When is it better to rent
Is it Better For Me To Rent Or Buy A House?
Mark's with us in Corpus Christi Texas
hey Mark welcome to the Dave Ramsey show
are you doing better than I deserve how
can I help yet so kind of found myself
an interesting scenario I graduated
school about a year ago now and I work
offshore on oil tankers and I'm home for
about two weeks out of six with my
parents still making 109 and kind of
wondering whether I should look at
renting or buying but I do want to get
out of their house soon but I don't know
if I'm going to end up where I am long
term so trying to decide between running
something or buying something I can
actually gain equity in I wouldn't buy
until you know where you're going to be
for a while okay how old are you 24 okay
I would run for a while
and let's just see what's going on and
you know your best option would be to
get something like with two or three
roommates for two reasons one is it
lowers your cost substantially and
you're never there so you're the ideal
roommate right and I'm actually home out
of the 14 days I'm home I'm only there
for a piece so it and that that's what
concerns me about renting is it's kind
of like throwing throwing money away cuz
I'm not there and yeah the money weighs
I'm not you know gaining equity wherever
you are but I would your throwing your
money away when you're renting anyway
but really what renting is is patience
because when you buy something that you
get such a permanent decision that you
need to have a situation where you say
I'm gonna live in that property for
three years or you don't need to buy so
and you're not really there right now
you're making a ton of money you're a
young guy you're never home so anything
you can do to just have an inexpensive
place to camp
that's not your parents when you get
home for those two weeks out of six
right yep and so again I think you're
the ideal roommate in
so you don't need much of a spot you
don't need to take up much room and so
like if you know you guys rented a three
guys rented a three-bedroom house
together and you took the worst room and
you get the best deal you know you don't
pay a full third or something right and
you don't worry about splitting food
with them and you don't worry about
splitting anything with them because
you're not there you're looking for a
place to camp a couple weeks a couple of
weeks out of six and so you just want
something where you can have a place
outside your parents right now and a
place to hang you know when you're in a
place to put the hang your hat when
you're home
there's no shame in staying with your
parents right now either
for a little while cuz you're never
there would you consider I'm gonna I'm
in a resort area would you consider a
resort property that would rent it when
I wasn't using it that I could block off
the two weeks I was home if that could
cover half to three-quarters of the
mortgage and probably a cool idea I'd
wait a year to do that I just have I
mean you're 24 you're making a pile of
money I think a lot of stuff's gonna
change 12 months from now I don't think
you're going to be doing things exactly
the way you're doing them 10 years from
today right and so buying your property
is a very permanent decision and resort
properties either go way up in value or
way down in value they don't just kind
of hang out in the middle like regular
properties too so it's a higher risk
real estate play but it is a good way to
you know to handle the rental you could
VRBO it or have a management companies
rent it on the times that you're not
there that wouldn't be a bad idea at all
but I really I would just try to find
some roommates for a year and just kind
of see how things end up before you
start writing checks to buy something
how much money have you got saved I've
got my emergency fund and then I've got
about another 40 okay all right have you
priced like a little one-bedroom condo
in a resort setting the 1-bedroom condo
is I'm looking at about 150 and I should
have it paid off and if I put what I
have down I can have it paid off in nine
months
yeah you might want to do that that'd be
okay that's not in the world just keep
it conservative and try to buy something
with the idea of what what it's going to
be easy to resell all right and what can
turn about the resort properties at 700
to 800 dollar you know maintenance seize
every month and those properties yeah
but if you can keep them full enough to
offset your cost and you get the thing
completely paid off in a short period of
time it's it's not that big a deal you
know so it's up to you it's up to you
that just it's it's it's not a sin
you're not like being completely
financially stupid to wait one year to
do anything and just pile up a bigger
pile of money well if you had 150
thousand dollars cash in an account
right now just to buy something what
would you buy
probably a single-family home then
that's what we need to talk about to the
resort yeah and talk about having a
management company run a VRBO on it for
you where you put a couple of roommates
in it buy you a 3-bedroom house and put
a couple of roommates in it you make
money off of them you know as the owner
of it let's talk about doing that and
then when you're you know they're
watching the property while you're not
there because you're out of town they're
watching your stuff you know there's no
boarded up house half the time kind of
thing and and then you that's not a bad
play but and but again hey hey when you
buy something like this in your
situation the house needs to be boring
easily sold because there's a lot of
houses like it you know so think about
I'm 26 and I I don't want to get stuck
with this house because I made a
decision when I was 24 and it's a weird
house or something so yellow
three-bedroom and put a couple of
runners in I mean a couple of roommates
in there that pay a lot of money to you
and you know you pay that off in nine
months that doesn't scare me if you want
to go ahead and do that that's fine but
do it boring do it boring you're doing
good man you're making a lot of money
congratulations very well very cool
