Buying A House: C or D?

i'm freaking out a little. i'm excited about the house but uh this a big purchase

the biggest! i hope the sale goes smoothly!

thanks!

next few months are going to feel a little crazy

the front porch is huge and im really excited about it

https://ssl.cdn-redfin.com/photo/159/bigphoto/365/3886365_24_1.jpg

congrats! what street?

thanks!!

edanola, right off of sloan. a little further west then we had wanted, we are right near lakewood park right and can walk to downtown lakewood. but this place is also right next to the metroparks so that would be very cool

congrats, marcos. new place looks beautiful.

we are right near lakewood park right

meant to say "right now"

thanks sufjan

It looks wonderful!!!! I love a nice foursquare!

me too! they are all over cleveland, in many variations. we thought the bay windows were pretty cool on this one

it is weird though everyone calls them "colonials" here and that's not really right

I wouldn't think so, no.

Oh wow, nice work!

dammit am i the last one in this thread who doesn't have a house now

but seriously, congrats marcos

Can you post the zillow link, or do you want to keep it private?

yay marcos!!! gorgeous house!

congrats dude, well done!

The double dormers and the double bays are SUBLIME!!

Actually looking at the roofline idk if it technically is a four-square since the roof doesn't slope on 4 sides that meet in the center top. But it's nice anyway. :)

lovely home there.

Looks awesome man. Nice little rock garden/waterfall back there.

yea! man this is why i love cleveland, you can buy a cool house for $100k-$300k, we've got universities and museums and a downtown, good park system, a happening food scene, three professional sports teams, one of the great lakes, we don't even make very much money but we can afford this place. you all need to move here

Can you post the zillow link, or do you want to keep it private?

― nickn, Wednesday, March 22, 2017 5:53 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

look at city of lakewood, ohio on redfin, you'll get photos

very nice indeed

Found it, nice.

the inspection went pretty well yesterday. seems like the biggest issues are on the exterior of the house - some rotting clapboards, trim, and porch flooring, peeling paint. one thing that scares me a little is that the front gutter is an original "box gutter" or built-in gutter" that is made of wood lined with metal, and the inspector said it wasn't in great shape and can be very pricey to repair. the attic needs insulation but that doesn't seem like a big deal. we're waiting on the final report but we will have some cash on hand to fix and paint the exterior.

sounds like nbd all told tbh

yea! im kind of excited to choose colors for the exterior if it needs to painted anyways

Moving across country this summer after 11 years, so in two weeks I will be flying sans wife and child to a place I haven't been since 1995 to buy a house in a three day period. I hope?

On the plus side we are in the process of selling our house to someone we know who asked about buying it as soon as they heard we were leaving, and where we're going isn't that big and we're targeting narrowly so it's not like there are 50 houses to look at.

where are you moving to?

Back to Michigan, to a town with a large State University in it. Wife was invited to apply for a job and was hired, wrangled one for me, and all of sudden we're leaving. We're both from Upper Michigan originally and will now be within a day's drive of 90% of our families instead of 2000 miles away; my sister and her kids live in a beachy resort town 3 hours away, etc.

But starting over in a new place with new jobs and no friends at this age is kind of terrifying.

enjoy the beer!

the appraisal came in at around $20k less than what we offered (and we offered asking price). it makes sense to us after reviewing the report. the market is pretty crazy in this neighborhood lately and lots of houses have been going $5k-$30k over asking price, and even at the higher amounts will often still appraise. but it's not hard to see how some prices are a little inflated. we are trying to figure out some options, we love the house but are not keen on paying $20k over the appraised value

Weird. I'm sorry.

I'm keeping an eye on a few neighbors' home sales right now. The property tax assessment statements just arrived and everyone's assessed home value went up quite a bit (mine went up around 9%) but I can contest it until the end of the month.

On the other hand, I'm still looking to do some home repairs and remodeling and I'd have more home collateral for a loan. Hmm.

the seller's agent is supposed to work that shit out with the appraiser beforehand to avoid surprises like that. appraisal under the asking price kills closings dead.

shit, YOUR agent (if you were working with one) is supposed to work with the seller's agent to make sure they worked it out with the appraiser beforehand. what the hell, everybody!

anyway that kinda sucks I'm sorry marcos! fire everyone involved.

What do you all think about the presence of lead in old houses?

My wife and I are only really interested in pre-WWII designs, but I was surprised to learn recently that nobody seems to think abatement actually works very well, and it should just be considered a given that if you buy an old house you'll have some degree of exposure.

Our current rental is an old house, and has lots of lead, and while the landlord is going to abate, I guess knowing what I know now, I'm not expecting much to come of it.

I don't have kid yet, thank god, but my dog is an idiot and now I know why :)

i'd guess that 80-90% of the homes in our zip code are pre-WWII and we have little kids so it's definitely something we've looked into. you might have some exposure in an old house but if it is well-maintained you should be okay. there are ways of reducing the risk significantly. make sure there is no peeling paint. windows, porches, and doorways are the main culprits afaik. put down new mulch around the perimeter of the house, and take off your shoes when you come inside. mop regularly, wipe down services regularly.

we are renting in a place right now that was built in 1908 and has major peeling paint on various parts of the original windows, but only in between the exterior and the interior, e.g. the sills in between the storm windows and the regular windows, not the interior sills though. we just don't open our windows, which sucks but it's not worth the risk. if we owned this place we'd either have the windows professionally restored and re-stained or just replaced. the place we are trying to buy has newer windows, which helps w/ the lead stuff even if they are not historic or original.

if you do any work you should find a lead-certified contractor so they don't do it stupidly and make the situation worse by getting lead dust everywhere.

Flying across the country today to try and find a house in two days. I sent the realtor that we're working with a list of a dozen houses and he wrote back that six of them have been sold already. So whatever he has access to apparently beats zillow in timeliness and accuracy.

anyway that kinda sucks I'm sorry marcos! fire everyone involved.

― The Jams Manager (1992, Brickster) (El Tomboto), Wednesday, April 12, 2017 12:31 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea it's a bummer. paying the difference seems like a horrible option, so does taking on private mortgage insurance because the loan-to-value is now different, fuck both of those options really. we'll see what happens. we are able to walk away if we want to or negotiate with the seller to come down closer to the appraised value.

Realtors sometimes have inside info or secret leads, or so I've heard. Mine didn't.

zillow ime is not up to date at all, it can be weeks before a house that is under contract shows up as such in zillow. redfin is far superior and is as up to date as the MLS

Zillow is garbage. For a number of reasons, but mainly because it keeps appraising my house at about half of what I bought it for (and under half of what I could probably sell it for today). Redfin ain't tryin' to fuck me like that.