To everyone here at GA. Thanks for the encouragement.
🏡 Local WIN 🏘️
For the past couple of years I have been working on paying off my mortgage and being debt free. My wife and I both wanted to do this. It was not always easy but we keep plugging away. Today was my last mortgage payment. We now own our house free and clear. We have no other debt.
For anyone reading this that is still on the path to being debt free. Don't give up. Is it hard at times but no matter what anybody tells you it is worth it.
No one knows what the future holds (Until the real President is back in office). We are very concerned that inflation is going to get really bad. Hopefully not having debt will make it easier to deal with rising prices.
Anyway once again. Thanks everybody.
You will not regret living like this...you sleep well at night...nobody owns you...
It is nice. But you still need to pay taxes and insurance on the house. Just make sure to fight your taxes since home prices are soon to drop.
Congratulations! What an achievement!
Congratulations. We just sold our house, bought another with the proceeds outright, and are paying off, or down, our other debts. Feels so good. Raises a glass Cheers Fren.
I paid my mortgage off same time as lockdown began. Doubled my payments for two and a half years and watched it quickly disappear. Pay down the PRINCIPLE! You will be amazed. I have no debts.
Now go burn that mortgage paper. You deserve it. And while you're at it, take a walk around and realize that, 'This is all yours.' Congratulations.
Im split on paying off my mortgage. I’ve got a low fixed rate 30 and I’m 6 years in, I figure the bank may collapse before I finish paying it off. Congrats though!
I was concerned about that myself. If you have a mortgage and a savings/checking account at a bank and the bank fails you lose your savings (assuming no bailout) but are still required to pay your mortgage.
Pay your mortgage to who? They’ll be gone. I don’t have checking/savings with the same bank as my mortgage either soooo, if they fail I think I’m off the hook.
The assets would be sold to someone else. A mortgage is an asset to the bank.
Sold to another bank… that fails before my mortgage is up in 24 years? I think I can wait this out longer than these fraudulent banks can
If you’re locked in for 30 years your best strategy, in my opinion, is just to pay your minimum required payment and just watch the dollar devalue itself. If you have extra money invest in real assets that will hold value as the currency goes down.
Please make sure to continue to pay your real estate taxes. While you had a mortgage, the bank was paying them as part of your mortgage. They are now your responsibility. Lots of people lose their homes two years after paying them off because they didn't pay their property taxes. Or their elderly parents die and they never knew they had to pay them. Congratulations on being free and clear, but you are never free and clear from taxes.
Our property taxes were never included in the mortgage payment. It was always separate and sent to us by the county every October and still is.
Our property has been paid off for over a decade now.
Certainly. It may be different in your state or county. I have bought tax liens and deeds in three states and the one of the most common scenarios for a property being lost to non payment of taxes is it was 'free and clear'. Really devastating when a property that was paid off becomes encumbered again by debt just due to people not understanding their financial responsibilities change but don't disappear when your mortgage is paid off. What should be wealth creation becomes wealth destruction when this happens.
True. There are so many out there that do not understand how property taxes work or that they even exist.
If you put enough down when buying the house, the bank won't require you to escrow the taxes and property insurance.
When you say you've bought tax liens and deeds, do you mean you've literally acquired houses (or real estate of some sort) just by paying the back taxes?
No, I've bought them at auction where the starting bid was the back taxes. Some counties handle the foreclosure prior to the auction and some counties require you to foreclose and still others require a time period before you can take possession. But I have seen many homes that were 'free and clear' be lost to taxes so I am just trying to spread the word that free and clear doesn't mean free and clear.
Oh, thank you. I wondered how it worked. So let's say someone is behind $10,000 on their property taxes. The county sets up a sale and you come to bid. The bidding starts at $10,000. And it could go up quite a bit more than that. So let's say the house finally 'sells' for $70,000. Who gets the $60,000 profit? Does that go to the owners who are losing their house? Or does the county just keep it?
I have heard that even if you do acquire a house that way, the people who lost it can may be able to get it back. So like you said, some counties require a time period before possession. Is that because the original owner is given a chance to get it back? And if so, how does that effect you? Do you get the money you invested, back? Thanks for your help. I've always wondered about things like this and adverse possession, squatting, etc. Some things like those just mentioned, seem so weird and unfair. Appreciate your explanations.
No problem. Many of the answers depend entirely on the county you live in. For instance, in Oakland County Michigan, the county treasurer keeps the profit on the auction and the auction company adds a 10% buyer's premium to the final bid price. In Georgia there is a one year 'right of redemption' after the auction in which the owner can pay back all the taxes plus the overage with a premium on top for the buyer (which would be their profit instead of getting ownership of the property). New Jersey has a hybrid process and West Virginia has a different process and on and on it goes. The place to start for answers is your local county Treasurer's Office. They can provide the information on the tax auction process, a date for the upcoming auction and a list of properties to be auctioned off. Many counties have moved to online auctions but the real gold is the in-person only auctions, not many bidders at those.
Interesting about the in-person auctions. Do you also go to regular real estate auctions? (like with a real estate auctioneer - as opposed to the county courthouse.) You seem to be well versed and your operation is widespread!! Lol. That could be taxing (as in tiring, not taxes.) I remember reading in Rich Dad Poor Dad that Robert Kyiosaki would go to different states to buy when he found a good deal.
Thanks for the info about the Treasurer's office. I can't believe they keep the profit, though! Well, I can believe it, but it seems wrong. And it sounds like in Georgia, you could buy a place, fix it up and even move into it and then still be booted out. So I'm wondering what people do there. Maybe just buy it and rent it if it's livable. Interesting that things are so different from state to state. Is this your full time income gig? It sounds like it would take a lot of time to learn all these details. I suppose you could still do it 'on the side,' but it would be great if you could do it full time. Thanks. It's fun talking to you about this.
Congratulations, fren! 😀
What an accomplishment, fren...congrats to you both!
Congrats on the job well done. Enjoy the fruits of your labor if you can.
Remember don’t fall for Heloc, most people lost houses by that
House free and clear is fantastic, fren.
Very good! Well done. High five.
Congrats! Being debt free is a huge milestone.
That's awesome! Congrats!
Congrats! I was able to get mine paid off this past year, also. It’s definitely a good feeling.
Congratulations!!!
There is the other thing: once the interest rates are going up you don't have to worry that your mortgage payment would go to the roof and in the worst case scenario (hyperinflation) to might lose your home, not being able to pay it.
I have my own experience paying the last mortgage payment. I agree: You feel free again. Congratulations!
Beautiful, congrats! Party at u/Greatheart 's house!
My wife and I did the same thing, so I know just how you feel. We paid off our 30-year mortgage in 12 years, which was hard, believe me, but it was well worth it.
MAGAsoyboyslayer is correct -- you'll still have tax thieves and insurance payments on your back, so you'll still have somebody's hand in your pocket. But the mortgage is the biggest hurdle, and you've cleared it.
We started our 30 year mortgage in Jan 2016. Original payoff date was Jan 2046. I know that a case can be made for just holding the mortgage and investing in something else.
But they don't take into account how you change over the years when you stick to a plan. It may appear painful because you can't buy the things that everybody around you is buying.
It was not really painful for us because we had a goal and we stuck with it. Now we really don't care if we buy what everybody else is buying.
We still go to Thrift stores to buy furniture and other things to restore it. In fact now it's become a game to buy stuff for next to nothing restore it until a point that it is even better than new.
We can fairly easily buy new furniture and other things but I don't feel the need to prove to anybody that I am able to buy "new". If I wasn't focused on paying off my mortgage I wonder if I would have felt the same.
Fantastic job !
Congrat's! Huge accomplishment and I am proud of the both of you!
Congratulations ! You have achieved what few people do now a days and you did it early enough to reap many yrs of enjoyment by not paying another dime to the bloodsucking “bankpires” and revel in being “untied to your house or a bank “ I am so very happy for you. I know of only a handful of people who achieved such success and they were all of my father’s 12 brothers and sisters and parents; some who swam, some walked and some were carried by siblings from Mexico in the late 30’s. They all went to school, became citizens, got good paying jobs, married, had children, never moved more than 10 miles from their parents or siblings, all fought in the war and none of them ever used the G.I. Bill for a house or education.To them it was wrong, it was like stealing. All my aunts & uncles and my parents have passed now but their children feel and acted like their parents as have their grandchildren. They saw an opportunity, grabbed it wholeheartedly, used it wisely and with great thanks, passed that onto the next generation. All 12 children passed on with their mortgages paid in full and life insurance for their family. My dad was cremated wearing his WWII survivor baseball cap, his AFL-CIO UNION Windbreaker and the only picture left of his whole family. It was passed down from oldest brother to next oldest survivor at their death as a remembrance of what their parents did and sacrificed for all of them. My father passed in August 2021, alone at 91, after working 36yrs in Aerospace, in a Covid restricted L.A. hospital all alone. They were the Greatest People, Parents, Husbands, Wives, Brothers, Sisters and Generation this Country will ever see. You 2 have joined a very special and unique club in history. I hope you enjoy every moment you have here on Earth. I know my family did. With hard work and sacrifice EVERYTHING is possible for EVERY American! You did it and Congratulations! God keep you safe and together❤️
That is an amazing comment. You should rightly be proud of your family story and you come from good stock.
It hurts my heart that your father passed alone. And it makes me so mad for the injustice. I’m so sorry. Your faith is strong and I can feel the love in your heart and your love of life. Great company on this board, fren.
Thanks for the reply. I cannot express to you how angry I feel about what happened to your dad and many others during "covid"
As far as I am concerned that was one of the most evil things that happened with covid.
It reminded me of a question that used to be asked years ago. How is it that the German people allowed so much evil to rule back in the 1930s?
You realize that America today is no different. There will always be people who will allow evil so that they can have comfort. The USA is the greatest country in the world so long as we keep evil at bay. We believe we have already won the fight but the battle still rages.
Yesterday I had a daydream about burning my mortgage. Must have been for you. Cheers. I'm so happy for you!
Congrats 🎉
Fren, this is amazing news! God is certainly with your family! You have done the Lord proud with your hard work, and knowledge that debt is slavery!
Wishing you the best of success moving forward and the greatest blessings!
So question for others here, with interest rates higher now what advantage would there be to paying off a mortgage at 2.5% when you can get CDs at 4%?
I don't know how to explain this but being debt free sort of frees your mind. The pressure I wasn't even aware of is gone.
It's just the fact that you own it. You don't co-own it with the bank (which basically means they own it, since they can take it away from you under certain circumstances.) Some people won't care about that, but a lot of people just prefer to be debt free.
Who Hell is Paying 4% for CDs??
Credit unions and from a quick search some banks
Awesome!! Way to go you!!!!! Woohoo!!