Does That Make Sense?
Mar. 26th, 2015 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutSo there's a broadband service woes making the rounds today.
Here is the Consumerist coverage:
http://consumerist.com/2015/03/25/new-homeowner-has-to-sell-house-because-of-comcasts-incompetence-lack-of-competition/
Here is Seth over at his own blog a month earlier:
http://www.loomcom.com/blog/2015/02/22/its-comcastic-or-i-accidentally-bought-a-house-without-internet/
We are, of course, all sad for first time homebuyers who are surprised, because if you've never been a home buyer it is your main fear and if you _have_ bought a home, you have been there, possibly more than once.
Seth discovered that he could not get wire-full broadband to the house AFTER closing on the house (bought in mid December and he was optimistic this would be resolved until February). Did Seth make some less than optimal decisions? Sure. But let's ignore the past. Sunk costs. Water under the bridge. What's going on _now_?
In February, he was contemplating having to sell:
"I don’t know exactly how much money I’m going to lose when I sell, but it’s going to be substantial. Three months of equity in a house isn’t a lot of money compared to sellers fees, excise taxes, and other moving expenses."
Well, let's make some assumptions. Zillow believes his house is worth about $442K, a little more than what he paid for it back in December (he got it for about $415K). Let's further assume that _if he decides to sell_, he will have some costs associated with that sale. Like, 3%. Which is optimistic -- it could be a lot higher. And we'll ignore whether or not he makes or loses money on the sale and focus on the "costs" of the sale. That's about $13K. How many months of "frightfully expensive" cellular broadband could he buy from Verizon's Jetpack solution which he is currently using? Well I don't know for sure what he's paying, but he says he's using it at the 30GB level, which suggests he's paying $225/month for the data allowance, plus some kind of line and account fee, presumably. If you take that $13K and divide it by $225, you get almost 60, which is _5 fucking years_ at his "frightfully expensive" cellular broadband.
Presumably, if Comcast was willing to sell him service, they would charge him _something_, so to be fair, one really should only compare the amount he is paying _over_ that (how much is he overpaying because he doesn't have a line to the house). After all, he seemed to think he could afford to live in this place with broadband in its line-ful form.
He may have some very good reasons for wanting to move. Fam could be going stir crazy. Schools might suck (I don't actually have any idea). Maybe the crickets are just Too Damn Loud. Maybe seeing the stars at night is freaking them out. Perhaps there are termites, or ants or a funny smell in the attic that they just can't seem to get rid of. But I hope it's more than just paying $225 a month to Verizon for cellular broadband.
Because that would seem to be a very un-economic decision to make.
Here is the Consumerist coverage:
http://consumerist.com/2015/03/25/new-homeowner-has-to-sell-house-because-of-comcasts-incompetence-lack-of-competition/
Here is Seth over at his own blog a month earlier:
http://www.loomcom.com/blog/2015/02/22/its-comcastic-or-i-accidentally-bought-a-house-without-internet/
We are, of course, all sad for first time homebuyers who are surprised, because if you've never been a home buyer it is your main fear and if you _have_ bought a home, you have been there, possibly more than once.
Seth discovered that he could not get wire-full broadband to the house AFTER closing on the house (bought in mid December and he was optimistic this would be resolved until February). Did Seth make some less than optimal decisions? Sure. But let's ignore the past. Sunk costs. Water under the bridge. What's going on _now_?
In February, he was contemplating having to sell:
"I don’t know exactly how much money I’m going to lose when I sell, but it’s going to be substantial. Three months of equity in a house isn’t a lot of money compared to sellers fees, excise taxes, and other moving expenses."
Well, let's make some assumptions. Zillow believes his house is worth about $442K, a little more than what he paid for it back in December (he got it for about $415K). Let's further assume that _if he decides to sell_, he will have some costs associated with that sale. Like, 3%. Which is optimistic -- it could be a lot higher. And we'll ignore whether or not he makes or loses money on the sale and focus on the "costs" of the sale. That's about $13K. How many months of "frightfully expensive" cellular broadband could he buy from Verizon's Jetpack solution which he is currently using? Well I don't know for sure what he's paying, but he says he's using it at the 30GB level, which suggests he's paying $225/month for the data allowance, plus some kind of line and account fee, presumably. If you take that $13K and divide it by $225, you get almost 60, which is _5 fucking years_ at his "frightfully expensive" cellular broadband.
Presumably, if Comcast was willing to sell him service, they would charge him _something_, so to be fair, one really should only compare the amount he is paying _over_ that (how much is he overpaying because he doesn't have a line to the house). After all, he seemed to think he could afford to live in this place with broadband in its line-ful form.
He may have some very good reasons for wanting to move. Fam could be going stir crazy. Schools might suck (I don't actually have any idea). Maybe the crickets are just Too Damn Loud. Maybe seeing the stars at night is freaking them out. Perhaps there are termites, or ants or a funny smell in the attic that they just can't seem to get rid of. But I hope it's more than just paying $225 a month to Verizon for cellular broadband.
Because that would seem to be a very un-economic decision to make.