Which places in the US have the lowest cost of living?

Post by **Winston** » April 29th, 2013, 12:46 pm

Mark, Momopi,
Ok well we have two houses in Vegas now. We got a brand new one for $177,000 and a used one for around $100,000. They are both two story three bedroom homes with living room and garage. Are those good deals?

We are moving into the new one soon and have been very busy lately with furniture shopping.

I'm wondering, how do you know what the market value of your home is? Is there a way to look it up? How does a real estate agent find out such information?

momopi · Post by **momopi** » April 29th, 2013, 5:19 pm

If you're buying a home to live in, what's important is how you feel about living there. A $100,000 home that you enjoy living in is better than a $1 million house that you do not enjoy living in.

If the home is purchased as an investment, then what's important is your rate of return on the investment. You cannot always buy a house at the "best price", but you can be choosy and only buy what will make a profit.

There are numerous web sites with real estate listings and estimated values. All you have to do is type in an address in Google and review the search results.

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » April 30th, 2013, 5:43 pm

odbo · Post by **odbo** » April 30th, 2013, 6:25 pm

Winston wrote:Ok well we have two houses in Vegas now.

We are moving into the new one soon and have been very busy lately with furniture shopping.

Remember what Fight Club (not that I read it) said about shopping for things like furniture.

Fight Club novel wrote:You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

If you want to save money with used furniture you will have bugs, bodily fluids and who knows what else in there. But buying new doesn't solve anything since everything is now made in China, the chemicals will stink up the place, cause allergic-like reactions on your skin if you're in shorts/t-shirt and the quality of materials is such that whatever you buy will appear ready to fall apart as soon as you put it together. Try to do the environment a favor and buy pieces made of bamboo or metal instead of wood. They use thinner wood now but that's why it's dilapidated within 2 years instead of lasting for generations.

Post by **Winston** » April 30th, 2013, 7:58 pm

eurobrat wrote:
Winston wrote:Mark, Momopi,
Ok well we have two houses in Vegas now. We got a brand new one for $177,000 and a used one for around $100,000. They are both two story three bedroom homes with living room and garage. Are those good deals?

We are moving into the new one soon and have been very busy lately with furniture shopping.

I'm wondering, how do you know what the market value of your home is? Is there a way to look it up? How does a real estate agent find out such information?
I got mine for $60,000. Hah, blew your parents right out of the water!

Yeah but yours is smaller, older and lower quality. You showed me, or this forum, pictures of your house remember? Plus, you have a mortgage right? Otherwise, how did you pay up $60,000 in cash? You're a young guy and can't even afford a plane ticket to the Philippines. :P. As usual, you are playing devil's advocate and talking out of your ass with absurd logic. lol

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » April 30th, 2013, 8:09 pm

momopi · Post by **momopi** » May 1st, 2013, 10:26 am

What is the minimum mortgage amount in your area? I recall some years ago, I was told that the bank didn't want to touch anything below $50k.

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » May 1st, 2013, 11:00 am

momopi · Post by **momopi** » May 2nd, 2013, 10:53 am

You did a pretty good job with your house. Are you willing to get a CA Contractor's License? The course is avail from Alliedschools.com and others for few hundred bucks.

There are numerous investors all over California buying older homes, fixing them up and flip them for a profit today. If you partner with RE Agent/Investors I think there's good money to be made.

I bought a 4 bed 2 bath house this year for $360k. The seller had bought it for $240k last year, did a complete makeover on the property and flipped it to me for $110k premium.

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » May 2nd, 2013, 12:04 pm

momopi · Post by **momopi** » May 2nd, 2013, 2:42 pm

No it's in LA County. In Irvine a 4 bed SFR will cost >$800k. For cheaper 4 bed SFR in OC, I think Santa Ana has them at >$400k.

E Irizarry R&B Singer · Post by **E Irizarry R&B Singer** » May 2nd, 2013, 3:39 pm

In the first pic, EuroBrat looks like the lead singer of Tears For Fear or maybe Information Society, The Human League, or Talking Heads or Depeche Mode or something. Radddd!

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » May 3rd, 2013, 7:07 am

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » May 3rd, 2013, 7:56 am

eurobrat · Post by **eurobrat** » May 3rd, 2013, 1:12 pm