Buying A House: C or D?

Awwww it's a faux-Tudor with strange trim, and it's adorbsable!

Ours have both been 'we just knew' but it's pretty rare (and we were super picky about what we wanted). Both times we put in half-hearted offers elsewhere first. BUT I know this is fairly rare and most people just know when it feels ok! We certainly learned a lot from our first place so it's not like that feeling actually tells you useful practical facts...

After you picked it, just stop looking and ignore everything else. It will always be the one then.

Lol we've been in ours 18 months and my husband still looks at new listings every day. hems just nosy though. Nothing has even suggested we'd be happier elsewhere... But it is a dumb thing to do!

Americans have a strange perception of 'Tudor'. But that looks cool.

And aye, there is no "this is the one" type lightning bolt; just an "I can live here" realisation.

just an "I can live here" realisation

I definitely feel that way.

There are a huge number of Tudor Revival starter homes around the U.S. The sharply pitched roof is the giveaway, usually echoed by another steep roofline behind and to one side and a faux-"rough hewn" aesthetic, often with mismatched stones and bricks. Jf's house looks weird because it's a local variation and the trim has been painted white, which is thoroughly wrong for the style. But it's cute! The river rock chimney with the two full-sized windows must make a nice view from inside.

http://www.rigov.org/images/pages/N584/14th_ST_3918.jpg

http://www.robsmith.biz/wp-content/plugins/rss-poster/cache/cac1f_Chicago-IL-4245d8-e1395104396382.jpg

Actually what's notable about that 2nd pic I posted is that you have basically the three American twentieth-century suburban home styles in a row: One probaby 1940s with those long blonde bricks and geometric windows, the Tudor Revivan, and on the other side, a brick Craftsman bungalow, by the looks of it. I just love American vernacular architecture.

Yeah, I'm not sure yet what I'd do with the trim on that house, but I don't want to leave it white.

The one in io's second photo with that bay window is sweeeeeet.

Also, I'd want to revert the screened in porch to an open-air porch, but it would take some doing (in addition to being screwed into the brick arches, they're secured in place with foam adhesive).

It should be dark brown, basically. You could maybe look into a more adventurous color scheme with a dark red/burgundy or something, but the trim and gutters should be darker than the brick, ideally.

Is that a screened porch on the front? That seems like a nice feature!

xp oh lol

The screened porch would be a lot less obtrusive if it weren't white and didn't have that stock hardware store diagonal lattice on the bottom. Did the prev owners have pets or small children? The lattice was probably to keep short, energetic things from barreling through the screens.

The lattice itself is just screwed into the wood frame. Could probably remove all of it in less than half an hour. Making the frame not white would make me like it more for sure.

I think we have given up on buying a house. We've looked at probably close to 50 properties over the last few months, so I guess we are pretty picky. We lost out on one and couldn't come to terms post-inspection on another, but mostly we haven't seen anything we liked enough to buy. Honestly kind of relieved and excited to keep renting for the time being, tbh.

I do have a fallback rental option if I decide it's not the right time to buy. I just have to get out of where I'm renting at present before I am driven insane.

(IO, the word "Tudor" is used differently over here: obv "Tudor" can mean actual Tudor stuff, but in residential property terms the phrase "mock-Tudor" is a common term usually meaning fake half-timbered buildings mostly from the late C19th to the mid C20th. Just slightly different useage, nothing weird to see here.) (Also: hi IO, it's been ages.)

JF I forgot to say that 95% certain is pretty certain plus it looks cool!
admrl we looked at around 50 last time round but tbh we looked at a wide range despite knowing at heart we wouldn't want a lot of them. Optimistic thinking..

xp Well obviously, you have ACTUAL Tudor things! Our version is I think properly called "Tudor Revival" maybe?

JF I forgot to say that 95% certain is pretty certain plus it looks cool!

My dad went back to scope the exterior in more detail before he left town, and he said it has some issues we need to talk about tonight. Since it's already listed at nearly the top of my budget, I won't have a lot of money to fix anything that needs fixing anytime soon. Depending on what he tells me, I may have to cross it off the list. Wah.

might just be ghosts...

btw, I also looked at this one that I mentioned upthread. It was a shithole. Not unsalvageable, but worth way less than what is being asked for it.

Typical British Mock Tudor:

http://www.modernoak.co.uk/resources/_wsb_380x271_Mock+Tudor+Planking+web.jpg

We looked at something like 350 houses over 18 months!

http://www.modernoak.co.uk/resources/_wsb_380x271_Mock+Tudor+Planking+web.jpg

^^^ Ha, that would fit right in in Decatur, JF.

ADAM buy this one it's got green stuff growing all over it just like in olden england tymes:

http://www.trulia.com/property/3155152281-100-Elm-St-Greenfield-MA-01301

actually ADAM buy this house cuz the roof is all fucking weird AND it comes with another house. funky friggin' property.

http://www.trulia.com/property/3154863703-643-Bernardston-Rd-Greenfield-MA-01301

That house is dope.

Thanks, Scott! I don't know...I'm kind of burned out on houses, I think!

We looked at something like 350 houses over 18 months!

Spencer, I do not know how anyone could find the time or patience to do this, but endurance aside, I could see us coming this close if there were as many to look at. I think I'd rather wait a few years and build something.

i can't believe how cheap houses are in the US right now.

lol

I saw the perfect bungalow for me, in a good part of Fort Worth, bike distance to a Trader Joe's and walking distance to a yuppier Whole Foods-style market - $125k.

No chance I could get a mortgage yet and I don't really understand how people come up with $15-20k down payments.

dead relatives, usually

the future of home ownership in America: to have a place to evacuate from

xp http://www.tchp.net/programs_services/hba/

Most cities and/or counties in the US have down payment assistance programs funded through local banks and lending institutions. Sometimes the income cutoff will rule out your eligibility, but sometimes it won't.

Check and see which lenders they work with specifically, because that lender will tell you everything you need to know about what you might qualify for (every lender I've talked to so far has jumped through hoops to get me free money).

So on the house I saw Thursday that I liked a lot there are some issues. My dad thinks it's the end of the line for this house, but I kind of want to bring out a contractor to look it over anyway. But, basically, anywhere the trim along the roof touches the brick there are small-to-quite large gaps that were shoddily sealed up with foam. Seems like an open invitation for moisture and mold:

http://i.imgur.com/jiglStf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/cr2md5Y.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/iiWZnz9.jpg

There are a lot more photos, but these three tell the story.

Also, the furnace is resting on a bed of mud in the basement with waterlines on it. Might mean the basement has flooded from a broken pipe once or it might mean the basement floods every time there's a good rain.

http://i.imgur.com/cOO5TGL.jpg

I'll be sad if I have to move on from considering this house, but I may have to. So many questionable points.

yikes man. i have no idea how serious or not any of that is but it certainly doesn't inspire confidence.

^^^ my thoughts exactly

Yeah, I'm really trying to get my mind off this one and move ahead.

Three weeks ago we went to casually check out the house of my wife's colleague who is retiring and moving away, with no intent of actually buying a house right now.

Since then we've had several meetings with the bank, the title agency, had an inspection last week, found a renter (who happens to be the new incoming colleague who is replacing the retiring one) and two days ago they gave us the walkthrough and showed us how everything works before giving us the keys and garage door openers. It's been kind of crazy but holy shit we bought a new house.

!!
so what, you're renting out that one, or your current one?
Don't you need solicitors to draw up contracts etc? My bro-in-law bought a house on 1st day of looking but is hoping solicitors will draw out the process for a few months til he can actually move in (it takes this long anyway)

We're renting our current one out for $50 more per month than our mortgage; houses here sell much better in the spring when the university hiring is all figured out so it's better to wait. Also small, clean houses that have not been destroyed by undergrad renters are a rare commodity here.

As for contracts we just found a fill-in-the-blanks purchase and sales agreement as this was a for sale by owner house. The title company told us they can do everything that you would need a lawyer for and there's really no need for one, bank said the same thing.

My hearsay experience is that the problems always wind up worse than you think, never better. So if it has such visible flaws already, let it go.

xp to joygoat

nice one
I wish there was more of that here. Solicitors don't always add anything or act in your best interests ime. I guess here we have historic nonsense like 'peppercorn rent' and a ton of other arcane stuff.
New house!!

Anybody here ever replaced exterior siding/wood on a house? This one is intriguing to me, but I drove by it after work the other day and there's no question that the whole outside needs to be redone. The inside might just be some cosmetic stuff, though, so I think I'm gonna try to get my agent to show it to me. That's a lot of house for $75k on a street that's really not a bad place to live and those ceilings my god.

http://www.trulia.com/property/3132137758-427-W-Ontario-Ave-SW-Atlanta-GA-30310

could you get a contractor to come with you and quote for what's needed?
$75k for a 4-bed house, jeez

Holy shit that's kind of amazing for $75,000, even if you need new siding. I asked our neighbor about what it cost to get theirs resided and it was like $12,000 but I know that would vary tremendously for any number of factors.

Painting, new floors, trim, stuff like that isn't that big a deal to do but for your first house (or any house, in my case) I'd avoid anything that needs serious structural work unless you really like to do this stuff yourself or have the money to pay for it.

What would a similar-sized move-in-ready house cost in the same vicinity? I'm suspicious.

That size? $139-$199k probably.