April 1, 2024 • 23 mins
With the anniversary of buying her home coming up, Samantha gives some updates and advice on home ownership.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your protection.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I heart radio, and welcome to another edition of Monday
MANI where I'm confused about the day and just saying
random things because I'm offer a good start anyway, today
(00:29):
I kind of had some interesting thoughts and I guess
advice because as it's been almost two years, so I'm
coming up on my second anniversary for house hunting and
being a homeowner. I'll be second year in May, so
I'm sure we'll do something. I'll do something then too.
(00:49):
But I found some really interesting tidbits and conversations that
have been going around on TikTok and just in the
news in general, which I think is very important for
us to have a conversation about when comes to owning homes.
Of course, there's this back and forth that everybody and
all the generations are having essentially, and essentially it's pretty
much millennials, gen Zers and half of Gen xers against
(01:14):
the older gen xers and boomers talking about the fact
that buying a home is almost impossible, especially today as
we look at the interest rates and what was what
has been happening, What's happening, and who owns the homes
and why this conversation of if you just didn't go
to Starbucks, which don't go to Starbucks, but if you
didn't go to Starbucks into for ten years you could
(01:34):
get a house, and that is absolutely not true. This
conversation of being able to be a millionaire if you
just save safe, safe, still not true. I think our
retirement in itself, when it comes to our retirement plans
and the investments that we have to do because we
don't have a choice, are showing this is not how
(01:56):
this works. This saving that an investing bit is not
working for us because the powers powers that be have
already made their money and are going to keep their
money and don't care about anybody else. That's a very
cynical take. I apologize, but that's what it looks like.
And I say this as a person who was able
(02:17):
to finally buy a home and get a decent interest
rate and is looking at what I could or can
do different or if there is any other differences that
can be done in location. I'm also seeing a lot
of videos and we've already talked about it this once
about that it is more single women who are owning
(02:40):
homes than not, and how that has like grown and
leaps and mounds and we love it, and in general
it is women who are owning homes. And one of
the big things in this debate that there was a
woman who came on and all she did was statistics.
All she said was, these are the people who own it.
It looks like the holmes are being owned mainly by women,
(03:03):
and it's amazing, we love to see it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And the comments, the comments were surprising, and it all
pretty much it was like, there's got to be a
Reddit thread that, of course I'm not into Reddit, but
where they have figured out a conspiracy theory about how
these women or people in general who are succeeding that
is not them or their demographic and that it is
(03:30):
something that they didn't do. Essentially that they were like
all these men and they were men accusing these women
of getting the.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Houses through divorce. Like there were so.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Many comments, how did she get it, did she win
it in divorce? Did she do this because they've got
a divorce because she took the house? Like they every
single comment, and I was kind of shocked that that
was the conclusion of how a woman could own a
home now, which I'm like, oh, are you divorced and sad?
Is that why you're saying this? Are you projecting because
you're sadly divorced now because you're an idiot? Like I
(04:05):
don't understand that this comment because I was kind of
like it was we all know and we've all been
aware that the comments and the sexist comments when it
comes to women who succeed in anything, it's going to
be annoyingly trollish. But the fact that they were jumping
to divorce and like, of course, to my satisfaction, there
(04:26):
were so many women who like, I've never been married,
this is my house, as in fact, I owned it
before I got married. He moved in with me and
I kicked him out like that. This is some different
different talks and the fact that they had to even
like provide that information to get any kind of justification.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And the woman who.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did this, I believe he was a real estate person,
was talking about the fact that women were owning and
then had to flip with a different video of like, wow,
these men are sincerely insecure, like beyond insecure, and are
going through some things that really show This is why
she doesn't want to be with you, whoever left you.
(05:05):
This is the reason why your projection here is the
reason why. And I'm sorry if she took your house
and I'm putting that in quotes, but you're going to
need to calm down.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And also what did you do wrong? Can we talk
about that?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So I thought that was interesting as a conversation and
this stuff, but women just can't have things without men
jumping in. And then also this is something that I
wanted to advise people. So a few things that I'm learning,
(05:43):
and the real estate and a homeowner world that of
course I was kind of prepared for already jumping in
because the reason, the whole reason I went to buy
house is my partner and I were together the rent
for our home who was owned by an individual, private person.
So it's not like a company was exceeding like my
(06:05):
original It was doubling within two years in an area
that was okay, and in the house that did not
have its own washing machine. I just finally got a
dishwasher after living there for four years.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Like all these.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Amenities that does not exist that you think, well, at
least you would with that price. You should have no, no,
there's none of these things. And so it got to
the point where we're like, no, the interest rates were
kind of low, slowly going up then, but like it
may make more sense. I have saved up money. I
have saved up enough money that I'll have extra money
(06:38):
if something goes wrong and then go from there. And Melody,
who is a friend of the show, which we should
have her back on real soon. Anyway, she was the
person who was helping me go through this process because
of course, you know, we talked about responsibly buying, so
making sure you're not buying from a company, making sure
you're not going into an area that you're part of
(06:59):
the problem of the gentrification problem, being very cautious and
aware of what in who you're going in with all
those things. So I went in with Okay, sat down,
gave her my I had to give her my finances,
and like these are the things I can do and
can't do. I went in knowing that I wanted to
be owner.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Of the house.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I didn't want any messy ties or non t you
know things that that was like, Okay, this is my responsibility.
If something goes wrong, it's going to fall back on
me solely and That's how I wanted to keep that
like my parents didn't help me at all, like that
we didn't have any of that. I followed my melodies
advice for anything and trusted the process with her, which
(07:40):
that's the first thing. Find a real estate agent that
you can trust. There's a lot of things flipping right now.
There was a big lawsuit that just happened in which
once upon a time, the buyers were not responsible for
your real estate agent's fee that came out of the
sellers when they sold the house. That is switching has changed.
(08:00):
A lawsuit has come out and that they believe they
have one. I don't know who is they, because it
wasn't the real estate agents have one in which now
that responsibly will fall back onto the buyers, which seems
kind of good for the seller, not great for the
buyer who is already the one that's paying down or
buying the three hundred four hundred, five hundred thousand dollars
home to have to add another twenty thousand and thirty
(08:24):
thousand on the on the bill. So a lot of
conversations about you know, who is this protecting? Who isn't
it protecting?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Is this right? Is this wrong?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's definitely going to shift things. There's a lot to
have this conversation and like understand who you're using and
who's going to help you. Because I also like came
out when I bought this home it was a good
deal for what it was at the time that it
was the person sell the people selling it made double
essentially like what they've paid because they jumped so quickly
(08:52):
for them and then having understand that they're a real agent,
they could have done more. Like they were really like, huh,
why didn't you do?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Like we were.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We had questions about who they were using, but in
the end, like it turned out, well, they got their money,
we got what we needed, and Melanie did an amazing
job and making sure I knew what was going because
I was freaking out the entire time. The amount of stress,
the amount of panic attacks, the amount of like heart palpitations,
of understanding I was putting this type of commitment into
(09:23):
something was like huge. So we were having that conversation
and like knowing that I had other friends who were
buying homes and they didn't know their real estate A
did as well. I'm like, eow, that's a huge, huge,
important thing, And I know that seems like an obvious
but you have to understand who you're going in with
because this is a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Second is that taxes.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Taxes change and they can significant, Like I've heard stories
of people saying it doubled their payment because of taxes alone.
And by the way, state and county taxes are ugly
and they will take advantage of you. You have to
go through and check your records, so expect a jump.
Mine went from what it was originally, and this is
(10:07):
how I'm like, oh, yeah, I could have done that.
I can definitely do this to oh it went up
two one hundred and fifty dollars a month because of taxes,
and they're like, oh, we didn't do this properly. This
wasn't done properly. And this is with all the tax
simptions that I went through the Home Seat Act, all
of that. I did those because I was like, I
gotta figure out what's going on.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
But that changes every year.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Now we've seen conversations about how that has ousted a
lot of people who've owned their home for very long time,
but the taxes has gone crazy and almost is unaffordable
for them. And that is something that you have to
think about in the future as well. Hopefully you can
fight things because there are such injustices in this that
I was like, what is going on, but being prepared
(10:51):
for that, of course, being prepared for the extras like
oh did a.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Rat eat my dishwasher?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Did it cost me like eight hundred dollars more?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, Still very mad about this rat raoul did me dirty,
But having that understanding of that cost as well. And
then also when it comes to like rental properties, we
need to be on the lookout of who And I
know that's one of those things you can't be choosy.
Sometimes you can't be choosy at all, and people are lost.
(11:21):
So many scammers, so many scammers. I have seen so
many people just taking a house and be like this
is up for rent, give me this, and looking official,
and it turns out it's not up for rent at all,
and you just gave a deposit away and you signed
something and you moved out thinking you were moving into
a home and it's not at all. As in fact,
in Atlanta it came out recently and we've kind of
(11:41):
all known this. You can go back and see behind
the bastards. I did with Robert where we talked about
rent in general and who owns all these things, But
the actual thing is three corporations and this was us
the beginning of March actually own nineteen thousand metro Atlanta
homes and they're holding it, holding it. So there's just
(12:02):
contriput Like Zell had been called out at one point
about their games and this and trying to drive prices
up to gain money, also holding onto it to rent
to people for an absorbent amount of money because they're
taking advantage of people.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
It is really, really, really gross. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I want to say one of the company black Rock
has been around, has been around and been buying this
stuff up, and it sounds like a conspiracy theory, which
is why I think Robert did that episode that he did.
But the fact that they are power behind so many things,
and housing is just one of those things, and they
are part of the responsible parties in driving up these
(12:43):
housing prices and driving up this rates and driving.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Up so much.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So there's this conversation that needs to be had that
it is not good. I know, any I've been trying
to convince you to buy a house, but then I
was like, stops up. Stop, don't don't do it right now,
everything is gross. It is not a buyer's market, and
the gun government is only helping in assisting large companies
to keep driving up these prices. Supposedly there's an investigation
(13:08):
about it, and they did like knock down some of
the companies like Zell, a Peg or two, But it
was after outcries of realizing who was making this market
so unaffordable And with that, I was trying to see
who may have some of the better affordability, And sadly,
these are the same places that you may also if
(13:29):
you're a woman, do not have many rights.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
So take that for what you will.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Because the number one for cost of living and number
one for housing of affordability is Mississippi. The number two
cost of living is Alabama, but the number two affordability
housing afford ability is West Virginia, so a lot of
them are in the Southern states. So like for I've seen,
Alabama is number four for cost of housing affordability, number
(13:58):
forty four in the best stays to live in overall.
Mississippi was number forty eight in the best state to
live in overall. So there's a lot that you're like,
do I want to live there. Okay, maybe I could
afford it there, but do I want to actually live there.
Iowa actually stands at number six as affordability, number five
(14:19):
are the cost of living, number eight for housing affordability,
and number seven in the best States overall. So hey, listeners, Iowa,
tell us what's going on over there, because I'm kind
of shocked. I don't know anyone that lives in Iowa.
No offense, I just don't see you.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah you do.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I don't know anybody who's from Iowa. I need to
I need to expand my friend group, I guess countrywide,
So shout out to Iowa.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Let me know what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But yeah, it's definitely some conversations about what's affordable, why
is it safe, and even know some of the states
that we called out not safe for women at all.
Georgia ended up being number twenty seven. So like we
are for cost of living, like we are in the
middle with twenty six, number twenty six for housing affordability,
(15:09):
twenty one in best states overall. So we're middling. We
are an.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Average crew which we're mid. We're mid. We're gonna stay mid.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I guess Idaho, which I have heard of people wanting
to move to Idaho. I heard they have a really
like bustling art district and art area, so someone needs
to tell me about that. But they are number three
in the Best States overall housing affordabilities at twenty five
and cost of living is at seventeen, so you know,
(15:43):
there are some things to consider. I would not move
at any point at this point at this time because
obviously I'm very established. Thought about Ireland, keep thinking about it,
but like I just bought this house. I don't think
I can do this. And it's not a buyer's market. Oh,
it is a buyer's market, but no one's buying. That's
part of the problem. It's interesting to see with these
(16:03):
conversations in these lists about who and what this is
going to affect. Again, women are now gaining access to
it more. I'm wondering, like, is there any causality into
why it's getting more difficult now? Hmm, I don't know,
you know, like that must be another conspiracy theory. Apologies,
(16:25):
but like in my head, I'm like, Eh, we just
can't thrive.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Y'all just won't let us.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This is interesting because I have an episode coming up
because I do have a lot of friends who are
renting in apartments and are like, have had these conversations
allowed to me of like this, it's expensive, but I
feel safer. But I would like to save money, but
it means moving to somewhere I won't feel so safe.
(17:02):
I've been looking at moving and I was just curious,
and I was researching, like I want to know who
like the landlord breakdown like gender wise, yes, it's mostly men,
but it was more close than I thought it would be.
But one interesting thing that I found was the landlord's
(17:25):
kind of openly said that they have gender stereotypes that
effect when they're going to who they'll rent to, and
of course race also plays into it, which we've talked
about before, but that they were being so stereotypical, I
was kind of shocked you said that out loud. But
one of their things was basically perception that women won't
(17:51):
be able to fix stuff, so the house do more
work if it's a woman who's renting.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So really I assumed it would be that women will
be cleaner and quiet.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
They said that too, but they prefer the man who
they believe will be able to fix stuff, whereas the
one like literally one person said they don't know how
to screw in light bulbs, Like they said, yeah, women
don't know how to screw in light bulbs. So I'll
(18:21):
have to be coming in like really.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Wow to be fair, maybe just like it's not my responsibility,
so I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I know.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's the part of it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's the other part of it. Because then is it like,
because we have that perception of women being high maintenance,
is it just anytime she complains about something, you're like, oh,
she's being high maintenance.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, on actuality, you're just noticing she's complaining as versus
like they have just complaining just as much but you
don't notice it. Also, just by the way, if you
want to know, the number one best overall state was Utah. Really,
but the fact is like housing affordability is at number
thirty three for them, the cost of living is twenty five,
(19:02):
they're twenty five, and then affordability was like twenty eight.
They're number twenty eight for that, and then they're number
twenty four opportunities. So I'm trying to be like, how
does those numbers mesh then?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Because I'm not telling you how this is qualified.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It's just like the titles I've been given and this
is according to the Usnews dot Com, so you know,
like take it with a grain of salt and where
it's from. But like, I found it interesting that all
the other numbers are like mid, but there are still
number one.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I'm like, it's because they got the good parks. Is
because they they do have really good parks. It's quite bad.
I do love your parks.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Cheers of that, but yeah, like that's interesting. I'm excited
to hear your take on that because I think we
haven't really talked about landlords in rent renters, and it's
getting to be a really heated subject right now.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
It is because, like you said, there's been a lot
of backlash discussion about rents going up, prices going interest
going up, and it's it's frustrating because I feel like
so many things in this conversation are out of your control,
and so for me, I'm very much in a holding
(20:15):
pattern where I know one day the rent will go
up and I will have to go, and I don't
know when that will be. It's just annoying when it's
like because I've pretty much been told if you like it,
that's a good price, stay there.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Until it goes up.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But that's such a strange place to be in where
you're essentially waiting for someone else to give you maybe
sixty days maybe to do make this huge decision where
do I go next?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
But nothing, and you can't get ahead either because you
can't plan. People want to rent immediately. Oh it's such
a crisis that I hate. I hated this whole thing,
which is why I would like refusing Tom and honestly,
had he kept the prices as was or at least
an in reasonable intent instead of doing it like he
did a twenty five increase for like three years or
like wait what twenty five percent increase instead of like
(21:09):
five percent every now and like every year that I
was like, wait, what is this for? And it didn't
make sense, like he's his reasoning made no sense rather
than like taxes, And I was like, okay, I kind
of get that, but you were already making like he
had bought this place for so like little and done
so little and renovations that it was like, did you
do you? Are you because you know you've already paid
(21:30):
it off by this point, I don't know, Like I
don't know, and not that you can't you're not allowed
to make money. Sure, sure, sure, but to really like
go over the top with lies and like no, it's
absolutely not this, this and this, and then like getting
and knowing that I rarely got things fixed on time,
like I had to beg at. He was like, because
that whole idea of like I don't have to be
(21:52):
responsible for employ like appliances, and like you like things
that happened in the background, like that was lovely. I
did not want to deal with that. I loved my
neighbors at the time, my partner there, but like there's
so many things that's just like, m it doesn't make sense.
But because it finally got to that point, it's like this,
(22:12):
I hate to do the I don't want to be responsible,
but I guess I'm gonna be responsible in this manner
and buy a whole home, right.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, yeah, I mean that's kind of the reason that
I was looking into this because I've had such a
honestly part of it is me, but I've had troubles
with my landlord, and now that I've read this study,
I'm like there was a reason I.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Felt uncomfortable like complaining or.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Like raising an issue, and it's it's gotten kind of
like there are things that I need to get fixed,
and I keep putting it off because I'm like, oh, no,
you don't want to deal with yeah, M Yeah, well,
I am looking forward to our celebration, your two year
(22:59):
yeah anniversary.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
We'll do another check.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
In, but yeah, there's a lot of issues to talk
about for conversations. Yes, indeed, Well listeners, if you have
thoughts about this, If you have any questions you would
like us to address to look in to, please let
us know. You can email U at Stephanie and mom
Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on
(23:23):
Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
at stuff one ever told you if we have a
tea public store and we have a book you can
get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always too,
our super producer Christina, our executive producer and our contributor Joey.
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stephone ever
told you to prediction of iHeart Radio. For more podcast
from my Heart Radio, you can check out the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(23:43):
favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told your protection.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I heart radio, and welcome to another edition of Monday
MANI where I'm confused about the day and just saying
random things because I'm offer a good start anyway, today
(00:29):
I kind of had some interesting thoughts and I guess
advice because as it's been almost two years, so I'm
coming up on my second anniversary for house hunting and
being a homeowner. I'll be second year in May, so
I'm sure we'll do something. I'll do something then too.
(00:49):
But I found some really interesting tidbits and conversations that
have been going around on TikTok and just in the
news in general, which I think is very important for
us to have a conversation about when comes to owning homes.
Of course, there's this back and forth that everybody and
all the generations are having essentially, and essentially it's pretty
much millennials, gen Zers and half of Gen xers against
(01:14):
the older gen xers and boomers talking about the fact
that buying a home is almost impossible, especially today as
we look at the interest rates and what was what
has been happening, What's happening, and who owns the homes
and why this conversation of if you just didn't go
to Starbucks, which don't go to Starbucks, but if you
didn't go to Starbucks into for ten years you could
(01:34):
get a house, and that is absolutely not true. This
conversation of being able to be a millionaire if you
just save safe, safe, still not true. I think our
retirement in itself, when it comes to our retirement plans
and the investments that we have to do because we
don't have a choice, are showing this is not how
(01:56):
this works. This saving that an investing bit is not
working for us because the powers powers that be have
already made their money and are going to keep their
money and don't care about anybody else. That's a very
cynical take. I apologize, but that's what it looks like.
And I say this as a person who was able
(02:17):
to finally buy a home and get a decent interest
rate and is looking at what I could or can
do different or if there is any other differences that
can be done in location. I'm also seeing a lot
of videos and we've already talked about it this once
about that it is more single women who are owning
(02:40):
homes than not, and how that has like grown and
leaps and mounds and we love it, and in general
it is women who are owning homes. And one of
the big things in this debate that there was a
woman who came on and all she did was statistics.
All she said was, these are the people who own it.
It looks like the holmes are being owned mainly by women,
(03:03):
and it's amazing, we love to see it.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
And the comments, the comments were surprising, and it all
pretty much it was like, there's got to be a
Reddit thread that, of course I'm not into Reddit, but
where they have figured out a conspiracy theory about how
these women or people in general who are succeeding that
is not them or their demographic and that it is
(03:30):
something that they didn't do. Essentially that they were like
all these men and they were men accusing these women
of getting the.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Houses through divorce. Like there were so.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Many comments, how did she get it, did she win
it in divorce? Did she do this because they've got
a divorce because she took the house? Like they every
single comment, and I was kind of shocked that that
was the conclusion of how a woman could own a
home now, which I'm like, oh, are you divorced and sad?
Is that why you're saying this? Are you projecting because
you're sadly divorced now because you're an idiot? Like I
(04:05):
don't understand that this comment because I was kind of
like it was we all know and we've all been
aware that the comments and the sexist comments when it
comes to women who succeed in anything, it's going to
be annoyingly trollish. But the fact that they were jumping
to divorce and like, of course, to my satisfaction, there
(04:26):
were so many women who like, I've never been married,
this is my house, as in fact, I owned it
before I got married. He moved in with me and
I kicked him out like that. This is some different
different talks and the fact that they had to even
like provide that information to get any kind of justification.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
And the woman who.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Did this, I believe he was a real estate person,
was talking about the fact that women were owning and
then had to flip with a different video of like, wow,
these men are sincerely insecure, like beyond insecure, and are
going through some things that really show This is why
she doesn't want to be with you, whoever left you.
(05:05):
This is the reason why your projection here is the
reason why. And I'm sorry if she took your house
and I'm putting that in quotes, but you're going to
need to calm down.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
And also what did you do wrong? Can we talk
about that?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So I thought that was interesting as a conversation and
this stuff, but women just can't have things without men
jumping in. And then also this is something that I
wanted to advise people. So a few things that I'm learning,
(05:43):
and the real estate and a homeowner world that of
course I was kind of prepared for already jumping in
because the reason, the whole reason I went to buy
house is my partner and I were together the rent
for our home who was owned by an individual, private person.
So it's not like a company was exceeding like my
(06:05):
original It was doubling within two years in an area
that was okay, and in the house that did not
have its own washing machine. I just finally got a
dishwasher after living there for four years.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Like all these.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Amenities that does not exist that you think, well, at
least you would with that price. You should have no, no,
there's none of these things. And so it got to
the point where we're like, no, the interest rates were
kind of low, slowly going up then, but like it
may make more sense. I have saved up money. I
have saved up enough money that I'll have extra money
(06:38):
if something goes wrong and then go from there. And Melody,
who is a friend of the show, which we should
have her back on real soon. Anyway, she was the
person who was helping me go through this process because
of course, you know, we talked about responsibly buying, so
making sure you're not buying from a company, making sure
you're not going into an area that you're part of
(06:59):
the problem of the gentrification problem, being very cautious and
aware of what in who you're going in with all
those things. So I went in with Okay, sat down,
gave her my I had to give her my finances,
and like these are the things I can do and
can't do. I went in knowing that I wanted to
be owner.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Of the house.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I didn't want any messy ties or non t you
know things that that was like, Okay, this is my responsibility.
If something goes wrong, it's going to fall back on
me solely and That's how I wanted to keep that
like my parents didn't help me at all, like that
we didn't have any of that. I followed my melodies
advice for anything and trusted the process with her, which
(07:40):
that's the first thing. Find a real estate agent that
you can trust. There's a lot of things flipping right now.
There was a big lawsuit that just happened in which
once upon a time, the buyers were not responsible for
your real estate agent's fee that came out of the
sellers when they sold the house. That is switching has changed.
(08:00):
A lawsuit has come out and that they believe they
have one. I don't know who is they, because it
wasn't the real estate agents have one in which now
that responsibly will fall back onto the buyers, which seems
kind of good for the seller, not great for the
buyer who is already the one that's paying down or
buying the three hundred four hundred, five hundred thousand dollars
home to have to add another twenty thousand and thirty
(08:24):
thousand on the on the bill. So a lot of
conversations about you know, who is this protecting? Who isn't
it protecting?
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Is this right? Is this wrong?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
It's definitely going to shift things. There's a lot to
have this conversation and like understand who you're using and
who's going to help you. Because I also like came
out when I bought this home it was a good
deal for what it was at the time that it
was the person sell the people selling it made double
essentially like what they've paid because they jumped so quickly
(08:52):
for them and then having understand that they're a real agent,
they could have done more. Like they were really like, huh,
why didn't you do?
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Like we were.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We had questions about who they were using, but in
the end, like it turned out, well, they got their money,
we got what we needed, and Melanie did an amazing
job and making sure I knew what was going because
I was freaking out the entire time. The amount of stress,
the amount of panic attacks, the amount of like heart palpitations,
of understanding I was putting this type of commitment into
(09:23):
something was like huge. So we were having that conversation
and like knowing that I had other friends who were
buying homes and they didn't know their real estate A
did as well. I'm like, eow, that's a huge, huge,
important thing, And I know that seems like an obvious
but you have to understand who you're going in with
because this is a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Second is that taxes.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Taxes change and they can significant, Like I've heard stories
of people saying it doubled their payment because of taxes alone.
And by the way, state and county taxes are ugly
and they will take advantage of you. You have to
go through and check your records, so expect a jump.
Mine went from what it was originally, and this is
(10:07):
how I'm like, oh, yeah, I could have done that.
I can definitely do this to oh it went up
two one hundred and fifty dollars a month because of taxes,
and they're like, oh, we didn't do this properly. This
wasn't done properly. And this is with all the tax
simptions that I went through the Home Seat Act, all
of that. I did those because I was like, I
gotta figure out what's going on.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
But that changes every year.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Now we've seen conversations about how that has ousted a
lot of people who've owned their home for very long time,
but the taxes has gone crazy and almost is unaffordable
for them. And that is something that you have to
think about in the future as well. Hopefully you can
fight things because there are such injustices in this that
I was like, what is going on, but being prepared
(10:51):
for that, of course, being prepared for the extras like
oh did a.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Rat eat my dishwasher?
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:55):
Yeah I did.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Did it cost me like eight hundred dollars more?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, Still very mad about this rat raoul did me dirty,
But having that understanding of that cost as well. And
then also when it comes to like rental properties, we
need to be on the lookout of who And I
know that's one of those things you can't be choosy.
Sometimes you can't be choosy at all, and people are lost.
(11:21):
So many scammers, so many scammers. I have seen so
many people just taking a house and be like this
is up for rent, give me this, and looking official,
and it turns out it's not up for rent at all,
and you just gave a deposit away and you signed
something and you moved out thinking you were moving into
a home and it's not at all. As in fact,
in Atlanta it came out recently and we've kind of
(11:41):
all known this. You can go back and see behind
the bastards. I did with Robert where we talked about
rent in general and who owns all these things, But
the actual thing is three corporations and this was us
the beginning of March actually own nineteen thousand metro Atlanta
homes and they're holding it, holding it. So there's just
(12:02):
contriput Like Zell had been called out at one point
about their games and this and trying to drive prices
up to gain money, also holding onto it to rent
to people for an absorbent amount of money because they're
taking advantage of people.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
It is really, really, really gross. I know.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I want to say one of the company black Rock
has been around, has been around and been buying this
stuff up, and it sounds like a conspiracy theory, which
is why I think Robert did that episode that he did.
But the fact that they are power behind so many things,
and housing is just one of those things, and they
are part of the responsible parties in driving up these
(12:43):
housing prices and driving up this rates and driving.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Up so much.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So there's this conversation that needs to be had that
it is not good. I know, any I've been trying
to convince you to buy a house, but then I
was like, stops up. Stop, don't don't do it right now,
everything is gross. It is not a buyer's market, and
the gun government is only helping in assisting large companies
to keep driving up these prices. Supposedly there's an investigation
(13:08):
about it, and they did like knock down some of
the companies like Zell, a Peg or two, But it
was after outcries of realizing who was making this market
so unaffordable And with that, I was trying to see
who may have some of the better affordability, And sadly,
these are the same places that you may also if
(13:29):
you're a woman, do not have many rights.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
So take that for what you will.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Because the number one for cost of living and number
one for housing of affordability is Mississippi. The number two
cost of living is Alabama, but the number two affordability
housing afford ability is West Virginia, so a lot of
them are in the Southern states. So like for I've seen,
Alabama is number four for cost of housing affordability, number
(13:58):
forty four in the best stays to live in overall.
Mississippi was number forty eight in the best state to
live in overall. So there's a lot that you're like,
do I want to live there. Okay, maybe I could
afford it there, but do I want to actually live there.
Iowa actually stands at number six as affordability, number five
(14:19):
are the cost of living, number eight for housing affordability,
and number seven in the best States overall. So hey, listeners, Iowa,
tell us what's going on over there, because I'm kind
of shocked. I don't know anyone that lives in Iowa.
No offense, I just don't see you.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah you do.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
I don't know anybody who's from Iowa. I need to
I need to expand my friend group, I guess countrywide,
So shout out to Iowa.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Let me know what's going on there.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But yeah, it's definitely some conversations about what's affordable, why
is it safe, and even know some of the states
that we called out not safe for women at all.
Georgia ended up being number twenty seven. So like we
are for cost of living, like we are in the
middle with twenty six, number twenty six for housing affordability,
(15:09):
twenty one in best states overall. So we're middling. We
are an.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Average crew which we're mid. We're mid. We're gonna stay mid.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
I guess Idaho, which I have heard of people wanting
to move to Idaho. I heard they have a really
like bustling art district and art area, so someone needs
to tell me about that. But they are number three
in the Best States overall housing affordabilities at twenty five
and cost of living is at seventeen, so you know,
(15:43):
there are some things to consider. I would not move
at any point at this point at this time because
obviously I'm very established. Thought about Ireland, keep thinking about it,
but like I just bought this house. I don't think
I can do this. And it's not a buyer's market. Oh,
it is a buyer's market, but no one's buying. That's
part of the problem. It's interesting to see with these
(16:03):
conversations in these lists about who and what this is
going to affect. Again, women are now gaining access to
it more. I'm wondering, like, is there any causality into
why it's getting more difficult now? Hmm, I don't know,
you know, like that must be another conspiracy theory. Apologies,
(16:25):
but like in my head, I'm like, Eh, we just
can't thrive.
Speaker 3 (16:29):
Y'all just won't let us.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
This is interesting because I have an episode coming up
because I do have a lot of friends who are
renting in apartments and are like, have had these conversations
allowed to me of like this, it's expensive, but I
feel safer. But I would like to save money, but
it means moving to somewhere I won't feel so safe.
(17:02):
I've been looking at moving and I was just curious,
and I was researching, like I want to know who
like the landlord breakdown like gender wise, yes, it's mostly men,
but it was more close than I thought it would be.
But one interesting thing that I found was the landlord's
(17:25):
kind of openly said that they have gender stereotypes that
effect when they're going to who they'll rent to, and
of course race also plays into it, which we've talked
about before, but that they were being so stereotypical, I
was kind of shocked you said that out loud. But
one of their things was basically perception that women won't
(17:51):
be able to fix stuff, so the house do more
work if it's a woman who's renting.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So really I assumed it would be that women will
be cleaner and quiet.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
They said that too, but they prefer the man who
they believe will be able to fix stuff, whereas the
one like literally one person said they don't know how
to screw in light bulbs, Like they said, yeah, women
don't know how to screw in light bulbs. So I'll
(18:21):
have to be coming in like really.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
Wow to be fair, maybe just like it's not my responsibility,
so I don't want to.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I know.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
That's the part of it.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
That's the other part of it. Because then is it like,
because we have that perception of women being high maintenance,
is it just anytime she complains about something, you're like, oh,
she's being high maintenance.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Yeah, on actuality, you're just noticing she's complaining as versus
like they have just complaining just as much but you
don't notice it. Also, just by the way, if you
want to know, the number one best overall state was Utah. Really,
but the fact is like housing affordability is at number
thirty three for them, the cost of living is twenty five,
(19:02):
they're twenty five, and then affordability was like twenty eight.
They're number twenty eight for that, and then they're number
twenty four opportunities. So I'm trying to be like, how
does those numbers mesh then?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
Because I'm not telling you how this is qualified.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
It's just like the titles I've been given and this
is according to the Usnews dot Com, so you know,
like take it with a grain of salt and where
it's from. But like, I found it interesting that all
the other numbers are like mid, but there are still
number one.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
I'm like, it's because they got the good parks. Is
because they they do have really good parks. It's quite bad.
I do love your parks.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Cheers of that, but yeah, like that's interesting. I'm excited
to hear your take on that because I think we
haven't really talked about landlords in rent renters, and it's
getting to be a really heated subject right now.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
It is because, like you said, there's been a lot
of backlash discussion about rents going up, prices going interest
going up, and it's it's frustrating because I feel like
so many things in this conversation are out of your control,
and so for me, I'm very much in a holding
(20:15):
pattern where I know one day the rent will go
up and I will have to go, and I don't
know when that will be. It's just annoying when it's
like because I've pretty much been told if you like it,
that's a good price, stay there.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Until it goes up.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But that's such a strange place to be in where
you're essentially waiting for someone else to give you maybe
sixty days maybe to do make this huge decision where
do I go next?
Speaker 2 (20:47):
But nothing, and you can't get ahead either because you
can't plan. People want to rent immediately. Oh it's such
a crisis that I hate. I hated this whole thing,
which is why I would like refusing Tom and honestly,
had he kept the prices as was or at least
an in reasonable intent instead of doing it like he
did a twenty five increase for like three years or
like wait what twenty five percent increase instead of like
(21:09):
five percent every now and like every year that I
was like, wait, what is this for? And it didn't
make sense, like he's his reasoning made no sense rather
than like taxes, And I was like, okay, I kind
of get that, but you were already making like he
had bought this place for so like little and done
so little and renovations that it was like, did you
do you? Are you because you know you've already paid
(21:30):
it off by this point, I don't know, Like I
don't know, and not that you can't you're not allowed
to make money. Sure, sure, sure, but to really like
go over the top with lies and like no, it's
absolutely not this, this and this, and then like getting
and knowing that I rarely got things fixed on time,
like I had to beg at. He was like, because
that whole idea of like I don't have to be
(21:52):
responsible for employ like appliances, and like you like things
that happened in the background, like that was lovely. I
did not want to deal with that. I loved my
neighbors at the time, my partner there, but like there's
so many things that's just like, m it doesn't make sense.
But because it finally got to that point, it's like this,
(22:12):
I hate to do the I don't want to be responsible,
but I guess I'm gonna be responsible in this manner
and buy a whole home, right.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, yeah, I mean that's kind of the reason that
I was looking into this because I've had such a
honestly part of it is me, but I've had troubles
with my landlord, and now that I've read this study,
I'm like there was a reason I.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Felt uncomfortable like complaining or.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Like raising an issue, and it's it's gotten kind of
like there are things that I need to get fixed,
and I keep putting it off because I'm like, oh, no,
you don't want to deal with yeah, M Yeah, well,
I am looking forward to our celebration, your two year
(22:59):
yeah anniversary.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
We'll do another check.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
In, but yeah, there's a lot of issues to talk
about for conversations. Yes, indeed, Well listeners, if you have
thoughts about this, If you have any questions you would
like us to address to look in to, please let
us know. You can email U at Stephanie and mom
Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You can find us on
(23:23):
Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok
at stuff one ever told you if we have a
tea public store and we have a book you can
get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always too,
our super producer Christina, our executive producer and our contributor Joey.
Thank you and thanks to you for listening. Stephone ever
told you to prediction of iHeart Radio. For more podcast
from my Heart Radio, you can check out the iHeart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
(23:43):
favorite shows.
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