Buying A House: C or D?

yea stairs are great, after living in apartments for 10 years it will be nice to have them, put the kids to bed and hang out downstairs. and some of these houses have a main living room staircase and another from the kitchen, it is kind of neat

not sure about arkansas, but there are definitely parts to the southeast where a basement would be a fundamentally bad idea

That's why we don't have 'em.

At least we can bury our dead in the ground, unlike those goofuses south of us.

you've got the worst of both worlds: no basements, moderate number of tornados

which, after some research, it turns out florida has the most tornadoes per state. what a hellhole.

I wonder if they're counting waterspouts, because I don't remember Florida being super tornado-prone when I lived there.

You are right, though. It is a hellhole.

***may this house still be available when we drive in next weekend*** http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1429-Wagar-Ave-Lakewood-OH-44107/33497900_zpid/

it doesn't have as many updates as the houses in that neighborhood that go really fast but any idiot has to be able to see that this house is incredible

I hope so!

bummer that house is pending already :(

anyway we're still driving in this weekend, lots of cool houses are popping up and we found a lender to work with. we ended up just going through our bank and we're pretty happy w/ the person we're working with. we have the preapproval letter so hopefully we'll find something soon.

also we knew we had good credit but it was cool to get a score and realize we have like really really excellent credit

Do you have a buyers' agent, marcos?

we do yea

ended up not going w/ my good friend who is an agent, it just seemed simpler for a number of reasons

I am now leaning towards buying our house from the landlord because everybody says it's nuts trying to buy in our neighborhood, anything appealing goes very fast. On the other hand, if we were moving here and starting from scratch, we would probably look at things somewhat more expensive than what I think we'd need to buy this place (I mean, based on Zillow -- are those estimates somewhat reliable? -- our place is the cheapest 3br on the block.)

So I guess: buying a house that's cheaper than you could afford C or D?

zillow estimates can be off i've heard but aren't bad as a general guideline

buying a house that's cheaper than you could afford C or D?

classic right? we could probably afford $75k more than what most of the houses we're looking at cost and that is great imo. if we can get what we want for a lower price i'd rather have that!

Well I guess I mean the house we're living in now is what we want in some ways (highly satisfied with the location, no major maintenance hassles in 5 years) but it would be nice to have a guest room, better/nicer kitchen, room for a table that would allow having dinner guests, etc.), which would cost us more, and which we could afford if we were willing to deal with the pain of moving.

I guess one approach, since the sale is not imminent, is "check every day for a year to see if a dreamy house within three blocks of us goes up for sale and if so make an offer." But would I already have to have a realtor or something in order to do that?

Marcos - good grief, man! Stop posting those links. Driving me insane.

yea that one was really crazy, seemed especially cheap, i would not be surprised if whoever is buying it just rips up the carpet, puts in a little cosmetic work, and updates the kitchen and sells it for $300k

buying a house that's cheaper than you could afford C or D?

Not an expert, but in general buying the cheapest house on the block is a good look. Much smarter than buying the most expensive house on the block.

But it sounds like you really shouldn't be in a rush to buy. Don't believe the hype about houses getting snatched up so fast there's no point in looking. They say that about all hot neighborhoods, but it's not always true. Good houses that might be right for you but not others can sit on the market for quite a while.

You don't have a realtor? They're super easy to get and easy to work with and they cost you nothing (just remember, as helpful as they are, they are ultimately agents of the seller, not the buyer). Get in touch with the realtor you see on the most signs in the neighborhood and have him or her take you around to a bunch of houses one afternoon. They'll be happy to do it. At first they'll take you to whatever houses they're most eager to see move, but eventually they'll get a sense of what you're looking for and will show you more relevant picks. And they'll be able to keep you in the loop whenever something up your alley opens up.

You need to see a lot of houses before you buy one to get a sense of the market. And you also need to get your hopes crushed a few times. You'll find one that looks amazing on paper, but when you get there is a total disappointment. That can happen a lot, but it's important to experience; it'll help you know when you find the right one.

eephus, if the sale isn't imminent, there's nothing wrong with sitting back and like you said, check the list every day.

Cool thing about Realtors or agents is that unlike attorneys, it doesn't cost anything to have one "on retainer". I would bet one would be more than happy to accept your "when I see one we like, we'll call" card.

Only thing that would slow you down on immediately making an offer would be A.) not having enough saved for the dowry or whatever it is and B.) already having a mortgage.

posted w/o reading, but Evan OTM.

you also need to get your hopes crushed a few times.

yea i need to be prepared for this, 2 out of the 3 houses we want to look at this weekend are already pending

houses gone before we can even get to town

there will probably be multiple offer situations

Only thing that would slow you down on immediately making an offer would be A.) not having enough saved for the dowry or whatever it is and B.) already having a mortgage.

Right, so neither applies for us, because we've been renting this cheap house for five years, and an even cheaper apartment before that, so we have no mortgage and plenty saved for the down payment. (But of course our friends all have equity in houses by now so I feel like my sense of having a lot of money saved is sort of illusory.)

where do u live again eephus?

madison wi

oh cool i have heard good things about madison

Oh yeah, see what you mean about the market there (I lived there for six years). Which neighborhood are you looking at? Property is probably really expensive but a very good investment.

dudgeon-monroe

still haven't sold our dumb midwestern house, thinking of foreclosing just to save money.

what town euler

dumb urbana il

you've probably already thought about renting it huh

it's a big house, 5 bedrooms, and a lot cheaper than we could have afforded when we live there, but it's been on the market for almost a year now. property taxes are like $6k a year which doesn't help.

rented it last year when we were out of the country for a year, thought we'd come back to it, but then we moved out of the country "permanently" and hoped we could just dump it quickly. That was...optimistic. living 6000 miles away we just don't want to deal with it. and foreclosure would wreck our American credit rating but we don't have or need American income anymore, so our American credit rating doesn't matter

so is it just sitting empty or are you still renting it? extra income as an absentee sabbatical landlord doesn't seem so bad.

sitting bc it's evidently easier to sell when vacant

I could see that, unless you're selling to someone else who's going to rent it out

I saw some water and am afraid my cleanout of the sewage line, which was full of tree roots, wasn't a full solution. I am not in the position to deal with this right now and hope I can avoid addressing it until after I get back from vacation next month

I don't even know what part of NY that Binghamton is in, but this place is dope.

https://hotpads.com/63-howard-ave-binghamton-ny-13904-v9ma6h/pad-for-sale

I've been to Binghamton and found it pretty bleak

Nice. http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3215-Cleveland-Ave-Michigan-City-IN-46360/118695882_zpid/

I'll take it!

wow that place is amazing

Street View backs it up, though I have no idea what life in Michigan City, Indiana, is like on a daily basis.

there's a nuclear plant next door & you can go to the outlet mall.

well, and the lake! actually the dunes are about the coolest thing in Indiana (not that the competition is tough...)