Buying A House: C or D?

it has *potential*

i love the gold brick foundation, all that gorgeous woodwork throughout

Extensive house hunting today, i day of three smells:

1) the awful cologne of estate agents
2) even worse scented candles
3) the carpet glue smell that hold down the awful cheap grey carpet that seems to have become a mandatory precursor to listing a house.

moved in today. chaos obv but I am surprised at how good I feel. I didn't think I cared that much, but the thought I might never have to deal with a landlord again is incredible

great stuff ogmor, congrats

just sold our house and had an offer accepted on a new place over the weekend, now plunged into the tedious world of arranging contracts, getting movers arranged &c &c

super-psyched to have more space into which i can expand my store of clutter over the next few years

congrats ogmor & bg! good luck to you all

i'm digging my house a lot these days, though i already want to change the color of the walls on the first floor

ah, yes, new house means more scope for clutter, this is surely the true purpose of moving. what is a home but useful clutter? we've never really had to discuss home decor before and suddenly we have to work out our taste. a bit of painting is on the cards. the cats are spooked.

Current circumstances mean this is in my thoughts at the moment.

First step: I have started segregating clutter.

didn't you move not so long ago? hope all's ok

Here's my biggest biggest tip ever - get anything and everything agreed explicitly in writing with your buyers/sellers even if you assume it's obvious.

Certain people in our transaction are making my life a total misery.

5-6 years since last move, which was a drama.

This is... different. Not really in a position to talk about it yet except that it'll probably involve downsizing which is great for clutter management motivation.

Hope you find your ideal place. <3

That's the problem, this a a huge thing which for me I'm sure will be the ideal place but Mrs aldo requires more of a leap of faith.

Location definitely doesn't have the same type of housing available and the best/easiest answer will involve somewhere smaller. Decluttering will be helpful beyond any need to do so to be honest, and I'll end up doing it anyway.

we’ve been in a couple months now and have so far:
- repointed outside
- cleared gutters at front
- installed new bathroom
- sanded and varnished upstairs throughout
- plastered and painted upstairs throughout
- stripped all wallpaper
- repaired and reseated the double glazing

not sure what to do now. we had thought we were going to build an extension to connect the house to the garden but the architect has quoted figures which are substantially north of what we’d expected. if the garden was south facing (it’s NE) I would probably not balk because I know I would live there long enough (10+ years) to recoup but I’m in two minds. it’s hard to know how “bad” the garden is without having lived a summer with it. it’s quite long so should hopefully get some sun up the back till quite late on... ?

depressing

Have you weatherproofed everything for the winter?

seeing a lot of price drops in my hood, def starting to look like a buyers market again

there were articles last month about how nyc was cutting prices on the most listed apartments since 2006.

we have some original cupboards (edinburgh presses) and wardrobes (from 1927) and they are soooooo narrow. whyyyyyyyyyyyyy ? I can't even hang a suit in one e.g.

Yeah our last place had built-in wardrobes either side of the chimney breast but they're too shallow to hang anything sideways. hanging frontways plus shelves, was the answer.

There are probably a million things wrong with this place (oh, that sliding glass door,) but there's also probably a billion cool things that are right.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/506-Sands-Ct_Gallup_NM_87301_M26502-77696#photo23

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?

― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, May 17, 2018 4:04 PM (one year ago)

For god's sake he's back at it, albeit this time not explicitly trying to get me to pay him. In the ensuing year, I've taken it upon myself to very tidily trim the hedge/privacy screen between us and his mother's property, trim the tree in my yard to about half the size it has been for the last 5 years, and remove all dead branches from the tree in my backyard that borders their property. Now yesterday he's out telling me that the tree planted by the city in front of my house is "a fire hazard". He's telling me I need to be responsible for the leaves it's dropping (it's a big magnolia and sheds huge leathery leaves regularly). "I don't know what the status is with your parents, but my parents can't be having all these leaves in front of their house. This is ridiculous." I tried to straight out ignore him but he kept going on about it. All I could manage to get out in a courteous manner was "you have the issue completely wrong and I'm done discussing it with you".

Can I just say that buying a house is a major fucking dud.

co sign. have you actually bought somewhere or are you in the purgatory of being in a chain?

yes it’s chronic. even worse is buying a fixer upper

i can't believe i missed the new series of sparkle motion's neighbor's son.

Houses have too much maintenance.

I bought a new house two or three weeks ago--leaving the city, moving to a small town of 5,000 (with a Baseball Hall of Fame...not Cooperstown). The idea was to make retirement money on the changeover. I'm halfway there; got the new house for under my upper limit, now I have the anxiety of selling this one. I have till mid-November, at least. (The new house is really nice and not a fixer-upper, something I'm ill-equipped to do.)

Houses have too much maintenance.

it's true

i am not particularly handy and even if i was i don't really have the time. our upstairs bathroom door broke so we just didn't have a bathroom door for 6 months until my dad came over and fixed it

let me recommend obtaining a teenage son, they love to fix shit and whatever they don't know how to do they just watch a youtube video and go for it

hopefully the white nationalists / misogynists haven't figured out how to channel those videos into redpill land, but I'm not sure what I'd do if they have, I really need the help

youtube videos are so valuable. I've diagnosed and fixed the ignitor on my stove, found out about the reset button on a stopped garbage disposal, opened a stuck front load washing machine door, redid all the caulk in my apartment from youtubes.

when the father in law vacates his full workshop im moving out west and working my way through the entiyah noo yenkee werkshaap

Currently on year 3 or 4 of kitchen remodel

How old is the neighbor's son btw? Is he single?

ha! My guess is that he's over 50. The parents have to be He lives nearby, presumably, since he stops by their house often. He rides around on a bicycle with a trailer that carries his weedwhacker & leaf blower and wears a jumpsuit. I have no idea about any friends, partner he may have. He's very friendly but for this one particular topic

My dad's been my handyman since I bought my house in 2014, but he's 70 this year and I don't know how much longer I want him pushing himself too hard. Gonna have to start hiring people for shit soon.

Today was day one of two solid months of going in and out of stores muttering, "Are there boxes here? Have you seen any boxes?"

I’m in the purgatory of having failed to buy several houses. The Australian system is, of course, nuts in that everything is sold as seen do if you don’t notice any defects before bidding that’s on you.

Flat 1 - went to auction, thought we had a good shot, budget sufficiently over the asking price in a down market, we thought, auction breezes past our limit
House 2 - get ready to bid on this, on final inspection, find some cracks in an outside wall that our building inspector missed, don’t bid, it goes for way under the asking price, someone got a bargain or a world of troubles, happy about not winning that
Flat 3 - EOI process, building inspector say building is about to come apart at the seams and points out a lot of defects, don’t bid, it goes for way over what we were prepared to pay for it
Flat 4 - current one, come back with a revised budget, EOI process, miss being first bidder so we have to bid blind and have no right to counter, scrape the bottom of the savings barrel to make an offer, prepared to do this because I’ve been doing this for a year and don’t want buying a house to become a lifestyle and I can go back to playing frisbee on Saturday mornings- to be continued

Seems like it is a great flat in a great building (former knicker factory) in an area we hadn’t originally considered. I know at least one person who lives in the building and we had a chat with the chair of the residents committee, it seems well run, unusually detailed and thorough accounts and minutes from the committee, possibly because the chair is an accountant.

ah, I was thinking house vs apartment and houses being a bigger pain. Good luck!

I now have schrödingers flat.

My bf has found a house he likes very much and wants to buy. I'm not so sure about it, for the following reasons...

1. the road is unadopted by the council and I don't like the idea of being liable for repairs in front of us/having them not done if neighbours won't pay. also it looks tatty and uneven imo, and iirc unlit

2. money worries - I think it'll be tighter than he's realised, as I think he's bunged our major outgoings into a mortgage calculator but not looked at the whole budget inc. food, bills, etc - but if I talk about budgets a finger-pointing argument about my minor extravagances will ensue, so meh
(we could both stand to tighten our belts a bit but also need to be realistic)

2a. not sure this is a good time to buy with Brexit

3. there are a few other small worries for me like a stained section of kitchen ceiling from a previous bathroom leak but "it's all fine now" say the owners and "it's probably fine, the house-buying survey will tell us if not" says my bf - hmm

However, it is the nicest thing we've seen within our budget locally - and pretty much the only thing still in that category as prices keep on going up.

Dunno what I'm asking here really. Any advice re decision-making? Anyone lived on an unadopted road? Is there any risk from old water damage that the survey may not turn up, or am I being needlessly paranoid?

Is there any risk from old water damage that the survey may not turn up

There's always a mold risk, but especially if there's been established water damage.

I don't know about UK, but in general, those mortgage calculators leave out a lot of important details like home insurance, property taxes, escrow, etc.

I think if I entered in my house's price, the calculator would show a sum that's about two-thirds what I actually pay each month.

2. money worries - I think it'll be tighter than he's realised

Different country, different life circumstances, so take this for what it's worth. My first year (2003) was tough, next year somewhat less so. I got through it, and 16 years later--retired in the spring, sold my house last week--it was worth it many times over.

Possibly relevant: early on, my house had a tiny leak into the basement for about five minutes after you took a shower. The home inspector completely missed it (or, more likely from what I've read, chose to ignore it), even though there was clear evidence on the basement floor (bare patches) that I didn't pick up on till later. I put up with for a few years, eventually redid the bathroom, no problems after that.

xp Yeah, here in the UK they also leave out a lot of one-off taxes and fees surrounding the purchase, and then there are monthly expenses like council tax as well as utilities and insurance.

I think we've factored in the big ones but there are probably more that we've forgotten about, and you don't want to be surprised by an extra bill when you're already stretching your budget.

Thanks, everyone! I really think we need more info about water damage/mould and about road upkeep obligations, but it was v hard getting information out of either the current owners or the estate agent. We're already being hassled to put an offer in and stop asking questions. Which is another thing that doesn't feel right, but the bf also wants me to hurry up and says that there won't ever be a house that I won't overthink until it's too late. He might be right...

could you ask a neighbour or two about the road thing?

My in-laws live on an unadopted/private road (since 1999 I think) and mostly over 20 years it's been fine. BUT it's on a steep hill and maybe 5 years ago the road needed work and shoring-up to prevent subsidence into the gardens of houses on the road below. The work got done and has solved any problems, but it took a long time to organise and was expensive and awkward. This road may not have the steepness and subsidence issues, and maybe all you need to do is be careful of your car tyres. But it's there as a possibility. In our first flat their was no management company and it was awkward when we needed to do some (minor, drainage) work to the outside of the building. So maybe find out if there's some kind of management company for the road, or could you set one up with neighbours, and all pay in to a pot to cover any shared expenses should they arise?

Stained ceilings from minor leaks could well be nothing, but they also could be big issues - unless the surveyor is pulling up floorboards you simply won't know.

Re: expense - buying is expensive and you will need to be frugal. That's the same for almost everyone.

everyone otm, anticipate way more expenses than you think, buying and owning a house costs so much damn money

I bought a house with a bf when I was 26. You both need to fully communicate what your expectations will be with money, payments, maintenance, repairs. If it causes issues right now, good. I wouldn't think the ceiling is that much of an issue unless the inspector finds something else with it. You can always eventually pull out that part and put mold resistant drywall. No house stays in perfect condition.

imo budget to pay the same/less as on rent, try to allow leeway, but invest in a decent survey (you can get someone round specially for the damp) and get a good solicitor who can chase everything up for you and a mortgage broker if you can get recommendations

rents are mb disproportionately high up here tho

My 50 yr old good friends (longterm couple) are getting ready to buy their first house ever and keep asking me how much money they should have (we are on our 3rd place right now). They live a very not frugal life and continually don't understand how much money is involved when buying property and how much money you need after it's done. They also don't share any finances with each other which I just....phew.