Home buying thread

  • Guest, it's time once again for the hotly contested and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and fill out your bracket!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Once again, only you can decide!

Daezuel

Potato del Grande
22,812
48,092
That's the shit the worries the most in my house search, you see the prices today and then look back to what they sold for in 2011.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,374
Yeah I read about that. One of the realtors I met with and am considering going with said the same thing, BUT not in my price range. Homes in my range have been cooling and are still WAY below the pre-recession peak. The biggest risk for me is if I decide to move a lot sooner and need to sell after prices drop. I have two more realtors I am meeting with this week before I start to make any real jumps.

Just from my laymans eye of watching the market the last two months, about 10 of the 15 or so properties I was looking at went for within or below their asking price. If it all comes out looking like a bad time, I will most likely just go the super frugal route and rent somewhere (not in Santa Monica...fuck me) and put some other plans on hold for a year or so.
are you making accounts on zillow/trulia etc and just saving every potential home? you can then plot out how well and when it sold by just looking at the history.
 

Screamfeeder

The Dirtbag
<Banned>
13,309
11,209
are you making accounts on zillow/trulia etc and just saving every potential home? you can then plot out how well and when it sold by just looking at the history.
I am. Redfin as well. I met with a realtor tonight that gave me some really good information on the different LA markets and which areas are booming for superficial reasons and where I should be looking for actual long term living.

For those of you that own, is it always this kind of "might go up...might go down" speculation or is there such a thing as the "perfect" time and place to buy. I know a few people that got lucky buying places in certain LA hoods(Silverlake/Los Feliz) that have seen their value skyrocket and others that haven't. Makes some of this seem like a crapshoot based on stuff way out of my control. If that's the case then why not just find the place I love in my range, but it and forget the market?
 
Last edited:

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,374
I am. Redfin as well. I met with a realtor tonight that gave me some really good information on the different LA markets and which areas are booming for superficial reasons and where I should be looking for actual long term living.

For those of you that own, is it always this kind of "might go up...might go down" speculation or is there such a thing as the "perfect" time and place to buy. I know a few people that got lucky buying places in certain LA hoods(Silverlake/Los Feliz) that have seen their value skyrocket and others that haven't. Makes some of this seem like a crapshoot based on stuff way out of my control. If that's the case then why not just find the place I love in my range, but it and forget the market?
totally depends on your market, my cul de sac is totally, and my house and my neighbors house are the ones in constant sold/resold since this neighborhood was put up in the 90s, (which also means my house was the most updated and remodelled house since it had 3 owners, and everyone elses house looks like it's still in the 90s), everyone else are the original owners.

Like for instance, there's a family that has to move and they priced their house according to what we bought it for (since our plans are the same, yada yada, at 180, we negotiated from 180 to 175 and got upgrades), so i don't know what they want, and here's pics of their "90s" style house

d8cb6c10ca8d4cccab91f35cf3d549ed.png

97b2532e6acb682088b8cd4ad85fb89f.png


compared to mine (these are the prev owner pics)
ISmuxwmhto5ukm1000000000.jpg

ISin1ojbq772eh0000000000.jpg


They've been on the market for half a year, and now they've dropped to 170... cuz they gotta move.

guess what? i'm sure they'd take 165 cash to move out.

(btw, i'm gonna move my bathroom mirrors up, the prev owners musta been some short ass ppl, cuz it cuts off my head, and i'm just 5'10, not some tall dude)

Anyway, i just wanna give you perspective that, who gives a shit on what the "market" thinks or moves at, in the end you're gonna buy from a singular owner, and how his/her current situation is and how they wanna sell.

That's like saying "the stock market is hot today, we all be making money", but youre fully invested in barnes & noble, who cares of the stock market is up, it's obviously doing jack shit for you if you've invested differently.
 

Unidin

Molten Core Raider
788
425
Yeah the areas I am looking at are very hot right now with home prices going up quickly. There are some other cash buyers out there but after talking with my planner and watching a few amazing properties go quickly I am most likely going to be a full cash buyer so I can bully my way in once I find the best spot. I will still have plenty of money in my investments but since I have decided to make SoCal my home for the next at least 15-20 years I really just need to get away from renting.

Disclaimer, I work for Chase Bank:
Just as a heads up, some mortgage lenders, like Chase, allow you to finance after the purchase to get your cash back out and will treat it like a purchase mortgage. In our case, it's within 6 months of buying the property. It's a nice way to be able to make a cash offer, but still not put all your cash into the house long term.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,690
3,201
That for 180? Fuck you. :(

Wife and I trying to buy a house on a cheap ass budget for the Northwest. $250-260k, and can't find shit that we want to buy for a 3 bed 2 bath. It's terrible.
 

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,374
That for 180? Fuck you. :(

Wife and I trying to buy a house on a cheap ass budget for the Northwest. $250-260k, and can't find shit that we want to buy for a 3 bed 2 bath. It's terrible.
i mean, who wants to live in fucking kansas, thats why it's cheap.

We even want to get for 250-300 houses, but they were gonna be huge 5bedroom 15k lot houses, that we'd have trouble to sell back in 5-10years (cuz no one would buy em)
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,690
3,201
i mean, who wants to live in fucking kansas, thats why it's cheap.

We even want to get for 250-300 houses, but they were gonna be huge 5bedroom 15k lot houses, that we'd have trouble to sell back in 5-10years (cuz no one would buy em)
Yea, I get it. It seems what I need to figure out is what's gonna be the next big tech town, since my career is in IT, and just move there before it gets too crowded. Have friends that bought all within the 2 years, and they are all up $100k value on their own. It's nuts.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Lanx

Oye Ve
<Prior Amod>
60,072
131,374
$170k? $300k?

You people can go straight to hell.
it's bumfuck Kansas! 4bdroom, 3bath.

Hell, i go and just flush the basement and guest bath once a month, just to make sure it works and there ain't no leaks.

What are you looking at over there 2bdrooms and 1 and 1/2 bath? heh
 

Pops

Avatar of War Slayer
8,136
21,317
My daughter bought her starter home, in Monarch Beach. Cheapest lot available in December, 2100 sf, 3 br, 3ba. $840K. You want the Westside or the beach, it's never going to be cheap.

Silverlake/Hollywood Hills is your kind of people, but I never liked living inland. Now I'm in the fucking desert, dementia has set in.
 

Screamfeeder

The Dirtbag
<Banned>
13,309
11,209
My daughter bought her starter home, in Monarch Beach. Cheapest lot available in December, 2100 sf, 3 br, 3ba. $840K. You want the Westside or the beach, it's never going to be cheap.

Silverlake/Hollywood Hills is your kind of people, but I never liked living inland. Now I'm in the fucking desert, dementia has set in.

I'm actually looking more on the East Side. Specifically Mt. Washington, Highland Park, Cypress Park(saw a 5x4 today on a 10,000sqft lot that was perfect), Atwater Village, Frog Town etc and even as far as South Pasadena. Both me and my girl work in film & TV and while she is locked into working in Hollywood I have more flexibility. Silverlake/HH are just STUPID overpriced for the dumpiest homes. Had I been looking 5 years ago (when I didn't have the kind of money I do now) that would have been a better area.

So long as I can drive into certain areas in a few hours (Culver City, Palisades etc) I don't care about being inland so long as I'm not out in the goddamn boondocks. Plus, I can get to the beach in under an hour on my bike from all those areas so I don't mind at all.

We settled on a realtor we like and after spending this weekend looking at places all over the city, I am feeling much better about my options for a 30+ year property.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,789
13,298
Have any of you ever dealt with a home being partially or mostly built on land owned by your neighbor? Either on a right of way or easement? I've recently gotten into a property line dispute regarding a downed fence and some dead trees that seem hazardous. I went to the tax assessor's online portal and checked the property maps and, to my surprise, found that roughly 75% of my house is on my neighbors property. I went to the assessor's office and checked the paper maps to be sure and it was the same. The deed denotes a perfectly rectangular parcel of land, the iron pipes that still exist at the barriers show something similar though the northwest and northeast markers are no longer there which is where the dispute is arising and my house sits on and over that rectangular property line. The deed mentions a 12 foot right of way and references a map from 1963 (year the house was built) that apparently no longer exists. I am likely going to need a land survey done to settle the tree/fence dispute, which is with a different neighbor, but I don't know what the hell that's going to mean for the land my house apparently sits on that belongs to yet another neighbor.

When I bought the house I stupidly assumed something like this wasn't possible and that my attorney and/or title search would have found any issues. I am definitely the sole owner and the only lien on the property is from my mortgage company but this is an unsettling discovery.
 
Last edited:

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,789
13,298
There was no survey given to me. The deed spells out the plot boundaries but my property is surrounded on 2 sides by forest so I wrongly assumed the property lines were much further east of where they are. It wasn't until one of my neighbors started clearing out his land and asked me to take down a dead tree that I realized where the actual property line was. I didn't even know this was possible.

My front yard, and a fence separating my yard from the neighbor directly in front of me is literally 40' past my property line and onto his. It's not even close. The only part of my house that is on my property according to the maps is the 500 sq ft living area addition that was put on some time in the 80s.

From what I can tell with the information I have available to me is that at one point my property and 3 of the abutting properties were all one parcel. One 1.7 acre lot was split into 3 equal sized lots to the east of mine and my 1.7 acre lot was left as is to the westerly side. 2 of those lots were then sold off but my lot and the lot directly to the east of where my house is were kept by the original owner. That owner then sold my lot to his children who built a house on it. All I can surmise is that because there is about an 8 foot dropoff down to flood plain about 80' west of my eastern property line they built on their parent's land with their permission because they wanted a back yard. The house + deck would barely have fit otherwise. So now my house + "my front yard" are not on my property at all. Until this past year the fence in my front yard which is on the east side and acts as what I thought was a property boundary was directly in line with forest line behind the other two easterly properties. Then one of those neighbors started clearing that forest (that I thought was on my property) and we found the iron pipe that marks his northwest property boundary and the beginning of mine. It's at least 40' west of where that fence is in my front yard (my house faces east if I hadn't made that clear). I couldn't believe it so I went online and then to the tax assessor's office to check and sure enough it was right. The maps even show my house partially on my property and partially on my neighbors.

It was explained to me at the time of sale that there was a right of way, which is noted on my deed, but my attorney told me it was for the driveway (I share a driveway with the property directly to the east of my house because my property is set back off the road behind the aforementioned properties).
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
39,971
166,977
How long has your house been there? Squatter rights might apply at this point, as that structure has clearly occupied that space for a continuous period which may be sufficient to declare it yours. Problem solved. Your structure is on your property, and all surrounding property is the other land owner's responsibility. Make sure they cut the fucking grass.
 

Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
<Gold Donor>
16,820
30,963
Here in NY, if a house sits on someone else lot, it is a title claim for the entire value of the policy. Now it's possible that the title co knew about it and did not insure over this issue. In that case you sue the shit out of your attorney. But first you need a survey.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
19,789
13,298
How long has your house been there? Squatter rights might apply at this point, as that structure has clearly occupied that space for a continuous period which may be sufficient to declare it yours. Problem solved. Your structure is on your property, and all surrounding property is the other land owner's responsibility. Make sure they cut the fucking grass.

It's been there since 1963