Buying A House: C or D?

those chilean engineers are something else, they build differently there right

A lot of rebar and concrete? I don't know. I sometimes wonder why we know so many architects here and then I am like...oh yeah.

The tallest building in Latin America is a couple of blocks from where I live and when there have been 7s and 8s I think the damage has always been minimal (stuff falling off walls).

you live in providencia? santiago is a pleasant city imo

Yep. It's an ok city. Outside of Santiago is much more interesting.

brb coming over

getting a new roof and the house painted this summer so wish me luck with ocntractors

spent 1 hour cleaning up and reorganizing a storage space that the realtor never even looked at

I've only ever owned places that were built in the 1800s. sturdy as anything (except the twirly bits on the outside that are prone to falling off I guess). When I moved to sf I realised how many ppl live in what are essentially wooden sheds :-p

spent 1 hour cleaning up and reorganizing a storage space that the realtor never even looked at"

WHy didnt you say DONT YOU WANNA LOOK IN HERE!?!?!

to be honest, I was thrilled with the way she breezed through the process. We have some real "problems" (actually ongoing renovation) that she could have focused on. I mostly was trying to make nice conversation, since this is just another financial process that is somewhat arbitrary and biased in the way a decision will be made. She told me that she'd have to recommend something to be fixed in her report because the higher ups like it, so I was at least able to finesse her into hopefully recommending a sliding patio door replacement that we've already put a deposit on.

I feared inviting her into my precious storage space with a crazed look may have put all that in jeopardy

she looks at you like this

$ $
^
___

my childhood home for sale. it should really have a plaque on the front door stating that. it has a pretty tortured listing history since my folks sold it. they really made it white inside. like a snowstorm in there.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/167-Whisconier-Rd-Brookfield-CT-06804/57263196_zpid/

that's a cool house!

So our move to the countryside might be going ahead although it looks like we'll need to accept quite a lot lower offer on ours than we hoped :(
I think I need someone all-knowing to give me a reality check and confirm we're doing the right thing...

Saddest thing will be my son won't be going to school with his current best friend. Agh.

went to see a house last night at 7. bought it at 12 today

:O

Just had $20k sucked out of my bank acct for closing costs 0_0. Still stoked tho. The 5am construction noise at current domicile is making a move seem even more glorious.

xp whoaaaa congrats

feel a bit sick tbh. didn't really wake up this morning expecting to have bought a house : O

damn congrats!

I think everybody gets the what-have-I-dones after buying a house.

thanks !!

yes I would worry if you DIDN'T feel a lil sick!

for sure

it took me a long time

i love my house so much now

I'm going to be so happy when the painting is done on my place this weekend. Not that having bare siding and trim for a couple weeks is bad, I just want this cycle of the grand homeowner project to be done with.

I still need to get a couple window panes fixed. If anyone thinks "oh, I have an old house and never open this window or remove this insert, I'll PAINT OVER IT, like some previous owner did, please never do that. A few things had to be opened/removed and it was impossible to flex those suckers open without breaking anything.

I may still get all new basement windows to alleviate the fact they're all pretty much single-pane uninsulated junk, but I haven't gotten a second quote or accepted the first one because I just want to get through this round first

next up: some landscaping and a couple small indoor projects!

rip my wallet

I'm glad I remembered to call my home insurance agent because I'm saving, uh, .3% of what I just spent on improvements on my insurance now!

on the other hand, the city has a home improvement tax abatement so I'll hopefully be saving more on that front, should it all get approved

Did you do it yourself?

went to see a house last night at 7. bought it at 12 today

Did you have a suitcase full of cash or something?

bought it as in offer accepted. don’t have a mortgage yet and my flat isn’t listed either 😬

xxp oh heck no

I had a contractor who coordinated the roof, siding, gutters, etc and they were very reasonable and great with the level of communication and everything turned out great. I'd have gone with them for painting, but my family recommended a guy who is very reasonable

I guess I never updated anyone about the situation with me being an anxious idiot about money and improvements a couple years back! I let everything slide and forgot about that piggyback mortgage. Paid it off. Refinanced my house last year, keeping 20% equity in the home and pulling the rest out in cash. Spent all of that money on the exterior work I just finished, meaning I'm more than ahead right now. Still have cash to do a few more things.

My low water pressure, which I may or may not have mentioned, is an ongoing thing. Turns out the water line insurance company (HomeServe) the water utility contracts with is very reasonable, and my low pressure was covered under their policy. I've had the line from my house to the curb replaced, with the section from my property to the actual water line, across the street, currently under investigation. The contractor said it's nearly a certainty they'll cover that as well, but I don't have to be around when the street is torn up to fix it.

Despite all the "get me out of here" jokes I feel really good about home ownership right now and things are good.

my neighborhood is pretty regularly increasing in home value and the number of people buying homes similar to mine is still on the upswing, and the number of homes near mine having a lot of work done is significant. I feel like it's a neighborhood on the upswing, and can't imagine moving in fewer than a couple years.

Anyone kicked the tires and dealt w buying a foreclosure?

Have you got a realtor? There are some who specialize in foreclosures/short sales, but I know the process doesn't move as swiftly as a regular purchase.

i believe you are responsible for eviction? that always seemed scary.

hey we closed on our new house and we're under contract to sell our old one <3

great

how can your offer be accepted if you're not near procedable? have they taken it off the market?

That was to |||||| and didn't mean to sound as aggressive as it appeared!

We have a lawyer who does RE in the family and we know where the (clean) title is. It’s vacant except for an inspection and clear out. It’s also not a pressing thing so we can really cross our T’s, etc.

My question is probably not really for this room bc it was more for people who had real-world experience w doing BOTH traditional and foreclosure/auction/alternative means of acquisition

I’ve talked to a few people who have done both, including a guy at the bar this week. He was apparently one of my former neighbors but we hadn’t met.

He and his wife actually lived on the corner, and the house next door was foreclosed on. They were afraid it’d wreck the market, because they were going to sell within a couple years and it was a dump. They bought from either the bank or the state and it was completely normal, but I didn’t hear whether they used a realtor or just real estate attorney.

kinder - just guided by my solicitor. ofc it means we probably had to pay a little more than we would have, had we been proceedable but that’s fine. mortgage appointment and listing all locked in for early next week so all go. lots of work required on new place so need to start thinking about that too. scary/exciting

so today my neighbor's adult son, who is a handyman by trade and cleans his folks' yard every week, tells us that he believe's he's owed compensation for cleaning up leaf litter from the trees on my property that share a boundary with theirs. there are several trees and they drop a fair amount of debris, but nothing harmful to their property by what I understand to be the law in this kind of situation. They're not the friendliest people in the world, so this feels an awful lot like a shakedown. What am i supposed to do, pay him every week to keep his own yard clean?

middle finger

yeah that's horseshit

we've been there for 7 years - what's he want, back pay? I'm not playing.

He can believe whatever he wants yknow

It might depend on the state, but I don't think you'd even have to pay if a branch from a tree on your property fell on his car parked in his driveway.

I mean, it'd be weird to have let that situation develop for so long in the first place, but