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Yeah, the next owner might do some wild poo poo to your house. The first house I bought was a fixer upper that I spent a lot of time and money on getting updated. When we sold a woman who wanted to downsize to a smaller house in town paid cash and gutted the whole thing to redo to her liking. Best to just take the money and not think about it.
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May 6, 2021 15:50
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Toaster Beef posted:Apparently there's a hard line somewhere around Trenton where any real estate deal north of it basically requires a brutal attorney who is tenacious as hell, fights over every single detail, and makes everything an absolute nightmare—while any real estate deal south of it is comparatively super tame and barely requires attorney involvement. This supposedly becomes a serious problem for everybody involved when a NNJ attorney ends up representing someone buying in SNJ, because it's like bringing a gun to a knife fight. And vice versa. My REA was going through a recent example she worked on, and I wish the details weren't eluding me right now. It sounded bonkers, though. Thanks for the color on this, interesting. I've rented in both places and noticed South Jersey was much more casual but just chalked it up to Northern NJ's proximity to NYC and didn't really think too hard about it.
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May 6, 2021 15:50
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m0therfux0r posted:Yeah I'd look into this- it might vary from state-to-state, but I know in Pennsylvania it's illegal to even send over an offer without the seller providing the disclosure papers. It's definitely not something you can waive here. Same in Wisconsin. Doesn't stop sellers from just marking everything a NO on the disclosure, but the form still has to be there and cannot be waived.
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May 6, 2021 15:53
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Residency Evil posted:We had contractors over our house yesterday so that the couple buying our house could start figuring out renovations after we close next month. Instead of sanding/refinishing the hardwood floors that are original to the house, gorgeous, and in great shape, the wife wants to redo the entire house with wide ash planks. people have such trash tier taste
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May 6, 2021 15:53
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dominator posted:In suburban DC (MD side) we put in an offer at 16% over asking with no contingencies and the sellers agent told us we were 11th out of 21 offers in her rankings. Market hot so what. How long ago? Just interested. Asking prices a few months ago (same deal, suburban DC, MD) were far too low compared to what the market was bearing and resulted in some eye popping escalations (personal experience)—it seems sellers have caught up with the trend and many of the new homes are priced much higher. But in the past week or so I've seen a couple homes that have been sitting on the market and priced according to the winter trend drop their asking, so I'm thinking we might be at a high water mark for now.
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May 6, 2021 15:54
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:people have such trash tier taste How many walls do you think they want to remove to make it more ~open concept~?
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May 6, 2021 15:57
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:people have such trash tier taste I know. Hopefully she has some good qualities.  SpartanIvy posted:How many walls do you think they want to remove to make it more ~open concept~? Thankfully there was no talk of this.
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May 6, 2021 16:02
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Johnny Truant posted:I have also never heard of a "disclosure waiver" and am wondering what it is. You are required to disclose things you know, lead paint, leaky roof, etc. Unless the buyer signs a waiver. Yes there were things to disclose, I made a thread https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3951491 I didn't know there was a waiver either, until I went back and saw we signed one...
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May 6, 2021 16:13
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Epitope posted:You are required to disclose things you know, lead paint, leaky roof, etc. Unless the buyer signs a waiver. Yes there were things to disclose, I made a thread Oh no, I remember you posting those same photos in this topic months ago, I believe.  I'm sorry this is happening to you!I am by no means any sort of lawyer, but hopefully you've contacted one to make sure that this kind of "disclosure waiver" is actually like.. legal?
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May 6, 2021 16:21
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Ya, it's a thing in Alaska. I've pondered legal action plenty, but I'm pretty sure it would be a lot of headache and expense and not great odds of recovery
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May 6, 2021 16:24
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Ranidas posted:Yeah, the next owner might do some wild poo poo to your house. The first house I bought was a fixer upper that I spent a lot of time and money on getting updated. When we sold a woman who wanted to downsize to a smaller house in town paid cash and gutted the whole thing to redo to her liking. Sometimes I wonder about what would have happened to our house (a mostly unadulterated Victorian) if we hadn't decided to buy it. We put in the first offer after a major price drop and then heard from the listing agent that sleazy flippers had started circling and wanted to be backup offers and poo poo. Probably would have been turned into a cheaply done ugly gray open concept shitbox and resold at a premium. We're going to stay here as long as possible (if not indefinitely), so if we ever sell, hopefully by that point the house will be a perfectly restored high-end turnkey we can hand off to another old house lover/steward that we've specifically marketed to. That's the dream, at least, and otherwise I generally try to avoid thinking about it. KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:people have such trash tier taste They really do. I hate that so many aspects of interior design have been commoditized and made consumable/disposable so that people feel the need to rip out perfectly good timeless stuff and replace it with this season's trashy trendiness.
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May 6, 2021 16:33
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Insurrectum posted:How long ago? Just interested.
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May 6, 2021 16:46
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Queen Victorian posted:They really do. I hate that so many aspects of interior design have been commoditized and made consumable/disposable so that people feel the need to rip out perfectly good timeless stuff and replace it with this season's trashy trendiness. God, yes. The area we're looking in is packed with homes that are roughly a century old, and a depressing number of them have been absolutely gutted in favor of a parade of that way-too-familiar grey/white/ash. It's a bit complicated, because many of the homes built at that time in this region were originally summer homes, so you have a bunch of stuff inherent to houses that just weren't meant for living in year-round. Some of it's minor, but some of it definitely isn't. That includes a number of places where crawlspaces were dug out into full basements—which, compounded with the area having notoriously difficult and damp soil, introduces a whole slew of issues. So if something wasn't lovingly maintained and kept up on, things got dire. Flippers have seized on this and gone hog wild, unfortunately maintaining very little if any of the classic style of these homes when doing so, and naturally not bothering to fix the serious moisture/foundation issues in the basement. Just a loving bummer for so many reasons.
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May 6, 2021 16:51
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Okay thread, what's the deal with this house? It's one that I always remark on when we drive past, so I was really surprised to see it up for sale. I hope it is cool to post things like this in here – my knowledge about houses and house-buying is absolutely zero, and the expertise in here is flush. Basically I just think it's cute, and we have primarily been looking for houses in this specific area, so at least that aspect is perfect. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/314-S-Lake-Ave-Troy-NY-12180/32244400_zpid/ The houses we'd actually want to see have been so thin on the ground as to be nonexistent, so we have physically seen literally one house in the past year (and it was so perfect to my untrained eye, RIP, sold the morning after it was listed). So we will probably go see this one regardless because we really need the practice and to start getting in the habit of actually pounding the pavement. The layout is honestly a complete mystery to me from the photos. I also would love to fence in the whole yard area but I have no idea if that's feasible or not. Is there anything super screwy about this house or something that a baby home-buyer should be looking out for?
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May 6, 2021 16:54
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What are people's thoughts on skylights? In some of the neighborhoods I am looking at, it's common for the houses built in the 80s or 90s to have skylights. Something to be avoided, or just something to be aware of as a potential issue?
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May 6, 2021 17:00
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Queen Victorian posted:
There's really nothing you can do about it. Just try to LIVE LAUGH LOVE and BLESS THIS MESS so you can GATHER and EAT and have COFFEE at the COFFEE BAR with your FAMILY that you CHERISH. I loving hate word art. I don't care if a local metalworker made it custom for you with your dumb country song lyrics that you wrote for your wife when your first child was born. gently caress you, Chip and Joanna. Tyro posted:What are people's thoughts on skylights? In some of the neighborhoods I am looking at, it's common for the houses built in the 80s or 90s to have skylights. I loving love them. Our old rental had one in the bathroom and it just filled the place with light. BUT any time the wind blew, thousands of tiny tree bits and dead pine needles would filter into our bathroom. I'm certain it's never been replaced or even maintained. With proper installation and maintenance, they're probably fine, but I'm sure they are potential money pits. If I could, I'd have a few. Maybe in my next house. But I'm eager to learn how I'm so wrong on this. Also LOL that this thread has hosed my zillow and realtor and redfin parameters, I'm now getting suggested homes in DC (which I would love to move back to), Wisconsin, New Jersey, and other places, and my bay area living rear end hates you all for your affordable homes. Like seriously, gently caress you: I'm sure my untrained eye is missing a whole lot here but that house is precious. And 275K? I have extreme envy right now. It's got so much character and it looks great, even if some of the design choices are hectic or a bit dated. I would move in right now if I could. Maggie Fletcher fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 6, 2021 |
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May 6, 2021 17:12
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Maggie Fletcher posted:I loving love them. Our old rental had one in the bathroom and it just filled the place with light. BUT any time the wind blew, thousands of tiny tree bits and dead pine needles would filter into our bathroom. I'm certain it's never been replaced or even maintained. With proper installation and maintenance, they're probably fine, but I'm sure they are potential money pits. If I could, I'd have a few. Maybe in my next house. But I'm eager to learn how I'm so wrong on this. I like them also in theory, but concerned about potential issues, especially based on the ages we're talking. One listing I'm looking at now has 4 in the house and one on the covered porch. Haha same for me on the random geographies, I have to keep going in and disabling different cities, although lucky for me I am looking at a much more affordable market than the bay.
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May 6, 2021 17:17
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Tyro posted:I like them also in theory, but concerned about potential issues, especially based on the ages we're talking. One listing I'm looking at now has 4 in the house and one on the covered porch. I think it's probably like a roof. You'll eventually have to repair/replace it. I can't imagine it's easy to take them out and cover them up if you don't want them (but it may be, hell if I know). I guess you'd have to decide if you like them enough to maintain them, because you're probably going to have to shell out to replace them sooner than later. If it's me, and I can afford the maintenance, it wouldn't stop me from buying a place, but I'd have to figure in the cost and assume they'll need replacement sooner than I may prefer.
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May 6, 2021 17:20
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When I replaced my roof, replacing the skylight added $750 total. If you've got like 8+ of the things or they're humongous then maybe you're looking at the big bucks for when they fail, but it really wasn't even a blip on the roof budget. (Skylights are typically done by roofers and not window people, btw)
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May 6, 2021 17:21
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:When I replaced my roof, replacing the skylight added $750 total. If you've got like 8+ of the things or they're humongous then maybe you're looking at the big bucks for when they fail, but it really wasn't even a blip on the roof budget. Awesome, that's good to hear.
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May 6, 2021 17:22
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:When I replaced my roof, replacing the skylight added $750 total. If you've got like 8+ of the things or they're humongous then maybe you're looking at the big bucks for when they fail, but it really wasn't even a blip on the roof budget. This just drives home how cheap my former landlords were. Like, they are super nice people, but they didn't maintain the place at all. It was crumbling. The kitchen is a total gut already and they JUST replaced the surfaces and fridge/dishwasher with builder-grade bullshit that was poorly installed. And it'll still sell for $1.3MM. :laughs darkly with thousand-yard stare:
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May 6, 2021 17:28
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Tyro posted:What are people's thoughts on skylights? In some of the neighborhoods I am looking at, it's common for the houses built in the 80s or 90s to have skylights. Without a skylight, how else are you going to have stray cats get on the roof and watch you poop?
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May 6, 2021 17:38
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i'd much rather people put word hangings everywhere than rip out nice flooring
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May 6, 2021 17:39
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:i'd much rather people put word hangings everywhere than rip out nice flooring
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May 6, 2021 17:50
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paternity suitor posted:Same in Philly, been seeing some sales lately that have been surprisingly fair god I hope so because that's where I'm looking
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May 6, 2021 17:55
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Maggie Fletcher posted:Like seriously, gently caress you: It's so cute. Naturally my husband just devastated me with the truth that the living room is completely TV-incompatible and we don't really have a ton of options for our desired two separate offices situation, oof. But still 
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May 6, 2021 18:28
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redcheval posted:It's so cute. Naturally my husband just devastated me with the truth that the living room is completely TV-incompatible and we don't really have a ton of options for our desired two separate offices situation, oof. But still Is TV-incompatible living room a deal breaker?  Worst case you could get one of those fancy adjustable armature mounts for the TV so you could put it where it fits and pull down/reposition to watch. And also window treatments appropriate for blocking glare. Or consider doing what my husband and I did with our house which has an even more TV-incompatible living room (like seriously - not the biggest and walls taken up by pocket door, pocket door, huge window, and fireplace with protruding chimney breast): we designated the smallest bedroom as the TV den. We have more bedrooms overall so we were able to do separate dedicated offices as well, but what you could do is have your TV den in the second bedroom and then have an office in the third bedroom, and since you don't have the TV in the living room, set up an office in the corner with a big pretty desk and green shade library lamp or something and also have your standard sofa + armchairs + coffee table configuration centered around that loving sweet fireplace. Seriously that house is incredibly charming and is just like all the charming late 30's-early 40's Tudor revivals we looked at while house hunting. Love the original tile and remaining original fixtures in the bathrooms and also the adorable retro kitchen (stove in that nook isn't ideal but it looks like a decent space to eventually improve upon). No basement pics, so hopefully they're not trying to hide anything. Still though, I wouldn't write it off before seeing it just because of the TV placement issue.
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May 6, 2021 18:54
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Seconding the "tv den" solution. In our current house we dedicated one bedroom to be both my office during the day, and the tv room on evenings and weekends. My wife doesn't watch tv during the day, and having it "unavailable" actually helps with managing the toddler's screen time. If you do a lot of social tv watching with guests it probably isn't a great solution.
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May 6, 2021 19:04
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We’re naturally obnoxiously picky—more than we can afford to be, I’m sure—but I work in TV currently and having a (tasteful) home theater has always been a dream. My husband and I both work from home also, even prior to COVID, and the poor dude has been forced into a less than ideal living room office situation in our apartment so he is desperate for his own room. That being said, I was so excited to see this house on the market so if nothing is egregiously weird when we check it out or super broken, I’ll probably push to make it work. I haven’t been excited to see a house in a hot minute like this one!
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May 6, 2021 19:19
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GEMorris posted:If you do a lot of social tv watching with guests it probably isn't a great solution. Yeah this is the main downside to putting the TV den in a small bedroom - difficult to seat additional people comfortably. Our den is 11'x11', so just big enough for one couch or a couple arm chairs and a coffee table and/or ottomans. But since watching movies/TV and playing video games are things we do almost exclusively by ourselves, it works out perfectly because we have our cozy private relaxation zone and we can fully optimize our living room configuration for good old fashioned socializing and conversation (and now that we have a huge square coffee table, board games and other fun) without worrying about viewing angles and where to shove the peripheral electronics and cords etc. redcheval posted:We’re naturally obnoxiously picky—more than we can afford to be, I’m sure—but I work in TV currently and having a (tasteful) home theater has always been a dream. My husband and I both work from home also, even prior to COVID, and the poor dude has been forced into a less than ideal living room office situation in our apartment so he is desperate for his own room. Oh hey, if you want a tasteful home theater, then I'd say a bedroom TV den is the way to go. You can give try whole room over to entertainment technology, get the biggest TV, gratuitously install a buttload of surround sound speakers, have perfectly situated seating, blackout curtains (if necessary), and no competing use cases that you have to also account for. I've never been big on TV stuff (grew up in a house where the TV was an auxiliary thing shoved into a corner or separate room) but I've come to love having a dedicated space for TV/gaming that doesn't interfere with my old fashioned Victorian dream living room.
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May 6, 2021 19:45
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redcheval posted:We’re naturally obnoxiously picky—more than we can afford to be, I’m sure—but I work in TV currently and having a (tasteful) home theater has always been a dream. My husband and I both work from home also, even prior to COVID, and the poor dude has been forced into a less than ideal living room office situation in our apartment so he is desperate for his own room. It’s very common, at least here, to make a finished basement a banging TV home theater setup, with a tiny TV in the living room for sitcoms and the like. Or you could tony soprano it and do it in a garage. But Queen is right. Generally most super fantastic home theater setup I’ve seen has always been dedicated room and not in a living room. Living room considerations get in the way, when a dedicated room gives you full control for whatever.
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May 6, 2021 19:53
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Denver metro is up a mind boggling 25% yoy and inventory is at historic lows. Things aren’t slowing down here, yet. To think last July I only had to come up 6% over asking and got 3% back in post inspection repairs (new roof and sewer lines!). Seemed crazy at the time but a deal on hindsight.
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May 6, 2021 19:54
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Tyro posted:What are people's thoughts on skylights? In some of the neighborhoods I am looking at, it's common for the houses built in the 80s or 90s to have skylights. I think I paid almost 1k to put one in when I was adding a bathroom to my second floor and I love it so much. The 1k included the cost of the skylight, punching a hole in my roof, framing and re-shingling around it. I suspect it would be cheaper to replace the skylight itself when it's time to replace the roof - in the ballpark of what GGGC mentioned .
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May 6, 2021 19:55
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Good news on the flood insurance front. Got a bunch of quotes averaging around $4500/year which had me worried. Then I reached out to an independent insurance agency who got one policy with the same coverage that my lender approved for only $1300/year. We'll go with that to close in two weeks. Later on down the road we'll get a survey done to see if we can dismiss our flood insurance requirement. The next hurdle is the appraisal due Friday. Anxiously awaiting that one as a low appraisal (if it's 15k less than we paid or more) could really hurt us.
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May 6, 2021 19:57
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hobbez posted:Denver metro is up a mind boggling 25% yoy and inventory is at historic lows. Things aren’t slowing down here, yet. beware of YoY metrics - who was buying a house around 5/6/20?
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May 6, 2021 19:58
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:It’s very common, at least here, to make a finished basement a banging TV home theater setup, with a tiny TV in the living room for sitcoms and the like. This is a really good point and I am very curious to see what the basement situation is like — no pics makes me suspicious, but if it’s somehow super nice, that could be a total gamechanger. I actually would LOVE a dedicated living room space with no TV in it for reading and chilling. I won’t post it because it’s too painful but the house that got away was a few streets down and had a small living room setup around a gorgeous midcentury fireplace upstairs, with a perfect downstairs zone for a true dedicated home theater. And a heated driveway 
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May 6, 2021 19:59
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:When I replaced my roof, replacing the skylight added $750 total. If you've got like 8+ of the things or they're humongous then maybe you're looking at the big bucks for when they fail, but it really wasn't even a blip on the roof budget. Yeah, i have a bunch of custom sized skylights in my place that are the older dome-style ones. I was kinda shocked at how cheap they were to upgrade when I was calling for quotes recently. I got about the same price quoted as you did. A few considerations that I looked at when doing upgrades: 1. If you want the extra fancy electrical skylights that open expect to pay a few grand more and you'll probably need an electrician too, and they're more prone to leaking. 2. The flat-glass style that are common right now are much more prone to getting leaf litter stuck on em and turning cruddy. You might need to clean em off periodically if the pitch of your roof isn't very steep (the dome style don't really have this problem). 3. When you get them installed you can opt to have them installed flush or curb/deck-mount. If you do curb mount you don't need to worry about the shingles or roof if you need to do future upgrades/fixes and leaks are less likely to cause cascading problems.
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May 6, 2021 21:16
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:beware of YoY metrics - who was buying a house around 5/6/20? Fsho. But neither data points are particularly anomalous but rather fit roughly into broader trend lines so I’m not gonna says it’s that far off hobbez fucked around with this message at 21:21 on May 6, 2021 |
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May 6, 2021 21:19
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Well I guess I take back my negative assessment of skylights. Hopefully they work out for everyone who has them; they are really nice to add light while keeping privacy. I would absolutely love to have a dedicated TV room, and keep the living room totally TV-free. We watch a lot or just keep the thing on for noise, but every time I think to turn it off for no reason, it's so relaxing. Not having a TV in the living space would be so inviting. As envious as I am, please keep bringing your wonderful plans for your charming affordable homes. Every room in my house is pulling double- or triple-duty and it's fine but I am really basking in the luxury of you guys having dedicated rooms for certain things. At least the cleaning fees have gone down! 
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May 6, 2021 21:55
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redcheval posted:This is a really good point and I am very curious to see what the basement situation is like — no pics makes me suspicious, but if it’s somehow super nice, that could be a total gamechanger. I actually would LOVE a dedicated living room space with no TV in it for reading and chilling. Hopefully the basement is simply unfinished and was not deemed a selling point. In the similar vintage houses we looked at, basements were cinderblock and utilitarian. It's where you did laundry, maybe had your shop for tinkering, and stored things. Basements as finished living space wasn't really a thing in prewar houses, and this one doesn't look extensively updated (which I think is a good thing because you have all the original charm). Anyhow, I highly recommend a TV-less living room. They are wonderful and in my opinion underrated. It changes the energy of the room and it becomes an escape from screens and screen-dependent activities instead of the place to go do them. One thing I sometimes like to do is flop down on the sofa in the living room with some wine or scotch and flip through a magazine or my own coffee table books with some music on. We don't have a stereo system yet but we're working on it. My little Bluetooth speaker is doing an okay job in the meantime. Maggie Fletcher posted:I would absolutely love to have a dedicated TV room, and keep the living room totally TV-free. We watch a lot or just keep the thing on for noise, but every time I think to turn it off for no reason, it's so relaxing. Not having a TV in the living space would be so inviting. It is very inviting. The MO of the furniture arrangement goes from "can I see the TV from here" to "can I see and talk to my friends from here and also reach the cheese and crackers", so you have seating facing inward around a coffee table (and centered on a fireplace if applicable) and it's inherently welcoming (and symmetrical, which pleases me - except my living room isn't quite big enough for symmetrical dueling sofas  )
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May 6, 2021 22:42
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