Some of my hippie friends are bandying about the topic of co-ownership of real estate as a retirement option.
Whoa. I love the hippy dippy notions of communal betterment, and pooling wealth to achieve an end larger than the sum of its parts. But Geez Louise, does this ever sound like a bad plan to me. Hippies! Property engenders the worse sort of entitlements you could ever imagine, or maybe not even imagine because the notions are fully screened by your rose colored glasses. Buying property without taking proper care as to who you are buying with, and what everybody's expectations are and how to resolve disputes.
DUDES that is how I intend to pay off these prodigious student loans.
Just sayin'.
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2 comments:
Mentos went into a similar scheme with his friends on a house and it didn't work out badly for them. I think he put more of the money for the downpayment but paid less of the mortgage to compensate (and they gave him the biggest room in the house). He was only living there part-time (he still has the apt in Pas). They all took as joint tenants.
I'd say it's better to go in as tenants in common if you're going that route.
More troubling is when you're unmarried, and the downpayment isn't contributed equally but people take as JT or TIC. In the case of separation...cripes, I bet you 9 times out of 10 the downpayment individual HATES the fact that any increase in equity gets split equally.
Personally I think ownership without marriage is troublesome but there are contracts you can write to get around future money disputes. Whether or not hippies know this or not is debateable.
I certainly wouldn't purchase property with anyone other than my parents or a husband, but only because I've read way too many property cases!
Hey Monks,
Thanks for the comment on equity splitting, I hadn't even thought of that. But yeath.
I'm still laughing at my friends. It astounds me that some of them can be as old as they are and still as naive as the day is long.
I agree that buying property in common with people who are friends can work to everybody's mutual advantage. Howver, I think that buying property in common BECAUSE you are friends is short-sighted at best. This isn't being discussed as a means for solving a current living situation, they're talking about gambling their individual retirement needs on this.
Muah hah hah.
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