Getting to know you - do you have kids, etc.

[arewethereyet]

I must be a horrible mother...when son was 29 he wasn't holding up his end of the bargain living here rent free.  The bargain was that he was to be taking classes and working toward a degree.  He was employed full time and had great benefits.  He also seemed to think I was his personal maid...nope.  He got in a mood one day and said some things he shouldn't have said and I gave him till the end of that year to move out.  He bought a house three months later on the other side of town.  His old bedroom is now my office/sewing room.  Boy, was buying a home and buying his own groceries a wakeup call.

I moved back home about ten years ago, deep in the recession, as I was doing a government funded post graduate and it would save me money, enough to be able to travel to do the post-grad.  While unemployed I paid €20 a week did half the cooking and about 75% of the manual labour.  After I got gainfully employed the rent went up to €50 (despite me wanting to pay more) and a slight reduction in big labour (less time).  I also took over fuelling, taxing and insuring my mother's car in the year between getting my full licence and being able to buy my own car.

Needless to say, all this was a huge bargain compared to renting.  I have since moved out because I had to move on promotion.

When my son went to work at Pepsi, about 14-15 years ago, it was really his first 'real' job. Husband had already worked there for years so I was familiar with the benefits and helped son set his up. I set up for contributions to a 401K as Pepsi matches up to a certain percentage and snuck in for his part to increase every year on his anniversary up to the maximum allowed. A few years down the road he asked husband why when he got a raise he never got any more money on his check. I had to come clean about the increase I had set on the 401K. He had been working for about nine years when he bought his house and was able to 'borrow' the money for the downpayment and other expenses from himself because he had a pretty sweet nest egg built up.

Since then the home values in our town have skyrocketed. Our house is worth twice what it was when we bought it 2006 and son's house has increased in value by about a third.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I moved back home about ten years ago, deep in the recession, as I was doing a government funded post graduate and it would save me money, enough to be able to travel to do the post-grad.  While unemployed I paid €20 a week did half the cooking and about 75% of the manual labour.  After I got gainfully employed the rent went up to €50 (despite me wanting to pay more) and a slight reduction in big labour (less time).  I also took over fuelling, taxing and insuring my mother's car in the year between getting my full licence and being able to buy my own car.

Needless to say, all this was a huge bargain compared to renting.  I have since moved out because I had to move on promotion.

When my son went to work at Pepsi, about 14-15 years ago, it was really his first 'real' job.  Husband had already worked there for years so I was familiar with the benefits and helped son set his up.  I set up for contributions to a 401K as Pepsi matches up to a certain percentage and snuck in for his part to increase every year on his anniversary up to the maximum allowed.  A few years down the road he asked husband why when he got a raise he never got any more money on his check.  I had to come clean about the increase I had set on the 401K.  He had been working for about nine years when he bought his house and was able to 'borrow' the money for the downpayment and other expenses from himself because he had a pretty sweet nest egg built up.  

Since then the home values in our town have skyrocketed.  Our house is worth twice what it was when we bought it 2006 and son's house has increased in value by about a third.

Real estate tends to be like that. When my maternal grandfather was mustered out of the army at the end of WW2, he purchased two homes on five acres of land for £5000 and had to borrow the £500 deposit from his parents. Fifty years later, the property sold for just over a million.

Boru

[arewethereyet]

When my son went to work at Pepsi, about 14-15 years ago, it was really his first 'real' job.  Husband had already worked there for years so I was familiar with the benefits and helped son set his up.  I set up for contributions to a 401K as Pepsi matches up to a certain percentage and snuck in for his part to increase every year on his anniversary up to the maximum allowed.  A few years down the road he asked husband why when he got a raise he never got any more money on his check.  I had to come clean about the increase I had set on the 401K.  He had been working for about nine years when he bought his house and was able to 'borrow' the money for the downpayment and other expenses from himself because he had a pretty sweet nest egg built up.  

Since then the home values in our town have skyrocketed.  Our house is worth twice what it was when we bought it 2006 and son's house has increased in value by about a third.

Real estate tends to be like that. When my maternal grandfather was mustered out of the army at the end of WW2, he purchased two homes on five acres of land for £5000 and had to borrow the £500 deposit from his parents. Fifty years later, the property sold for just over a million.

Boru

When we moved here in '06 there was a new home being completed every eight hours in the county. That went on for a while and then businesses had to start moving in to accomodate all the new people. Things leveled off then slowed way down due to COVID. Now single family housing is at a premium here because that building boom stopped. Now we are getting apartment complexes instead.

A lot of people used to think our town was too far out to commute into Dallas and the 'burbs but with more working from home that's not the concern it used to be. And believe me, the commute really sucked.

[The Grand Nudger]

The wife and I have been trying to find four our five lots in the middle of a failed gated community turned housing development -for years-.

[tackattack]

@onlinebiker my military "V" story was actually quite traumatic, but it worked, and despite the trauma I wouldn't change a thing. 2 and I'm through is what I said. They just have 2-3 more houses in this subdivision left. I really despise living under a do nothing HOA, I'd much rather be living Montana or Alaska life, but the wife won't go for it. Maybe I can get WV in a couple years.

[arewethereyet]

We are in an old neighborhood and don't have to deal with an HOA. Most of the people around take pride in the appearance of their yards and homes so it's not much of an issue. There is one house where they seem to think a once a month mowing is plenty...then it looks like their yard needs to be baled. And one homeowner has gone nuts with putting various stuff in their front yard...I just try not to look that way.

Daughter's neighborhood doesn't allow them to put out any Halloween decorations before the 1st of October. Pretty sure Christmas stuff is allowed after Thanksgiving only and the whole area explodes with lights and inflatables that weekend. They must have someone who walks around with a ruler to make sure that grass isn't a half inch too long or edging isn't too narrow. That would drive husband out of his damn mind.

[brewer]

We live in an HOA development but the board must be pretty chill, or lazy. I only know of one enforcement in the last 12 years.

[popeyespappy]

Dogs, no kids. I do have a 2 year old grand daughter and another one in the oven though.

[The Valkyrie]

Yes, I have two kids.

Wait, you meant of my own?

Then, no.

[Ravenshire]

We live in an HOA development but the board must be  pretty chill, or lazy. I only know of one enforcement in the last 12 years.

We live in an HOA full of nosey nanny fuckheads.