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Why I want a house of my own

I really, really want my own house.

Is it weird that I browse ‘properties for sale’ on trademe when I’m bored? When I am still in uni, don’t have a hell of a lot saved, want to travel in the next few years and don’t even have a licence? Lol. Occasionally, to be more realistic, I look at properties to rent, but the sale section is my indulgence. It’s my guilty secret.

I am perfectly aware that it makes NO sense to be even thinking of buying anytime soon. No downpayment. Want to travel. May change jobs….so need to be flexible and able to move. The boy needs to get out of debt and establish some savings. I probably will get a car at some point (shudder). But I really, really want a place of my own…and I can’t help myself. It doesn’t help that prices are almost affordable now and interest rates tumbling. I haven’t looked at the mortgage calculators recently (definitely not since the cash rate started falling) but I assume payments would be more manageable than earlier this year.

Why do I want to own a house? As much as rent is way cheaper than mortgage payments, and it’s putting a roof over me for comparatively little, that’s still over 5k a year in somewhat ‘dead’ money. When things break I want to get them fixed not because we have to but because we WANT to. I want windows that open properly and don’t stick. I want hall cupboards and a real closet in my room. And a dishwasher. I don’t want to be constantly eyeing up every little thing and thinking oh no, that’s going to come out of my bond. Every speck on the carpet, paint chip, whatever. The plywood panel on the front wall of our house is damaged. I don’t know how when or why it happened, I just noticed it one day. and I know that we’ll have to deal with that.

And when we find out there’s a water leak I want to get that sorted promptly, not faff around for months while it worsens and we have to foot the bloated council water bill. When he gets back from his break I’ll have to inform him that the wallpaper in our lounge is cracking and peeling majorly and we probably have water damage…..not looking forward to that. We’ve had no issues thus far, but this is a big thing and I’m sure he’s not going to want to shoulder that. But frankly, it’s a structural thing and we are not responsible. He was pretty good about paying for the cracked shower base (when the PM he had at the time told us to pay for it) so hopefully this too will be okay.

Ever since the dramas of our last flat I know how selfish, greedy and ruthless landlords can be. I’ve learned. As much as our current one seems nice, I know we can’t trust him – especially when it comes to move out time. He’ll want to recoup anything and everything. He raised our rent on us for no reason – when rents are actually holding static or falling…and, I’m pretty sure, tried to con us with that line about his friend being willing to pay an extra $55 a week!!!

There’s just nothing quite like living in a place that belongs to you,IMO.

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