Buying A House: C or D?

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?

omg basement bars are such a thing of a bygone era, but i do know one person who installed one. i think they've had a partial moment in the "everyone loves homebrewing" era

my parents have one i really should take a picture of, their house is of a mid-1900s vintage, has checkerboard tile, originally had a "water feature" in the basement (!!) which makes me think the original owners had a fireplace down there and likely some dense carpeting for entertaining

their home really has a lot of interesting features. it's in a neighborhood where probably a dozen of the homes were designed by an architect who actually briefly lived in their home, it backs up to a wooded creek area on what used to be an edge of town, and although other owners have made varied changes, it has a lot of materials and features that were very high-end

re: DIY work - some things I can do if I damn well please (interior construction, electrical, plumbing, all to code obvs but not necessarily inspected, finding out code requirements is pretty easy), but as soon as you get outside of the footprint of the house the permitting folks tend to take more of an interest. this is in Oregon, so ymmv

if you live in an unincorporated area or the middle of the countryside, in some parts of the country it's an "anything goes" philosophy. i've heard some amazing horror stories.

basically either there is no permitting, or assessment/evaluation only happens if a property is sold or someone complains about their neighbor doing something egregious enough someone checks it out

where i lived for my teen years, an acreage outside of town... the idiot neighbor really should have had the EPA called on him, let alone the housing authority

yeah we are within the urban growth boundary, but still in unincorporated Lane County, I can build any 200 square foot building I want and the only things that "need" permitting would be alterations to the actual physical footprint.

note that this extends to such absurdities as an unconnected porch needing a rebuild permit because it touched the house.

I've heard about the code enforcement department in my city noticing contractor trucks outside of houses and stopping to check permits, and people getting fined for not having them. But I live in a huge college town with tons of slumlords so the code enforcement folks are always out enforcing codes.

You should go ahead and do whatever you want in your basements, permits be damned. Those secret doors and soundproof walls are only going to attract unwanted attention anyway.

want to make sure the electrical is up to code for my grow op

Hell, just do what the neighbors of that house you posted yesterday did and build a greenhouse.

http://i.imgur.com/ZquI3g2.png

I guess I never noticed the huge backyards on that street. I think only that part of the block has them, the section to the west where a friend lives might have another street behind

Those are some skinny lots though.

true. my lot is only 50 feet wide, but i'm cool w/that

My lot is an isosceles trapezoid!

Mine's only about 50 ft wide as well. If I had kids and dogs, I might need more, but 50 doesn't make me feel cramped or closed in at all.

I just have my cat, who is a ding dong, and ran out the back door last night. Luckily he's scared of the outdoors once he gets there. Even if it smells like rabbits.

Looks kinda like I'm pinned up against a wall when you look at it like this:

http://i.imgur.com/C7WmQQo.jpg

what do you all think about using a redfin agent to buy? going back to that question about using my close childhood friend as our realtor, another complicating factor is that he is the main redfin agent in the city we're looking in. he knows the inner-ring suburb we like really really well, but i don't really know how him working for redfin would be different for us than working w/ a traditional buyer's agent.

we were going to go w/ the agent my sister used a few years ago but she's not in the area any more :(

agghhh this is a bummer seems like there are negatives to going w/ redfin for first-time home buyers like us who need a lot of hand-holding. but at the same time i'm wondering if this would be offset by going w/ my friend who would probably give us a lot of attention. just hard to know. i want to buy a house without having to navigate a friendship too, he's a close enough friend that it could be awkward to go w/ someone else too

aaaaand if we go w/ another broker i don't have the first idea how to find a good one. just go w/ the bigger name realtor in the area? an independent buyers' agent?

• Don't know anything special about Redfin other than they're supposed to be a bit more tech savvy. (They've got an app!)

• If you've got a close friend who's an agent who really knows the area you're shopping, then keep him even if he works for Vandal & Arson Realty.

• If you shop for another agent, only advice I have is to check out some open houses - not so much for the house (that you can see online), but to get a vibe of the agent. We saw so many loser agents on our informal visits that the one we went with was like a breath of fresh air. I'd call her again if we were to sell.

DISCLAIMER: The content offered by pplains should be considered only as a public service and does not constitute solicitation or provision of real estate advice. Do not consider the above information as s a substitute for obtaining expert advice from an agent licensed or authorized to practice in your jurisdiction.

Our landlord is selling up so we're being pushed to start exploring the Cs and Ds of this thread a bit earlier than we'd have liked.

Are you looking at London?

Cambridge - slightly less crazy but still crazy.