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Gabriel S. posted:Getting back on topic has anyone ever lived in a studio or even something smaller like a Micro-Apartment? I'm talking about less than 600 Square Feet but usually around 200-400sqft. They're affordable, in dense urban areas and it's been described to me kind of like living in a yacht. The ones I've been looking at are pretty well designed with custom hidden closets, high-end appliances, etc. Back in grad school I lived in a 1 BR that was about that big. It had a bedroom in the back and a small "living room" attached to a galley kitchen. In a normal apartment that would have been the kitchen and dining nook but, well, college town. I want to say it was ~500sqft but it's been a long time. No where near as small as 200 though, that's jail cell territory. It wasn't bad as a single guy who could fit all of his belongings in the back of a car. The bedroom was big enough to throw a mattress in, the "living area" was big enough for a computer desk, chair, and a stack of books, and the kitchen was basic as poo poo but sufficed for making hamburger helper. As a 20-something who was happy to spend most of his life either in a classroom, library, or bar and just needed a place to crash for a few hours a night and surf forums now and again it was fine. I have fond memories of that time in my life, but that has more to do with being in my mid-20s and spending half of my life in bars with interesting people. As a dude in his late 30s? I can't loving imagine doing that. Hell, even back then I leapt at the opportunity to pool resources with my girlfriend and move into a normal 2BR apartment.
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Dec 1, 2020 03:21
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I lived in a maybe 250sqft apartment for a bit while working in Japan. The bathroom was probably larger than my bedroom, and the galley kitchen made cooking a challenge. My bed doubled as my couch and having any other people over was basically impossible. About the only good thing I can say about the experience is that it was affordable, the subway entrance was within spitting distance, and I never heard my neighbors. It was definitely not high end but I don't think better fixtures would have made my time there less miserable. Would not recommend. Sirotan fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Dec 1, 2020 |
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Dec 1, 2020 03:39
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:Only you know your agent, ours countered our intuition in both directions and was right each time. What are the closest comparables (similar square footage, no big renos) going for? If the market is hot, it's probably not selling that much below those and this property is priced to sell. 2) Directly across the street from ours, similar footprint but with 1.5 stories, brand new oak kitchen with new appliances, larger dining room, move in ready apartment below, detached garage, in pretty much perfect condition without any caveats. Max+90, sold August 30th 3) North of us, a similar square footage and longer lot, detached garage, slightly nicer finishings (bathrooms and kitchen), pretty similar basement (not ready to be an apartment, but nicely finished), beautiful back deck with built in beverage fridges, an awesome treehouse for kids. Hard to find any faults with it except white appliances look odd in the kitchen and you can't use the basement as an apartment. Max-10k. Sold June 23rd
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Dec 1, 2020 04:13
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Gabriel S. posted:Getting back on topic has anyone ever lived in a studio or even something smaller like a Micro-Apartment? I'm talking about less than 600 Square Feet but usually around 200-400sqft. They're affordable, in dense urban areas and it's been described to me kind of like living in a yacht. The ones I've been looking at are pretty well designed with custom hidden closets, high-end appliances, etc. I don't have a good comparison to give (because this is clearly not the sort of thing you're talking about), but you just gave me nightmarish flashbacks to my 80-sq-ft apartment during 1st-semester of junior year of college.  I moved out at the end of the semester because it was completely unlivable.
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Dec 1, 2020 04:25
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Those don't sound like great comps based on how you're describing them. Are more comparable size/style/condition homes not selling frequently in your area?
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Dec 1, 2020 04:27
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Motronic posted:Those don't sound like great comps based on how you're describing them. I mean, there's stuff selling about a 7-8 minute drive south that is far worse in fit and finish selling for max-50k that will probably sell for max+50k. But they're close to decent transit, and usually some poor bastard will pay to live in a bad basement apartment if there's good transit. A little to the east and a new LRT line will transform the whole area. A little to the west is a mess of low rent towers and extremely nice million dollar homes. A little to the north is the huge (nightly racing) highway and the main landing flight path for the international airport. It's a pretty complex area. If I didn't have these comparables from right around the place, I would be lost and probably bidding my max just because everything else was max+50k for something my wife can get to downtown from. Not a whole lot is going up for sale in this area.
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Dec 1, 2020 04:48
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ScooterMcTiny posted:Bringing it back to home buying, we are supposed to close Thursday, and the underwriter came back today asking for more docs despite asking them every day for 2 weeks if they needed anything else. I'm in a similar boat. I already gave the underwriter stuff a week ago and now that are asking for paystubs again. Like I haven't even gotten a new pay check since the last time I sent it to the loan officer.
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Dec 1, 2020 05:14
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Sirotan posted:I lived in a maybe 250sqft apartment for a bit while working in Japan. Sigh. I was kind of thinking to myself I'd be able to get by with this with being downtown and able to get out of the house since I could just walk anywhere. Part of the reason I want to do this is because the West Coast is incredibly expensive and I could "theoretically" pay off the whole place before I am fifty which means early retirement! 
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Dec 1, 2020 05:17
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Gabriel S. posted:Getting back on topic has anyone ever lived in a studio or even something smaller like a Micro-Apartment? I'm talking about less than 600 Square Feet but usually around 200-400sqft. They're affordable, in dense urban areas and it's been described to me kind of like living in a yacht. The ones I've been looking at are pretty well designed with custom hidden closets, high-end appliances, etc. I lived in a 440 sq ft studio apartment for a couple years around the age of 23 to 25. It was fine for me at that stage of my life. I don't know that I could do it again, especially with Covid-19 right now. I mean I guess I could, but I don't know that I would want to. I did not entertain, and I did not have a girlfriend when I lived in the studio apartment. It was plenty of space for what I needed, which was a place to sleep, but generally I was pretty busy with work during those years. I ate out a lot so the kitchen didn't matter much, and the combo living/bedroom wasn't a big deal to me. I had a full size bed where a couch would normally go, and a computer desk where the dining room table would go. 440 sq ft is a pretty large studio apartment I guess. It never really felt cramped, but then again I was never really home back then. These days I live in a 3400 sq ft house with my wife and 2 kids and let me tell you I love every bit of the space we have, especially with us being basically inside since March. Tons of space and I love it. I think smaller living quarters work out well if you're only really using the space as a place to sleep and it's just 1 person. I couldn't imagine working from home the last 8 months in a studio apartment. I mentally need the space separation. I work from home now, and have worked from home for the last 4 years or so, but I mentally need a dedicated work space that's only used for work. When I'm in my office I'm at work. When I leave my office and shut the door, I'm off work. I couldn't deal with associating work with my living room or bedroom.
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Dec 1, 2020 05:34
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I completely agree with keeping work separate from everything else. My personal computer, desk, personal pc, employer laptop, customer laptop, ipad, etc. are all jammed into one small room ever since covid eliminated business travel. 
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Dec 1, 2020 05:43
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:Servicing will change too, so there's really no point in even paying attention to it. Just chase the best rates from any lender that won't gently caress around and screw up closing. Not always. I specifically stuck with my CU for a slightly higher rate because the simplicity of having servicing through them has value to me. It was sold within weeks to one of the F's, can't remember which. My CU retains servicing for life. It also made closing funding easy because I just authorized them to take the closing funds out of my account and they wired it along with their much larger amount of money. They're not gonna gently caress that up (they probably could).
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Dec 1, 2020 06:53
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Micro apartment: 300 sq ft is about what you get (usable floorspace) on a 35' or possibly 40' sailboat. There are lots of people living on sailboats all over the world. The big benefit of a sailboat is that you can live in Fiji or Bora Bora or Tasmania, rather than some concrete megablock which makes it bearable I lived in a 600 sq ft 1 bedroom and that's about as small as I would want to live as a salaried adult. It's important to buy correctly proportioned furniture as well; smaller furniture can have the same 18" x 18" "butt area" but occupy less floor space. Places like pottery barn build furniture proportioned for a 4,500 sq ft mcmansion and will make your 600sq ft house feel "cozy" which is a polite word for "cramped". Good windows help a lot WFH: File me under "pretty sure WFH benefits will be grandfathered in for current employees, but will become a 'use it or lose it' benefit; new employees won't be offered WFH" vote; in five years wfh will be up compared to 2018 but less than 15% as people realize that only people who come into the office every day are getting raises and promotions Economy: housing market is hot because people who don't work in the service industry aren't appreciably impacted by covid19; 10% of the population works in food/alcohol, but they only make up 4% of the GDP, and of that 10% most workers were not eligible for a standard mortgage anyways so it's kind of a moot point. In three years "K shaped recovery" is going to be a major talking point in the debate for "fight for $15" protests to raise the federal minimum wage The economy at this point is going to recover admirably as vaccines roll out through next summer, bolstered by pretty generous government handouts to businesses (somebody pointed out that the government won't let fortune 500 businesses fail anymore, I agree with this) - OR - something terrible is going to happen before wide scale vaccine roll out, either it doesn't work, people refuse to take it, the virus mutates unexpectedly, aliens invade, china sparks nuclear war in the south china sea, ice 9, whatever and we rock back into a serious recession What I'm really wondering about is will what happened to our parents, happen to us? That is, everybody buys the family house, and then we have three straight years of 4% inflation, followed by six years of +2%, making the house payments incredibly cheap at the end of ten years. When I graduated from high school my friends mom's respectable 3/2 house had a mortgage payment on par with a maket rate lovely 1 bedroom apartment and basically worked part time to pay the mortgage
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Dec 1, 2020 09:02
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Mr. Powers posted:Not always. I specifically stuck with my CU for a slightly higher rate because the simplicity of having servicing through them has value to me. It was sold within weeks to one of the F's, can't remember which. My CU retains servicing for life. So you're paying thousands+ of dollars for... I guess someone who might be less annoying to call if they miss a tax payment?
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Dec 1, 2020 14:57
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Hadlock posted:What I'm really wondering about is will what happened to our parents, happen to us? That is, everybody buys the family house, and then we have three straight years of 4% inflation, followed by six years of +2%, making the house payments incredibly cheap at the end of ten years. When I graduated from high school my friends mom's respectable 3/2 house had a mortgage payment on par with a maket rate lovely 1 bedroom apartment and basically worked part time to pay the mortgage Could you go into more detail on this topic? I'm not well versed in this kind of history, I suspect you are referring to baby boomers?
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Dec 1, 2020 15:27
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Update after meeting with a GC to look at the foundation and water drainage around the house: Right side near the garage has a grading issue that may have been part of reason for pressure on the foundation. He recommended French drain along the side of the house and to point the gutter drain toward the street rather than back of the house. There was no flashing to divert water into the gutter right above where the ground level where the basement starts and there was maybe a 1/2 inch gap forming between house and concrete. He recommended epoxy and flashing to divert the water. Last thing was perplexing because left side which is not below ground showed water intrusion. We looked around the outside and found a maybe 1.5 inch gap where small piece of brick had collapsed inward and there was no flashing there either. I felt better after walking the house with the GC and we may go forward now. Repairs seem very minor and we looked at some other houses in the area and this basement looks to be in significantly better shape than anything else we saw (granted it’s only 7 years old).
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Dec 1, 2020 16:21
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Cyrano4747 posted:Back in grad school I lived in a 1 BR that was about that big. It had a bedroom in the back and a small "living room" attached to a galley kitchen. In a normal apartment that would have been the kitchen and dining nook but, well, college town. I want to say it was ~500sqft but it's been a long time. No where near as small as 200 though, that's jail cell territory. My apartment is 350~sqft currently, and it's gonna be home while my partner finishes school. It was either a huge apartment with lots of roommates and no privacy or small one. Just 2 people, 2 cats and 3 smallish rooms (and a loving closest sized bathroom). The kitchen is pretty large which was the main draw of the apartment in the first place. Its price for the area and location are really good. The location would be way cooler if the pandemic wasn't going on and shutting down everything cool nearby. Im a definitely a city mouse by nature, and would prefer a smaller space if its within walking distance of cool stuff instead of a big space in the woods. The size really made me reconsider a lot of the things I have and never use. I threw away a lot and bought a some new stuff that fit in the apartment better. The apartment came with the worlds biggest loving couch stuck in the smallest room, so once we sell that and buy something smaller it'll feel way better. The high ceilings make it feel bigger, and we have become very fond of how wall shelves make small spaces look great. Our layout is carefully planned but we're already feeling like theres not much more to optimize. Luckily, we'll be outta here in 1.5~ years max. Our hope is that in the future we can get a place close-ish to the city, cash in on some teacher loan benefits and I can pull some bucks from retirement funds to get a small but mighty home.
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Dec 1, 2020 18:58
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BRAKE FOR MOOSE posted:So you're paying thousands+ of dollars for... I guess someone who might be less annoying to call if they miss a tax payment? I'm paying thousands of dollars to never have to worry about figuring out who to send this months mortgage payment to. It's not like their rate wasn't competitive, it just wasn't the absolute lowest that was available to me. I'm poorly organized when it comes to things like that (you should see me with medical bills), and so it's a relatively small cost for me to not have to pay much attention to that. My prior mortgage was all through one servicer and they changed web systems after a few years and that was annoying enough. E: I don't remember the exact rate delta, but I know it was under 0.125%. When looking at PITI it is an increased cost to me of under 1%. There are many things I could do to recover that money like move down a tier in internet speeds, go out to eat one fewer times per month, drive slower on my work commutes. carticket fucked around with this message at 20:46 on Dec 1, 2020 |
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Dec 1, 2020 20:40
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You can't get an FHA mortgage on on a condo under 400 sq ft. With a conventional mortgage some lenders require 400-600 sq ft, so it is harder to get a competitive rate on a very small studio. A 350 sq ft home could have a lower purchase price but a higher monthly out of pocket cost than a 400+sq ft unit because of the financing, and many of the low down payment loans won't be possible. When you sell your future buyers will have the same problem, it isn't going to appreciate as much. It probably makes more sense to rent if you are looking at very small studios. But it could still make sense if that is really what you want, you plan to stay for a while or rent it out later, and you won't have nearly as much competition as with larger units. There are lots of people who live in an RV or a sailboat or a very small apartment. But most people would be more comfortable in a bigger home. Only you can decide what will work for you. Not sure where you are on the west coast, but CA passed a law recently that limits how much HOA can restrict rentals in the future. HOA can cap rentals at 25%, but no more restrictive than that. Can require rentals are for at least 30 days, occupancy restrictions before permitting rentals are not allowed. If you own your unit before the rental restriction is added you are exempt. If there are already more than 25% rentals when you buy, don't plan on renting your unit out later though. Also make sure you run the financials before deciding to rent it out, look at what your real turnover costs and maintenance is, factor in vacancy, not just the mortgage+HOA vs rent.
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Dec 1, 2020 21:09
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Feeling very calm about the offer day tomorrow. Wish I could have had a professional look at the foundation first, but everything else looked fine.
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Dec 1, 2020 21:29
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redbrouw posted:Feeling very calm about the offer day tomorrow. Wish I could have had a professional look at the foundation first, but everything else looked fine. calm_homebuyer.jpg congrats
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Dec 1, 2020 21:50
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Is refi chat okay here? I posted in another house thread here. Looking at refinancing, got a rate of 2.875 on a 30 yr from a local-ish credit union, no points. I know rates have been low and essentially change daily, does this seem like an okay rate? I have great credit and will probably get another refi offer from another institution, just wanted to see if anyone here has done it recently. I purchased in early 2019 with a rate of 4.5% so my main goal here is just to lower the rate, kicking it back to 30 years isn’t going to affect me much. Spring Heeled Jack fucked around with this message at 03:38 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 03:16
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Gabriel S. posted:Getting back on topic has anyone ever lived in a studio or even something smaller like a Micro-Apartment? I'm talking about less than 600 Square Feet but usually around 200-400sqft. They're affordable, in dense urban areas and it's been described to me kind of like living in a yacht. The ones I've been looking at are pretty well designed with custom hidden closets, high-end appliances, etc. I lived in 5 different sub 400 sqft apartments for 10 years on the west coast with my girlfriend and a cat. It really depends on the layout, and then how you use your space. When we were shopping we looked at a condo which was ostensibly bigger than the apartment we were in, but because of the layout it felt much smaller. Our smallest apartment was 280 sqft. We made it work, for almost 4 years, but our neighbors spaces all seemed super cramped. With the whole WFH thing it might be a little trying. I think the two most important things would be a decent closet and the kitchen being separate from the rest of the space. Those things are tougher with modern construction from what I have seen.
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Dec 2, 2020 04:23
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Jeez, I can't imagine. In Oregon, any dwelling under 350 SF is only permitted for single occupancy so you'd have to lie to have a couple in a micro-studio
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Dec 2, 2020 04:31
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Has anyone gone through the renovate versus buy debate? What were your experiences like? I live in a pretty hot market (central Austin) and absolutely love my neighborhood -- quiet with no HOA, big yard, walkable, 5 minutes from work (if I ever go to the office again). The down side is that my house is too small (1100 sqft) for me and my plans to update it incrementally aren't as feasible as I had imagined. I bought for 340 a couple years ago and most of the houses I've liked nearby are 550-650 and would still require work on top of that, though mostly cosmetic since they are all 1960's builds that have been tainted by various half-assed renos of the 90s/00s or seemingly turned into one giant white 1000 square foot room. Do I hire an architect and/or structural engineer to tell me that it will cost more than my house is worth to build up or out? Browsing design/build projects on Houzz has been useless since the ones who list past project costs only offer estimates like "between 50k and 200k".
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Dec 2, 2020 07:01
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Likely more right now due to post covid. Couple of major questions: (1) Are you intending to add additional bathrooms or expand your kitchen? The kitchen has the highest cost, followed by additional bathrooms. (2) What is the size you are looking for? A "good size" for a lot of families is about 2000 sqft. If that's the case, assume approximately 300-600$/sqft for a remodel. The costs here are, maybe for about 1000 sqft, (a) Structural fees, which will usually be between 5000-15000 (b) Architectural fees, which will usually be between 6000-20000 (c) Permit fees (d) Labor, including Foundation/Concrete, which can be expensive... 20k maybe? Electrical, about 6000-17000 Plumbing, which depends on the scope of work, Framing, also about 6000-25000 Painting, maybe about 6000 This excludes material costs. Of which.... Lumber Faucets Plumbing (pex/copper) Kitchen cabinets Concrete Moulding Electrical wire/panel Appliances Other finishing touches like closets, etc. Those prices are some very wide estimates and a good general contractor would know the numbers better. But the difficulty is finding a good one first.
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Dec 2, 2020 08:42
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ntan1 posted:Likely more right now due to post covid. I have had problems finding the brand or quality I want, any of it at all, and/or paid a lot more for everything on this list since covid. The supply chain is hosed right now so any talk of renos seems like a bad idea. Not to mention contractors being so busy they get to charge more. I was going to tear down my old barn and build a new larger one this year. I can read the writing on the wall so I didn't tear down my barn in May only to be left with either nothing to replace it, a half finished mess or a completed barn that I paid entirely too much for.
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Dec 2, 2020 17:13
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ntan1 posted:Likely more right now due to post covid. Thanks for the rough estimate. The house is a 3/1, 1100 sqft and I'd be aiming for a 3 or 4/2.5 in the 1500-2000 area with remodeled kitchen/bath. I've found no shortage of design and build firms with solid portfolios and reviews, probably because of Austin's crazy growth and how common teardown/rebuild and ADU additions are right now. I'll bite the bullet on a couple I've been looking at and talk to them about estimates -- but probably after covid since I literally can't even get a fence built or furniture delivered without a 3 month backstock right now.
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Dec 2, 2020 18:16
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Spring Heeled Jack posted:Is refi chat okay here? I posted in another house thread here. I started my refi from 4.875 to 3.25 in March and it took until the beginning of June to complete. Like you, I was refinancing a mortgage that began in December 2018. My hold up in the process was that the town I lived in had lease holds on the land, and the mortgage company didn't understand that. Once that was figured out, it was fine. I used the Zillow mortgage search and went with Sebonic. At the time, rates were like 3.15 to 3.25 and I took the higher rate with closing credits. 2.875 is good imho if you can close reasonably quickly. But also, look at the online lenders Zillow shows.
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Dec 2, 2020 19:15
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Quick question about how to "shop around" for mortages: Do you do this at the pre-approval stage, or the actual mortgage application stage? Like, do you get multiple pre-approvals, or do you get one pre-approval, make an offer, then apply for mortgages at different lenders? Is there any reason to not get multiple pre-approvals before making an offer?
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Dec 2, 2020 20:17
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pseudorandom posted:Quick question about how to "shop around" for mortages: Do you do this at the pre-approval stage, or the actual mortgage application stage? Like, do you get multiple pre-approvals, or do you get one pre-approval, make an offer, then apply for mortgages at different lenders? Is there any reason to not get multiple pre-approvals before making an offer? We got a single pre-approval. My understanding was that there wasn't really any reason to get multiple pre-approvals because all the buyer cares is that you've got the basic capacity to get some kind of loan. Once we had an offer accepted we shopped around at all the lenders we could find. The pre-approval didn't really make the process easier at the company we had that from since we had to resubmit most of our paperwork with them anyways. We ended up going with the company that we got our pre-approval from, but by throwing competing offers at them we went from 2.99 buying a full point to 2.5 buying a quarter point.* *at least that's what it was equivalent to. We bought a half point but they kicked us back a bunch of fees so it came out the same as buying a quarter point.
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Dec 2, 2020 20:26
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pseudorandom posted:Quick question about how to "shop around" for mortages: Do you do this at the pre-approval stage, or the actual mortgage application stage? Like, do you get multiple pre-approvals, or do you get one pre-approval, make an offer, then apply for mortgages at different lenders? Is there any reason to not get multiple pre-approvals before making an offer? Wait until you're under contract. Today, you get a pre-approval from whichever lender you like right now. Then make a list of 2-4 other lenders that look OK, but don't bother with a pre-approval from them. After your offer is accepted by a seller, go to town working the lenders. Start as many applications as are free and get loan estimates (they'll run your credit as part of the application, but that's OK because it's all for the same purpose). Once you have something in writing, pick the best offer and show the other lenders and ask them to beat it. Rinse and repeat until you're left with 1 lender. You are only limited here by how much time you want to spend on it, and there's always the risk that tomorrow rates will go up. All a pre-approval is good for is 1) to have an idea that you won't get rejected immediately and 2) because some sellers ask for it (so they don't waste time with a buyer who can't get financing).
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Dec 2, 2020 20:47
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Related: lenders WILL try to rush and guilt you into going with them. they should be told to gently caress themselves, in those words if necessary.
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Dec 2, 2020 22:15
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I am no longer calm about offer day. My agent tried to scare us into upping our price again, without telling me why other than her experience. It was obviously causing my partner a lot of stress as I tried to question our agent why she thought that given the only comparables in the area, so I stopped. I still think I'm right and I'll only be massively outbid by someone not being reasonable, and I put a hard ceiling on the price yesterday. It just sucks that my agent is being coy and then saying "I guess we'll find out the price when they post it to MLS and you'll see." That's kind of a jerk move and I'm surprised. I also asked the sellers if the perennials in their award winning gardens were pollinator friendly, since we were big fans of helping out birds and bees. Turns out they are huge bird watching fans! (which I knew from googling their names because why not). And I was being serious about the pollinators, we might actually keep their wacky garden.
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Dec 2, 2020 23:06
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redbrouw posted:I am no longer calm about offer day. My agent tried to scare us into upping our price again, without telling me why other than her experience. It was obviously causing my partner a lot of stress as I tried to question our agent why she thought that given the only comparables in the area, so I stopped. Not to defend the agent but just consider it from their perspective. It's really tough to win a bid on a house right now - if they feel like you're never going to win a bid then they also feel like they are working for you for free. Their comment seems out of line and unprofessional but they might be frustrated because of that context. I had the opposite problem with my Redfin agent (who earns a salary and gets bonuses based on her clients' feedback). She thought the houses we were looking at were all overpriced and tried to encourage us to bid too low even when we told her that we would be upset if we lost the bid. We weren't at our budget cap. With a different agent we probably would be in a different house right now.
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Dec 2, 2020 23:17
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Shuu posted:Do I hire an architect and/or structural engineer to tell me that it will cost more than my house is worth to build up or out? A local architect would be the best place to start. They aren't going to give you free estimates or anything, but you can pay them a reasonable amount to discuss some options (without actually doing plans). They'll have an understanding of local codes/requirements and be able to ballpark costs. Normally, the rule of thumb is that these kinds of large additions aren't worth it. That is, you'd be better off selling and buying what you want. However, this calculus changes if the land is what's truly valuable. Of course, not everything in life needs to be a strict dollar calculation, but the construction of an addition is pretty disruptive to day-to-day life if you're living there.
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Dec 2, 2020 23:22
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B-Nasty posted:Normally, the rule of thumb is that these kinds of large additions aren't worth it. That is, you'd be better off selling and buying what you want. However, this calculus changes if the land is what's truly valuable. Of course, not everything in life needs to be a strict dollar calculation, but the construction of an addition is pretty disruptive to day-to-day life if you're living there. I think this last part can't be overstated. I don't have personal experience, but practically lived through it with my officemate (we're pretty close, so I got daily updates). They had a pretty substantial reno including a nearly complete reworking of the interior layout (although no major square footage changes besides a small bumpout from the kitchen and some roof area lofting), and even though they had an ADU on the property they could stay in, things were still rough for them (a family of three). They basically had to pack up\store everything as if they were moving, deal with noisy construction, and be crammed in a garage apartment for the better part of a year. That being said, they were really happy with the outcome; it totally increased the workability of their house and made it something that would comfortably accommodate their kid's transition into an older kid\teen, plus they got to keep their double lot (pretty much impossible to find in a comparable location here). And the place looks fantastic. So it could definitely be worth it for you if you have the same uniqueness of location\land at play, but be prepared to get really cozy with your fam for a long time during it. And it's very likely going to be substantially more expensive than buying\moving to a different house that has your desired features.
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Dec 2, 2020 23:44
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redbrouw posted:I am no longer calm about offer day. My agent tried to scare us into upping our price again, without telling me why yesterday. It just sucks that my agent is being coy and then saying "I guess we'll find out the price when they post it to MLS and you'll see." That's kind of a jerk move and I'm surprised. Not even joking, fire your agent, get a new one if the deal falls through
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Dec 3, 2020 00:18
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Andy Dufresne posted:Not to defend the agent but just consider it from their perspective. It's really tough to win a bid on a house right now - if they feel like you're never going to win a bid then they also feel like they are working for you for free. Their comment seems out of line and unprofessional but they might be frustrated because of that context. Nope, real estate agents are car salesmen but smarter because they chose the better industry. redbrouw, as for you, there is also a chance that your loan officer is burying the fact that she actually asked the prices and all competing offers from the other real estate agent and knows exactly what the house will sell for. But she can't openly say that because that's against ethics code. But in reality all real estate agents will cheat to find the prices. Code to find out is "What do you believe is the exact price the house will sell for?"
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Dec 3, 2020 01:31
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The car salesman analogy falls a bit short because they don't have to invest anything when an 18 year old comes around to kick the tires on an M3. Agents have to devote their time to clients who will close at the expense of clients who won't. I'm not trying to imply that redbrouw won't close, putting in any offer is a pretty good indication that you're a serious client.
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Dec 3, 2020 01:44
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marjorie posted:I think this last part can't be overstated. I don't have personal experience, but practically lived through it with my officemate (we're pretty close, so I got daily updates). They had a pretty substantial reno including a nearly complete reworking of the interior layout (although no major square footage changes besides a small bumpout from the kitchen and some roof area lofting), and even though they had an ADU on the property they could stay in, things were still rough for them (a family of three). They basically had to pack up\store everything as if they were moving, deal with noisy construction, and be crammed in a garage apartment for the better part of a year. I just have myself to inconvenience. All good points, though. Will see what happens with the low housing stock here after winter and hopefully a post-covid world.
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Dec 3, 2020 02:39
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