Home buying thread

Falxy-US said:

I appreciate it and agree with y’all. The maintenance issues seem crazy too. Just my small house now I had a handful of exterior things painted, not even the house itself, and it was like $6000.

I did look on the mortgage payoff calculators and the equity from my current house would take off like 6-7 years, and like an extra $500/month would take off an extra 4-5 years. But that would be almost $2500/month more than I pay now, not even including all the maintenance for the property. And the property tax and insurance is more too of course. So that extra $2500/month, if I stay in current house, over 13 years, is like $350,000 at 6.5% interest.

It all just feels extremely expensive and not what I want in my life right now.

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I only own a 2500 sq foot home and I don't think a month has ever gone by without an unexpected $500 expense..

Like, just over the last six months or so:
1) overflow drain came loose on upstairs bathtub, leaking water into downstairs kitchen. 1K for sheetrock repair and new overflow.
2) Steel bookcase bracket fell on wood floor, damaging finish. $500 to refinish floor area
3) Contact block on AC condenser blew, $350 to replace.
4) Critters chewed through irrigation lines, $300 to fix/replace
5) Woodpeckers tore the shit out of some wood siding. $500 to replace and paint

It just never ends..

Frenzied Wombat said:

I only own a 2500 sq foot home and I don't think a month has ever gone by without an unexpected $500 expense..

Like, just over the last six months or so:
1) overflow drain came loose on upstairs bathtub, leaking water into downstairs kitchen. 1K for sheetrock repair and new overflow.
2) Steel bookcase bracket fell on wood floor, damaging finish. $500 to refinish floor area
3) Contact block on AC condenser blew, $350 to replace.
4) Critters chewed through irrigation lines, $300 to fix/replace
5) Woodpeckers tore the shit out of some wood siding. $500 to replace and paint

It just never ends..

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This is why the idea of buying a "starter home" or "fixer upper" is hilarious and outrageous to me.

Khane said:

This is why the idea of buying a "starter home" or "fixer upper" is hilarious and outrageous to me.

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Anybody who buys a "fixer upper" who isn't a) a contractor b) in the business of flipping or estimating fixer uppers or c) has a rolodex of competent and reliable contractors, is a moron.

I can't imagine buying a fixer upper, or even being in that flipping biz, as there is nothing I despise more than dealing with trade people. Late, unprofessional, stupid, scammy, incompetent, and sloppy all come to mind. The money factor is only half the pain, the other half is dealing with these bastards and the inevitable rage and anxiety when they fuck things up, and they will fuck something up. Like I forgot to add to that list $500 to poly-level a sunken cement pedestal entry at my front door. Well the jerk-off worker was supposed to place a bucket over the foam injector in case there is back-pressure, which there was, and he got industrial strength foam splatter all over my aluminum front door and windows. They then spent the next week using razor blades to take the foam off the windows, and various different buffer machines and polishes to get the stains off my door. fml..

Frenzied Wombat said:

I can't imagine buying a fixer upper

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IMO the only way to go is to buy small enough that whatever you can afford is solid and in good repair. I've seen a number of friends get burned by "luxury" homes with paper construction or getting in over their heads on properties that "just require some touch-ups" and turn out to have large, systemic problems. And even if you do that, there will always be maintenance. Entropy is a bitch.

Captain Suave said:

IMO the only way to go is to buy small enough that whatever you can afford is solid and in good repair. I've seen a number of friends get burned by "luxury" homes with paper construction or getting in over their heads on properties that "just require some touch-ups" and turn out to have large, systemic problems. And even if you do that, there will always be maintenance. Entropy is a bitch.

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I've come to the determination that the best home to buy is a 10 year old home, or a 100 year old home that's been renovated. The former has any major problems already exposed/fixed but isn't old enough that it needs any major systems replaced, while the latter is a home built during an era where the materials last forever and craftsmanship actually existed. New construction is a total crapshoot unless you got in at the beginning of a build and hired your own PM to supervise-- so much new construction looks pretty but falls the fuck apart, I've been there. Anything that says "luxury condo" should make you run for the hills.

Lanx said:

old town also has to keep that "townhouse" look so all the new development 10years ago has to look like those ugly townhouses with 3 tiny ass floors

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Just don't do what my wife and I did. Buy in a more expensive town with a poor school system (improving) then say... welp if it isn't good enough we can just pay for private school.

Which gets me to my point. If you can get a kid into a good private school why bother moving. The cost difference in the long run.

I bought a total fixer upper, and I haven't used any contractors. I do all the work myself. I've been in the house 10 years and I'm not done, but I'm getting close. Part of the kitchen and 2 bathrooms to finish inside. I've also built a few out buildings and done a lot on the property. You have to be patient, and you have to have a patient spouse and family.

lurkingdirk said:

I bought a total fixer upper, and I haven't used any contractors. I do all the work myself. I've been in the house 10 years and I'm not done, but I'm getting close. Part of the kitchen and 2 bathrooms to finish inside. I've also built a few out buildings and done a lot on the property. You have to be patient, and you have to have a patient spouse and family.

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You don't sniff glue like I do.

I'm 400K into a renovation at this point. Looking at another 100K next year to finish exterior stuff. Then should be done for a while... /slitwrist

Anyone have some crack.

Lanx said:

as long as youre not disrupting life, i don't see a problem, i remember when my dad remodeled the family bathroom 30years ago, we just had to goto the first floor bath for a few weeks.

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Exactly. In the process of doing the kitchen remodel there was a week where we didn't have an oven, but we still had a cook top. There was only about an hour without a sink. It takes a while like that, but it's always functional.