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Aliyah advice



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amother
OP


 

Post Mon, Feb 22 2021, 2:32 pm
We are making aliyah, and DH will hopefully be continuing to work remotely at his american job. We will be selling our house in america. I would like to buy a home in Israel right away, because prices keep going up. In order to do so we would have to use all of the money from the sale of our house, plus most of our savings. DH wants to rent, which will leave us with more cash on hand. Which way makes more sense? I'm afraid if we don't buy now, we will never be able to buy, and I don't want to rent long term.
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amother
Aqua


 

Post Mon, Feb 22 2021, 2:40 pm
amother [ OP ] wrote:
We are making aliyah, and DH will hopefully be continuing to work remotely at his american job. We will be selling our house in america. I would like to buy a home in Israel right away, because prices keep going up. In order to do so we would have to use all of the money from the sale of our house, plus most of our savings. DH wants to rent, which will leave us with more cash on hand. Which way makes more sense? I'm afraid if we don't buy now, we will never be able to buy, and I don't want to rent long term.


As someone who has lived in Israel thirty years, I say - BUY.

Prices are always going up. Very very rarely do they go down, and then it is usually minor and temporary. They are always climbing.

I can understand renting for the first year, till you decide where you want to live. But after that - I would buy immediately. Don't let the money sit in the bank, it will lose its value while houses just go up in price.

Even if you ultimately do not live in the house you buy, it is a great security to own a home.

Where are you thinking of buying/renting? How much money would you have?

If dh wants more money on hand, then buy with only 90% of the money you have (if that's possible) and leave the rest to cushion your landing. But I would strongly advise against not buying at all.
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Teomima




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 22 2021, 2:50 pm
Don't buy right away, because you have to figure out where you want to live. It's best to rent for a year or two so you can be sure of your ideal location. But it is smart to buy overall.

Use what you can for a down payment, and take a mortgage for the rest. You should leave yourself a comfortable cushion, life in Israel is not cheap and saving can be hard. It's easier to make reasonable mortgage payments but still have money to live off+savings than to have nothing on hand to fall back on.
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essie14




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Feb 22 2021, 7:26 pm
Teomima wrote:
Don't buy right away, because you have to figure out where you want to live. It's best to rent for a year or two so you can be sure of your ideal location. But it is smart to buy overall.

Use what you can for a down payment, and take a mortgage for the rest. You should leave yourself a comfortable cushion, life in Israel is not cheap and saving can be hard. It's easier to make reasonable mortgage payments but still have money to live off+savings than to have nothing on hand to fall back on.

I agree with every word.
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shabbatiscoming




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:27 pm
Unless you know where you want to live and are sure of the neighborhood and all that goes with that, 100% sure, rent just to get a feel. Then definitely buy as it is more financially sound.
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Iymnok




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:31 pm
Listen to teomima. That’s really the best advice.
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amother
Aqua


 

Post Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:42 pm
I agree with everyone that you should probably not buy right off the bat, but first give yourself time to get your bearings.

It also takes time to understand exactly what and where you want to buy, to understand the nuances between different neighborhoods and the pluses and minuses of each type of housing offered here.

So ideally I would rent a year and take that year to go house-hunting, and to get a feel for exactly what I want.

A word of advice - best to rent in a place where you can afford to buy a house. Sometimes rental prices and purchase prices are not proportional. So check out housing prices before you rent there. Also, make sure to rent in a place where there is a good supply of houses for sale. You don't want to move to a small yeshuv only to discover that there is nothing available to buy there.
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chanchy123




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:42 pm
You can also go the Israeli route. Buy a property you can afford as an investment with the money you have but leave a nice cushion and rent a place you actually want to live in. In the future, you can sell your property and buy a permanent home (or not).
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amother
Aqua


 

Post Tue, Feb 23 2021, 11:46 pm
chanchy123 wrote:
You can also go the Israeli route. Buy a property you can afford as an investment with the money you have but leave a nice cushion and rent a place you actually want to live in. In the future, you can sell your property and buy a permanent home (or not).


That's true.
Although without actually living here, it might be hard for her to see what is a good investment and what isn't. Unless op is fluent in Hebrew and can get around sites like yad2, madlan, etc without a problem, she should probably wait until she's actually here and can do some real investigating.

Don't trust real estate agents to give you the best information. Their agenda is to sell at all costs. Sure there are some great agents, but at least in my long experience in Israel, most are willing to say whatever you want to hear. Also note that many of the homes they are representing are often also available without an agent (see yad2 listings, especially older ones, before the agents got to the ad).
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chanchy123




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 24 2021, 12:00 am
amother [ Aqua ] wrote:
That's true.
Although without actually living here, it might be hard for her to see what is a good investment and what isn't. Unless op is fluent in Hebrew and can get around sites like yad2, madlan, etc without a problem, she should probably wait until she's actually here and can do some real investigating.

Don't trust real estate agents to give you the best information. Their agenda is to sell at all costs. Sure there are some great agents, but at least in my long experience in Israel, most are willing to say whatever you want to hear. Also note that many of the homes they are representing are often also available without an agent (see yad2 listings, especially older ones, before the agents got to the ad).

She doesn’t have to do that straight off the boat either.
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Teomima




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Feb 24 2021, 12:14 am
chanchy123 wrote:
You can also go the Israeli route. Buy a property you can afford as an investment with the money you have but leave a nice cushion and rent a place you actually want to live in. In the future, you can sell your property and buy a permanent home (or not).

I don't think a new olah becoming a landlord is a great idea. She has to learn to navigate the system here, understand utilities, banking procedures, etc. There's a lot of responsibility involved in renting out a home and when you're in a new country, dealing with and entirely new system, that's a steep learning curve.

Though housings costs are always on the rise, holding off for a year or two isn't going to make such a huge difference.

Another important thing to consider OP is housing prices in Israel are in shekel, but you're coming in with all your money in dollars. The exchange rate is horrible right now, you're at a huge disadvantage. You're probably more likely to actually save money if you hold off on buying for the time being, until the exchange rate improves.
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