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Elephanthead posted:If you are serious about the house just pull the meter and turn on the juice long enough to do the inspection. They seriously just put two caps on the back of the meter to turn off power. Say the previous owner did it. Don't electrocute yourself. Homeownership ain't for the weak. I don't think I can express in words how much you should not do this.
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Aug 16, 2014 14:21
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shortspecialbus posted:I don't think I can express in words how much you should not do this.
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Aug 17, 2014 01:23
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Elephanthead posted:If you are serious about the house just pull the meter and turn on the juice long enough to do the inspection. They seriously just put two caps on the back of the meter to turn off power. Say the previous owner did it. Don't electrocute yourself. Homeownership ain't for the weak. I'm definitely not going to do this. Even if it wasn't totally illegal, the house has been empty for two years, and no one is going to believe that the previous owner happened to showed up and turn on the power during the week of my home inspection
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Aug 17, 2014 05:05
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You guys probably should all stay renters.
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Aug 17, 2014 12:43
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Elephanthead posted:You guys probably should all stay renters. Maybe Cost of rent here is way more than the cost of owning, for the same square footage. For the price that I'm getting the foreclosed house, I'll be saving an extra $800/month vs renting (yes, rent price/sqft here is that high), before repairs but after taxes, insurance, HOA, etc. A lot of things would have to go wrong in order to wipe out those savings. The only thing stopping the sale is the REO bank failing to give a piece of paper to the electric company. It's going to be very sad if this sinks our purchase, because there's simply no way that we're going to purchase a house that hasn't had its electrical system inspected while the power is on.
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Aug 17, 2014 20:10
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QuarkJets posted:I'm definitely not going to do this. Even if it wasn't totally illegal, the house has been empty for two years, and no one is going to believe that the previous owner happened to showed up and turn on the power during the week of my home inspection Find an inspector with a generator.
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Aug 17, 2014 21:18
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b0lt posted:Find an inspector with a generator. Why not just call the electric company and tell them to turn it on? It's not like they're going to ask for your deed or something. As long as you foot the bill and follow their process they won't care what your relationship to the house is.
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Aug 17, 2014 21:37
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Leviathan Song posted:Why not just call the electric company and tell them to turn it on? It's not like they're going to ask for your deed or something. As long as you foot the bill and follow their process they won't care what your relationship to the house is. My wife did this, and they've stated that they can't turn on the power until they get some document from the REO bank. Normally you just pay a flat fee for the day, but not in this case. They won't tell us what that document is. The fact that the bank has taken over a month to procure this document worries me greatly e: I'd like to call the electric company again tomorrow, just to be sure that they can't turn on the electricity at this house for a day. I've been told by a few different inspectors that the electric company does this all the time for foreclosed properties in the area, so maybe when my wife spoke to them they just misunderstood what she wanted QuarkJets fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Aug 17, 2014 |
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Aug 17, 2014 21:50
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I've also considered submitting an addendum that lowers the sale price if the bank doesn't hurry up and get the electricity turned on. There's no guarantee that they'd sign it, but at least it would inform them that we're really serious about walking if they don't do something. If they do sign it, then we get the cost of rewiring the house knocked off of the sales price and we find an inspector with a generator. Another weird detail: the REO bank did authorize us to get the electricity turned on ourselves, so I'm guessing that whatever paperwork that needs to be submitted is likely just something that they've lost
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Aug 17, 2014 22:07
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Oh no, we just received our conditional loan approval, and one of the conditions is that the price has to not decrease at all, or else the entire loan has to be reprocessed. That's... kind of weird. It seems like having to borrow less money shouldn't be a condition for restarting the entire loan process.
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Aug 19, 2014 09:09
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QuarkJets posted:Oh no, we just received our conditional loan approval, and one of the conditions is that the price has to not decrease at all, or else the entire loan has to be reprocessed. That's... kind of weird. It seems like having to borrow less money shouldn't be a condition for restarting the entire loan process. This is something I'm concerned about too since I'm going to sign the official paperwork today and attend the inspection. It seems strange that they'd have to reprocess the whole thing. I mean....if they do, can't they just do it in 5 minutes with a different number and not re-run everything? Or would they keep the "sale price" the same, but apply credits from the seller to the loan to lower the amount you officially have to borrow in your name? Either way, seems a strange thing.
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Aug 19, 2014 12:29
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My understanding is that it's easier for a lender to apply credits than to change the amount loaned because of Reasons. My cynical guess is that once you've committed to a loan from the lender, they immediately shop around to sell it and the idea of having to change that shopping price from $X to $X-Y is problematic for them due to Other Reasons.
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Aug 19, 2014 13:10
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I haven't been down to Charleston SC in a few years and holy poo poo when did houses get so high down there? I wonder what I can get down there with 125k? I know in Columbia I can get some nice places, but I'm not too sure about Charleston though.
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Aug 19, 2014 15:51
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QuarkJets posted:Oh no, we just received our conditional loan approval, and one of the conditions is that the price has to not decrease at all, or else the entire loan has to be reprocessed. That's... kind of weird. It seems like having to borrow less money shouldn't be a condition for restarting the entire loan process. Unless the bank is completely insane that shouldn't require reviewing the entire loan over. That's the sort of change that could be made by our underwriting help desk in about 2 minutes as long as your broker had already uploaded the amendment to the purchase contract to our system. The main concern there is that technically the appraiser needs to review the complete contract including all amendments so if you change the price at the last second the bank may require the appraiser to review it and update the report to show the new purchase price, depending on how strict they are. This can hold up closing of the appraiser is busy, on vacation, or whatever. There are a few other edge cases where it can cause problems, but it's generally not a big deal.
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Aug 19, 2014 16:13
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Just signed all my paperwork for the VA loan on the new place. The rates look OK, and I'm excited to go forward. We came in at about 3.75% MAX, but rates should be below that. I feel like I'm getting a pretty decent deal out of it. Lets cross our fingers no the appraisal!
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Aug 19, 2014 16:14
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So, galvanized pipes.  Get your pipes checked, goons. All told I had a much, much better bill than I expected - for $505 parts and labor, I had two 4-foot lengths of galvanized pipe (these) replaced with new copper, had two other copper-galvanized joins separated properly by dielectric unions, a new kitchen faucet installed, and 2 new ballcocks installed to fix some slowly-filling toilet tanks. I got off lucky. If I had let these pipes go until winter and they burst...
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Aug 19, 2014 16:29
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Gonna end up going with AAA for auto/house combo. Even with the AAA membership my annual premium will be over $300 less than the next closest option.
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Aug 19, 2014 21:23
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fknlo posted:Gonna end up going with AAA for auto/house combo. Even with the AAA membership my annual premium will be over $300 less than the next closest option. That was my experience also. Free towing ahoy!
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Aug 19, 2014 22:13
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Elephanthead posted:If you are serious about the house just pull the meter and turn on the juice long enough to do the inspection. They seriously just put two caps on the back of the meter to turn off power. Say the previous owner did it. Don't electrocute yourself. Homeownership ain't for the weak. b0lt posted:Find an inspector with a generator. Both of you guys gave advice that could literally kill someone. I want you to think about that. If you are just brainstorming ideas, fine, phrase them as questions, like "would it be dangerous to just hook up a generator?" At least b0lt suggested something that won't happen (no inspector would just attach a generator to a house) but it's still possible someone would get a bright idea from that that could lead to a house fire or electrocution.
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Aug 19, 2014 22:26
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Leperflesh posted:Both of you guys gave advice that could literally kill someone. I want you to think about that. If you are just brainstorming ideas, fine, phrase them as questions, like "would it be dangerous to just hook up a generator?" This is totally untrue. Inspectors of foreclosures energize houses with generators all the drat time. e:  HUD did that. PuTTY riot fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Aug 19, 2014 |
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Aug 19, 2014 22:44
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If the house was already set up to have a generator hooked up, then yes you can energize it that way. Otherwise, you are risking the life of a lineman upstream of the house by potentially sending current up the wires. There's a reason you are not supposed to just go to home depot, buy a generator, and hook it up to your house's panel without any other work/prep. My understanding is that you must install either an interlock kit (which are apparently illegal in many places) or a manual transfer switch. Homes in places prone to power failure (like where hurricanes are common) may commonly have these setups already, and in those cases it's probably easy for an inspector to hook up or bypass with a portable generator.
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Aug 19, 2014 23:12
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I have no such setup, it's just a regular panel (we bought a house that never had the plumbing turned on for inspection, lol).
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Aug 19, 2014 23:35
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Here's another one on a random house I found on hudhomestore.com (look under addendums for the PCR)
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Aug 19, 2014 23:38
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PuTTY riot posted:I have no such setup, it's just a regular panel (we bought a house that never had the plumbing turned on for inspection, lol). Well I dunno what to tell you, then. Running a generator directly into a panel is illegal here, and should be illegal everywhere. For example, a lineworker unaware that your home is capable of pushing power into the network could be killed.
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Aug 19, 2014 23:46
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Leperflesh posted:Well I dunno what to tell you, then. Running a generator directly into a panel is illegal here, and should be illegal everywhere. For example, a lineworker unaware that your home is capable of pushing power into the network could be killed. I've looked at 5-6 now all across the country and every single HUD owned property that gets a PCR seems to be tested via generator. Maybe they have some special setup that doesn't energize upstream?
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Aug 19, 2014 23:59
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Hmm maybe. Maybe there's a formal process for informing the utility, or maybe it's only viable because the house is already isolated from the grid. I dunno.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:03
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Well god dammit. We did the home inspection and everything looked great! Except...the fridge didn't work. And the repair guy had left a note on the counter explaining that it didn't work and that repair was impossible-it needs to be replaced. Ok great, we'll talk to the sellers. Then we got the Radon readings. It came back at 14. Anything 4 and below are acceptable. Granted, this was in the basement, but gently caress. What are we supposed to do now? Just hope the sellers grant us a few grand for radon rehabilitating? Its a split level home too. Will I need to get radon work done on the basement AND the ground floor, or just the basement? Terrible to have all of this potentially fall through because of this.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:20
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If it's not an FHA loan, the fridge is not important (you can buy a cheap fridge for like $500 and if you make the sellers do it, they'll get the cheapest loving fridge they can find). The radon needs to be mitigated. The sellers should do it before you buy, and it probably won't be all that expensive - I think it just involves installing some kind of ventilation/fan system.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:24
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PuTTY riot posted:I've looked at 5-6 now all across the country and every single HUD owned property that gets a PCR seems to be tested via generator. Maybe they have some special setup that doesn't energize upstream? All you would need to do is shut off the main breaker and the generator would not energize past your house.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:25
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Leperflesh posted:If it's not an FHA loan, the fridge is not important (you can buy a cheap fridge for like $500 and if you make the sellers do it, they'll get the cheapest loving fridge they can find). Its a VA loan and I'm not really upset about the fridge. I wanted a new one anyways, and the selling agreement included a fridge, so they'll have to replace it. I'd rather them just give me a credit and *I* will go and buy a fridge. We'll see how ti goes, this was all today.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:27
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Jastiger posted:Its a VA loan and I'm not really upset about the fridge. I wanted a new one anyways, and the selling agreement included a fridge, so they'll have to replace it. I'd rather them just give me a credit and *I* will go and buy a fridge. We'll see how ti goes, this was all today. I just went through the radon thing myself, when the radon test came back with 11.8. Here's a copy of what we put: quote:The Buyer removes the radon test contingency provided that: I wrote that up to cover the fact that radon re-tests aren't necessarily accurate right after the system was installed and there may be a lingering high reading for a bit. It also put limits and conditions on what the seller had to deal with after the fact if the first work didn't do enough. They accepted and spent about $850 on a system that got it below 4, and we never had to worry about most of it. We had a conventional loan with like 65% down - no idea how this would affect other loans.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:20
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shortspecialbus posted:I just went through the radon thing myself, when the radon test came back with 11.8. Here's a copy of what we put: But...if it didn't get fully fixed, you'd be left with the high radon levels. Still you can't ask the seller to work magic. Not a bad idea.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:49
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Jastiger posted:Will I need to get radon work done on the basement AND the ground floor, or just the basement?
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Aug 20, 2014 03:16
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Jastiger posted:But...if it didn't get fully fixed, you'd be left with the high radon levels. Still you can't ask the seller to work magic. Not a bad idea. Whereabouts are you? The radon company our sellers got a quote for was basically "this $950 quote guarantees radon levels below 4 as long as the fan is working." And yes, the sellers should do it. Again, now that they have a test (I guess depending on your state, this is the way it is in MA) they have to put this on the disclosures sheet to any other prospective buyer. At this point you either lower your offer or they pay for it.
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Aug 20, 2014 04:32
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uwaeve posted:Whereabouts are you? The radon company our sellers got a quote for was basically "this $950 quote guarantees radon levels below 4 as long as the fan is working." I think the one they used also guaranteed it. I added the provision in there so that there was some sort of plan for if the initial work didn't do enough and we weren't scrambling trying to figure out what to do. But yeah, it ultimately ran a small risk of not being enough, but 11.8 isn't *that* high where you'd really need to be worried that it wouldn't be enough. I talked to our home inspector and he's seen houses hit 75 and an inspector he's friends with once found one in the 200s. He ran 3 tests to be sure.
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Aug 20, 2014 14:18
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God I love my condo. I haven't had a single issue with anything and my neighbors are that beautiful combination of either friendly and/or reclusive. I think it's partially because a lot of retired people live out here but I think people are just happier here too. Almost everyone has a pet. I think it's funny I technically took a significant step down in home value but ended up in a much better community/area. Sephiroth_IRA fucked around with this message at 18:54 on Aug 20, 2014 |
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Aug 20, 2014 18:52
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Not sure if this is the best place for this but - I'm thinking about replacing the windows in the house I recently purchased. The home was built in 1924, not sure when the windows were last replaced. The current ones are fairly drafty, so higher heating/cooling bills plus if you sit near them it is uncomfortable. More importantly for me, they let in a lot of noise, and my neighbor likes to sit on his front steps and chat (city rowhome, his front steps are connected to mine). Finally, some of the windows have broken sashes so they have to be propped open, and two have broken locks. Any suggestions? Good resources to look at? Not sure if I should get replacement windows or new construction windows - from what I've read I should do replacement windows because they are cheaper/less work, but I'm worried that the drafts could be caused by the frames, in which case I just updated them for nothing. I assume if I do replacement windows I can just install them myself?
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Aug 20, 2014 21:37
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Ranma posted:Not sure if this is the best place for this but - I'm thinking about replacing the windows in the house I recently purchased. The home was built in 1924, not sure when the windows were last replaced. The current ones are fairly drafty, so higher heating/cooling bills plus if you sit near them it is uncomfortable. More importantly for me, they let in a lot of noise, and my neighbor likes to sit on his front steps and chat (city rowhome, his front steps are connected to mine). Finally, some of the windows have broken sashes so they have to be propped open, and two have broken locks. There is a Fix it thread in CC that will give you better replies on this, but if the windows are being replaced, other than just the pane, the installer should be insulating and sealing the area around the edge of the window with foam and caulk. You will want to look at replacement windows as new construction are meant to be installed during construction. Either you or a salesman will take measurements and then a new unit will be made to fit. Pretty much all of them will be double pane, sealed with inert gas, and all that. Home depot or lowes should be able to set you up with something, or better ask a contractor. Expect to pay a few hundred to several thousand per window with installation, however some companies include the install in the purchase price.
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Aug 21, 2014 01:11
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Ranma posted:Not sure if this is the best place for this but - I'm thinking about replacing the windows in the house I recently purchased. The home was built in 1924, not sure when the windows were last replaced. The current ones are fairly drafty, so higher heating/cooling bills plus if you sit near them it is uncomfortable. More importantly for me, they let in a lot of noise, and my neighbor likes to sit on his front steps and chat (city rowhome, his front steps are connected to mine). Finally, some of the windows have broken sashes so they have to be propped open, and two have broken locks. Idiot who bought a house built in 1890 checking in. I'm currently in the same predicament. I'm about to order a few replacement windows (at $250-350 per ...ouch) and install them to give them a trial. What is relatively easy, however, is fixing the sashes. You have to get specially made sash cord (not cheap, but nothing terrible), use clothing line and it will stretch and you'll be back at square one. Either watch some This Old House or youtube videos. DO NOT do chains. 1) They're loving lame and you have a sweet old house, keep the character and 2) They're noisy. When you have a properly fixed window sash you will be able to open and close with 1 finger. It's loving glorious and way nicer than the modern vinyl windows. This Old House also has recos for replacement wood windows that you install in your existing frame yourself, I'm on the road, but just poke around their FAQs.
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Aug 21, 2014 01:13
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We closed! We have the keys in our hand. Somehow this is more scary than actually going through the purchasing process.
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Aug 22, 2014 05:17
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