Buying A House: C or D?

yeah, I am permanently off retaining walls after this.

Retaining walls are pretty much a given in a lot of parts of my town because it’s so hilly. The upside of that is that there are a handful of excellent local stonemasons who really know how to deal with them. We have a couple of old stacked stone walls and a stone and mortar wall and all are holding up well according to the people we had look at them.

All mention of this gives me shivers. I am wondering what am I going to do. How liable will I be for damage to my neighbor's property? Can they really take a four-foot diameter tree in sections out through my house to the street? Because there is no other way

probs with a crane

depends on where you live? ... stonemasons are great in theory, but if you live somewhere earthquake prone? Not the best idea, I think the general material used is concrete in that case? ...Also, depending on where you live, the tree issue could be fraught, like ridiculously fraught.

on the plus side: if you have a whole bunch of fraught trees, you can grow apples

the velvetundergrowth of retaining walls

i'd get that checked if that's a problem for you, likely mold

the velvetundergrowth of retaining walls

Not many people have built a retaining wall, but every one of them started a band

hahahahah thank you!

every one of them started a lawsuit

offering on a different house built in the 1850s. But no retaining walls, thank gourd. it's funny how an old house built in the 1970s is gross, but you go back to 1850 and all the gross shit becomes "charming".

"You installed this floating bamboo floor 15 years ago? It looks like dogshit. This is the original farmhouse wood floor from 1850? How chaaaaaaaaaarming."

"my head hits the ceiling in this room! People sure were hobits back then. Chaaaaaaarming hobits."

as much as I like living in a city, if I were going to buy a house now I would buy one far away from everybody

this sentiment, along with low interest rates, is why we must pay a 20% surcharge in this market.

people from LA bringing their De Niro Heat scheme money my way to escape the Heat

:) my friends in rural northwestern Connecticut and in the Great Barrington area of Massachusetts (the Berkshires, one of the greatest places I have ever visited) have said that property there can't be had now because it is all bought up

Great Barrierington

the great city flight will result in lots of folks missing one million great food options.

and good jobs after zoom work hits the wall

I think cities still have a future

As skate parks

my experience of Great Barrington and Marlborough was that they had great food options

maybe if you like snowcones!

just kidding. I'm sure they are wonderful.

Philadelphia housing market is nuts right now, but that's mostly New Yorkers cashing in their chips to live in a cheaper city that remains close enough to NY

My friend in Richmond, VA listed her house at noon today, but said she couldn't share a link to the listing because it never made it that far. Immediate buyer!

jfc

I've stayed in Great Barrington and other nearby towns a bunch of times and there are def great food options up there. What you miss out on of course is the sheer number and variety of options that you can only get from density.

Oh hi just sold house in 48 hours with 5 offers over asking, some all cash. But now I will be a buyer in a hot sellers’ market so turnabout is fair play I guess. Oh and I will be competing with SG so that will be fun :)

yay quincie on the west coast!!! just remember that you are moving to a place with earthquakes

I’m baffled by DC ppl asking why on earth I would move to California. I’m like hello have you BEEN there?

I mean yes earthquakes but jesus that’s better than congress

yeah, we will likely need to sell our place before we get anything here. Maybe the market will also cool off in a year, and rates will remain low. I wouldn't worry about competing with us. I'd worry about the LA folk brining their loot. I love DC when visiting, but our weather is certainly better! I'd add a warning about the wildfires, but you already experienced it.

*bringing. don't know if people in LA treat their money like a thanksgiving turkey.

They probably brine their turkey in money.

I, on the other hand, am a commoner who even after selling our DC place will need a *whispers* mortgage.

we will be needing the biggest mortgage of all time. our mortgage will probably kick off the next crisis as hedge fund managers see it plod across their tickers. they'll make a movie where David Thewlis sees our mortgage and pukes into his office trash can. sorry, everybody.

Yeah send me your lender, gonna need a hunk of dough

We’re refinancing from 3.625 bought last summer to 2.75 now. We may not stay but that’s hundreds of dollars a month if we do.

You probably know this, but you need to factor in the closing costs on the new mortgage when you compare the savings. I did the calculations when we refinanced a number of years ago and it only made sense if we were staying in our house for longer than 3 years (which we did).

yeah we break even after about 18 months, which is about as soon as we might move. so at worst it's a waste of time.

That's pretty good then.

where you moving, caek?

ask me after the election :-)

holy shit, you're joe biden

I’m still chuckling about david thewlis puking into his office trashcan

Buying a house you've not set foot in: C or D?

It does not appear to have a retaining wall. I think.

Where is it?

Half block east of Alice Keck. Not sure what that area is called. Also not sure how to pronounce the name of the street. Also not 100% clear on the house layout. But made an offer. Livin on the edge here.

wow you are braver than i