Top 10 Hypes of H1B folks to keep them poor (renter) until they realize the mistake
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You ( the non-immigrant worker) should always buy a home. Owning a home is a shortcut to become rich in USA. However, you are living on non-immigrant visa and you have yet to file green card, or your green card processing is stuck so badly that you always tend to think that chance of winning a jackpot is much brighter than getting a green card!
Because of different myths and false hype keeps you away from owning a home and becoming a rich sooner. And the TOP 10 hypes are as follows :
Your first hype that you and/or your family in USA has created is that we are here just for few years and then we will go back to home country and live happily.
Will you really return to India ?
There are very few young immigrants ( age group 30-40) who says “Goodbye” to USA . Majority of them who decide to return to India can be categorized as follows :
- Deteriorating health of parents becomes a really a worrying concern. And finally person decides to wind up the matter in USA and goes back to India to take care of his/her parents.
- Few satisfied H1B holders believes that they have earned enough, and hence they return to India to enjoy their rest of the time in India.
- H1B visa holder has been laid off , and now he is jobless for many months.
- There is an excellent job offer in India. Or you have lived enough ( may be 30 to 40 years ) in USA.
And now ask yourself how many H1B employees do go back to India? If you ask 20 H1B friends around you, hardly anyone would have gone in first 3 years of their tenure in USA. Even if some true hero who happen to return to India voluntarily, it will be only after consuming all 6 years of H1B visa!!
Hence, please quit telling other people that you are in that 1% category of people returning in India. Time to time, you will tell your friend “See ! My daughter is just 3 years, once she will be teen ager then I don’t want to stay in this country and I will go back to India”. Is that the reason that you should not purchase home for next 9-10 years? Or is that the reason that you would like to stay poor?
Read the article Buy a home now and live almost free after 5 years ! How ? and decide whether you would really like to spend all the monies in rent?
This all sounds very much true, and then you strongly believe in this hype.
Hype 2 : Now a day USCIS ( US Citizenship and Immigration Services) has tighten up H1B visa renewal, what happens if my visa does not get renewed. Even it brings me a cold chill in a hot weather just by having a thought of my H1B visa renewal application getting denied.
Why US Consulate would be against you ?
If you or your lawyer do not submit your H1B visa renewal paperwork properly chances always becomes brighter for denial. Unfortunately, you have been reading a lot about visa denial on various blogs, forums, and you are really getting scared. It is really surprising why you should be scared ? You don’t know why that person’s visa renewal application got rejected, and you don’t have all the adequate details with you to judge his/her case based on some Internet posting also. Yet, you believe them. Mostly, you would read lots of people complaining about hassle of visa renewal process because when their visa renewal application is denied, they don’t have any immediate path available to them to show their agony, anger and frustration. These angry folks turns to web/internet posting to gain sympathy and there will be people who will join them and there are many numbers of frustrated people who will join them which leads to hype that visa renewal or rejection of stamping at US consulate is frequent and full of hassle. Also, your typical Indian mentality of putting blind trust even on a stranger comes in to play. In India, if a next door neighbor or a close friend tells you that he saw King Cobra Snake near the playground. You will think 10 times before you go closer this playground. And you continue to believe it for years until one day when someone breaks the truth that it was the black tie which appeared like a snake!!
When you count approval vs. rejection rate, the rejection rate is very low at any US consulate in India. Also if you happen to be Mechanical Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Construction Engineer from academic background point of view, and later on you join the wave of IT and now in USA, of course BCIS would raise suspicion that what the heck you are doing in this country when even you don’t have credential in IT ? Here your immigration lawyer’s sound paperwork will avoid such things to happen. And there are thousands of Indian IT professional with their academic degree in non-IT and non-Management subjects and still they don’t have any issue with H1B visa renewal.
Also, few greedy employers have a practice of submitting inadequate paperwork, missing paperwork or signature. As such practice does not usually raise a red flag at your employer at BCIS. Unfortunately, employer has nothing to lose in such scenario but H1B employee; yes you do lose a lot. Also, more complex your visa renewal application is pretended by greedy employer the greater the fear at your end for leaving this employer. This is a simple and successful scary tactics used by greedy employer. Your H1B employer will scare you that now visa renewal, H1B transfer is really hard, and we got query in your case although we did all the paperwork. DO NOT BELIEVE them right away.
There are 95% chances that your application will be approved and 5% chances that it will be rejected or USCIS will request for more evidence. Do you want to see glass 5% empty or 95% full. Think positive and do not get unnecessarily caught emotionally that my temporary visa will not be renewed.
Hype 3 : I have to go to India /Canada for H1B visa stamping in passport. If US consulate in India/Canada does not stamp my passport with work visa, that’s it, game over! I heard many cases of it on internet and different blogs. Even my own friend is waiting to get his case cleared in India and he is really stuck in India. Same could happen to me.
Many H1B visa interview candidates go ill prepared at US consulate for visa stamping; they should have all the documents handy if asked. And those who go with unorganized paperwork, sounds suspicious or nervous at US consulate would have possibility of having visa stamping rejection. Also, you really do not have any idea why it was rejected, only thing you and your favorite friend can do is speculate the matter in your favor as if you are expert lawyer on complex immigration laws!
Again refer to Hype 2; you are just catching the wrong wave.
Hype 4: Buying a home is a costly affair. I should avoid it at all cost, until I have some savings like coming up with 10% to 20% of the down payment.
Let us say you are paying $900 per month and living happily in a 2 bedroom apartment. Do you know just paying extra $500 more , you can start owning a home. You know that you can easily afford extra $500 and start paying $1400 as your monthly payments towards home mortgage. You can buy a town home or a 3 bedroom single family home or condominium. Also there are many different programs available for the first time home buyer too.
Hype 5: My friend who is living 2 miles away from me just purchased a home. Man! That’s a ½ million dollar estate size home with fancy bedrooms and bathrooms. And he was just showing off to me, now I have decided whenever I will buy a home it would be better than his home.
Hello, wake up please! First of all do not try to compete with your friend’s /relative’s house that’s worth ½ million dollar in a some posh area. Your friend waited forever and remained poor for a long time to buy that ½ million dollar home. Also, why you should buy a 5 or 6 bedroom homes when your real need and use is limited to 2 or 3 bedrooms? Also, this is not India; you won’t have frequent visitors that you would need spare bedrooms just for them.
Dream Resonable : Why choose estate size home just to impress others ?
Even buying a fancy big size home for a first time is nothing but a costly mistake; once you become a homeowner you would know many things about home. Your next purchase should be that estate size home. Your ½ million dollar homeowner friend remain poor for the longest period of time to buy that home. Do not buy a real fancy 5 or 6 bedroom estate size home that your friend purchased just few months ago… You will be inclined to buy a home near his home. Please do not compete, and just do not get in to race of impressing your friends/relatives just for getting their “wow”. Even ask your friend who purchased their ½ million dollars and 5000 square foot big home that do they honestly utilize all the space of their home. Buy what you need and buy what you can afford. Don’t start a fancy dream of owning ONLY a big size home with all sorts of electronic gadgets, this would be equivalent to at the age of 20 dreaming for becoming Bill Gates by age 30. And if you would have continued to take right step towards it probably you would have been Bill Gates. And now you know that you cannot (become Bill Gates ) , face the reality and take a positive steps what you can do now that will make a long term difference and long term gain.
Hype 6 : Mortgage payment is not an issue, basically I am on temporary visa and if my project comes to an end I will not be flexible , I have to search the job it could be in same city or in different city. And this home would become a white elephant for me… see I am telling you a correct thing. You are just not getting it right. Also I am a full time employee or my contract is going to last for 2 years only, buying a home will confine me to one location. If I get laid off in between, I will be stuck to that location only.
Agreed. And probably it is one of the most debated concerns between a homeowner and a poor renter at temple, mosque, potluck and birthday parties.
If you get laid off, project comes to an end and you may need to move to different city. You may just rent out your current home. Renting is much easier process than typical renting out process in India. If you cannot manage it, you can hire a professional rent management company who will find a tenant for you, collect the rent payment from tenant on behalf of you. Rent management company can do it all at some monthly recurring charge (mostly it would be some percentage of rent). And if you don’t want to pay such professional fees, just run an experiment put a paid advertisement on Sulekha.com and you would have rented out three bedroom home to three H1B visa holders within a 7 day.
Also, if you go with less hassle route, and opt for rent Management Company then at the end of month, after deducting rent Management Company’s expense if it comes around just $700 still it is a good deal. In the new city where you just moved you can continue to afford 2 Bedroom apartments around $900. You have to add $600 more to $700 to meet your monthly mortgage payment. So effectively you are just paying few hundred dollars more.
Buy owning a home you are growing a money !
So just by paying few hundred dollar more, this home does not become a white elephant for you. Remember, you will be getting rich by owning a home and ultimately saving the money. Unfortunately, you won’t see that hard earned money in your bank because that saving is directly tied up with your home. Can’t believe it, refer to this article…
Hype 7: Buying a home is a hassle. My friend who purchased home envoys me as I am living in apartment. My homeowner friend always thinks that buying a home was a mistake!!
Yes, it could be a hassle, but it’s worth it. Lawn-moving and maintaining a home is sometime a painful experience. But you should see at long term gain rather than short term or on-going hassle. Consider lawn moving as an exercise rather than a hassle. Also poor renters do not get any luxury of owning a home. If you live on rent for 5 years at $900, you will shell out $54000.00 and in end you will not own anything.
If you consider lawn moving, few general maitenance tasks , overall it takes your 40-60 hours of your valuable time per year.
We have a short cut for you, just put a $7000 a side, spend 30 hours of researching on stocks, mutual funds and bonds, and invest it wisely. You would have $700 (10%) of gain and after tax it would be around $500. Pay it towards your lawn moving for summer months!
Also, if your homeowner friend got in to competing and impressing other friends, he might have purchased the bigger size home rather than what he really needed, and bigger the home , more the maintenance ( vacuuming, cleaning etc.) and other monthly cost ( heating and cooling cost) would be.
Hype 8: In my area, where I am renting apartment in the area where the schools are really good, crime rate is really low and the home price is really high. And there are many friends who live in a same apartment community where I am living and I just cannot simply afford to buy a home in my preferred location. Hence I am not buying the home.
Better school nearby and really low crime rate escalates the price of home. You will always find the location in the same city where you will get better school and lower crime rate and lower price as well. Usually prices are low on those locations when it is still growing and not fully matured yet. Even the price appreciation rate will be much better than those already high priced home. But it also means that you need to drive 8-10 miles one way to get to shop at the preferred grocery store of your choice. This can be really hurdle for you if you are shopping almost every day of the week. But do you really shop everyday of the week ?
There are friends living in the same or nearby community and usually they are not homeowners, they would have similar and scary mindset like yours about not to purchase a home. They call it buying a home is “very risky”, because they don’t have adequate knowledge about the matter. Also, if you want to stay in the same area with costly home price, just pay more to get a luxury of having friends nearby.
Hype 9 : My wife and kids are so accustomed with the area, even I do have friends who are living in nearby area/walking distance. If I am buying a home somewhere 10-20 miles away, I will loss the luxury of easily visiting them as and when needed.
You need to become little bit mature. If you would love to pay rent , stay at dinky size apartment and remain poor that’s your volunteer choice. Also, remember that friendship is a volunteer action, in India also we had relatives living in different parts of a city, whether all relatives live together at one place!! Life is a train, and we all are passengers, you happen to get deeply bonded with a passenger seating next to you. When that passenger’s destination comes, that passenger gets of the train and train moves. You don’t get off from the train and join that passenger. Similarly, your friend or next door Indian neighbor should not be sole driving factor for your choice to remain poor. Here is an experiment that you may want to do ..
You are feeling very much connected with the friend next door. Even your wives are just like sisters. And you decided that since your next door friend is not ready to buy a home, hence you decided that you guys will stay as neighbor as long as you can. After 2 years, that friend got a better paying job 300 mile away from city and relocates there. Your sole decision not to buy a home was because of this closed friend. Since your friend was mature enough to leave you for better money and better opportunity, you just accepted as yeah that’s okay. Now you wanted to buy a home, however you did realize that by paying rent you stayed poor. Ask the same friend who left you for better opportunity that your sole decision not to buy a home was because of him, and now you need an interest free loan of around $25K and see what sort of answer you may get !!
Feeling so much connected ?
Ask for a loan around $20K to experience the connection!!
Because you felt so connected with your friend, your decision was to rent and live in same or different apartment community nearby and you did it for next 2 years, and doing so you already lost $20,000. So after 2 years, if you ask your friend whether he would help you at least $10,000 ( half of $20K) in a interest free loan since you lost the money in paying rent and now you need such money for bigger down payment whether your friend will agree to it ? In most cases, you won’t get even $2000 FREE from your darling friend. Remember you would have easily saved $20,000 by owning a home rather than renting an apartment, that $20,000 can be much better spent for different purpose. Even you would be able to pay tuition fee when your son/daughter enters in to college in USA. So choice is yours, just select your friend or your daughter or your own well being in a long term.
Well said!! But remember, we are Indians, when we lived in India we enjoyed the company of our neighbors and if same can happen here in USA, I would take it by all means.
If you are so close with next door neighbor, none of you would have any complain driving 10-20 mile each way to meet each other. And if you are really bonded, you can buy a home and ask your renter friend to move in that new home with you. Ask your renter friend to pay the rent to you and live happily. Doing so, you/your kids and wives will have always a company to enjoy.
Hype 10: In my area, home price is really high and I guess the real estate market is very much saturated in my area. I think it is better to keep renting until the prices go down.
If home price is really high in your area, you must be paying a premium rent to live in such a high priced area. If you buy a $250,000 house today, no one can tell you what it will be worth a year from now or five years from now. Based on 6.34% annual appreciation, a home kept in good condition in a solid location could be worth $1.5 million 30 years from now.As of January 2012, the home price is historically low. And it is the best time to buy a home.
All above sounds really good, but I am not convinced yet that I will be rich just by owning a home.
Waiting for your green card or Employment Authorization Document (EAD) card to arrive ? Yes.
However, what real difference it ( the green card ) would make ? You would have still equal chance of getting laid off, moving to other city etc. Only relief would be from visa renewal and H1B employer dependency. In IT, the talent is respected everywhere regardless of your status in this country. Honestly, if you’ve been to USA for 2+ years and still renting it means either you are too much scared or you are at the mercy of employer or you don’t trust your own talent or combination of all !
Read this article Buy a home now and live almost free after 5 years ! How ?
Yet, you believe that our analysis lacking insight ! Read any of the following book to help you realize that buying a home is a way to get rich in USA and may be in other countires as well.
Are there any other hypes that we missed, please let us know.
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