Thank you stragbasher.
As I said, I bought a dirt-cheap fixer-upper. I had read piles of those stupid get-rich-quick-through-real-estate books, that tell how easy it is to buy a house that’s underpriced due to death, divorce or just desperation, to fix it up and turn it around for a quick profit, or rent it out for a few years, refinance it and use that to buy another, etc., etc.
While those strategies might work sometimes, those books for the most part are full of shit. Buying a house involves a lot of time, money, uncertainty and often hidden costs. One might turn it around for a quick profit or one might get stuck with headaches and a loss.
My house sounded great: 6 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage, 2300 sq ft foreclosure property for less than $100,000. I worked my butt off on that house, lived in it for longer than I wanted to, rented out rooms, tried desperately to sell it, eventually had to sell it carrying the papers because no one wanted to buy the lousy place, got screwed when the buyers quit making payments, got tied up in a lawsuit with the bastards, and lost money on the terrible thing. It wasn’t a total loss, though, because I gained precious first-hand knowledge.
If one is certain one will live in it for at least a half dozen years chances are pretty good that purchasing a house will be a worthwhile investment, if one does ones homework in advance. If one believes all the get rich quick nonsense and hopes for a quick profit one will most likely be disappointed. That’s why I say to make sure you buy a house you will be happy living in for 10 years, because you might be stuck doing that even if it wasn’t your plan.