? Or do groups of friends rent together? Are they respectful or do most of the places looked trashed quickly? I am
in a college town and that’s an interesting idea.

self manage*

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 42 now but was a grad student in Engineering at VT. Bought my first investment condo at the age of 26 and then bought my primary residence in Fairfax at the age of 28. I never used to(sometimes do now) waste money on anything useless, save and invest, rinse and repeat. Own 14 rental properties now and still live in the same house I bought in 2009.

That’s amazing. Good for you! I’ll encourage my kids to start early with investments. We are same age and own two homes and feel we are doing well!

Thanks! For rental real estate, you just have to be in the grind, take calculative risk and learn from your mistakes.

Do you do long term rentals or short term rentals? Nearby or out of state?

Mostly long term as I self managed and have a full time job in R&D. Depends on the state, I have a few THs in Blacksburg that can go $650-700 per bedroom per month, DC is more stable with voucher and then other THs in Fredericksburg and Stafford have long term tenants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 42 now but was a grad student in Engineering at VT. Bought my first investment condo at the age of 26 and then bought my primary residence in Fairfax at the age of 28. I never used to(sometimes do now) waste money on anything useless, save and invest, rinse and repeat. Own 14 rental properties now and still live in the same house I bought in 2009.

That’s amazing. Good for you! I’ll encourage my kids to start early with investments. We are same age and own two homes and feel we are doing well!

Thanks! For rental real estate, you just have to be in the grind, take calculative risk and learn from your mistakes.

Do you do long term rentals or short term rentals? Nearby or out of state?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 42 now but was a grad student in Engineering at VT. Bought my first investment condo at the age of 26 and then bought my primary residence in Fairfax at the age of 28. I never used to(sometimes do now) waste money on anything useless, save and invest, rinse and repeat. Own 14 rental properties now and still live in the same house I bought in 2009.

That’s amazing. Good for you! I’ll encourage my kids to start early with investments. We are same age and own two homes and feel we are doing well!

Thanks! For rental real estate, you just have to be in the grind, take calculative risk and learn from your mistakes.