Buying A House: C or D?

Yeah, whoa. Holy shit!

On saturday I bought a house in a midwest college town (east lansing) and the market - or at least the speed with which houses are being sold - was crazy. I sent the realtor a list of 12 houses that I was interested in on Tuesday afternoon, and when I met with him Thursday morning 7 of those were already sold, including a number that had been on the market for a while. It's the time of year when all the new faculty hires are finalized and people were showing up to house shop.

I looked at 15 houses in a 24 hour period and ended up putting in an offer on a place that went on the market the afternoon I got there; the photographer was just leaving when I showed up to see it. The only house I saw that I really loved and could imagine living in long-term instead of as a stopgap, or that would require a lot of updates. It's also in an area half a mile from campus but zoned in a way that disallows single family homes to be operated as rental units, so no chance of having a bunch of dirtbag undergrads living within a couple of blocks.

I live in a college town that also tries to prevent detached houses from becoming student housing, including not allowing basement apartments to be rented separately. But homeowners have found plenty of workarounds, so there's still a good chance you'll have loads of dirtbag undergrads living nearby. There are effectively basement apartments that don't quite meet the legal definition of a basement apartment (if there's no stove in the kitchen but merely a two-burner cooktop and a big countertop oven, it's not legally a kitchen, and thus not legally a separate apartment). Or you can do what I do, rent to students whilst living in the same house and just sharing the whole place instead of cordoning off part of it for rental, which is always allowed here. There are various workarounds for renting your whole house to students too, not to mention lots of homeowners who do it illegally and hope they won't get noticed - which they usually don't unless the tenants cause trouble.

Fortunately, most of the undergrads I've met here, including the 15 or so I've rented to over the years, aren't dirtbags at all.

I mostly love that Cleveland house, but that tiny, cheaply remodeled kitchen is a head-scratcher. Except the sink which is awesome.

The college town I'm in now is physically divided by hills into four roughly equal quadrants, and one of them is almost entirely populated by several thousand undergrads. There are a few die-hard faculty - ones who have been around for ages or others who love the older homes - who live there and on a regular basis have to deal with fights, noise, petty vandalism, drunk kids trying to open your door at 2am because they have the wrong house, etc. Please note that I say this as someone who was a dirtbag undergrad myself.

There are a good number of students living in the other three hills (none of which have any rules about rental property as far as I've ever heard) but they are self-selecting as the type who don't get involved in and don't want to deal with that kind of shit, and that's fine with me. The previous owners of the new place have lived in the place for 18 years and are moving to a different state so I think it probably won't be a total couch-burning dystopia.

congratulations joygoat!!

Good job everyone!
Good luck Euler!

I live in southern california and my parents aren't rich so buying a house: impossible?

There's always over the hill (Palmdale/Lancaster, Hesperia, etc)

take those santa clarita transit busses to commute to downtown/century city for like 4 hours total round trip.. ugh

people seem to either give up on the house for now and buy a condo or buy a house they plan to fix up over time

congrats joygoat!

On saturday I bought a house in a midwest college town (east lansing) and the market - or at least the speed with which houses are being sold - was crazy. I sent the realtor a list of 12 houses that I was interested in on Tuesday afternoon, and when I met with him Thursday morning 7 of those were already sold

my brother and his family are moving a MI college town (not yours) and they said it's the same way. even being just a few hours' drive away has made it that much harder for them to buy a place. it's like that here in cleveland, too, but only in certain neighborhoods. we definitely had an advantage renting in town before buying, the house we bought we saw it, put an offer in, and had the offer accepted all within hours of it being on the market. photos weren't even up until the next day.

also do we have a home improvement / home ownership thread? we are already tallying all the projects we want to do. i strangely thought i would be relieved when this is all over but now i have to call a bunch of contractors, painters, etc.

Congrats, joygoat.
Hey ILX, if you don't mind living in a horrible racist economically-depressed-by-design part of the country, come buy my mom's house.

https://ap.rdcpix.com/406636362/b9acfbac62f4e7d8ffe798ae2849b075l-m0xd-w1020_h770_q80.jpg

whoa! where is that?

wow, it's..... a colonial

that's not your mom's house

It is indeed.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/50011-Bear-Rd_Aberdeen_MS_39730_M86514-30157

I live in southern california and my parents aren't rich so buying a house: impossible?

― officer sonny bonds, lytton pd (mayor jingleberries), Tuesday, April 18, 2017 6:36 PM (forty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hate to say it but the only types of people i know who have purchased houses in recent years in L.A. are people who have been saving their money for a ridiculously long time, are wealthy, have wealthy parents, or received a windfall via inheritance. we've been saving money but not long enough.

everyone else we know who owns a house around here bought twenty years ago. there's a neighbor of ours who bought a fourplex in 1999 for 430k. all two bedrooms. she lives in one of the units and the others all rent out for 3k per month now. the place zillows for 2.3 million now.

we have neighbors across the street who are by no stretch of the imagination wealthy, but they bought their beautiful houses for 200k back in the late '90s and they're all worth well over a million now.

idk we're fine with renting in this particular area, i'd rather rent where i want to live than buy in an area that would be a compromise.

we have friends who have a decent amount of money and are trying to find a nice house in an area they'd like to live for 1.5 million and under, and they've actually had trouble. some of that comes from their own specific taste but i tell you, a million dollar home in L.A. these days isn't really a million dollar home.

that is wild

literally living in a fishbowl there

boston was getting like that and parts of it are insane but even in the nice area where we were renting (west roxbury) a small single family was still like ~$500k (not that we could afford that)

my friend's parents live in santa barbara and are currently moving. both the current and new homes seem big for my tastes, and given that location, the amount of money involved is mind-boggling to me

williamc wow

it looks like one big room but obviously it's not just one big room

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/13715-Shaker-Blvd-Apt-2A_Cleveland_OH_44120_M35090-51618#photo0

These old condo's are right around the corner from where I live. I would seriously considering going into debt for the mortgage, which isn't that outrageous, but I just can't swing the monthly maintenance fee of $2500.

just wait'll they decide to replace the windows :/

williamc maybe check that The Thing isn't building a spaceship out of it?

holy shit brownie that is amazing

except for the kitchen

i kind of wish there were more original-ish kitchens around in these old cleveland homes. people retain the charm elsewhere in these houses but everyone guts the kitchen

honestly the kitchen aint even bad it just doesn't flow with the grandeur of the rest of the condo

like look at this bullshit

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/3823-Fernwood-Ave_Los-Angeles_CA_90027_M25681-78105#photo1

i hate to say it but the only types of people i know who have purchased houses in recent years in L.A. are people who have been saving their money for a ridiculously long time, are wealthy, have wealthy parents, or received a windfall via inheritance. we've been saving money but not long enough.

everyone else we know who owns a house around here bought twenty years ago. there's a neighbor of ours who bought a fourplex in 1999 for 430k. all two bedrooms. she lives in one of the units and the others all rent out for 3k per month now. the place zillows for 2.3 million now.

we have neighbors across the street who are by no stretch of the imagination wealthy, but they bought their beautiful houses for 200k back in the late '90s and they're all worth well over a million now.

idk we're fine with renting in this particular area, i'd rather rent where i want to live than buy in an area that would be a compromise.

― nomar, Tuesday, April 18, 2017 6:32 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had like 80k saved up around the time the market went to shit and I'm kinda kicking myself for not jumping in, but 80k is like NOTHING for a down payment here. Now that awesome nest egg has been cut in half bc my wife got another degree and is now currently underemployed. Basically holding out hope for parents to hook us up with a lifeline bc thats the only option.

I grew up in oxnard. there's a really nice spot region called hollywood beach/silver strand where folks bought homes for like 100k in the 70s and now theyre all house rich millionaires. I assume theyre the happiest people on earth..

I don't mind that house, nomar? I get that the kitchen is kind of bland but tbh I have seen so many worse kitchen sins. it's a lot better than

on one hand the subway tile thing is the "it's plain enough to not look dated" standard but even when it does look dated in a few years, it's still crazy easy to clean. those cabinets that are standing on little legs everywhere in the kitchen, though... not sure on that one

it's more like...it's a house that'll go for 950k and it's not even a thousand square feet. plus knowing that particular street, it's not a really pleasant area. not dangerous, just not pleasant.

ah, yeah, that I get

80k is enough for a down payment with PMI today, but it probably wouldn't have gotten it done during the time the market went to shit is the catch

because some rich person would have seen the chance to make $300k and bought the place with a briefcase full of cash, is my understanding

yeah and I would have 0$ leftover for renovations, repairs, taxes, living my life, etc

I'm an Oxnardo too, mj (well Hueneme, but far enough north that it was more Oxnard than PH). I'm in Pasadena now and glad I bought when I did, though I kick myself for not trading up at a couple of points.

lol I went to Hueneme Christian Elementary School - my parents worked at the base. currently living the dream in sherman oaks.

Moved there when I was 11, so Marina West elementary, Haydock JHS, then Hueneme High. My dad worked at Pt Mugu. We lived near Ventura Rd and Hemlock.

WmC, my mom used to have friends who lived in one of those things, hidden in the woods past two cattle fences.

There were four or five people living in it. The 2D blueprint would've shown a C, like on Colorado's state flag, with the living room in the center, and the other rooms around it. I remember the girls slept in this loft thing that covered the interior circle of the C, and you could look over into the kitchen where our folks were visiting.

There were daddy longlegs all over the place and coming back through the dark woods - and having to get out and manually open and close those cattle fences - were some of the scariest moments of my life.

Also, this cracked me up for no reason at all.

http://i.imgur.com/1nOe83L.jpg

I'd love to have a garage like that.

The mini-dome potting shed cracked me up.

is that what that is? super spooky imo

i really like the way the main house looks inside!

lso do we have a home improvement / home ownership thread? we are already tallying all the projects we want to do. i strangely thought i would be relieved when this is all over but now i have to call a bunch of contractors, painters, etc.

― marcos, Tuesday, 18 April 2017 18:24 (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Depending on your mood:

department of the interior: home decor
is anyone "home"?
i've discovered a downside to home ownership

"Good Afternoon Mr. Marcos,

I have great news.

Your loan request has been FINAL APPROVED and we are CLEAR to CLOSE!"

woohoo!

https://sc.mogicons.com/l/thumbs-up-192.png