[hunter-gatherer]

I've had a handful of lemons thrown at me during my life. One of the most impactful ones as far as I can tell is that through a weird chain of coincidences I ended up first in line to purchase a foreclosed home. From what I understood, the couple was going through a nasty divorce and couldn't agree on who would get the house and ultimately didn't pay anything for a while, so I picked it up for 80k, which back then was probably 50% of what the market value was. This was hige for kme because as a kid my family was actually evicted from the house we were renting (not for financial-related reasons) but it was sudden so home security has always been important to me.

Having been able to pay off my house has had the most tremendous postive impact on my mental health I think. Sure, it's a small house, and it's old, and the kitchen is small, and so on... but man, I'm so glad I never have to worry about making a house payment.

[dmd]

> a handful of lemons

I'm having trouble parsing this. A lemon is a bad thing that happens to you, but this seems like it was a good thing for you?

[mcphage]

> A lemon is a bad thing that happens to you, but this seems like it was a good thing for you?

Probably referencing "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade", not like a car is a lemon.

[dmd]

Yes, thus my question. In that phrase, a "lemon" is a bad thing that is happening to you, which you turn somehow into something good (lemonade).

[mcphage]

> a "lemon" is a bad thing that is happening to you

I guess in this case, the lemon is a bad thing in general, not specifically to them.

[hunter-gatherer]

Lol. Maybe I've misunderstood this idiom my entire life. I've always taken the lemon to be a sort of neutral player since it isn't always trivial to make something better out of a neutral (ie to see the opportunity) and is even less trivial to make a positive spin on a negative thing.

[animal531]

Haha there are two different idioms in play here.

- "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade" - Make something positive out of something negative.

- Using Lemon as a descriptor of something, e.g. "I bought a Lemon", or "It turned into a Lemon" - Usually indicates that there was some unknown defect in the product, e.g. the car you bought stopped working after a week, or the house you bought on the cheap turned out to be made up of 90% termites and only 10% wood.

[dartos]

Lemons are sour and bad.

But you can use them to make lemonade, a sweet treat.

I never liked the saying bc I like lemons by themselves too.

[jewayne]

I think the idea is that you were expecting something sweet, but got something sour, and it's now up to you to make the best of the sourness.

Is English your second language?

[xanderlewis]

From the Oxford English Dictionary: 4. an unsatisfactory or feeble person or thing. "car-makers cannot afford to create lemons"

[xeonmc]

I’ve always preferred the Cave Johnson version.

[tacitusarc]

I assume the previous owners stopped by to pelt him with lemons.

[Bluestein]

You know what they say, "make lemonade" and all that :)

[valval]

I also found it funny the amount of verbal gymnastics GP did in order to convey the message of “I’m not actually a dick who hunts foreclosure homes”

[rufus_foreman]

>> Having been able to pay off my house has had the most tremendous postive impact on my mental health I think

Agree on that. I own my house with no mortgage since before the pandemic and it doesn't make much financial sense to pass up a 3% mortgage but it makes mental health sense.

Yes, I owe property taxes. Yes, the city could raise them. If I completely stopped paying them today, it would take them a decade to kick me out. It's nice from a mental health perspective to have a 10 year runway to plan your next move.

[fred_is_fred]

I'm at 2%, no reason to pay extra (and not much left anyway). But I am curious, where do you live that property tax foreclosure is 10 years? Most places do NOT mess around. They sell your liens for 3 years at auction and then you're done. Counties are ruthless in general I've found, especially in some states.

[Borg3]

Holy shit... That property tax is awfull thing. It should never ever happen. Not to simple people, owning one property, aka home. So much freedom, country of dreams...

[perilunar]

Land tax is better than income tax, accordion to Georgism at least.

[sangnoir]

Without property tax, who pays for the infrastructure and first responders? The no taxes, no rules, and no local government services thing was tried many times without success: in one New Hampshire town, they got overran by bears[1] - who could have guessed regulations on trash handling and animal control might be good for something?

1. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-...

[sangnoir]

If I am mistaken, I would appreciate counter-examples of successful towns that engage libertarian praxis. Living off the grid is one thing, but living in a town or city with shared commons is another.

[fred_is_fred]

Somalia tried it also. I don’t see any HN libertarians lining up to move there.

[toomuchtodo]

With taxes we buy civilization.

[BobaFloutist]

Just wait until you hear what happens if you stop paying rent.

[veunes]

The fact that you've paid off your house at a young age is an incredible achievement, regardless of its size or condition

[nunez]

Damn.

if the house was in good condition and an area that you wanted to live in, then consider yourself insanely blessed!

[immibis]

It's amazing what we as a society could accomplish if the government stopped blackmailing us with homelessness for profit.