@bruce200
Turns out my mortgage payments are much cheaper then what I was paying for rent.

Yeah, it's quite common to solve basically following puzzle when baying your own flat: "Buy if rent > mortgage". The problem nowadays is that the credit rates are approaching 0 so the value of your own house is approaching infinity.

I see a couple of problems when talking to young guys in their 30s wanting to buy their own home:

As for your mentioned 4.25% you also have to see the opportunity costs. Where I live you make more like 3% profit when buying a flat and renting it. You could do better and with way less risk by just investing your money in the stock market.

The only upside I see for investing in your own home is that you can work with a high leverage. Basically you have like 50.000€ and can make an investment of 400.000€ (dollars should be about equal). However having half a million debt on an average salary has, at least in my books, nothing to do with you conservatively settling down but you becoming a slave to your own debt. Jobs work kinda different in Germany than in the USA however at least in Germany you have to think very hard before quiting your job and starting a new one when having that much debt. Also with there being a rational case of current valuations approaching infinity, you have to take into consideration that rates might go higher again. Depending on your contract this can lead to you having to pay more and since your house will lose value, at least according to how stuff works in Germany but what nobody knows, the bank has the right to the equivalent of a margin call.

Edited 6/18/2020 00:11:00

Would be interested in updates. I have been in collections for two years from my last landlord. Its only $550.75 but I just will not pay something I do not owe. That is on top of them keeping my whole deposit. They have over 40 complaints online about lying and steeling from people, but are a very large company owning around fifty 18-36 unit buildings.

When I first moved into the building it was great for a few years, then the new company bought it and it was just horrible. I have wanted to be a landlord and own my own building starting with a 4-plex and moving up. I have the currency to get into it, as it would also be my full time home, while renting out the other 3 units. But then there are terrible tenant stories as well.

The conclusion to me, is you either need to have enough disposable income to pay for a house/good apartment or hire a lawyer to fight your battles. Or be smart enough to figure out all the loop holes in fighting crooked landlords.

My wife and I now live in a nice building ran by a gigantic rental company. We have had 1 great, 1 bad, and now one ok building manager. The problem is you never know what you will get when you go to move out. Our rent in 4 years has not been raised and repairs if needed are overall quick. Its not perfect, but its not expensive either.

Update:

I've been asking for an overview of the gas, water and electricity costs, as I pay too much per month. They are required by law to send this overview every year, yet they never do so. As I said before:

Me and my neighbours have been asking for specifications about the gas, water, electricity, etc. as we pay a lot more than we use. They have always denied said requests. But, last week, my neighbour got a 'specification'. According to them, he owed them €656. So I broke in yesterday and checked the meters. The numbers they sent turn out to be completely fabricated, which is fraud.

The landlord refuses to give me this overview. Very intriguing how they can send a fabricated one to my neighbour, but can't send me one. So I decided to chase this on my own. I called the company who owns the meters in our apartments. Turns out, they don't supply gas or electricity to my apartment. Yet, somehow we get gas and electricity. Now, my landlord owns 12 apartments next to each other. 4 of those apartments have meters in them. None of them are supposed to have gas, nor electricity running through them, which is really interesting. It also explains why the numbers are completely arbitrary. So I decided to look at the prices my landlord asks for a kWh of power and a cubic meter of gas. They are exactly the maximum amount the law states one can ask. No energy company actually asks these prices, as they want to stay competitive. So my landlord arbitrarily raised the prices we're supposed to pay. Then I took a look at the price for water. In my city, the average price per 1000 liters is €1,24.-

My landlord asks €8,-

What?

So I called his administration. The woman who answers the phone there isn't the brightest (and that's putting it extremely mildly). She said she had no idea. This is probably true; hearing her speak reveals that she indeed has no idea about anything. So I called my landlord directly. No answer. I called him 6 times throughout the day and he didn't answer. As he usually texted me at 10pm, telling me that there are people viewing my apartment 9am next morning, I figured I'd give him a call at 10pm. He actually answered and started ranting about how rude I was for contacting him so late... He then stated that I smashed his apartment to bits, that I trashed another house of his and that I was a 'goddamn lesser being and a fucking immigrant'. As I laughed at his jokes, it only got worse. His daughter lives across my hallway. He claimed I threatened her. For the record, I don't threaten people and his daughter is probably stronger than me, so I'd definitely lose that one. So, I couldn't stop laughing and forgot to tell him I'm in the progress of suing him. Whoopsiedaisies.

Looks like you've found a money factory

Or rather

someone's money factory

Fingers crossed Farah... unpleasant issue, definitely rising your experience level :)

Btw €1,24/m3 of water is ridiculously low even if subsidized. In 2010 there were only a handful of cities in Europe that were below that price (Reykjavik for example... eg. Rotterdam had €3,5 or so..). I would not expect those prices going down in last 10 years, at least they were not in other parts of EU. There might be additional payments included, like sewage / distribution fees separated from the price of the water itself. But €8 is high if it doesn't cover everything (potential readers from water-limited countries or Denmark pls excuse our price blasphemy here).

Farah is right about the waterprice, it changes per region. At my regio it is €0,46/m3 without taxes and €0,88/m3 with taxes. The dutch 'huisjesmelkers' are terrible hahaha, good luck Farah!

Farah is probably the last person on the planet to threaten anyone^^

So I spoke to the debt-collecting agency. They've told me they cannot sue people, as they are not actual bailiffs. So they gave the case to someone who has the power to sue me. Unfortunately, this bailiff decided to sue me without knowing the details of the case. He thinks I actually owe my landlord money. I'm getting a court date in about two weeks. I've gathered a rather large audience of friends who want to see this landlord go down. We're currently at 38 people.

About the gas/water/electricity:
He hasn't sent me anything yet. He did sent my neighbor some false numbers though, so we've been calling him about that. When we presented proof, he suddenly stated that they might've made a mistake in their administration. It's gonna be fun.

Haha. Good luck Farah!

Only, due to Covid, most non-urgent court cases are done online, and I think yours will be too. Even if the hearing will be in person, I doubt they will let in 38 extra guests. But, on the bright side, this means you can livestream the entire thing!

I second Derfellios' proposal to livestream the case. It will bump your support numbers up I'm sure. ;)

Edited 6/28/2020 23:23:22

yes! Great idea!

Make sure to include it in a WGL ;)

I think the winning move is to avoid such situations in the first place. These are more trouble than they're worth.

Like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EagsiHnx1H4

So, a short update:

I had some contact via e-mail with the debt collector, the ex-landlord, the lawyer and anyone you can think of involved in the case. It turns out everyone is waiting for my ex-landlord to sign the documents needed to sue me, but for some reason, he isn't doing so. This would mean I'd have to wait about 7 months to counter-sue, which is highly annoying, but still happening. I might actually link him this thread to give him some insights on the topic

don't link it to him! you should never share any kind of information with your enemy, which might be useful to him. Any knowledge he has, he will only use it against you. just tell him: "you're going to jail for fraud bitch, I have all the evidence."

I would not reveal your identity on here to anyone, especially not enemies or friends

I've hosted a warzone event. A lot of people here know my identity :p

inb4 he sues you for defamation for talking about it publicly on this thread

Omg your paying euros

of course. did you think Farah is paying with potatoes?

He's dutch, he's paying with tulips silly.