All Forum Posts by: John Jamin

Thanks guys, anyone else?

Hi all,

I'm 35 years old, married with a 10 month old daughter, and living in NY. I work in Long Island NY, and I have a studio apartment I rent for $1500 which includes all utilities. I make 143k a year (minus the huge amount of taxes in NY). My wife doesn't earn much at all. She works with her mother (my mother-in-law) who owns a small day-care operation in her house. I travel back and forth between Long Island where my job and apartment are located, and the Bronx/NYC where all of my relatives and wife's relatives live (and where my daughter gets daycare in my mother-in-law's home). Long story short, my wife comes to the apartment Wednesday night - Sunday night, she then goes back to her mom's house for Sunday night to Wednesday night and takes our daughter so she can make money, and so our daughter can receive free day care.

Hope all this is making sense so far! I invest as much as I can into index funds, and I'm trying to live below my means in order to get ahead later and hopefully one day achieve financial freedom. In order to help meet this goal, would I be better off:

1) Continuing to rent until I could possibly get another job closer to where my family is (I could then move into my dad's house as he took over my grandmother's house after she passed)? The job market is pretty difficult over here though and I'm not sure how long it'll take me to find another job.

2) Buy a condo/townhouse for around 250-350K, put 5 percent down, and my wife, daughter and I would live here instead of paying rent and the cost of living would be cheaper than a single family home.

3) Continue to look for either a 2 family home, or a single family home with a finished basement around where I live, and live in one side and rent out the other?

The reason I debated option 2 and 3 is because I figured owning a relatively inexpensive condo might work out financially similar to owning a 2 family home and renting out the other side. The condo might be a little more expensive in the short term and long term, but I also wouldn't need to maintain it with outside expenses, so that's a time saver right there.

Any input would be helpful. What would you guys do if you were me?

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

I'm 33 years old (about to be 34) and I work as an Administrator in a school system making 125k a year. I just started and I have only been at this position for 3 months now. 

My situation is a big complicated. I have been living in my father's house in New Rochelle NY for most of my life. Now that I have this new job I work in Long Island which is an hour - 1.5 hours away. Because of the far commute I moved into my mother's home during the week because she lives only 30 minutes away from my job. I stay with her Monday-Friday.  Then, after I leave work on Friday, I head back to my dad's in Westchester. I stay there until Sunday afternoon, and then head back to my mom's. 

I have no children, but a steady girlfriend. I have about 30K saved up, and about 56K in my retirement fund. Ideally, I'd like to buy a Multi Family Home, live in on side, and rent out the other unit(s). Unfortunately, in this market, everything is going for over asking, and people are waving inspections as most of you probably know. I want to live independently and move out of both of my parents homes, however, I don't want to make a potential financial mistake. With closing costs and all other fee's, if I can't do an FHA it will be hard for me to afford a home in my area (in either Westchester or Long Island).

What would you do in my situation? My living conditions aren't horrible now, except my dad is a hoarder so his house is rather unpleasant. I'm also going back and forth between two places and putting a lot of miles on my car (and living in and out of a suit case). Plus, at my age, I am planning children, and regardless when I have them, it's time to move out. But, I don't want to move out with the expense of paying over asking for a home that might lose it's value.

Some options I thought of:

1) Keep sweating it out with where I am. Keep living between two homes. Save as much as possible, and wait for a better buying opportunity when I have more money and when perhaps the market isn't so crazy.

2) Buy a cheap(er) co-op or condo, live there, and after a bit rent it out or sell it to buy a MFH - but condo's here are pretty pricey as well.

3) Keep looking for a home despite the huge competition and crazy market.

What would you all do in my situation? Any advice would be truly appreciated.

Thank you in advance!