저자: Kevin · 외국인
요약 보기
30세 여성 Crystal이 조지아주 로렌스빌 신축 타운하우스 $252K를 구입한 사례를 Kevin·Lauren이 리액션. 소득 $95K, 다운페이 1.8%, 인구·빈곤율 등 지역 분석. 대출 재융자로 금리 인하 가능성 및 주택 가치 상승(애틀랜타 중위가 약 $250K→$287K)을 언급하나, 자동차·신용카드 부채와 과도한 인테리어 지출은 재정적 실수로 평가. 주식·코인 등 증권 자산에 대한 가격 예측 발언은 없음.
다듬은 글
Hello everyone, it's Kevin, and I'm presenting Meet Lauren, and we're going to react to another episode of " Millennium Money," which I'm really excited about, because Lauren, this one has to do with real estate. This is the purchase of a townhouse in Georgia for $252,000. Millennium money. I'm excited about this.
I love watching this, so I'm excited too. Let's get straight to the point. Lauren, do you want to switch places? And this is something special because we are both real estate managers, real estate investors. Uh, Lauren has a license, I have a license, so this is exactly what we need. Absolutely. Let's get down to business.
Uh, and a lot of you loved that Lauren was a part of it. So I think from now on we'll just react to this together. I would be happy to. Hooray. Let's start. When I was growing up, I was personally told, "Hey, live at home with your parents, especially if you're a woman, until you get married and then move in with your husband and buy your own place." So I wanted to do things a little differently.
It sounds a bit outdated, this idea. I mean, it's a completely outdated concept. And she even said what her parents said, especially because she's a woman. It's not like it's good for her. I'm glad it changed because, um, I think it's really important for people to live on their own, even without a partner or anything like that, just to grow, and you know, like you and I moved in together before getting married, and I know everyone has different ideas about it, but in the end, we're much richer for it.
So I think there are a lot more opportunities if you go, if you can go, you know. But Lauren, look at that hardened doorknob. I had to come back to this. The painter noticed something similar. I can't stand this . And painters do it because it's like: well, I can't lock down the work area. Well , remove the handle, and then paint.
Do it in the morning, then lock it again in the evening. Oh, I don't like the way the kitchen looks, like it's brand new. To be honest, it's almost new, only a year or two old at most . And unfortunately, in new construction, there are a lot of little details that, you know, get cut, and this is one of them.
That's a good point. But I like new products. I mean, you have these, uh , double-panel doors. Uh, I like gold, uh, lamps. They are super trendy now. They go with this, uh, cooler look on the bulbs. You know, for the last 20 years we've really loved these yellowish- yellow and beige colors, and now they're moving into the cold gray zone, whites and stuff.
Very interesting. Okay, let's continue. My name is Crystal Janusi. I'm 30 years old and I just bought my first house in Laurenville, Georgia, which is about 30 minutes from Atlanta. Wow. Look, this is a completely new residential complex. Well , it's like the trees have n't even grown yet. Yes, it can be seen from the trees themselves.
Yes, that's great. My house was worth $252,000. 1.8%. I am a recruiter at one of the big four accounting firms, work from home, and make $95,000 a year. So, this house is approximately 1,850 square feet, has three bedrooms, and 2.5 bathrooms. This is my living space, which includes my kitchen. One of my favorite parts of the house, as I love to cook, bake.
I love entertaining guests. On the first floor there is a toilet , living room, kitchen and dining room. Upstairs are all the bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and the laundry room. And here is our main living area, where my wonderful bed is. The theme of this room is definitely dreamy and chic. I mean, that's pretty cool.
I want to say that I just looked up the poverty rate and population for Lawrenceville, Georgia. I downloaded this onto my iPad. Uh , look. Firstly, these are things I always like to pay attention to when it comes to real estate. Significant population growth, but it's a very small city. So often when you have smaller cities, you have, for example, one industry, and if it disappears, for example, college, and 2020 could be that decade, right?
Or you have, for example, one manufacturer that disappears , that could be a big problem for some of these smaller cities. So population growth, it's good that it's growing, but this industry has to stay. Another thing I also like to pay attention to is the poverty rate. My general rule is to try to find a place with a poverty rate of less than 20%.
Uh, we're at level 21.4 here. In Georgia, overall, the poverty rate is slightly higher. So being right here on the edge, I think it's not the 30% that you see in some areas. But let's get back to that. Lauren, what do you think? Yes, so far so good. Very cute. And I noticed that there was practically nothing in her other two rooms .
One has a table, and the other seems to have nothing . But it's really good for her. I think it's a potential future purchase for her, to have three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms that she could potentially keep and then rent out again. This is a very good ratio of the number of bathrooms. So, I think that's good.
Yes. And this is 3 and 2800 sq. m. feet. It is not too big. She is not too small. You should be able to keep the tenant for a while. Oh, she can honestly even rent out those other two rooms. She works from home so maybe she doesn't want to do it, I think it's great that she likes her opening statement like, "My parents taught me this when I was growing up, but I did n't do it." And it seems to be impressive.
This gives me strength. This is great. I mean, what? So, she rents out a room, and it's still, you know, 600 bucks or something. But maybe she doesn't want that kind of intervention. You know, housebreaking is not for everyone. Earn $95,000 a year. Hey, you know what? Well done. Yes. As a first-time homebuyer, I was told that there were so many different opportunities and so many different grants and assistance programs that could help me in my search.
Unfortunately, I didn't qualify for many of the assistance programs here in Proper... you usually need to have what is considered moderate income. $95,000 in Georgia. This is a pretty good income. But she still received 1.8% of the down payment. So let's see how she did it. Got some loan refinancing from the developer, maybe, or something.
Georgia due to income and/or various other factors. I decided to find the area and research the lenders that way. After deciding where I wanted to live, instead of getting pre-approved at the beginning. I know one big mistake I had when I was looking, I thought I had to put down that 20% to get a place to live.
This is a huge mistake. Huge. People lose so much thinking they need to save that 20%. Yes. No. My God. I think when you get in, you control the property. I mean, she now controls almost $300,000 worth of real estate , uh, with less than $10,000 out of pocket. I mean , I think it's incredible. This is absolutely incredible .
Uh, and now if the value of this property goes up by 10%, that's 30 grand, right? Of course, there are selling costs, and we can discuss that, but the initial accumulation of wealth, getting into real estate, is very important. Uh, and honestly , if you're going to buy something that's ready to sell on the market that's not a rehab home or something where you're getting something below market value, I would also buy new construction.
I would say some of the difficult things or kind of the realities of home ownership is that it's just your life. Hmm, your income depends on you. Your credit rating is up to you , and obviously, once you move in, all the costs are yours to bear. So I'm going to pause now and just want to point out that, uh, the $51 homeowners association dues aren't actually that terrible.
98% of people hate homeowners associations, but I'll tell you, when you live in a new apartment complex, homeowners associations are n't necessarily that bad. And when you rent out this property, you actually have your own homeowners association police to deal with your tenant. Yes. That, and generally speaking, in the neighborhood, I feel like if there's a very small homeowners association , which I think $51 is a very small, uh, just a general contribution to people's lawn care.
Uh, for example, a neighbor might park their car on the lawn and then the condominium association says, "no, no, no," it looks unsightly, and it's just, like you said, policing the neighborhood, but it creates an overall feeling of a nice and clean neighborhood. You have fewer freedoms as an individual, which is what we don't like in America: fewer freedoms .
But as an owner of a rental property for future rentals, this is great. And in a few years, she may get rid of mortgage insurance. After two or three years, people usually see mortgage insurance : “Oh my God, I don’t want to pay this for 30 years; "That would be so much money!" Most people get rid of it in two to three years; it's not a big deal.
That was probably one of the hardest things for me to realize. Everyone always talks about mortgage interest. I was worried about taking on additional debt. The only thing that really reassured me was that I knew the house would be more of a long-term investment. Wait, $78,000 in debt. Oh my God. Wait, how?
Oh my God. She earns $95,000 a year. Where does her money go? Yes. I don't know. A car for $47,000. This...this, you know, because it won't be a write-off from the business because she's working, right? So if I divide $47,000 by her Georgia tax rate, it's probably going to be somewhere around 30%. So it will cost her $67,000 in earnings to be able to pay for that car plus interest.
This is madness. She's almost with interest for 5 years or so, she's honestly probably paying a year's salary for this car. This is madness. For example, buying real estate is a great idea. 47 thousand. This is what's left of the car loan. Truth. Yes. I mean, yes. What kind of car is this? Yes. I think we'll find out soon.
I hope so. We're here in the garage, but student loans, 25 grand. I mean, they might be deferred, so it might make sense for her not to pay them. This makes more sense. And then yes, the question with the car is quite high. And $ 5,600 in credit card debt . Take one salary. Why? Why do you have to have this?
Yes. For example, why do you pay 15 to 20%. This year I plan to have a Thanksgiving. So I'm excited to expand the table and invite my family to the city. So, my parents immigrated here from Ghana, which is in West Africa, to live the American dream and make a better life for themselves. This is great.
I knew around 2018 that I wanted to move out of my parents' house next year. The first reason I chose Atlanta, Georgia was the cost of living. Hmm, that's definitely a lot more affordable for someone, especially on a single income. And then, oh, the clock is there. Target. You just pay attention to all this stuff from Target.
I know my home decor at Target, right? I was just able to find more of what I was looking for in terms of new construction. And then, being in a more metropolitan suburb, I thought I had chosen one, but once I got home and started doing some research, I realized it wasn't right for me . So I asked my realtor, who lives in Atlanta, to continue the search for me virtually.
Luckily, he just kept sending me different videos, different areas, trying to get my opinion. And as soon as he sent me a video of the area, I realized virtually that I had almost sold everything. Perfectly. So, there are videos of their development phases that are still being implemented. So, this is very new.
Yes. It's actually in the early phase, which if you're going to buy a new build, if you can get into the first or second phase, that's really important because they're always raising prices on new builds. Now this should not be confused with the growth in your net worth, because if you turned around and sold the new build, you would probably find yourself upside down .
It's almost like taking, not so bad, but almost like taking a new car and turning it into a used one. Yes. Oho. You know, she was lucky to find it in the end. Yes. Yes. Because of the prices...let's take a quick look at this. I bet you found data center prices in the Atlanta, Georgia market, I wouldn't be surprised if in the last 6 months alone those prices have gone up somewhere between 10-15%.
In just 6 months, I think she caught this moment. Honestly, she was probably panicking at the time, but, uh, everyone was panicking at the time. Look at this. Oh my God, this is wonderful. Okay , so she closed the deal. Well, it went into escrow probably sometime in January or something like that, right ?
So, uh, the median home prices in the Atlanta, Georgia, metropolitan area were about 250. Uh, now they're 287. That's crazy. That's a 30, you know, $7,000 increase in the average home value. She... She... Yes. Yes. The beauty of real estate. Yes. Well, that's just incredible. Yes. She could probably...
You know what? She probably has a higher rate since then. She could probably refinance her home and get another 3/4 off her rate these days. Especially a nice neighborhood, a good district with really good schools and an area close to downtown. I thought this was just the right time for me. And, fortunately for me, it turned out that when I applied through a trusted lender, I was approved immediately.
Yes, verified lenders on new construction sites usually offer better deals and better incentives because they have a contract with the developer, because they get so many clients. Uh, that doesn't mean you shouldn't look for other options, but in her case it worked. So, my realtor met me here with the keys and, you know, gave me a quick tour of the house.
And then, as he was leaving, he just looked at me and asked, "Are you okay?" And I'm like: "Yes. " Yeah, it all seemed really unreal, you know, I'm standing in something of my own that I worked so hard to earn, and now it's like my child that needs to be raised and cared for. Steeply. 2600. Not bad actually.
Refrigerator, washer, dryer, $2,600. That's actually smart. I think that's accurate. Yes. $8,900 apiece. Of course. They probably didn't have to move as much as we did. The only thing I would like to get is a better interest rate. Oh, just refinance. Oh my God . But that's enough. It's like this is what we were just talking about.
Like she could probably refinance it to about 2.7% right now. Just pick up the phone and say, “ Hi, Linda, I’m going to pay off my credit card debt and get a new loan .” OK. So, with her mortgage at 3.7%, she could easily refinance it right now by getting another loan with a low down payment. She has equity , so she could probably even put up 10% of the down payment and half of the mortgage insurance.
So she could probably lower her mortgage insurance by a hundred dollars right now by simply refinancing the loan at 10% of the down payment. Then it could lower the interest rate to around 2.7%. She could probably save a couple hundred more dollars a month. She could just pick up the phone and say, "Hey, I'm paying off my credit card debt and I want to get a new loan." And probably save $300 a month just like that.
And next year, she could probably get rid of mortgage insurance entirely. Yes. Ah, yes. She... This is the plan. Do it, Crystal. Do it. Maybe do it now, during the pandemic, when interest rates were a little lower than when I first signed the contract in October. It's a shame I didn't save more money besides the closing costs and the down payment, because after moving in, even though, you know, my closing costs and down payment were paid, I only seem to have about $2,000 left to fix up the rest of the house or to furnish it.
It's a shame she didn't invest a lot of money in furniture. She did so. I think her decor is really nice, but I would go out somewhere. I would n't buy flowers or lamps or anything like that , but would just save that money and use it on better options until I could afford to decorate the house. Well, you know what?
I bet she has credit card debt because she bought a house, and then she took her $2,000 that she had left , plus the $5,500 on her credit card, topped it up, and spent almost $ 10,000 on fixing up the place. Why? We are in a pandemic. You're not very entertaining. I'm not... Thanksgiving, just be careful with the pandemic.
Good. Don't start writing. Well, and yes , I mean, here's what it means to me. I think it was probably a budget mistake. I think the house was wonderful. I think so. Yes. But there was simply no need to download furniture and decor and make it your own . When we first moved in, we only bought the bare essentials we had, and almost everything was from IKEA and Craigslist.
Their dining table was about $90 on Craigslist, and we didn't decorate anything. We didn't even have a dining table or, sorry , a coffee table in front of our sofa for a very long time. We just gradually, you know, bought it as we could. Right. So, that's right. And we left without credit card debt.
And in our purchase, we paid off my car. Lauren's car was already paid off. Damn it. That I would save another 10 thousand before moving. Oh, she regrets not saving another 10 grand before moving. I think she should have moved when she moved and bought when she bought, because she just got a ton of appreciation.
She should have just done what I said and not decorated her place so much, you know? She doesn't need all these decorative chairs and all these pillows. Pillows are expensive. They cost about 30-40 dollars each, you know? It's just not worth the money. I almost wonder if the producers say something like, "Well, what would you regret?
You invested so little money. Uh, don't you wish you had more money?" But we're mixing up what's going on here a little bit. You got a great deal on a property that is now worth an additional 14%. We came across this. You could save money by refinancing. You could cut your mortgage insurance in half.
If you hadn't spent all that money on furniture, you wouldn't have credit card debt, and you could have taken out extra money, paid off your car, and you would be in a much better position. Absolutely. Buying a house made me happier because it helped me feel more independent. It made me feel like I had something truly mine, and something I could fix however I wanted and not need anyone else's opinion about it .
And, if I come and I don't like something, it's my duty to change it. So it definitely made me feel more mature and a little more responsible , especially when it comes to finances. I have a comment. I'm curious, you know, going back to that initial comment about her parents raising her to wait for a husband and then move in with a married man, right?
I wonder if, given her recent comment about feeling more independent, etc., maybe she lacked that feeling when she was with her parents. Maybe they were controlling her, and she wanted to, you know, escape in a way. Not that they're bad or anything . I'm just saying that maybe she wanted to mind her own business.
That was really important to her, and it makes her extremely happy, you know, to be the opposite of what it was like, maybe, growing up with her parents over her shoulder. I think that's great. Yes, it made me, and I would consider it something like my word for the year to be fearless, because I feel like if I can do that, I can do so many other things that I thought I couldn't do.
You know, I can do it myself. I can definitely do this with someone else. Oh, I think that's great. If you could do it yourself, you could definitely do it with someone else. This is a great phrase about takeout . I really like this life motto. I can't get us mixed up. That's it. Good. So, what takeaway dishes do we have?
Uh, I mean, she bought it. Perfectly. Steeply. If you're going to buy something move-in ready, I think we agree that new construction is the best option. I agree. Uh, if you're going to buy a renovation, obviously you're not going to get a new build, but newer, newer, generally better. So I agree with that.
We know she needs to refinance. Get rid of your mortgage insurance, or at least half of your mortgage insurance, until you get rid of your credit card debt. Uh, and one of the things she said that was potentially a little dangerous was, " Oh, it's mine now, so I can fix it up any way I want." Be careful.
This is usually a telltale sign that we're going to do a Wayne cover there , and now we're going to do this. In fact, if we go back to her kitchen for a second, I personally think she, um, opted for a few building improvements. I noticed that too. Yes. So, she probably spent more than she needed to.
This cornice molding is a construction improvement. all these extra built-in lights she has here. I'm not saying you don't need recessed lights, and of course they're easier to make in advance, right? This is how they will convince you. But, I mean, she has a bunch of office lights here that are just an improvement.
Uh, this apron right here, it's an improvement. A lot of these things, I as a person , if I'm moving into my first home and I have credit card debt and car debt, I think to myself , don't do any of this . Like, rule it out. Yes. Uh, so I wouldn't spend money on some of these building improvements, especially, I mean, uh, I don't know.
I think you and I are the same, unless you think it's definitely a forever home or a home you'll live in for quite a while, I would n't even personalize it that much. And you know, a lot of people think, "Oh, this customization will increase the value if I sell it or rent it out." But often this does not happen.
So, hmm, it would be better to just keep it simpler and add your own touches to the decor, instead of painting the walls when you have the money and are n't in too much debt. Yes, that's right. Uh, yes. And I always look, you know, I have clients all the time. They say, "Oh, this will be my permanent home." Three years later, they move.
Yes. Oh, damn. There is a new building there. This is better . I'm moving. Everyone is moving. As soon as people finish their project, they move. And then , looking back, you think: “Oh, [ __ ]. " Look at all the money we put into this house." And you don't get any return from it. So this is where houses can be dangerous.
Yes. I'm just really happy for her that she gave up on this idea that you wait for a husband and then marry your husband and live with your husband in a house. It's like she said, freedom, liberation. I think it's so independent and wonderful. So overall it's good for her . Perfectly. Great video. Thank you so much for responding to this with me, Lauren. Yes, thank you for inviting me. Yes.
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