Friday, March 24, 2006

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Go ahead and buy it. Buying a house was the best thing I ever did. Even if you have to live on dry bread and boiled rice for the next five years to afford it, it is still worth it.

Martin Adamson (ip:129.215.117.42) 24 March 2006 - 12:52 uur

Every time I've called a market top in real estate, I've been wrong, so this advice is worth what you pay for it.

You need a place to live. Is this a place you want to live? Can you afford it? If so, remember that rents may change, but the price you pay for the house will not. How long are you planning to stay? Assuming marriage and children have not been ruled out, is this a place you would feel safe?

Good luck. The rule of thumb here is to buy the cheapest house in the most expensive neighborhood.

Mitch (ip:69.16.50.230) 24 March 2006 - 18:24 uur

Mitch and Martin, thanks for your input.

It's actually precisely the opposite: this is about the most expensive house in a rather cheap neighborhood. However, the municipality of Amsterdam is literally pouring millions into this area which I've known for 8 years now. It's a good place to live and if anything, real estate in this area will become more expensive unless the global economy melts down; the price per square meter is very low for Amsterdam standards, mainly due to an undeserved bad reputation.

Good point about the rent. I live in a cheap rented home and the government intends to 'liberalise' (i.e. increase) the rents for those premises. Buying this house would about double my living expenses; however, the amount of space would triple. Plus, I get a roof terrace so I finally can take out the bbq again! :)

It's big enough to start a family in too, but although I haven't ruled that out, it's not exactly high on my list of priorities.

Arjan Dasselaar (ip:84.245.41.171) 24 March 2006 - 18:40 uur

Arjan: I remember well how disappointed you were and you were going to go out and blow that money. Hopefully you didn't and if you didn't it seems you've been given a second chance. That means that during the time you thought you'd missed out, you've had time to cool your ardor and think about the house discompassionately. If you still want it after all that, and you still have the financing, I think maybe you are MEANT to get it. What do you think? You couldn't have had more of a cooling off period than the last few months. By now you'd have convinced yourself of everything that's wrong with it if only to blunt your disappointment. If, however, you're still attracted to it...I say go for it!

foreign devil (ip:70.30.12.120) 24 March 2006 - 1:05 uur

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