Today I was talking with a friend in Italy and I mentioned that I rented a flat and I'm renting out the other rooms.
He asked me why I don't buy a flat and do the same.
I do believe he has got a point, since I'm likely going to stay here for some years.
My salary is not very high, but I should be able to get a mortgage for a cheap flat in the center of Santiago.
In Santiago housing is quite expensive, much more than outside the city, however cheap housing is quite scarce, so it should be easy to rent out the rooms if I do so.
However it's not yet clear to me how advantageous this would be; not accounting any expenses and assuming the rooms are rented all the time I should be able to get the monthly mortgage payment through rents and a bit more.
Now I'd like to understand if that bit more that I'm getting will be sufficient to pay for expenses and periods I'm not able to rent.
It could be a bit risky to do so because the down payment would require most of my savings and maybe I'll have to raise some money through friends or family; but I'm quite sure I'd be able to rent out the rooms.
My other concern is that housing outside Santiago is much cheaper, thus I'm not so sure that a house in the center will actually retain it's value in the future.
I do not have a car, thus buying a house outside the city would be senseless.
Do you have advices and resources I could study to make a more reasoned choice?
@freeschool
Thanks for your insight, I already share a flat, thus doing the same in my house wouldn't change my lifestyle drastically.
I don't want to live outside the city, since I like the ease of meeting friends that it offers.
What I need is a rough calculation of the economical side of things; everything else it's pretty much alright.
I wish to know what will be my expenses and my profits, so that I can make a reasoned choice.
@rastinza Ok you have covered most of it, maybe just need someone in your area who has done something similar recently or more real-world example.., else just taking what values you see and then refining it could be some indicator and as usual always a risk.
@freeschool
I am searching resources explaining what are the things to check in order to understand if buying a house would be profitable.
@rastinza Wish you the best with it and I guess a human with experiences could be considered a resource :)
I personally think the commitment long term 25+ years to by + changing states of banks (as an existence itself or debatable practice of increasing debt) means kinda of a short term gain on anything but then again who wants to live in a tent again!
If you can build a house. I will help you and have a small picture guide on it:
http://freeschool.0id.org/HOUSE/
@freeschool Thanks, the guide seems interesting.
But I don't own land and don't want to live in a tent.
I'm not averse to debt, as long as I can be confident enough that what I'm doing with that money will allow me to pay back the debt without making my life much more difficult.
@rastinza Great I think we're there - and for sure I'm not sure any debt is payable back in an overall sense and participation of snow-balling unpayable total debt BUT as individual I can see it might be viable. I am scared of compounding %'s and future stability / regular bank crashes / man-made or chaotic crisis. But generally it's safe as Gov lets private banks take from public pots of money so that's ok for them and in turn you in that way in the long term... but moral +/- as means for living... sorry for tangent.
@raimondaslapinskas
I didn't understand what you mean.
@rastinza I guess a lot would depend on your preferences so I'd ask more how you weight things for yourself (like having a partner who is sociable or not, wants more or less interaction, how far away is ok, if you like the center. life goals, if you don't mind banks, and yes fallbacks if can't get renters, if transport could replaces the car so house is not so expensive etc).
So a nice chat for 10 / 20mins should cover that...Happy to Jitsi audio chat about it...