Replies to post #108829 on Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Newly2b]

Yes, I remember many Texans who still had jobs were transferred out here to the L.A. area when their companies closed their Texas offices. Those people were horrified when they saw our housing prices. Very hard to sell them anything.

Yes, of course, one can lose one's paid-off properties if unable to pay the yearly property taxes, but one would have to be in pretty bad financial shape to come to that. One can be in default for 5 yrs before they actually take the property for unpaid taxes, I believe, and I would think rents on a paid-off property could cover at least that amount. I saw many friends lose everything through over-speculation in the r.e. market prior to our '89 crash out here. Well, one reaches for the brass ring -- sometimes one gets it, sometimes one doesn't, but one always has to reach for it . . .


Newly

[Train Guy]

If you live in a state with property taxes, there's no such thing as owning property. You are basically renting the right to publically claim the property as your own from the county. And when buying and selling property, you're buying and selling the right to get to rent the public claim of ownership from the county. So in states with property taxes, you don't actually own anything, just the right to rent the claim that you do. Consequently there is no such thing as "free and clear."