Being a young homeowner (well, loan owner with the bank kinda technically being the owner of the home) is perhaps a more unique position than I'd realised.
It's getting to be around the time of the month when the bank will send out its statement for how the loan's going, and that got me thinking that of all of the people I know around my own age, not many of them own a home or have been home owners (although there are a few that are/have - typically those who've been in the Navy or Army and get paid a great wage). Even some of my friends in their 30s and 40s don't own their own homes, although they earn good money and would be able to afford it.
Until I became involved in buying a house last year, I never realised how difficult it was. I thought you'd just go somewhere, see a house and go to the real estate agent, "Yep, like that one, I'll take it." But no, you make an offer, it may or may not be accepted by those who are selling and if not, you get to keep on hunting.
You go in with a lot of bluff and bravado and pretend to not be rather overwhelmed by the whole experience, and hide the way your knees are knocking together under the desk at the estate agent's where you're dressed up, knotted up inside and definitely up for flirting with the cute agent.
Housing is pretty expensive these days, too. In the past ten months or so in the area where I bought my house, the entry-level prices have increased significantly. There's also all of the extra costs involved with just getting a loan - bank fees, transfer fees, stamp duty, etc. Thankfully the first home owner's grant here in Victoria is pretty generous (or was at least when I bought a place), but so much of that goes on covering your "extra" expenses involved with paperwork, conveyancing, and of course that stamp duty thing.
Plus you need to have the deposit for the house. You can get loans without it, but generally they have a higher rate of interest on them, because the banks find it harder to insure against you not repaying them. If you want to pay less money to the banks in the long-term, it's so much better to scrimp and save and cobble together the deposit!
Then you become an owner and suddenly it's not as much fun as renting. Even though renting's not that much fun... There are so many responsibilities! If something goes wrong, you have to organise to get it fixed yourself, which means you get to pay for it, too. And let's not forget council rates, which make you scream in a muted fashion when you receive them for the first time.
Oh yes, insurance. Must have that. More money. Income insurance? God I haven't organised that yet and my 13 months of ownership are almost up... What about if you live in an area prone to bushfires? Or other natural disasters? Was it really that great an idea to buy up when what you've got could be turned into a pile of smoking cinders or a collection of wind-swept pieces of rubble by a bushfire or cyclone season?
So the big thing with homeownership when you're young? Responsibility. And loan repayments. And scrimping and saving to pay them off as quickly as possible (so you don't have to pay as much interest). And more responsibility, which leaves you wondering whether you're ready for that kind of thing yet, and surprised to find that you actually are.
It's not easy, nor is it as much fun as those ads with people talking about how they love their home they bought through L J Hooker or the latest faux-lake-oriented development thing make it out to be. But it's worth it. Probably.
As long as you don't think of it as buying into the suburban dream of white picket fences, a sensible car and 2.5 children (assuming you cut one in half and share it with the neighbours).
Renovations are fun, though...
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