renting vs buying a house – Rock To Riches

If you are running a social media group like our OFW UsapangPiso Forum, one of the most moderated posts are those ads of houses and condo units that local real estate brokers and agents are selling. The problem is that they don’t read our posting guidelines/rules first before flooding our walls. Nothing against selling of properties as I myself do sell some passively. (Yes, I don’t like competition). 😛

Seriously, agents and brokers target OFWs and OFW communities in selling their units, boasting of easy installment plans and low interests. There are also a lot to choose from. Pretty tempting for most OFW’s whose goals include owning a house or run a house-for-rent business.

However, people need to examine their situation first whether it’s already the right time for them to buy their first house. Just because everybody’s buying and news of a good economy keeps on popping up your TV screen, doesn’t mean you have to buy now also.

Ask yourself the following questions to know if you are really ready to make that once so elusive dream of owning a house come true. Continue reading Are You Really Ready To Buy A House?

I received this question earlier this morning from a fellow forum member and blog follower (name withheld for security and privacy reasons):

“Hi Burn! I’d like to ask for advice if it’s ok with you. It’s about our plan to have a house of our own. We’re currently renting an apartment for P6,500/mo so we’re considering taking a Pag-ibig housing loan of 2M with a term of 30 years, 8% interest per annum and a monthly amortization of about P17,000. Actually, P17,000 is almost half of our monthly budget already so we’ll be sacrificing a lot, maybe even our monthly 20% allotted for buying stocks..

So do you think it is much better to just put the P17,000 monthly in stocks and just withdraw from it when it reaches 1-2 M? Maybe after 5-10 years given the interest is 10% p.a.? However, the prices of labor and materials might have gone up considerably by then..

The loan seems more attractive now as the house can be built with in 6 months to a year so we also won’t have to pay for the apartment rent once we’ve moved in.. Continue reading On Buying a House – Invest in Stocks First or Get a Home Loan?