Buying A House: C or D?

yeah, I thought about a home equity or home improvement loan

This is a wild card, but I was able to take advantage of a hail storm that had passed through my zip code, like, 18 months earlier.

My neighbor was getting his roof redone. We had our little mailbox conversation about how the shingles are lookin' good, Mike, who's doing this for ya? Turns out, his insurance was paying for the whole thing because of that storm and I should look into it too.

I called my agent, and he was all, oh you heard about that too, eh? Here let me get you the paperwork.

I don't even remember the damn storm, but the roof looks nice.

(Mike's the name of my neighbor btw, mh.)

oh, don't worry, I always assume there are half a dozen people named Mike in the vicinity and none of them are me

still trying to sell a house in an "exciting" midwestern college town, been on the market since july & under contract since december but the buyer's bank keeps flaking on the closing date, so we're hoping again to close this friday. can't pay for this house much longer so if the closing falls through we're looking at america's favorite pastime, foreclosing. we're committed to expat life so the credit rating ruin doesn't really matter to us but it's still annoying since we could have just walked away in july and saved a bunch of money.

main lesson: don't buy a house in an "exciting" midwestern college town

also dealing with all this shit overseas is a hassle b/c you have to have various documents notarized and the french notaries want the documents translated into french naturally but the translations have to be by a certified translator which means $ or you can go to the us embassy to do it but the embassy also charges $ for notarization. basically there are all these lampreys who feed on house sales, relatively little bits here & there that add up to an annoying sum.

we had similar trying to remortgage from the US - just certifying that a photocopy of a document is a true copy is hilarious as the UK bank demands standard UK wording but US notaries can only use their standard wording which is different.
I'm finally free of that mortgage co though who gave me the middle name 'Lousie'

ugh, just got word that the closing is delayed another week, because of a missing child support letter. they've had three months to get this shit straight.

also apparently the main problem is that the buyer used an internet loan company which my realtor warned us about, saying that they always drag their heels and barely have their shit together, but we need to sell asap and it was our first offer.

only gonna buy in cool towns from now on

many thanks all, and especially puffin- very helpful indeed. (xposts)

it is very likely that we will buy a house either in the next year, we just don't know where yet due to a potential move/job change

in each of the likely locations though we have a friend who is a realtor and it seems to me to be common sense to rely on their help when we do decide to start looking for a house. but many smart family members are telling us that it is not a good idea to do this -- they've all seen relationships burned by hiring friends as realtors. this bums me out especially since one of our realtor friends is a very close friend of mine who i've known since high school and i imagine it would feel very weird to move to this place without using his help, especially since he will be one of the first people i call up to hang out if we move there.

what do you all think? have you hired friends as realtors and has it worked out?

it is very likely that we will buy a house either in the next year

i think it's worth getting an outside view of how successful your friends are as realtors. talk to people who have worked with them.

i used a family friend as a realtor and it worked out fine but she was quite good at her job!

My real estate agents have eventually become like family.

like family members you like, or ones you secretly loathe?

Hmm mmm.

Can you choose between closing the deal and losing that person as a friend? If so...

Completely serious about this.

my sewer line backed up. I really should just have it cleaned or checked out every couple years, since it's been intrusive tree roots in there both times. but, it's been five years, sooo... no big deal, other than the fact I need to mop up in the unfinished basement

my coworker who bought a big ol' suburban mcmansion for his large family just got his tax assessment and the county now thinks it's worth $50k more than it was previously, which is actually more than he bought it for. whoops!

he spent a half hour on the phone with a chatty county assessor who had some good courses of action. i told him just to write NO across it in red crayon and mail it back.

this is crazy http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1842-Cadwell-Ave-Cleveland-Heights-OH-44118/33656241_zpid/

housing is cheap in cleveland but im kind of astonished that this house is that low

Cool. Used to watch shows like Cosby Show and Family Ties and wonder if there were really houses out there that had a second staircase to the kitchen.

you could probably find a comparable house in my city for that much a few years back, not so sure about now. the neighborhood that has a lot of circa-1900 large homes has definitely had some turnover and prices went up

I remember when looking for homes five years back there was a house that had only one staircase to the second story, it was off the kitchen, and it had enough turns to basically be a spiral staircase

have fun getting any furniture up that one

that place is right down the block from the grog shop, basically the only place I know in Cleveland thanks to reading bands' tour itineraries over the years

Could use some fresh paint, but http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1422-S-Summit-St_Little-Rock_AR_72202_M73236-65661#photo0

grog shop is a good venue

beautiful xp

http://www.iowarealty.com/aspx/FindAHome/listingdetail.aspx?list_numb=504681

here you go, $155k, come join my neighborhood

haha, the hell is this?

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

http://www.iowarealty.com/userdocs/homeimages/504681/504681_10.jpg

please tell me i get to keep the toy atv

pretty sweet house tbh

... and don't say it's for congregatin'

http://i.imgur.com/BrzBwX7.png

I think on the realtor page it says they had bands play in the backyard, lol

oh, no central air, that's why it's cheap

boooo

does des moines get pretty hot?

we have about a month of 90 degree heat with 85% humidity

during which you are supposed to mumble "it's not the heat... it's the humidity" every few hours

lol

when I was just looking for stats I found some site that had average humidity for different states across the whole year

what a completely useless stat for any state that has a real cold season: in the dead of winter, it approaches zero outside humidity because everything is frozen

during which you are supposed to mumble "it's not the heat... it's the humidity" every few hours

― μpright mammal (mh), Tuesday, April 5, 2016 4:33 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

does someone every once in a while say "actually it's the dew point that is the kicker"

xposts

that's a surveying platform

in the evening you wander out back to survey your yard and hold forth on various matters

first order of business: what other platforms could we build in this yard and should we connect them together or leave them as islands?

this is crazy http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1842-Cadwell-Ave-Cleveland-Heights-OH-44118/33656241_zpid/

Almost twice the square footage as mine, and the price is FOUR ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE smaller. #yaySF

the gentleman from the house has the floor
the gentleman on the floor is going in the house

Reminds me of where

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swwjTfdOjo4

Fuck it, I'm moving to Cleveland. What's the weather like?

lake effect snow, presumably

Also, in a couple months, about a gazillion Republicans.

what is the consensus on getting permits for everything you're supposed to versus flying under the radar?

the home improvement sites wisely mention that in many areas, if you're doing a dyi job that an inspector will tell you what you're doing wrong, what you need to do to be compliant with building codes, so it's like cheap feedback. they also claim that permitted improvements are more likely to raise the value of your home

on the other hand, it raises your tax burden since they're instantly going to pick it up for appraisal, no cutting corners, etc

my city has a tax incentive for improving property value (although I fucked up on getting some paperwork in on time) and you basically get your taxes reduced, rather than raised, for a number of years post-construction!

my new garage/backyard fence are all above-board, i ponder finishing part of my basement though, and people are really into not doing paperwork on that

I just had to call my local permit office yesterday morning to see if I needed a permit to put up one of those kit-build utility sheds from Lowe's. As long as it's less than 200 sq feet, I don't! Go me!

I bet I'll have to get a permit to demo that eyesore deathtrap outbuilding, though. I really wish I would've had that bundled into my offer for the house, because I had no idea how expensive it is just to demo something and have it hauled away.

I have a basement bar that serves no purpose (we drink copiously but we do it everywhere, not at a bar, and the kids don't do puppet shows anymore).

It was clearly DIY'd by a previous owner; it's sloppy in the extreme. What I really want to do is rip it out and use the space for a storage closet, while also leaving a little alcove for some shelves and a wall-mounted desktop (e.g. Elfa).

Currently considering doing the demolition and closet wall myself, without the blessing of a permit. The walls there are not load-bearing, and I think I can do the framing and drywall with no problem, as I did a bunch of that as a summer job in my distant youth. Surely a bit of refresher from books/YouTube would guide me if needed.

I'm not good with doors, though. Maybe we can live with a curtain for a while; maybe I can get the job almost-finished and then call in a handyman just for doors?