The housing market is where the rubber hits the road in the economy. Everything else is a pipe dream, a phantom, a piece of paper. Housing means something. I got my Real Estate license a long time ago but was too honest to be a successful real estate agent. However, I learned a lot about the business. I learned what NOT to do. I constantly ran around looking at houses, although I didn't actually buy one until I got married.
I knew that there were deals in Baltimore. There's still deals in Baltimore. Most people pay too much for a house. They really just don't know what they're doing, even though it's probably the most expensive thing they'll ever buy. You have to keep in mind when buying a house that the "conventional wisdom" is WRONG. If you go against the conventional wisdom, you'll be OK. Seek out bad neighborhoods, 'cause that's where you'll find the best deals. Not all Bad neighborhoods will stay "bad".
I always wanted to live in alternative housing. I knew I didn't want to end up in the suburbs. At one point during my college years, I didn't want to pay rent and bought a $75 tent (on sale) to set up in the Santa Fe National Forest. That was great times! I had a friend who couldn't afford a tent and for some reason I offered to let him stay with me in my tent, but I had to kick him out after a week or so. It was my first experience as a landlord (lol).
I had books on how to build underground houses (you dig into the side of a hill like a Hobbit) and other books on how to build a house out of fireplace logs or glass bottles. I had other books on modular and other high-tech pre-fab housing, and that eventually led to an interest in nomadism. I decided to go mobile. I bought a van that I was outfitting to live in, but then I got married. Wifey wasn't interested in being a nomad- she wanted a house!
An underground house needn’t involve a hill. I hired a backhoe/frontend-loader operator to dig a 50 by 30 foot hole 5 foot deep at one end and 6 at the other, poured a cement floor with tall steel eye-beams to support a roof one third flat and a third at each end slanted to just above the ground, overlaid the sides with rebar and chicken-wire, had “shotcrete” (cement with fiberglass mixed in) sprayed over that and the side-walls under the roof, and presto, had a sorta house which has lasted me for 20 years. The exit ramp for the heavy equipment that dug the hole remains, going to a large front door. There are a couple of windows and sky-lights. It’s amazingly temperature-controlled, there’s a couple of second floor areas, a large one in the middle and a small one (about 10 by 20 feet) at one corner. A ledge around the top of the hole, so at ground-level, offers shelving. As I prefer life with my family in Thailand, and they don’t speak English, the longest I’ve stayed there is a couple months at a time. Usually it’s been only a couple weeks per year. But now a friend has been in residence for over three years and likes it quite a lot. Tried to sell the place; that didn't go so well...
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
meep
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit