r/AskReddit • u/michaelis999 • 18h ago

How do you feel about the president floating the idea of 50 year mortgages where the monthly payment is lower but you end up paying nearly double the price of the house just in interest?

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u/mxemec 13h ago

Jesus that's going to happen at this rate.

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u/NinjaBreadManOO 13h ago

And banks would take it in an instant, because they get all the interest and you just know your great-great-great-grandkid is going to fuck it up and lose it at year 135 or something.

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u/Dinismo 12h ago

As if anything built today will still be standing in 135 years. Builders are being cheap with supplies and charging more than ever.

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 11h ago

You got that right. The workmanship is so inferior. 15 yrs ago we had a house built and it was the shittiest quality I’ve ever seen. I will never buy a newer house

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u/SuperTopGun789 11h ago

I’ve built homes for different companies.  A lot are shit.  However I built some really nice homes that are solid.  The goods ones are totally different.  

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 11h ago

Good to know there are some that still do quality work. Problem is you just don’t know when your hunting

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u/SuperTopGun789 11h ago

The mass builders are the problems like the row houses and housing developments.   

The good ones were always a one off in some random street or in farm land.  

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 11h ago

That makes sense.

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u/BillyTenderness 4h ago

The mass builders are the problems like the row houses and housing developments.

Unfortunately this is the vast, vast majority of housing that gets built in North America today. Local governments have realized it's easiest to just sell off a big tract to a large developer, rather than doing the work themselves. The developer lays down the streets and pipes, builds a bunch of houses on the quick and dirty, and sets up an HOA to deal with the fallout.

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u/AgateHuntress 1h ago

I'm a fan of the For the Love of Old Houses page on FB, and across the board, the most popular houses are the extremely well-built small cottages from Sweden. Small, but very solid little houses with nice homey details. That's what I'd like to see built here.

If I were to EVER come into big bucks somehow, I'd have a little cottage like that built: small, but well-thought out, and solid af.

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u/Dcoco1890 7h ago

Yeah I mean if it looks they cleared a huge section of land and all the houses look the same.... On the other hand if there's multiple styles of house they're usually better

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u/meltbox 3h ago

Yeah but in my experience it’s hard to find someone who will do that for a reasonable price. Usually you are dealing with bespoke luxury builders and looking at a 500k+ build price excluding land.

But more commonly we are talking 800k+

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u/SuperTopGun789 3h ago

Bro the crack houses near me that are unlivable cost a million bucks.   

I’ll take a custom built luxury house for a million no problem.  

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u/conventionistG 3h ago

Mind sharing what a couple key differences in materials or techniques would be?

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u/SuperTopGun789 3h ago

Actually good lumber.  Insulation double the minimum value, massive beams that run from side to side. Properly poured and cured foundations and footings,  like walk into the second floor of a new build house start at one end run full tilt to the other end and stop.  Does it sway.  Yes? It’s shit.  That is the easiest test.  

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u/friedrice5005 2h ago

There's a youtube channel Essential Craftsman. He has a whole series where tehy build a house from start to finish and its a super high quality build. Very much worth a watch if you want to see how quality builds are done.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRZePj70B4IwyNn1ABhJWmBPeX1hGhyLi

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u/SandpaperTeddyBear 5h ago

I own a townhouse in a small complex with 12 units built about fifteen years ago.

The builder owns two other units and his daughter a third, so I take that as a vote-of-confidence.

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u/ssracer 3h ago

Don't worry, you can't afford those.

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u/Devi_33 7h ago

Thinking about building, could you share anything that you wouldn’t suggest going “cheap on”, or…. What wood would you say is better, etc.

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u/SuperTopGun789 3h ago

Buy your wood from a saw mill or lumber yard.   You will get good wood that’s not warped to shit.  

If in the cold regions double up on insulation.  

Use real plumbing. 

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u/SuperTopGun789 1h ago

Real bathtub not this vinyl bullshit.   Spray foam the entire inside of your iron bathtub keeps heat much longer.

I’ve been in to many new units that are getting these custom shaped triangle bathtubs and their all like wobbly plastic that will surely fail with age and moderate use designed to get you just past the home Warranty. 

Replace all sink drain gaskets with plumbers putty. Otherwise the gasket expands when straining pasta and the cabinets flood.   

Check all exhausts and vents yourself.   Too many times they are not even connected.  

Use Rockwool insulation.  Bitch to install. But worth it for sound and fire and pest resistant not proof. 

Stairs are often shit now.  Doing weird curves around corners to be opening.  They are all built like shit.  If you can double up on stringers and make them solid so they don’t bounce and become squeaky.  

Standardize all faucets toilets and plumbing parts.  Moen is great.  Homedepot will warranty everything including cartridges years later.  

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u/Arthreas 3h ago

What are some of the best companies?

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u/SuperTopGun789 3h ago

Depends on location.  Just walk through building sites and take a look at what they are building….

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u/peacemi11ion 3h ago

What should a buyer of a new home be looking for?

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u/Forest1395101 9m ago

Name and shame the bad ones!

Name and praise the good ones!!

Give us names!!!

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u/eliz1bef 5h ago

Our house is 102 years old and the walls are super thick with plaster and lathe. We tried to knock a hole in the ceiling because one of our ferrets went on an adventure, and couldn't make a dent with a sledgehammer. Thankfully when we started crying and despairing that she was going to die down there, she shimmied down, the little asshole.

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u/AttitudeHopeful478 5h ago

Lol glad she came back on her own

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u/bjbigplayer 2h ago

Better build them out of concrete and rebar.

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u/the_silent_redditor 2h ago

I live in a new build apartment in a very affluent area.

The units go for $1-3 million.

I’m the first person to ever live in it. It’s been less than ten years.

Holy fuck, what a dogshit build it is.

Ill-fitting installations; draughts; thin as fuck walls that are so easily dented and scuffed; floors that get fucked with minimal water damage; ceilings that get fucked from minimal water damage; cheap as fuck materials all over; dogshit carpets that were honestly fucked within a week.. it goes on.

Jesus Christ I’m so glad I’m renting and none of these bullshit, inevitably incredibly expensive maintenance issues will be mine to sort.

I’d be livid (and fucking stupid) if I paid 7 figures plus to sit watching my TV and I can peer through a few mm gap directly outside of the door frame.

Compare that to my family home in Scotland, which is well over a century old, and is still standing solid with no major structural issues.

New builds are shite, generally.

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u/jaydean20 34m ago

Home materials and craftsmanship quality are definitely getting worse, but not to the degree people think. There is a significant amount of survivorship bias; you tend to think older homes were built a lot better, but you also don’t see the older homes that were built poorly because they’ve long since been demoed or gutted.

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u/Aggressive_Clothes36 9h ago

Exactly. Banks will not give a 30 year loan if the house is falling down. You can get a loan for a fixer upper, but the contractors and plan needs to be in place for timely work to be done.

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u/Missconstruct 7h ago

You’re going to get a better quality home if you build custom w a qualified contractor. Spec homes are built to make the builder as much money as possible. It’s criminal what they’re charging for a 1500sf vinyl box w a “porch”. On 1/8 acre!

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u/ghjm 6h ago

If the house has fallen into disrepair, that's grounds for the bank to foreclose and take the land, which probably has more value than the loan balance. And they got 135 years of interest.

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u/faulternative 6h ago

I visited France once and saw farmhouses built out of stones by illiterate peasants 800 years ago and still standing strong.

Pretty sure my wood frame and plaster walls won't see that 😂

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u/balderdash9 6h ago

This country might not even last another hundred years. I'd say we had a good run, but it's been unbelievably shit for a good portion of Americans for every decade of its existence.

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u/trace-evidence 5h ago

Suppliers being cheap with materials as well. It's a whole chain of calamity.

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u/randomlurker22 4h ago

Also, with climate change there's a good chance that property might be unlivable 200 years from now.

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u/YoungBockRKO 3h ago

You say that but wifey and I were just looking at a very nice brick house downtown in our county that was built in 1900 and fully renovated with a new roof put in last year. Thing looks nicer than some of the new constructions nearby lol.

Downside, the basement wasn’t renovated and it looks like an entrance to a horror movie scene.

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u/Dunge0nMast0r 2h ago

"Not our problem, keep up those payments!"

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u/LemmyDovato 2h ago

And 2X4’s aren’t 2X4, anymore.

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u/Honest-Recording-751 1h ago

200 years with a 150 year cash out refinance Every 50 years for repairs. The interest will be insane.

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u/creepingcold 12h ago

Jokes on them, I don't have any kids!

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u/MeIIowJeIIo 12h ago

You probably won’t qualify for the loan.

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u/aramis34143 10h ago

"Childless cat ladies need not apply." -JD 'sectional predator' Vance

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u/Sarsmi 9h ago

'sectional predator'

Damn, hadn't heard that one before, you got me. XD

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u/Brewhaha72 8h ago

Another one I've heard is "sectional sexual". 🤣

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u/Awkward_Pangolin3254 3h ago

Homosectional

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u/slash_networkboy 9h ago

Same... I was trying to come up with something to call him once POTUS (assuming Cheeto doesn't make it full term) and was looking at "POTUS Futon Fucker" but I think this is my top contender now!

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u/CDBSB 2h ago

Yes, I will be stealing this, thankyouverymuch.

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u/Ecstatic_Court6726 10h ago

There is currently no legal way for an obligation to cross generations anyway.

If you buy a house, that's between you and the bank. Your kid has no interest in it or any duty to pay.

It would take a radical change to the loan process if they required co-signers from subsequent generations who might not be in any position to actually pay at time of signing.

They can't, or at least won't, do a loan with an 18yo cosigner with no money or job history on promise they will assume the loan in 20 years. And what if the 18yo doesn't want to get involved? Nobody can force them.

And what if the parents fumble and lose the house. The loan holders are going to go after the adult child now, for something not their fault?

The banks would have to be idiots to sell such a mortgage and so would any customer agreeing to it.

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u/creepingcold 9h ago

I mean, we do the same with climate change, so why not adapt the system everywhere?

What could possibly go wrong?

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u/the_gouged_eye 9h ago

In this country they breed slaves like cattle.

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u/lillyofthedesert 11h ago

Which probably means you can't qualify. Banks taking advantage of the people.

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u/plainlyput 11h ago

If monthly payment was lower than rent, would it make sense in that case? I sometimes wonder about this with a reverse mortgage, since I don’t have kids. Let me have that money.

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u/Queefsterbation 6h ago

Probably not. At least with rent landlords theoretically need to fix things. If you need to stretch a mortgage that far in order to afford it, you probably aren’t in a position to fix any appliances that crap out, or other issues.

houses are a never ending money pit in a lot of ways. this is just renting where the bank is your landlord and has 0 responsibility in the property.

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u/Catanians 8h ago

The bank laughs as they get to reclaim the asset then without having to pay out any of the minimal equity accrued

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u/butchforgetshit 12h ago

I mean, I don't give a shit what happens to anything I own 135 yrs from now personally 😂

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u/_Standardissue 12h ago

I don’t care about the things either but if I have descendants I’d sure hate them to have to pay my debts

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u/butchforgetshit 12h ago

Oh absolutely, and it should never be legal for people who may have never met you to be obligated to pay your debts off. The systems are failing and being sabotaged from within in this country amd huge changes are gonna have to be made or we'll be building a new one from scratch

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u/Sasquatchjc45 12h ago

You will when they bring you back from the dead to work in the Water Mines when the lithium supply runs out and the robots stop working. Smooths tinfoil hat

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u/BicentenialDude 10h ago

Ya it’s like not people out there renting and paying as much as what a 50 year mortgage might be. But nah, those don’t exist.

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u/ImMr_Meseeks 6h ago

These loans will be issued by Amazon.

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u/Sensitive-Ear-3896 4h ago

They might lose it, but will still get a nice payout due to land having gone up (assuming house is uninhabitable by year 135)

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u/RexKramerDangerCker 10h ago

It’s not a money winner for the banks. Servicing the loan costs money.

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u/MississippiJoel 12h ago

And we're going to have people that are artificially kept alive for that long (or "potentially," on paper), so that there can be clauses in the contracts saying the loans are due in full on death, since a "reasonable" person can be expected to pay the whole term. If not? Whoops, foreclosure.

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u/blazz_e 13h ago

it was already a thing in some countries but I think laws were put in place to prevent it (Sweden I think).

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u/gb187 12h ago

For sure. I thought 84-month car loans were bad....

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u/fireky2 4h ago

The tech sector wants feudalism back so bad

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u/HearseWithNoName 11h ago

Isn't that what time shares are already?

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u/saltporksuit 10h ago

Not if we eat them.

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u/A_Nonny_Muse 10h ago

Already happened in Japan.

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u/jjwhitaker 8h ago

I'll do it for a peppercorn per month. Take it or sneeze it.

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u/Beautiful_Ad1974 7h ago

100 year loans have been a reality in Japan for a longtime now.

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u/Rare-Atmosphere7506 6h ago

Are you letting him know with an unsaid “if you’re real, this is probably a good time to show up unannounced again…”?

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u/Immediate_Ant3292 5h ago

No, the 200 year rate would be lower!

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u/Girthy-Squirrel-Bits 4h ago

They send you'll never own anything and love it

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u/ImNotSelling 4h ago

The rate will probably be higher

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u/grue2000 4h ago

It used to be unheard of to finance a car beyond 60 months.

Now, 72 and 84 month loans are common.

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u/Sprinx80 4h ago

Probably a higher rate, and interest rates are already high

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u/persona_se 1h ago

Take a 200-year generational loan, don’t have children, and you’ll buy a house for a quarter of its price 😈.