"Relative " had 9 offers after an open house well over asking price. A 3&2 …Grab and go. No inventory at this time as we all know. After closing, will buy equally inflated property. It’s a wash.
Sometimes a guy wants to buy a house to call home. This nonsense about the virtues of living in storage units or a relatives basement or a whore’s bed or a quadraplex rental commune isn’t the point.
@rmitchell123 MSC is fine for buying a home. Lenders like a secure federal job. For me the mortgages and auto loans are direct draft from a checking account. The remaining bills are auto-paid via credit card. The credit card is paid in full via autopay.
If you just want a place to call home consider a modest condo. It’s low stress living. No figuring on how to cut the grass when you’re away or worrying about the roof blowing off in a storm. Get a PO box and send your mail there. Some day it might make a decent rental.
Houses are more complicated. Nice property is more complicated. Don’t start with those.
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You make money on real estate when you buy it. You’ve got to buy it right.
The three most important factors are: location, location, location.
Lakefront property appreciates the fastest, followed by oceanfront. View property is next. Well located in town properties are good.
A lakefront cottage or house can be a very pleasant place to live and can produce good income as a weekly rental while you are gone.
If you primarily want to invest in real estate, land or a house lot can be a good appreciation play without the hassles of tenants, repairs or maintenance.
My first property was a large in town Victorian house that had been converted to a duplex. I later renovated and converted it to a tri-plex. I owned that property for almost 30 years.
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I agree Tugsailor. as my mother was well established as a broker and realtor working her way up from a skate gal at a Shoneys resteraunt. . Location, location,location was the key. Proper financing is crucial. Bought my first new home at a young age as a deckhand with jets flying over it. sold it five years later at a very nice premium, then on to my next slightly nicer new home. My 2nd purchase was a lot across the street from Kitty Hawk Bay. Held it for appx $76 per month in my 20’s, Beer money, bought it from the local dentist on a fishing trip. After sailing for thirty years or so , acquired a few other properties that we rented out. It wasn’t easy at times, but vetted well and didn’t strangle the tenants on rent. Have but a few properties/rentals left, they are on the Outer Banks. I charge much less than the going rate and have long term tenants that do their own repairs and can walk to the beach. Today, at 5 pm (We hope)my relative ,(also in his 20’s) will finalize a deal on his second home/ purchase. A KP grad that couldn’t sail much due to health issues. He gets it. They don’t make land anymore. I have lost money in the stock market before as we all have, but recover for the most part.,Never lost on well purchased land. Don’t be greedy, through the ups and downs land will take care of itself. It ain’t going nowhere.
This all works great until you are at sea and your wife is halfway around the world and your credit card gets hacked and you have to go change all those bills over to the new card number with some shitty satellite internet…
Have never had that happen thank goodness. Still looking for your book. The guy I knew doesn’t have it. Will continue looking. The other fellows in the class have passed on. Damn good book. Credit card numbers can be changed rather quickly. Shutting down bank and investment accounts is a whole different animal. Reopening is just as bad. Been there, done that.
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I’ve been going to sea as a single man for more than twenty years. Autopay has made my home finances easier than ever. No need to trust anyone anymore.
The important bills (electric, gas, cell phone, cable/internet, auto insurance, PO Box…) pay on a dedicated credit card. That credit card is paid from a checking account that is only for that and the mortgages/condo fees. That checking account is funded via direct deposit allotment from my employer. The direct deposit amount is 110% of a two year monthly average. I keep six additional months extra in that account. I know when that credit card expires and I’ll request a new card with a new expiration date about a year to several months before it expires and update those on my computer/phone while on VPN. That card never leaves the lockbox at home.
(I used to bank with a credit card company that sent a new card well before the current card expired. I dropped them.)
The rest of my financial expenses are on other credit cards at another bank. The safer enter once accounts (Amazon, ApplePay, PayPal, airlines, charitable donations…) are on a second credit card. That card stays at home or on the ship. Its the backup.
The least secure are on a third card (restaurants, bars, hardware stores, on-line purchases…). Thats the one in my wallet. It can get stolen or hacked and I won’t care. If I loose it the backup becomes the least secure card and the replacement card with a new number becomes the new backup. That happened once.
The main takeaway should be this: Don’t rely on anyone to handle your finances. Not your mamma. Not even your wife. And never pay your bar fines with a debit card linked to your mortgage account.
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What’s a bar fine? 
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Living transient for a while need not be anywhere near those low standards, In fact, when this my choice I lived in some spectacular short term rentals that otherwise I wouldn’t haven’t got near. All the while my properties made money. If I came home from sea and one of my properties was empty I moved right in and renovated anything and everything that would have been difficult to complete with tenants. Things are different now and I am quite happy with home sweet home, but that was a great period of easy profitable living. I clicked my share of bucket list items while I was young enough to truly enjoy it.
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There were times early in my career a monkey with a dartboard did quite well. Those with even a small bit of aptitude did ok. It’s a bit harder now, but can still be done. When others are
throwing in the towel, start shopping.
Check out a mail service such as postscan- have all your mail sent to such a place. Well worth the money to have your mail scanned and sent to you in PDF format.
You’re MSC, so you should qualify for a Navy Federal Credit Union account. Their rates aren’t always the best, but they are EXTREMELY good about dealing with loans for merchant mariners- they understand the lifestyle, the intermittent paychecks and such.
Make sure you enroll in some form of credit monitoring; a lot of banks/credit cards offer this service for free, and you can use creditkarma for free if you don’t already have a credit monitoring service.
If you’re considering renting your home / part of your home, spring for a property management company that will work with you. You don’t want the headache of having to hire a plummer, handyman, etc while you’re on a ship with restrictive communications like MSC.
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What age range do you consider “young”?
That’s a deep question. The vagabond roaming around years for me was late teens until 28-30 when I got married & we became parents. IMO, you can be young until someone starts depending on you to support them, then it’s time to grow up I guess. I’ll be a lot younger again when the kids move out & I retire. Our only responsibilities then will be to ourselves.
BTW, I’ve been contemplating ordering a bumper sticker I seen on someone’s car. It said:
“Don’t grow up, IT’S A TRAP!!!”
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At my age anyone under 50 is a kid.
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“I was so much older than I am younger than that now”
-Bob Dylan- My Back Pages
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Home ownership While “young” is a stepping stone to building equity. You must be patient. Anyone younger than me is "A Kid’. Relative is closing on a home to purchase another one (under contract) while money is on sale. Both homes equally inflated, so it is a wash. 9 offers at his open house. All above asking price. Sellers market, that scenario does not last long, as the old timers and younger fellow investors know that… Glad he hit it right.
Well, Finally closed on both homes in the last week. Good rates, buyers are happy, sellers are happy. Got nine offers day of open house. Most well over asking price. Through 5 in the trash. A wash in this market. SOLD!
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I have lived in Maine, Nh, San Diego and location is truly king . I own waterfront in souther Maine on a river near (1/4 mile from a sandy beach). Before buying this house my wife and I noticed that all the beachfront and riverfront homes never dropped in value in the last real estate crash in 2006. Some went up 200k from 800k to 1m when most executive style home in a neighborhood in the area went down 60 k . We bought this home in 2017 and have a 60 percent return on our initially investment. Location location location.