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So you're the reason I can't afford a house...
Just curious where you got those numbers. I finished my undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in mathematics for 16k and my masters is going to cost me like 14k. I paid for school while in school, and my wife accrued so many scholarships that she actually profited from her engineering degree.
I think college is stupid lol but it doesn't have to be expensive. Maybe these hippie schmucks that wanna live in a dorm for 5 years do that but they are going to make bad decisions regardless haha
The thing about college, is a lot of youngsters don’t realize the work it takes to become something they’ve wanted to be while in high school.
Once they’re already in debt, a portion of them end up hating the grind. Then they drop out and, are left with student loan debt.
Myself personally, while I was going through my apprenticeship, I absolutely hated it. Evening classes after a very long day at work twice a week and, eight hours on Saturdays.
There were many times during that five years I worked out of town and, still had to drive back in many cases over 100 miles to get to class by 5pm.
The following morning, I’d have to wake up super early to make back in time to that site and, be there by 6 am.
I stuck it out because I knew after that five years it would all pay off but, it wasn’t easy.
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Thank you for all the replies. Im a bit surprised at how many people agree with me.
Im a union Steamfitter foreman, have been doing it for 11 years. Started at 23, im 34 now. I have worked in trades/construction since i was 16.
Since I was a 3rd year apprentice I have been running my own work in a company truck w/gas card. I do alot of tenant/retrofit work. Ive made $120k+/yr for the last 6 years.
I love my job. Theres plenty of hard/long days/nights/weekends. I love the challenges and the feeling when the job is complete. Seeing what I/my crew can accomplish is gratifying for me.
Working in different jobs/trades over the years has enabled me to save alot of money by doing my own personal work/projects.
I suppose that I am still "young" in the scheme of things. At this point I would recommend a young person to give it a shot.
Trades have enabled me to buy houses, toys, take vacations and have a sense of pride in my work at the end of everyday.
I had $40,000 in student loans after my 6 years of undergrad, my wife also had 40k with her 2 degrees. Our first apartment was a studio in a house basement that the walls leaked everytime it rained, so we weren't living lavish or anything. Our 2 jobs paid enough for rent, a car payment, food, and gas but we definitely didn't have enough to pay outright for the $160 a credit hour, that was year one, my last year it had jumped to $220 per credit hour. I probably could have done better at finding scholarships, but I didn't have any experience doing that and the people at the financial aid office never really brought it up. If my kids decide to go to college they'll definitely have a leg up on us because by the last year I had finally started figuring some of this stuff out, but I was already feeling like I was drowning in debt and had zero idea of what I wanted to do for a career. If I had joined the union right out of high school I'd be in a way better spot retirement savings wise than now.
This response demonstrates that the reason you can't afford a house is you.
There is a $25.46 trillion dollar pie out there known as US GDP. Quit blaming other people for your incapabilities and go carve yourself a slice.
I have a completely different situation than all of you guys. I don’t have any kind of skill. I got my real estate license a few years ago but I haven’t done anything with it. I delivered pizzas for nine years through my 20s since the money was really good $13-14 an hour plus the tips) and then I finally quit that for GrubHub/DoorDash/Uber Eats. I love doing it. No boss, work as much or as little as you want, good money typically in my area, etc.. but at 33 I’m left all day every day with thinking that I really need to get it together with a career. I know hard manual labor is out of the question, I did that with my dad ever since I was a little kid. I may just have to get some confidence and jump in the real estate world since I have a perfectly good license. I need to figure it out.
Which plant? I'm employed at BSP.
How did you get into flipping to begin with, or buy the first property? It's next to impossible to buy a house on a single income where I live and lending companies won't lend on any property that isn't "move in ready". I had the same idea that I would buy some beat up house as a starter but quickly found that I couldn't get a loan on anything worth fixing, and after the down payment I would have no money left over for repairs anyways. It honestly gets a little tiresome to hear people say over and over again "oh just stop being poor" as if working a full time job and running a side business just isn't enough effort for them. . .
Sterling Axle
I'm 38, been an auto tech at a busy import dealership for 19 years. Herniated disk (L5 S1) in my back in 2016, and had to have surgery. Just starting to need a regimine of pills in the mornings to ease up the pain in my knees, feet, and lower back. Body is feeling the effects of picking up heavy wheels/tires, manual transmissions, cylinder heads, ect. Money has been good, but not great. At the turning point in my life now, where I realize this is a young mans game and I need to move on. I'm 100% debt free. Dont spend money on college - most are complete scams. On the job experiece trumps any degree/diploma.
A D3 Wisconsin college was 9-12k/year with room and board in the early 2000s. 9k x 4 years = 36k. I worked throughout college and graduated with zero debt. However, that was not the case for most. Not to mention, they have no interest in helping you graduate in a timely manner. But that's an entirely different conversation.
I have a few mechanic freinds in the same boat as you. Hard on the body for sure.
My Dad was a mechanic all his life. First job as a teenager working in a Suzuki dealership at 15 doing oil changes and general work. Eventually became an ASE certified technician, smog tech, and worked at Goodyear for over 20 years before going to Pepsi to be a mechanic on their Diesel Semi fleet of trucks. He just retired last year. When I was a kid he would make me go to work with him at Goodyear during the summers to learn what it was like to work a hard manual labor job. It would be 100F outside and we're working in a hot shop over/under hot cars with grease, oil, brake dust, etc. As a kid I thought it was awesome because I felt like a grown man in a tough environment but the lesson was doing this 5 days a week every week the rest of your life is not optimal. My Dad's body is severely broken down, he's now on several different painkillers after several surgeries and can barely walk. He also has a device implanted in his back to block the nerves in his spine from sending pain signals to his feet due to severe planter fasciitis.
Then after my accident he told me I would have to rely on my brain instead oy my body. I went to college with the intent to just graduate with any degree (communications and poli-sci) with good grades and go onto law school. After doing a couple internships I realized that was not the path for me, so I sat here with a college degree in communications I couldn't really do jack shit with. I got a job at a bank's call center just to make money while figuring things out. I eventually transferred to real estate, learned the trade from those around me, and now my career is processing/underwriting mortgage loans. It's decent money, I get to work remote, and I couldn't be happier. Sure I don't make enough to afford boats, a vacation home, or expensive vehicles but I'm very comfortable. This is NOT a job I'm passionate about at all, but I'm good at it and it pays the bills.
I often wonder what would have happened if I never had my accident. The chances of me going full pro were very slim as they are with anyone so outside of racing who knows. I definitely would have been in sports at some level ( football, baseball, etc) but most likely I would have ended up in one of the trades. My Dad was always sort of pushing me to be an electrician and taught me a lot about it so maybe that would have been my career. All I can say is I always hated school unless it was a particular subject I was really interested in.
Lmao okay tard. You got me figured out by my sentence. I won’t buy a house because I don’t line the pockets of schmucks like you and I’m not paying 150 a foot for a cat box with vinyl floors. I’ve carved myself a mighty big slice but it doesn’t mean I’m wanting to be a sucker.
Bro just stop sleeping so you can work so much. It’s easy man! Quit being poor.
-people who got their down payment from mama
Joking aside, good luck man.
Pit Row
And your other post and this response demonstrate why I can't stand house flippers. Sorry jcheck,
maybe you're the exception to the rule but I deal with flipped house all the time. 19 out of 20 here's what I find. "Fixer uppers" that are "Fixed up" so freaking cheap and chinsy that they're still fixer uppers, they're just camouflaged to look nice. Cheap appliances, cheap fixtures, cheap fences, crappy cheap decks that crack in a year and have shitty if any drainage, the absolute cheapest undersized crap equipment made, cheap windows, shit ass paint jobs with little to zero prep, everything done as cheap as possible, and you also pointed out you like to use illegal underskilled under paid labor (fuck you for that by the way) sorry being legit and paying for licenses and bonds and insurance and workers comp might have made me bitter. Almost all of these guys (again, maybe not you, maybe you're the guy that cares about the consumers who are putting their lives savings into buying what they thought was a quality built home, maybe that's you) Doesn't sound like it by your pick of labor but whatever I could be wrong. "Most" flippers that I've dealt with are arrogant jack of all trades master of none know it all's who do crap work and absolutely don't care about the quality because they're not in it for the long haul. Make the maximum $ turn and burn it and onto the next one. So yeah "Jrey just needs to make more money" ok fine fair enough but that doesn't change the fact that there's a lot of truth in his statement. Almost every "Fixer upper" or "Starter home" that's halfway affordable around here gets scooped up by flippers and pushed out of a lot of young peoples price range. I see it all the time, it's happening to my son right now. Nothing quite as satisfying as finding a house you like that's in your price range, making a full price offer and getting out bid by a company who makes an "as is all cash" offer 50K over listing. Might want to pump the brakes on shaming guys who maybe haven't had the same breaks as you. If you're the exception to the rule and you do quality work with quality materials and use licensed contractors than I apologize, good for you. But Jrey has a point.
I would be too nervous to buy a flipped house because you just know something shotty is done somewhere ,whether it be electric or water or even structural. No flipper goes into a house with the intention of fixing hidden problems . They're just not in the business of fixing stuff properly, just the cheapest way possible.
I don’t necessarily disagree with anything you said, except, a flipper isn’t going to pay $50k over list price, unless the house is already incredibly undervalued. (And if it was listed that far under value it was done intentionally to create a ton of interest and a bidding ward to drive the sale price up). That’s just not how the flipping model works. The long term buy/hold/rent investor MIGHT do that, but not a fix and flipper won’t. They wouldn’t make any money.
My son Matt is part of a manufacturing program at his high school. It has become very successful. He was chosen to go to DC to meet with Congress and maybe even Sleepy Joe to help lobby more funds for programs like this across the country. Pretty cool opportunity for him. He works with me as an intern at the tool shop I manage and will be continuing on after graduation as an apprentice toolmaker.
https://nwirc.org/mcdowell-manufacturing-a-student-run-enterprise-wrapp…
I went and looked at one a few weeks ago that was "recently redone" and found exactly that, the cheapest of the cheapest shit all over the house that would have fallen apart in 6 months. Cabinet doors replaced with damn near paper thin balsa wood, prefab showers that would bow out with any amount of pressure on the walls, cheap ass flooring, etc. A lot of these houses were bought up by Redfin, Zillow, etc and "flipped", and now they're trying to off some of their inventory on sucker buyers who will overpay for complete garbage because it looks nice in photos and will buy sight unseen. I don't know what the answer is but these massive real estate investment firms are completely fucking things up for regular buyers, I'm not one to push for government intervention in anything but this kind of crap has got to stop.
On my first one, I negotiated terms with the seller to carry back a mortgage for a period of 1 year. The down payment and rehab costs came out of my pocket and the previous seller was paid off at closing when I resold the property.
A traditional bank/credit union is not the right way to go. They are too slow, too boring, and not sophisticated enough. There are fix and flip lenders that lend nationwide - check out Kiave, LendingOne, etc.
Another route to get started - consistently attend local REIA meetings and be clear on who you are and what you do when you speak to people (fake it til you make it). If you create and negotiate a good deal, you will find a money partner. They put up the money - you put up the work. Then you split profits at whatever ratio you agree to.
Once you have a track record of 2 or 3 successful deals, you'll be able to attract private money from high net worth individuals, self directed IRA's, and get preferred rates/terms from the hedge fund lenders I mentioned above. All of my acquisitions are with private money now.
Shoot me a DM if you have more questions. I'm happy to help.
BTW - In no way was I suggesting to just "quit being poor" We have a pandemic going through this country in which everyone believes they a victim of some set of circumstances. It is pushed through the media, the TV, celebrities, and a big part of the message that the left pushes. Everyone has some sob story that they are unwilling to overcome.
This country produces 1700 new millionaires every single day. You have all the advantages in the world if you choose to align with them. the trick is to Tune into a frequency in which you choose to create success and abundance with your life instead of the frequency of being a victim suppressed by someone or something else.
No corporation should be allowed to own private homes as investments. They have absolutely ruined the market for people wanting to own a home by paying cash up front, most times over asking and sight unseen, then putting lipstick on the pig and turning right around and listing it on the rental market at astronomical rates which ends up fucking everyone.
I hate the government and I'm beyond "right" but at this point I think profiteering off of residential real estate should be legislated out of existence. Until housing stops being a cash cow, regular people are going to keep suffering.
What’s your sob story?
I'm still in real estate, but quit flipping houses a few years ago. The brain damage associated with dealing with contractors wasn't worth the money when there are better alternatives. With that said, in the houses I did, I chose to do things right to the best of my ability and within my control. I have made contractors redo things at my expense.
My contractors didn't get paid until I had a W9 in hand. My comment above regarding a steady stream of cheap labor was facetious, considering the situation we have at the southern border right now. The point in my comment was to learn the trade, learn the business of the trade, hire/delegate/outsource. Small business is still the #1 wealth vehicle in this country.
I don't have one. Just a series of life lessons that taught me that there are alternative ways of thinking, believing, and acting.
The average age in agriculture is 40+. Who is going to produce (pun unintended) our food? Yeah, it’s hard work in the elements 365 days a year. The ranching area I’m in I’m a youngster at 53.
Post a reply to: Mike Rowe. Blue collar .etc.