Buying A House: C or D?

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.

marcos- I used a redfin agent and I didn't think there was any difference between that and any other buyer's agent

I used the Redfin app to find my place and did not even use an agent. It's my favorite real estate app. Unfortunately it doesn't cover NYC other than queens.

Redfin local agents aren't really different than other local agents afaict, besides the fact they work for peanuts. I imagine there's a lot of turnover.

When I bought my house, I basically picked one at random in the area of the city I was looking to buy. I lucked out, because she was great. My only regret is that she never suggested my counteroffer include termite bonding, because once I realized I could have/should have done that, it was too late.

price drop to $228k! i am still not sure if we are moving to cleveland and in any case this is not in the neighborhood we are looking in but damn this house is amazing and on a beautiful street a short walk to cleveland museum of art, cleveland orchestra, case western reserve university, cleveland botanical gardens, coventry village with a music venue, shops, restaurant, etc... schools & proximity to family are too big a factor for us otherwise we'd be pretty interested in it

oh the link http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1842-Cadwell-Ave-Cleveland-Heights-OH-44118/33656241_zpid/

there are ugly-ass houses in the boring cleveland suburbs that are way tinier than this and selling for the same price

Your children will thank you for growing up in the city and not in a boring suburb imo. And Cleveland could be the next Pittsburgh in a few years and your house might triple in value!

I've completely given up on buying a house on my single income. Housing prices have gone insane in my area - since last fall properties that were around $105k have started moving to $115-120k and there's no sign of a slowdown.

I'm in an underhoused market right now and entry-level homes, the smaller ones, are in low enough supply that there are bidding wars

not wanting to sell right now but it's a really nice thought I could

One thing I've noticed that's kind of insane in my market is the enormous difference between the prices of apartments and the prices of tiny attached houses that are not much bigger in square footage -- I'm talking about like a multiple of 2-3x. Yes in some cases you get a parking space and/or a very small outdoor space, but still. Seems like it can partly be attributed to the fact that there is just such a small supply of them that can't increase, and "house" in the city is such an ideal people go for.

Like ok cool you have a "house" but it's a 3BR 1BA house with tiny rooms.

Your children will thank you for growing up in the city and not in a boring suburb imo. And Cleveland could be the next Pittsburgh in a few years and your house might triple in value!

― Sean, let me be clear (silby), Monday, April 25, 2016 3:18 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea definitely. we are not looking in those suburbs, we briefly considered one particular outer suburb bc of the schools - we have a special needs son and this particular district has a stellar special needs program - but we drove around there and we were just, like.......... no.

we're looking in an inner-ring suburb (lakewood) somewhat similar to cleveland heights, where that house i linked to is located. adjacent to the city, lots of older homes, mostly 1900-1930, maybe a little denser than cleveland heights, interesting cultural/commercial districts w/ lots of shops, restaurants, etc. somewhat more expensive though, one reason is that they are pouring a ton of money into their schools, which are way better rated than they used to be even a few years ago

we just visited town and looked at this house for $185k, kitchen is a little weird but overall it is a beautiful house in a really great neighborhood http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1485-Marlowe-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/33499487_zpid/

lol we have the opposite where a condo/purchased apartment has no space and you could have a house for the same amount of money

if I worked downtown, the area transit website says I could take the bus and be there within 15 minutes

Housing prices have gone insane in my area - since last fall properties that were around $105k have started moving to $115-120k and there's no sign of a slowdown.

lol at the idea of this being "going insane"

A 10-15% increase in six months isn't crazy?

if it's that much every six months, sure

could be a one-time price correction, and a $10k - $15k swing isn't huge, especially if it's 10% of a pretty inexpensive house

I love houses like that one on Marlowe Ave. Pretty sweet.

Wouldn't care about the kitchen being weird, even though the stairs back there look pretty steep.

Remember when marathon bars went from 28p to 30p that was like 7% hike overnight like woah

In short, no that is not crazy if it is crazy the crazy it is is crazy cheap for a house

feeling like "just how bad can Cleveland be?" looking at the price of these beautiful houses

there are definitely large swathes of cleveland that are in rough shape, much like detroit, lots of vacant homes and "urban prairies" where vacant homes were razed. other parts are really nice though and thriving. it's a mixed bag. lots of neighborhoods are being revitalized in cool ways even if others are beyond decline. if you drive from one nice neighborhood across town to another, you will pass through some very rough areas though

Marcos, my gf lives in Lakewood with her 8 year old daughter (I live in Shaker) so if you have any questions about the city let me know.

oh wow cool! i grew up there (west side, bay village), i have tons of family all over, lakewood, east side (mentor), etc

Hope you find something!

I'm bowling at Mahalls tomorrow ;)

nice! lakewood market is very active it seems, many of the nicer houses are sold within a week or two. still not super crazy though. some multiple offer situations but not much is going beyond asking price and many things are sold below