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gay_crimes posted:Does this look like termite damage to anyone else?
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Feb 25, 2021 07:48
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H110Hawk posted:laughs in california You laugh, but those crawlspace pictures look so much like half the 1920's homes I looked underneath in Riverside back when we were house hunting that I briefly did a double-take. Although you are correct that the CA homes had concrete feet under the wood so they didn't touch the soil (when the homeowner hadn't buried them underneath the soil for *reasons*). Gay_Crimes, I have no idea if this is the case in Texas, but usually wooden portions touching the soil is bad because it's an avenue for sub-termites to just crawl into the wood without any visible signs that they are doing so. Also, run like gently caress, most of the things you mentioned are old home bullshit that can be fixed with time and money (and might be present in many homes in your area depending on how old the area is), but those crawlspace pictures are legit scary and will likely require work that will cost more than just spending more money to buy a better class of house.
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Feb 25, 2021 08:19
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So after 2 years of intermittent looking I'm coming pretty close with buys seriously considering my offer. My agent has told me to get an inspector ready. I'm sure this get's asked a million times, but is there any good tricks for getting an inspector if you don't have word of mouth? The guides in the OP basically just say to use yelp, although it was useful to read that I should also get a plumber for a hydrostatic test.
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Feb 25, 2021 14:01
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Trying to help my girlfriend, who, like me, has always rented, feel better about home security, which is hard because I'm far from an expert. My understanding is that "security" doesn't go that far, and the way to make your house more secure is to make it less appealing, particularly in comparison to others. Something like Abode or Simplisafe helps, but honestly, we're not worried about our stuff (it would suck to lose it, but that's what insurance is for), we're worried about harm to our pets or ourselves. Things I have on my list of potential solutions: * Motion lights. Pretty cheap, pretty obvious, run the risk of pissing off our neighbors. * Abode or Simplisafe or whatever. I'm not enthused with anything that automatically shares info with LE (or Google) without our consent, so I'm hoping something less complicated than Nest or Ring, just cameras + loud-rear end alarm + maybe motion lights, will be enough to make the house a burglary turn-off? * Reinforce deadbolts and strike plates. Mixed reviews on this: some people say that if people want to break in, they will, this just increases the damage to the door/frame; some people say that burglars are usually opportunists in a rush, and if something strikes them as "too hard" they'll give up quickly and move on to an easier target. * Something smarter and fancier I don't even know about. Some complications: the zip code rates an "F" for crime, but we already live in the same zip and looking at Trulia's crime map, both our current location and the house are in the very pale area; my girlfriend wants to replace the boring grass yard with a lovely nice garden, which may(???) make the house look more appealing, but can also possibly be fixed by a fence; it's a townhouse development, but each townhouse is only attached to one other, so maybe there's more exposure? I don't know. We're probably paranoid. I don't mind my own paranoia but I'd like to relieve my girlfriend's a bit if anyone has any suggestions about this stuff.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:25
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Don’t worry about improving the looks of your house with a garden as a risk to security. Honestly a ring is probably the easiest but you could also get some other security cameras (real or fake) and mount them in conspicuous spots. They probably wouldn’t be able to identify anyone as most are too blurry in anything but ideal light conditions even if they are 1080p. You could also use the cameras as a way to monitor pets fwiw but be aware of your own privacy by installing cameras in/on your house. Unless you are hearing about break ins or see police cars all the time in your neighborhood it’s probably not something to worry about.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:36
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disaster pastor posted:Trying to help my girlfriend, who, like me, has always rented, feel better about home security, which is hard because I'm far from an expert. The tl;dr is going to be to do everything you can to make your house unappealing to thieves, both in terms of the amount of effort they'd expend and the reward they expect. A huge part of that is going to be making yourself not be a target in the first place. For example, a lot of people will have their TV in a front room visible from the street with a nice big window looking out on the front yard. Making it difficult to tell whether you're the bougie house full of easily fenceable poo poo or the pensioner living off catfood can go a long way. I don't know that I'd be overly worried about something like a garden, I'm thinking more along the lines of not having your valuables visible to anyone who walks past on the sidewalk. Make sure any windows are annoying to access. Just poo poo like planting some prickly, difficult to navigate through bushes under them goes a long way. You're on the money with lighting. Cameras are your own call, but imo they're generally better for spotting more minor problems (porch pirates etc). If you've got some amazing high-res video of the people breaking into your house that's all well and good and maybe it even helps get them arrested (probably not) but at the end of the day they still hit you and your'e still dealing with a broken door and your poo poo being gone. My opinion on the doors is that if I want to prevent the thieves from potentially damaging my entryway while they're breaking in I might as well just leave it unlocked. Look into reinforced door frames if you're really worried about that. My understanding (and I'm very much not an expert, just a jackass who has read poo poo online) it's the frame around the lock that ends up giving out.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:43
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slave to my cravings posted:Don’t worry about improving the looks of your house with a garden as a risk to security. Honestly a ring is probably the easiest but you could also get some other security cameras (real or fake) and mount them in conspicuous spots. They probably wouldn’t be able to identify anyone as most are too blurry in anything but ideal light conditions even if they are 1080p. You could also use the cameras as a way to monitor pets fwiw but be aware of your own privacy by installing cameras in/on your house. Unless you are hearing about break ins or see police cars all the time in your neighborhood it’s probably not something to worry about. Something else to consider is rolling your own interior cameras that store poo poo locally if you're worried about privacy. I've got a friend who has Wyze set up for outdoor use but for pets etc has a couple of cheap mystery meat cameras that are writing to an old computer he has tucked in a closet.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:46
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gay_crimes posted:This is in central Texas, no earthquakes for now Unpermitted work in old houses is TX is the rule, not the exception. In addition to most Texans' blase attitude to regulation, pulling permits signals the appraisal district to come hike your taxes and does not guarantee the work is done well (though it will ensure it's clear of the most egregious faults). Most people don't bother for anything they can reasonably get away with. Your best defense is have an inspection on the condition and performance of the mechanicals and don't worry too much about the paperwork. Of the stuff you've listed, the electrical is by far the biggest concern. K&T is bad enough, the fact that it has obviously has been hosed with makes it must-fix RFN. 2" of elevation on an old pier and beam doesn't sound to bad to me, but I'm in Houston where the ground swells like the sea. I'd probably also get a quote on converting the piers to concrete block and re-leveling and use that to seek a seller concession, but it wouldn't stop me from buying the house if the deal was right.
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Feb 25, 2021 15:58
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I looked up the owners’ personal address and they have many permits pulled in the past 22 years for their personal home (they bought the current property 5 years ago), so I’m chalking it up less to Texans Texaning and more to investment property that started bleeding them dry
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Feb 25, 2021 17:07
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I’ve been idly looking at the housing selection in Massachusetts while I’m also watching for apartment rentals, and wow  . I’m gonna be honest, I don’t feel comfortable ever buying property in Massachusetts, if not the entire northeast. If I ever do buy, it’ll probably be after I retire and have no more friends to visit.What is it that makes New England such a difficult market? Pollyanna fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Feb 25, 2021 |
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Feb 25, 2021 17:08
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Pollyanna posted:I’ve been idly looking at the housing selection in Massachusetts while I’m also watching for apartment rentals, and wow I'm going through the same in Chicago, in the hotter neighborhoods at least. I'm single so I want to be around other sings... but to buy a 2/2 with parking condo around here that doesn't have serious compromises is like $400-500K. Meanwhile I can just rent a 1BR for $1600/mo and be fine. At the same time I would like to find a place I can stick with and start the amortization clock, instead of renting for like 5 more years. It is not healthy the amount of times I've gone back and forth on this, lol.
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Feb 25, 2021 17:17
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Pollyanna posted:I’ve been idly looking at the housing selection in Massachusetts while I’m also watching for apartment rentals, and wow Very little developable land and high demand for housing
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Feb 25, 2021 17:18
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From my family text chain: "So many places in my price range, you open it and just laugh because it’s so weird. Like being virtually the only building between 2 sets of converging elevated train tracks"
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Feb 25, 2021 17:20
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Frankly I’m fine with renting for the rest of my life, if I can find a place to rent that both allows cats, has good construction, and isn’t landlorded by absentee dickheads. Unfortunately, in Massachusetts, #2 and #3 are balls hard to find. But I’m complaining again, I’ll handle the rest from here.
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Feb 25, 2021 17:31
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Our appraisal came in where we wanted it  In order to get our offer accepted we had agreed to cover a certain amount of spread if the appraisal came in a little bit under, so having it appraise at the full offer price is a huge fuckin relief. Plus, if nothing else it's very reassuring to see some of these comps and know that at least we're not the dumbest buyers in this market. Apparently on the next block over someone recently paid 95% of our price for a split level of the same age and 2/3 the size of the house we're buying.
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Feb 25, 2021 21:48
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Congrats to those who have had offers accepted recently! A new challenger appears. A friend of a family member is getting ready to sell, FSBO. Older couple who have been in the house for 25+ years and are downsizing after health issues came up. They had a water leak from an upstairs bathroom above the kitchen while out of town, which has led to a lot of work currently ongoing (reno of kitchen, replacement of drywall etc, etc). My wife saw the house last night, unfortunately I don't think she has a good sense of the scale/progress of the work other than she described the place as a construction zone inside. I haven't even seen photos yet. I don't think the seller really knows the timeline of when they are interested in selling but we are somewhat flexible, it's in the neighborhood we are looking at, and my wife told me I'm going to absolutely love the lot. And honestly the chance to get a property that hasn't been listed on the MLS in decades and therefore doesn't have photos all over the internet kind of appeals to me. If we decide to move on this, we want to get at least one inspection (I'm thinking hopefully we can do one while work is ongoing, and another when all work is complete) and get the contact info of the GC to make sure they're licensed, etc. I would probably offer to pay the realtor we've been working with a flat fee to pull comps and come up with a valuation for us. But I don't see us using a realtor to close if we go for this property. Seller has already stated he won't use one or pay for one. I assume we would just hire a real estate attorney to do the contractual stuff and represent us at the closing that the realtor normally does, and pay them hourly? We are continuing to check out other properties and very likely will end up making other offers while this house is still being fixed but it's an interesting option that came out of left field.
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Feb 25, 2021 22:33
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Tyro posted:I would probably offer to pay the realtor we've been working with a flat fee to pull comps and come up with a valuation for us. But I don't see us using a realtor to close if we go for this property. Seller has already stated he won't use one or pay for one. I assume we would just hire a real estate attorney to do the contractual stuff and represent us at the closing that the realtor normally does, and pay them hourly? No no no. You use a real estate attorney only for this. And you better not be under contract with an agent. Also, FSBOs are always weird, always for bad reasons, and very often go poorly. Just be prepared. At best it's someone who is too cheap to pay a professional but it's often someone who has consulted multiple professionals only to be told that their $100,000 house is in fact not worth $140,000 and it won't sell so they won't list it at that price.
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Feb 25, 2021 22:36
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Motronic posted:No no no. You use a real estate attorney only for this. Cool thanks for the clarification and the warning. Yeah I am not sure why the guy wants to do a FSBO. Could be that he is way out of line and we have to say "good luck with the sale!" We are not under contract with an agent, but we've been working with one who has taken us to showings. We did tell her we plan to use her, but haven't signed anything. I guess if we do end up using her to put in an offer for a different house, we will have to discuss how to handle the paperwork at that point.
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Feb 25, 2021 22:54
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Tyro posted:We are not under contract with an agent, but we've been working with one who has taken us to showings. We did tell her we plan to use her, but haven't signed anything. I guess if we do end up using her to put in an offer for a different house, we will have to discuss how to handle the paperwork at that point. Just never sign. I never do.
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Feb 25, 2021 23:34
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If your agent asks you to sign anything before the notary is literally handing you the deed to the property, stop returning their calls and go find somebody else Fire realtors early and often, they work for you, not the other way around
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Feb 25, 2021 23:46
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I like y'all.
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Feb 25, 2021 23:54
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:Hilariously dumb stupid question, https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ have fun seeing if your neighborhood will be underwater by 2050
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Feb 26, 2021 00:14
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ho fan posted:https://coast.noaa.gov/slr/ Well, by the end of Century worst case scenario is only 6' and some parts of Miami will survive? 
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Feb 26, 2021 00:51
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Have a specific question that I know I may not get an answer to. Located in NYC. The house were targeting has some electrical work done by the owner. It appears to be a panel and subpanel replacement only as far as we're aware. The work was not done with a permit. He's very certain it won't be a problem. My understanding of here is this is not allowed https://www1.nyc.gov/site/buildings/homeowner/project-requirements-owner-electrical.page In my panic googling on this issue, it seems as though if there's an electrical fire and there was un-permitted electrical work it seems insurance may not cover it?
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Feb 26, 2021 00:51
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So uh, loving lol. We're supposed to meet with our agent on Saturday to talk about listing our house/for her to look at it in prep for a sale this April/May. Apparently we may have an offer already? Presumably we don’t take it unless it’s something ridiculous this far out, right?
Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 00:55 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 26, 2021 00:52
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Residency Evil posted:So uh, loving lol. We're supposed to meet with our agent on Saturday to talk about listing our house/for her to look at it in prep for a sale this April/May. Apparently we may have an offer already. We were supposed to go see a house this Saturday but it apparently already sold for over asking sight unseen. Too bad, I probably would have beat the offer (I think it was "only" maybe $20k) but I..uh...need to see the house first. I'm kind of despairing of ever finding something, a house came up just now but it's priced at over 3x our annual income and I'm kind of uncomfortable spending that much so I don't even want to consider it.
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Feb 26, 2021 00:55
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Residency Evil posted:So uh, loving lol. We're supposed to meet with our agent on Saturday to talk about listing our house/for her to look at it in prep for a sale this April/May. Apparently we may have an offer already? Presumably we don’t take it unless it’s something ridiculous this far out, right? That's up to you. My last house sold in 2 hours after the guy put the sign in the yard. It didn't even hit the MLS. 2 hours, full cash offer, 20 days to close. It sucked, but I wasn't going to turn down a full price cash offer on the house. Granted we're not in the same ballpark, my house sold for 185K. I needed it sold before I could close on my new house that was under construction as I couldn't carry both mortgages. Hence needing to find a 3 month apartment lease, move most of my poo poo into storage, and waiting for the new house to finish being built. I took the sure deal instead of maybe taking a different offer that closed in 45 days or more and taking the chance someones financing falls through, or they backed out of the deal and me being stuck in a bad position. You're in a different financial position, so you have more options than I did at the time. Weigh your options. Why would you not take an appropriate offer right now if it was presented?
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Feb 26, 2021 01:27
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skipdogg posted:Why would you not take an appropriate offer right now if it was presented? I've never sold a house before. We're not moving until June, so selling now would involve renting for at least, say, 3 months, plus missing out on the main spring selling season here. Add on renting, storage, etc. Is it wrong to hold out for a "good" offer rather than an "appropriate" one if it's going to be a hassle?
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Feb 26, 2021 01:49
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Residency Evil posted:I've never sold a house before. We're not moving until June, so selling now would involve renting for at least, say, 3 months, plus missing out on the main spring selling season here. Add on renting, storage, etc. Note that you can negotiate a closing date as far out as you want (within reason.) In this kind of market sellers have a ton of leverage to pick a closing period as long or as short as needed, so you can always tell them close date is June 1 or whatever else makes sense. Maybe they decide they want something sooner and walk away from the table, but you're no worse off for asking.
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Feb 26, 2021 01:56
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Residency Evil posted:I've never sold a house before. We're not moving until June, so selling now would involve renting for at least, say, 3 months, plus missing out on the main spring selling season here. Add on renting, storage, etc. If the market is that hot and buyers that desperate(they are here) you can probably get a rent back or late closing in a counteroffer easily; probably 50 percent of the homes we offered on asked for that to either secure other living arrangements or to straight up buy another house first and all either got it or were offered more money to get an accepted offer without it. You mileage may vary, and it may affect the max dollars you might get, but a lot of people just want to be done house hunting and want a date they can schedule around, even if it's a month or two away. Edit: also holding out for a good/better offer is definitely not 'wrong,' especially if it's a matter of you not being ready to move in a sellers market, but that's going to be up to you and if you want more money or personal convenience. I can tell you we did accept an offer to move early and between covid and finding other housing it's been non stop stress but we didn't make a ton of money on our sale either. PageMaster fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Feb 26, 2021 |
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Feb 26, 2021 02:10
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Need to know if the person making the offer is a Comcast exec before giving advice about what to do.
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Feb 26, 2021 03:20
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Update on the treehouse with redwood siding. We got approximately 500 pages of disclosure from the seller's full of all sorts of juicy nuggets. - the house has been vacant for approximately a year after the sellers bought a single story home in the next town over. - over $50k of work I would call maintenance or deferred maintenance was done since they moved out. None of it was interior renovation, all exterior work, mainly pulling off a bunch of the siding and replacing the vapor barrier. Still digesting the construction report. - the only Series 1 issues identified in the termite/pest report were deck related. They quoted $8k for remediation. - inspection reports found some deck issues (same as noted in the termite/pest report), some flashing on the roof that needed resealed, signs of water under the floating driveway (biggest concern IMO), and evidence of previous water damage and mold in the "storage" crawlspace which I learned is under the garage and over the kitchen. - one of the documents explained the water damage event and the steps taken to fix the issue a number of years ago. - inspection report noted that the foundation looked like it "has performed well", some minor damage on a couple of the posts where they meet the concrete piers. - our realtor has been chumming it up with the seller's agent and he learned that the sellers are a couple similar to my partner and I. No kids by choice, love to be outside, travel, etc. Getting older and didn't want to deal with all of the stairs in the house plus the big yard. We wrote a kick rear end cover letter that our realtor said was the best he's ever seen  and wanted to send it (with our permission) before we submit an offer. - they have had 20 showings since it was listed 7 days ago, two other interested parties at this point who sound like they may offer. - the sellers also own the two adjacent lots each 0.17 acres in similarly sloped land and are highly interested in selling them as well. They want $180k for both which IMO is very high when I browsed comparable land sold in the area on similar topography. - we'd love to have the lots too if we ended up in the house. More lawn I would be obligated to mow (fire suppression ordinance), but super nice to have the space for the dog to run. - before learning about the adjacent lots, we were prepared to go as high as 9% over listing (the top of our budget). But after looking at comps, hearing how few people have viewed the place, and knowing that the sellers clearly want out of the two adjacent lots, we're thinking about offering our ceiling for the house and two lots combined. That total would end up being asking price for the house plus a little under half of their asking for the plots, which, again, look very over priced. House buying is such a loving trip. Emotional rollercoaster with obviously big financial implications where decisions are required to be made in extremely short windows for any one individual house being considered. It appears that the sellers will in fact wait until Tuesday to accept offers so we have a couple more days to decide if we want to offer and how much. We're going to schedule another showing on Sunday to get a final look at it.
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Feb 26, 2021 07:19
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Inner Light posted:I'm going through the same in Chicago, in the hotter neighborhoods at least. I'm single so I want to be around other sings... but to buy a 2/2 with parking condo around here that doesn't have serious compromises is like $400-500K. Meanwhile I can just rent a 1BR for $1600/mo and be fine.
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Feb 26, 2021 07:22
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spf3million posted:This is exactly what we went through when living in Chicago. In our case, Lincoln Square specifically. It made zero sense to buy, especially when you look up how much property taxes are going to set you back. I'm trying to find a 2/2 or big 1BR closer to 300-350K with a couple compromises. If I stay a few years, seems like I will break even vs. renting at 1700ish. Plus if I really like it I could stay longer and keep up the savings. Of course it would make the most financial sense to move to the middle of nowhere, especially with remote work, but my family wouldn't like it if I shunned everyone and turned into more of a hermit. 
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Feb 26, 2021 07:52
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spf3million posted:- over $50k of work I would call maintenance or deferred maintenance was done since they moved out. None of it was interior renovation, all exterior work, mainly pulling off a bunch of the siding and replacing the vapor barrier. Still digesting the construction report. That house is a maintenence nightmare if you buy it.
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Feb 26, 2021 10:20
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Have a specific question that I know I may not get an answer to. You should hire an electrician to inspect and go from there. It could be fine other than a retro permit, or just nothing further is needed. It could require removing and redoing a lot of it and complying with modern code, removing and replacing drywall. Then negotiate a credit from the seller based on the cost to fix and your market. If you are in a really hot market and every home gets 10+ offers and the sellers give you nothing it is still worth getting an idea of the repair cost before buying.
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Feb 26, 2021 10:22
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spf3million posted:Update on the treehouse with redwood siding. We got approximately 500 pages of disclosure from the seller's full of all sorts of juicy nuggets. The moved out because the house is a money pit, hope that helps you make your decision. Also, you will pay more for those lots than they are worth on the open market (or whoever buys that house). That's how it works. You want the lots more than anyone else, and the worst case scenario is someone who's not in love with the lot buying it and putting a house on it. That person sees it as just a lot, you see it as the extension to yoru yard/buffer zone. You can't win on things like this so I'd put a price in with your offer to get everything as a package. An offer that would be ill advised. But hey, if you are really in love with the place and have the money to set on fire that's what money is for. On the other hand if you're at the top of your budget and looking for a place to live easily and inexpensively - stop worrying about the amount of lawn to mow and look at the real issues.
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Feb 26, 2021 16:09
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So it's looks like mortgage rates are in the rise, but still below where they were last year(by a fair amount), how big an impact is this on mortgage payments, and might this slow down the housing rush? When looking three months ago we had a 2.25 rate available to us, but now have a 2.8 percent rate which seems like a huge jump and we're told it will probably continue to slowly rise. I guess the real question is whether that rate, while higher than earlier, is still favorable in the grand scheme of things, or or it's worth waiting to try and get a better rate but keep fighting rising housing costs. I've been told that's still a really low rate compared to past years (in the context of 10 years for example) and (while no one ever knows for sure) rates are projected to lkely to go up rather than down; these are from lenders competing for my business though, so I'm cautious about everything they say. A fraction of a percent rate doesn't make or break our budget, but we just want a good deal where possible.
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Feb 26, 2021 17:39
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It seems like they will continue to rise as the economy recovers and vaccine rollout continues, but idk much about interest rates.
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Feb 26, 2021 17:47
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PageMaster posted:So it's looks like mortgage rates are in the rise, but still below where they were last year(by a fair amount), how big an impact is this on mortgage payments, and might this slow down the housing rush? When looking three months ago we had a 2.25 rate available to us, but now have a 2.8 percent rate which seems like a huge jump and we're told it will probably continue to slowly rise. I guess the real question is whether that rate, while higher than earlier, is still favorable in the grand scheme of things, or or it's worth waiting to try and get a better rate but keep fighting rising housing costs. I've been told that's still a really low rate compared to past years (in the context of 10 years for example) and (while no one ever knows for sure) rates are projected to lkely to go up rather than down; these are from lenders competing for my business though, so I'm cautious about everything they say. A fraction of a percent rate doesn't make or break our budget, but we just want a good deal where possible. Actual cost isn't that big of a deal because, as you noted, rates are at historic lows despite the in the last week or so. Find that happy medium between points and monthly cost.
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Feb 26, 2021 18:18
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