A woman has issued a warning to other potential homeowners after her big purchase didn’t pan out as well as she’d hoped.
Samantha Barker, creator of the “Make Money Online” TikTok page, claimed that buying a house “ruined her financially”. In a 7 April video, Barker ran through some financial numbers to show her followers how her investment turned out to hurt her more than help her.
“So, buying a house has ruined me financially,” she started. “And for the sake of transparency and accountability, I’m going to share what those numbers look like.”
The online creator explained that before she bought her house, the “only debt” she had was her student loans and a car payment. Now, she’s added a mortgage, a $25,000 heating, ventilation, and air conditioning fee, new ductwork electrical, $15,000 for a foundation repair, and $10,000 in personal loans for a new porch and deck to her current debt.
“Then just for other miscellaneous payments to contractors again just to make my house livable,” Barker continued. “I have about $15,000 in credit card debt.”
“So, yeah went from being the most financially sound, good to go, had my retirement set up, to drowning in debt,” she noted. “But we’re making money online. We’re going to get ourselves out of it. I feel good. I feel optimistic. I feel empowered.”
In her caption, Barker added: “Forgot to mention the $15,000 loan for down payment assistance, plus the $30,000 I’ve spent from my savings.”
The transparent woman said she was sharing her own experience because she didn’t want anyone in a similar situation to feel bad or think that they “did something wrong”.
The Independent has contacted Barker for a comment.
Speaking to CNBC in 2019, a wealth manager admitted that buying a house is typically a “terrible investment”.
Peter Mallouk, the president of the wealth management firm Creative Planning, explained that owning a home will require money on property taxes, maintenance, and insurance.
“There are all of these other things that happen with your home that you’ve got to pay for,” he told the outlet. “Over time, your home might increase in value, but it probably won’t appreciate enough to offset all of the costs.”
Mallouk encouraged anyone considering purchasing to “crunch the numbers” before they commit.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis found that the median home sales price in the United States “as of the fourth quarter of 2023” was $417,700.
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