Submitted by throw-away1201 t3_11yqfni in personalfinance
I recently made a post in another subreddit, (you can check my profile for it, if you want the entire story) and was told to come here to let everyone tell me what a bad financial decision it would be to buy a property with someone I’m not married to.
My boyfriend and I need to move out by September. Real estate in my area is averaging $2,200 USD a month for a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment. We found a super nice trailer home for $125k USD that’s a 3 bed 2 bath, and my mom is putting the down payment for it. I make $15/h, as well as a $700 USD monthly paycheck from my salary job and my boyfriend rents out an apartment (which is how he makes rent money for our place now). He also has a hobby that brings in extra income, so he’s considered self employed. We also have a 70lbs terrier mix dog so finding apartments that would allow him has literally been 1 out of the 100 we contacted, and it’s in a bad area.
The monthly cost for this trailer home is about $1,500 which is a lot less than an apartment AND we own it, so when we sell in the future we can sell for a reasonable price and pay it off. My mom is also having us sign a contract stating that when we do sell, she gets her portion of what she put in, and me and my boyfriend get the rest.
I’m just not sure what the downside of this could be, but I was told that it was the worst financial decision I could make. Could I get any insight as to why?
EDIT/UPDATE: I just got home from work and read most of the comments. I went over the paperwork/application with my mom. MY NAME IS ON THE TITLE. My name will be on the title as owner. I messed up because I had no clue but I did some digging, and found out I will be on the title as an owner. My mom’s name will also be on the title. I understand that people have said she might screw me over, but I know my mom, and I know she would never. My mom is not a greedy person, if she was, she wouldn’t be giving me a down payment for this. My boyfriend’s name won’t be on the title as of right now, but he is on as an occupant. Later on, when we decide to, he will be put on the title as well. This is the only thing I can afford, so the people in the comments saying I can’t or to just rent a $2,200 apartment are not listening when I say I would be living pay to pay in a rental. Especially since every apartment is requiring you to make 4x the rent, so even if I had gotten an apartment, my mom’s name would still have to be on the lease, because I do not make that much a month. The other part I saw a lot of was that we should move in to his apartment that he rents out, but its in a different state so that’s not an option.
— The $1,500 is the mortgage + the lot lease combined together.