The I need to buy a house thread

[mister d]

That’ll get you on a list.

[phxgators]

Wow, what a story! Just keeping everything straight must have taken so much effort.

[The Sybian]

Thanks guys. I haven't even given you 5% of the drama. Granted, much of it is due to the inflexibility we came into this with wrt closing dates, and our insistence on waiting until the oil tank was pulled before doing inspection. The seller must be ready to kill us. Sorry if I'm repeating, but they sold the house a few months prior, but buyer had a sales contingency, which fell through at the last minute. It was off the market for a couple months.

I really feel bad for our realtor, as she is also the listing agent. She deserves sainthood after this ordeal. She has a son in my son's grade, they aren't friends, but we run into her at events, and her son used to be on my son's cross country team, so if this fell through, I'd feel weird seeing her around. Also see her at the gym periodically. We put her through hell, and our attorney. He snapped and yelled at my wife on three occasions. I bet he changes his fixed pricing for closings, he has to be around minimum wage if you look at his hourly rate on this.

Got some confirmation that docs were sent to all parties, so we shall see...

And Rass, booze stays in my rotation, that ain't changing.

[The Sybian]

Sybian - that is one of the more terrifying narratives I have ever read. That would have destroyed my marriage - mostly from my meltdowns. You are truly a better person if you survive this with the family intact.

I tried to keep most of the issues to myself until I had solutions or knew the extent of the problem. I always prefer telling my wife "this is the issue, here is how we are resolving it," rather than getting her worried before I know the issue. That shit backfired when she read the lawyers email about the fence encroaching on the power company's right of way. She was in Denver, about to step on stage to win the Healthcare Innovator of the Year award at some national conference. Literally minutes before they announced her award, she saw this and naturally flipped the fuck out. We didn't know the extent of what the fence exactly encroached on yet, and I wanted to figure it out first. I was going to explain the situation after her ceremony ended because I didn't want to ruin her evening. My dad had the best response, "you gained free property and aren't paying taxes on it, you win." Worst case, someone notices and tells me to take the back end of the fence down. Neighbor said it's been there for at least 10 years, utility mows the other side of the fence regularly and nobody noticed or cared. It's been my dream since law school to adversely possess land, but unfortunately, the period is 30 years in NJ, and the clock resets with new ownership, so I can't toll the previous owners time. Bummer. I want to legally steal land, dammit!

Oh, I should mention we closed without a hitch today. Unfucking real. I can't believe we actually made it. Lawyer said he never thought there was a chance we'd be at the table today. Afterwards, he pulled me aside and asked how the hell I got Chase to process the docs for today, he couldn't believe I got them to get it done. When you call them, if your loan officer doesn't pick up, you can get patched through to the next available. I talked to 10 people, one guy was super empathetic and intelligent. He sounded young, so not jaded. He ran down the hall to get a supervisor involved, and actually gave me her name and number, rather than everyone else saying they would email a manager to call me. Fortunately the manager escalated it up a second level when she went home for the day, and that guy was a ball of energy and enthusiasm. I think he enjoyed the challenge and puzzle of undoing their internal procedures to avoid violating Dodd Frank. Whatever the reason, he is my fucking hero. And when he called to tell me he got it done, he was more excited than I was.

[tennbengal]

My god. That’s a goddamn miracle and a fairy tale wrapped up together.

[sancarlos]

Congrats on finishing the race, Syb!

[bfj]

Congrats Syb. Enjoy the new home.

One bittersweet thing that happened since my MIL passed away in August is that we were able to pay off our mortgage. Weird feeling being out of long term debt.

[HaulCitgo]

Congrats on the house but chill the fuck out man. Some poor bastards are forced to deal your neurotic bullshit to pickup a check. What's gonna happen when truly disconcerting events occur? Recognition that the family would be fine in a 2 bedroom apt is enlightening. Youngest still asks about the "big house" with the pool and the kids on the hill when we were in a similar spot.

[The Sybian]

Congrats on the house but chill the fuck out man. Some poor bastards are forced to deal your neurotic bullshit to pickup a check. What's gonna happen when truly disconcerting events occur? Recognition that the family would be fine in a 2 bedroom apt is enlightening. Youngest still asks about the "big house" with the pool and the kids on the hill when we were in a similar spot.

Oh believe me, I know we were painted in a corner by my wife's inflexibility on a lot of issues. And I have a ton of empathy for the seller, realtor and lawyers, because we dragged them through hell. This has been a 3 year process of trying to put an addition on our house and getting fucked by one builder, getting a kitchen done by a second builder only to find they never submitted for the variance for the addition, which takes a minimum 4 months, then realizing he forgot to account for impervious limitations, so his plan was rejected...

I do appreciate you putting this in perspective though, kids are happy and healthy, and the rest is just material shit. It's just been frustrating going 3 years trying to figure shit out, while my current house is falling apart, and we don't want to patch shit that will be torn down if we build.

[HaulCitgo]

Sorry man. Just continuing the thanksgiving tradition started by bfj. Knife throwing. Enjoy and I'm working so not in the best of spirits

[bfj]

Sorry man. Just continuing the thanksgiving tradition started by bfj. Knife throwing. Enjoy and I'm working so not in the best of spirits

I said “almost”. Don’t bring out the knives if you don’t want them thrown back.

[bronto]

went on the market Wednesday afternoon. already have two offers at/above asking price with closing costs accounted for and will be at 15 showings in 72 hours

now LA and I gotta figure out where we're gonna live

[A_B]

Sorry man. Just continuing the thanksgiving tradition started by bfj. Knife throwing. Enjoy and I'm working so not in the best of spirits

I said “almost”. Don’t bring out the knives if you don’t want them thrown back.

Or have good aim.

[mister d]

went on the market Wednesday afternoon. already have two offers at/above asking price with closing costs accounted for and will be at 15 showings in 72 hours

now LA and I gotta figure out where we're gonna live

Congrats. We went the short term rental route last time we did this.

[sancarlos]

Guy across the street known as “Peloton guy” (see Commercials thread) told me today that he recently sold his house off-market without even a public listing, and is moving shortly. He’s only lived here two years and said he sold for $200k over what he paid. Wow.

[bronto]

lol that makes my 6K over asking with no closing costs sale look worthless

(we're getting to pick closing and delayed possession, so that's nice. only problem is LA wants the house near the top of our self-prescribed budget at the moment)

[Brontoburglar]

rational analysis wanted plz

both of our top contenders at the moment would have mortgage payments at < 30% of take-home and are in the same general location where we're looking. both mortgage payments also are significantly cheaper than our combined housing costs currently

house 1:

- 47-year-old flip that would need an add-on to the kitchen and the master bath. well, not need, but the kitchen is no bigger than my kitchen now in terms of counter space despite being a house that's considerably bigger and the master bath is a small vanity, a toilet and a shower. and the closet space is v bad. so we'd be looking at significant cash to spend on improvements to the house sooner rather than later.

house 2

- new house with a mortgage that's 5% more in take-home per month than house 1. no immediate improvements outside of a fence, which house 1 also needs. house 2 is smaller than house 1 (and still substantially bigger than my current house) and would be bigger than house 2 after basement is complete. that would be paid for with my side income which is not factored into our monthly take home (and not nearly enough to cover what would be needed for improvements to home 1)

what would be the more appealing option?

[BSF21]

rational analysis wanted plz

both of our top contenders at the moment would have mortgage payments at < 30% of take-home and are in the same general location where we're looking. both mortgage payments also are significantly cheaper than our combined housing costs currently

house 1:

- 47-year-old flip that would need an add-on to the kitchen and the master bath. well, not need, but the kitchen is no bigger than my kitchen now in terms of counter space despite being a house that's considerably bigger and the master bath is a small vanity, a toilet and a shower. and the closet space is v bad. so we'd be looking at significant cash to spend on improvements to the house sooner rather than later.

house 2

- new house with a mortgage that's 5% more in take-home per month than house 1. no immediate improvements outside of a fence, which house 1 also needs. house 2 is smaller than house 1 (and still substantially bigger than my current house) and would be bigger than house 2 after basement is complete. that would be paid for with my side income which is not factored into our monthly take home (and not nearly enough to cover what would be needed for improvements to home 1)

what would be the more appealing option?

Questions:

1) What's your appetite for major remodeling going on while you're living in the house?

2) Regarding house 1, how important is the kitchen size to you and beyond that if it is very important, is the space workable since it's a larger home to expand the footprint of the kitchen to do the things you'd like?

3) Available capital in the bank is obviously a factor here. Easier and less stressful to take on house 2 and make incremental improvements as you need to (finishing a basement is pretty out of the way compared to a main floor remodel), but sounds like if the bones are right you could really make house 1 into something special you could enjoy for years.

4) I'd trust a 50yo house's bones more than new construction. If you go house 2, vet the builder and see what kinds of issues they've had if any in recent years. My wife used to work for a builder that did everything from track to 400K semi-customs and there are some horror stories.


Exciting times friend!

[A_B]

I would argue that in Lexington at least 50 year old houses are right about the start of the mass building properties/neighborhood plannkng. Our last house was in that vein and it was starting to need renovations when we sold. So I’d probably trust a 75 year old house more than 50 but that’s right on the edge.

[Brontoburglar]

lol house 2 may already be out of the running because our lender wayyyyyyyyyy underestimated property taxes for a new build

like, $300 a month underestimated

Questions:

1) What's your appetite for major remodeling going on while you're living in the house?

2) Regarding house 1, how important is the kitchen size to you and beyond that if it is very important, is the space workable since it's a larger home to expand the footprint of the kitchen to do the things you'd like?

3) Available capital in the bank is obviously a factor here. Easier and less stressful to take on house 2 and make incremental improvements as you need to (finishing a basement is pretty out of the way compared to a main floor remodel), but sounds like if the bones are right you could really make house 1 into something special you could enjoy for years.

4) I'd trust a 50yo house's bones more than new construction. If you go house 2, vet the builder and see what kinds of issues they've had if any in recent years. My wife used to work for a builder that did everything from track to 400K semi-customs and there are some horror stories.


Exciting times friend!

kitchen is very important as we're looking at cooking a lot. the problem is that the house has no space for a kitchen, so it'd need to be an add on (that would be done with the bedroom because of the layout of the house)

we're probably back to square one now, which isn't exactly great given that we need to find something soon. I'm pissed about the underestimation, but also glad that we can find out now that it's way outta range vs. committing to something or starting that process of commitment.

[BSF21]

lol house 2 may already be out of the running because our lender wayyyyyyyyyy underestimated property taxes for a new build

like, $300 a month underestimated

I'm so thankful for our property tax cap.

[Brontoburglar]

the difference in price between the flip and the new house really isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things but the property tax difference is basically an 80% increase from house 1 to house 2 because of the way the county does assessments

[BSF21]

the difference in price between the flip and the new house really isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things but the property tax difference is basically an 80% increase from house 1 to house 2 because of the way the county does assessments

Ours in Marion County is 1% of assessed value, full stop. Predictable.

[Brontoburglar]

the difference in price between the flip and the new house really isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things but the property tax difference is basically an 80% increase from house 1 to house 2 because of the way the county does assessments

Ours in Marion County is 1% of assessed value, full stop. Predictable.

the formula is the same for everything in my county but the way they calculate the assessed value is skewed against new builds because a lot of older homes haven't been assessed in a while. My house is assessed currently at 20% less than what I bought it for 8 years ago and like 45% less than what it's now under contract for

but a new build will get assessed at what we pay for it

[The Sybian]

the difference in price between the flip and the new house really isn't all that much in the grand scheme of things but the property tax difference is basically an 80% increase from house 1 to house 2 because of the way the county does assessments

Ours in Marion County is 1% of assessed value, full stop. Predictable.

Ours is 3%, but they find a way to get around it every year. The $30 million municipal building project ain't going to help. Speaking of mortgage undervaluing, my mortgage company insists on going with the 2018 assessment, before the builder doubled the square footage of my new house. They have the taxes at $9,500 lower than the 2019 assessment. I gave them the 2019 number during the mortgage process, and they based all their estimates on that, but at closing and my initial payments, I'm paying the 2018 rate. My lawyer said to expect the mortgage company to hit me up for $7,000 extra in Q3 to make up for the escrow deficiency when the Town posts the 2019 estimates. Fucked up way of doing business, mostly by the Town. At least we know this up front, and I'm not going to spend the money anyways, but tht could really fuck people up if they don't expect or plan for it.

[A_B]

Our pva is aggressive about reassessing but they just use comps which is probably standard. Our house got appraised for about 15% more than we paid this year.

[blundercrush]

Only ever owned a condo. Have minor experience in having contractors rebuild stairs in condo complex. This is my 2 cents

DO NOT BUY A HOUSE YOU HAVE TO DO A MAJOR REMODEL ON. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Way too much money/time/suffering for a major remodel on a house you are living in.

[mister d]

Ours is 3%, but they find a way to get around it every year. The $30 million municipal building project ain't going to help. Speaking of mortgage undervaluing, my mortgage company insists on going with the 2018 assessment, before the builder doubled the square footage of my new house. They have the taxes at $9,500 lower than the 2019 assessment. I gave them the 2019 number during the mortgage process, and they based all their estimates on that, but at closing and my initial payments, I'm paying the 2018 rate. My lawyer said to expect the mortgage company to hit me up for $7,000 extra in Q3 to make up for the escrow deficiency when the Town posts the 2019 estimates. Fucked up way of doing business, mostly by the Town. At least we know this up front, and I'm not going to spend the money anyways, but tht could really fuck people up if they don't expect or plan for it.

We know people here who bought a (very nice) gut-renovation whose realtor didn't disclose that it was going to nearly double their taxes.

[BSF21]

Only ever owned a condo. Have minor experience in having contractors rebuild stairs in condo complex. This is my 2 cents

DO NOT BUY A HOUSE YOU HAVE TO DO A MAJOR REMODEL ON. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Way too much money/time/suffering for a major remodel on a house you are living in.

Did the condo association hire the contractor (low low low bid) or did you personally hire it?

[Brontoburglar]

went with house one. offer at 15K under asking should be sent in. it's move-in ready and contractor said we can do what we want for the ballpark that we were prepared for and it's in the neighborhood I've always wanted to live in.

also realized that as a side benefit of these planned add-ons that we'd have a space in the garage for a third car. it's the biggest two-car garage I've ever seen with room for us to build a couple walls and add a home gym

[BSF21]

went with house one. offer at 15K under asking should be sent in. it's move-in ready and contractor said we can do what we want for the ballpark that we were prepared for and it's in the neighborhood I've always wanted to live in.

also realized that as a side benefit of these planned add-ons that we'd have a space in the garage for a third car. it's the biggest two-car garage I've ever seen with room for us to build a couple walls and add a home gym

Bonne chance you buff motherfucker.

[Johnnie]

Only ever owned a condo. Have minor experience in having contractors rebuild stairs in condo complex. This is my 2 cents

DO NOT BUY A HOUSE YOU HAVE TO DO A MAJOR REMODEL ON. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.

Way too much money/time/suffering for a major remodel on a house you are living in.

Well, depends on the remodel. I bought my house with the intent to remodel the kitchen. It's in a good area.

However, the flat roof with the TPO not being slanted angers me because I have a pool when it rains. Not a big deal, ultimately, but that led to a couple of leaky areas in the ceiling because the water drained improperly from the canales.

But I do have aluminum wiring. It'll have to be pigtailed when I go to sell. My kitchen remodel was all done in copper. Unless I just spring for the upgrade to copper all throughout the house, which depending upon the price, I might do.

[Brontoburglar]

went with house one. offer at 15K under asking should be sent in. it's move-in ready and contractor said we can do what we want for the ballpark that we were prepared for and it's in the neighborhood I've always wanted to live in.

also realized that as a side benefit of these planned add-ons that we'd have a space in the garage for a third car. it's the biggest two-car garage I've ever seen with room for us to build a couple walls and add a home gym

got it for 11.4 under which is what we wanted ... and before we accepted their counter I asked for them to take care of the crap ton of leaves sitting all over the yard. I don't want to do that for two houses this winter

[Square Rob]

Congrats. Living in the neighborhood you want is critical to me.

Tomorrow ends our period of two mortgage payments, fingers crossed. Three years ago we bought a lot on the lake here planning to build. During that period though both the wife and I had job responsibilities change which would have made construction very difficult (both traveling a lot, both when here tied to work responsibilities all day). Multiple people told me that you need to visit the build site everyday to validate the little work being done, even with reputable contractors. So we got cold feet. Wife walked up to the owner of a house we always loved and asked him if he’d sell. The night before we signed our contract with the builder they called back and we haggled a price over the phone. Great decision and we love the place. Been trying to sell the lake lot for two years now and finally look like we have it off. We will lose a little money, but are ok with it.

[Brontoburglar]

inspection was today. gotta think we're going to get 10-15K knocked off this house or have the major issues fixed. the furnace is older than me!

[testuser2]

Good luck on the inspection. We are in the process of building. Under roof and starting to get some heating/electrical installed. Location was key for us as well. I'll be able to walk to work.

[Brontoburglar]

inspection was today. gotta think we're going to get 10-15K knocked off this house or have the major issues fixed. the furnace is older than me!

it's gonna be more than that if we actually end up going through with this

and found out that the guy who lives next door across the creek -- who I believe is doing some/most/all? of the work on this house as he has a properties LLC and his mother is the owner based on my internet research -- has a warrant out for his arrest for felony fleeing of an accident scene because he was driving on a suspended license for at least the third time and has multiple DWI convictions

[mister d]

Judgmental much???

[Brontoburglar]

inspection was today. gotta think we're going to get 10-15K knocked off this house or have the major issues fixed. the furnace is older than me!

it's gonna be more than that if we actually end up going through with this

and found out that the guy who lives next door across the creek -- who I believe is doing some/most/all? of the work on this house as he has a properties LLC and his mother is the owner based on my internet research -- has a warrant out for his arrest for felony fleeing of an accident scene because he was driving on a suspended license for at least the third time and has multiple DWI convictions

we backed out. needed 40K off the house to make it worth it because ...

- roof needed significant repairs (just honestly needed to be replaced to call it good)
- plumbing had some non-conforming things that needed to be brought up to spec
- electrical panel needed some stuff redone
- furnace was from 1983 and they had painted over the serial # on the AC so it was probably ancient too. furnace had a cracked vent that might have been leaking CO (there were no CO monitors in the house so we didn't know for sure!)
- the new showers were not grouted properly and had holes in them where water would leak through
- the guy flipping the house did amateur piering work in the garage instead of calling a foundation company and it was already separating from the wall
- myriad other minor issues that the inspectors said shouldn't exist with a flip

they only came down $10K and claimed that they had replaced parts in the furnace and AC (come on), and would do a couple minor things like regrouting the showers. we didn't want him touching the house at all given how badly he had done stuff to begin with.

great house, great lot, great neighborhood, but we're not investing in a money pit. should be fun living with the parents again/splitting time at LA's apartment after my house closes until we get this all figured out

[blundercrush]

Oof, sorry Bronto, always sucks to find out there's more wrong under the hood, even if you were willing to do a major renovation. We got pretty lucky with my condo, the roof had already been replaced, and the only thing "bad" was a hot water heater. There was other stuff later outside the building, but that at least got split up between all of the owners.