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Bhaal posted:Yeah, I thought along those lines briefly at the time, since it could look like conceding I was fully in the wrong. But felt that road would lead to proving I had sent the final payment in 2008 and I really didn't think I could do that (how much do you remember about a loan you finished off 4+ years ago?) Plus I closed the bank account it would have gone through in 2009. I was still poleaxed at learning all this and just wanted to do immediate damage control so it felt like leaving the balance open was just going to let the bleeding continue and/or legitimize my "4 year" record of non payment which is my biggest argument: never did I willingly or knowingly refuse payment when it was due. It's worth mentioning that the best proof of paying off your loan is the final statement that says it is fully paid. I paid my loan off a few years ago and I still kept that statement. You learned a very expensive lesson but apply it to any bill you have, don't consider an account closed or bill paid unless you have written proof.
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Nov 30, 2012 02:08
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Baruch Obamawitz posted:Out of curiosity, where exactly are you looking? I'm in the same boat here. We aren't looking until the fall at the earliest but I still check listings once a week to get an idea of what's going on. I'm pretty sure we're going to wind up in Gaithersburg or Germantown. Maybe we'll get lucky and find something in Rockville that feeds into the better schools.
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Mar 20, 2013 21:52
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Looking for a bit of advice. I'm a first time buyer starting the process. We're looking for a starter home and looked at a few open houses last weekend by ourselves just to get an idea of our ideal neighborhood and what an open house is like. Does the agent matching service in the OP still exist? I'm trying to get sources for buyers agents for Montgomery County, MD together. I was originally planning to wait to start looking at houses until the fall, but interest rates ticking up is making me think I should at least find an agent sooner. What should we be concerned with when looking at older homes, mostly 1950s but probably between 1940-1960? That's what we're looking at for single family homes in our preferred areas. I quickly realized that it's a lot less space than I grew up with. Two of the homes were pretty much our current 1BR apartment with two extra bedrooms. Living room, dining area, and kitchen were exactly the same size. One house we looked at was really nice, in a great spot, but had not been kept up. It was also about $100k cheaper than more move-in ready homes. The basement was unfinished and had cracks where water had come through from light rain in the morning, to the point that the agent warned us that it was a wet basement. Is this general "run away" situation? HGTV shows make that look like a ton of work and cost. It also didn't have central A/C, so that comes across as a major cost or we have to just deal with window units. There were cracks in the paint, a bit of a mildewey smell (maybe the carpet, maybe mold?) which may have just been because everything was super old. It even had the original bathroom and kitchen, but we like that style so it was a plus. Ultimately, it seemed like we could easily run into problems that would more than eat up the $100k cost difference. First home we saw was great but small, but with a pool. Exchange that for a basement and I probably would have been in love with it. The open house process definitely made me want to be more on guard for love at first sight.
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Jun 25, 2013 17:06
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rockcity posted:I used them just a few months back and had great results. We really like the realtor they helped us pick a lot. We've pretty much become friends with our realtor at this point. I definitely recommend it. Sorry, I meant is there an updated post? The one in the OP is archived.
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Jun 25, 2013 19:58
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moana posted:http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3504190 - A goon-run free service for finding good real estate agents Is there an active thread for this? The link in the OP is archived.
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Jun 28, 2013 19:00
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Just interviewed a buyer's agent today. It was a good experience but man the market is scary. Our idea area has homes selling within an average of 10 days.
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Jul 1, 2013 02:04
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What are ways to identify if a school is good? I've been looking at test results, free lunch %s, and Great Schools but I'm not sure if I could be doing something better. I'm buying in Montgomery County, MD.rockcity posted:You've just left the trash back there for 2 months? I'm not saying it's your fault, but I would have been on the previous owners rear end if it wasn't gone within a week of taking possession. He may try to tell you that it's your fault because you didn't let him know also as he probably assumed if he hadn't heard from you that it was gone. I think he meant it sat for a few days before it was picked up, but it took 2 months to get the citation after.
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Jul 17, 2013 13:53
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TheLizard posted:Basically all the schools in Montgomery County are good, but some are better than others. Bethesda and Rockville are all fine. Gaithersburg, Germantown and Silver Spring are more diverse but still have good schools. I'm looking at Silver Spring and parts of Rockville. Ones comparable to Brookhaven, Wheaton Woods, make me think they're fine just very diverse. Arcola and Sgt Shriver I'm less sure about. Are there any that are just problems?
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Jul 17, 2013 16:19
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At what point to I walk into a house and not feel like it's overpriced? Looked at houses for the first time with an agent and I'm beginning to realize people don't maintain their homes as well as I expected. It's pretty frustrating. Almost every home had noticeable mold in the basement or utility room. I guess it shouldn't be that hard to deal with but you would think you see it and deal with it. Also, since we're looking at older construction we need to start saving to replace the 10-15 year old HVAC whenever it breaks. Also interesting to go back to a house a second time that we really liked. Hey, the roof dips at the garage and theirs weird heating and cooling installed. And they renovates their kitchen but didn't put a lazy susan or shelves in the corner cabinets. And the cabinets in the eat-in part just shouldn't be there. Ugh. Also, gently caress fireplaces. They are useless and stink up the home. Unfortunately people in the 1950s seemed to love them.
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Jul 22, 2013 14:46
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Konstantin posted:Your profile says you're in DC. If that's the case, then your problem is that the DC metro area is a major seller's market and a lot of buyers are willing to pay whatever is asked and overlook almost any issue in order to get a house in a desirable location. Yep, looking in MoCo and just had that happen. Made an offer and the seller rejected the price and didn't have a permit for the full bath he put in. Not sure I want to take a risk on whatever that could be. It did make me go "gently caress it, I can put in a second full bath in a year at a different home and know it's done right."
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Jul 25, 2013 16:28
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I have an older house and I'm looking for some lead paint advice. The paint in the house where there was covered with wallpaper or encapsulating paint. The wallpaper is flaking off the ceiling in some places because it was painted over too many times (with latex), making it brittle. The moulding and doors were painted with encapsulating paint, but there are spots that are chipped, damaged, and a couple spots where friction has worn the paint off. What are the best ways to approach this? For the wallpaper, I was going to cover those spots and paint over it. For the doors, I planned to repaint with encapsulating paint/primer and then put a couple coats of latex on it. Worst case, it may be easiest to replace the problem doors so they aren't rubbing against the moulding.
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Jan 10, 2014 04:10
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Orange_Lazarus posted:Actually the more I read about this 2-10 warranty the shittier it sounds, it's weird that they have a ton of complaints with the BBB but still have an A+ rating with them. Too bad I'm at work and can't look further into it. At least the seller is paying for it. Wanted to respond because I have a 2-10 policy. It's worth having the seller pay for, and get the plan with the reduced deductible. They can be frustrating to follow up with but its worth the money with an older home. I had a drain pipe leak and even though exploring for the leak wasn't covered I came out ahead compared to paying for the plumbing and drywall out of pocket. That said, I've had one of their contractors not follow 2-10s policies and get taken off the work order, and another didn't respond to calls from me or 2-10, both for the drywall work. You don't get to pick the contractor so if one is slow to respond you have to call 2-10. Its absolutely YMMV but overall I'm satisfied. Just don't be afraid to tell them you aren't happy. BBB has nothing to do with quality, its basically marketing. As long as they pay their bills and respond to the complaints it doesn't matter if the review was valid. They keep their rating.
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Feb 16, 2014 04:06
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Taco Pirate posted:We saw a decently nice but imo overpriced home (needed new windows throughout and a few other minor things) in a suburban area with workable but not-super-great schools yesterday and it's already under contract today for more than asking price. Welcome to the DMV. We bought last summer and I think the areas with worse schools had newer, bigger houses. In Montgomery County I think people go in thinking that all the schools are good but there's a range. For a seller, they just get the benefit of many people thinking MoCo = great. Yes, walking to the metro is a draw. I live in MD and work in DC and the metro is walking distance. That's an extra $100+ per month I'm not paying for parking, which increases if you add on reserved parking or DC garage rates. Even a bit further out I was looking at a significant increase time increase to take a bus.
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Apr 26, 2014 14:43
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Is being walking distance to Metro that much of a draw even in the extremely suburby suburbs? This is in the DC area.
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Taco Pirate posted:Another one in that same neighborhood sold for above asking today (although, I think the asking price was somewhat low so I'm not surprised). I'm guessing it went for close to 400, no contingencies. Wahh. Anyway, we saw one in a nearby neighborhood which was kinda junky and may not be so competitive as a result, that we might put in an offer on but it would be near top of our budget and it needs work. You could move in, but yeah, it does need work beyond just a fresh coat of paint. So we'll see. Most will need some work. I was looking in the mid 300s in Silver Spring and Rockville and saw houses with visible mold in their basements. Sellers know they don't have to fix those issues because someone will buy it anyway. My house is in good shape but wound up being smaller than we planned and still has work to do. Most of the work is stuff I can do myself and isn't urgent. Spent Monday removing unnecessary caulk from the storm window panes so I could clean and repaint, but it was my own labor.
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Apr 26, 2014 23:43
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Lixer posted:Both the original furnace and water heater are past their normal life spans. Roof has minor hail damage so I think we're going to see if their insurance will cover it first. Other than that I just would want to spread some additional insulation around and replace some flashings. I don't think asking for money for the furnace and heater is a reasonable request. Unless something is odd or the seller misstated their age that was information you could tell from the units' labels, without an inspection. When I bought my house I looked at the furnace, water heater, and air conditioner and wrote down their ages and that factored into our decisions. I think if the inspection noted any issues with the units it's fair to ask for the seller to pay for a home warranty. I think it's fair to ask for problems to be fixed but not for the seller to make improvements. Then they have the opportunity to come back and agree to do the improvements (with a licensed contractor they choose), lower the price, and/or pay for a home warranty. Just asking for money, especially for something that existed when you made the offer, comes across badly. You have every right to ask for it, just don't be surprised if they refuse and you don't get anything else off.
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Jun 19, 2014 16:28
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BCRock posted:I'm about to close on my house and one of the things that the seller has agreed to is to pay for one year of a home warranty (up to $600) through any company of my choosing. I had mixed experiences with 2-10 and that seems to be one of the better companies. Not great, just better. I think that for the piece of mind in the first year in a 1950s home and the work I did have done it was worth it. We had a leak and drywall repair and while the work was done the plumber overcharged my credit card (which isn't 2-10's fault). Then the first drywall guy never returned calls, and the second one misreported the work to 2-10 and wound up getting pulled off the job because they asked for more work to be approved when they hadn't even been to my house (which the contractor got upset at me for). Finally they posted the request on a contractor site, posted my information by accident, and but ultimately a guy showed up and fixed it. It was a huge hassle but they ultimately refunded me the service charge. Next week I'm having my HVAC system inspected before the warranty is up. We'll see what happens if they find any issues. I'm not renewing because the big items I see coming up in the future are the roof (only leaks are covered) and the HVAC (I'd rather have flexibility to pick units). I'd rather spend the $700 on improvements.
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Jul 9, 2014 18:13
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The buyer seems to have issues on his end. You don't notice a cabinet door isn't attached until 8 days later? I opened every cabinet during the walkthrough.
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Jul 11, 2014 01:59
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shortspecialbus posted:replacing bulbs with leds This is an awesome thing to do and is cheaper than people think. Costco sells Feit LEDs for the best price, in MD we have good prices with rebates (3x 40w or 1x 60w for $12, BR/R/PARs for $8.99 1x or 2x depending on size). Home Depot has Cree LEDs for low prices but they aren't as good quality as a Feit or Phillips. The Cree bulbs have a dark spot at the top of the bulb which is noticeable in open fixtures. LEDs can buzz because of a dimmer or fixture but it's quiet and white noise. Loudest buzzes are due to my basement's dimmer and a 100w LED in a table lamp. When we moved in almost every bulb was an old, slow CFL, including plain CFLs instead of BR bulbs in the recessed cans in the basement. The basement went from being dark to needing a dimmer turned down to 80%. Changing the 6x kitchen recessed lights from halogen to LED keeps the room noticeably cooler but Costco carried 45w replacements instead of 50w. Still worth it, even if I replace them because the room is too dark I've only lost about $30.
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Jul 18, 2014 15:55
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Leperflesh posted:OK whew. It's complete YMMV because it's only as good as your local reviews. For the DC/MD/VA area it's a good source for reviews and contractors, has deals (their own Groupon knockoff for home improvement/repair), and some companies offer discounts (HVAC I use gives 10% off, more than made my money back). I use that and my neighborhood's listserv. Their membership prices seem to jump all over the place and may vary by location. Last year it was like $26/yr but when I started my account but didn't actually complete checkout they sent me a coupon to make it $12.48, They now have three tiers and monthly options but only the Basic tier appears worth it. Fun fact if you subscribe, if you don't manually select a new tier and renew they'll instead renew your existing Angie's List Home $26 subscription, even though it's exactly the same as the $9.99 basic subscription. So that's kind of lovely.
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Jul 23, 2014 04:08
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QuarkJets posted:1) Water and electrical are both turned off right now, what needs to happen to get these turned on? 1) That's a great question for your agent, inspector, or the local electrical and water companies who would have to turn them on for a day. That's a local question. Call them. If they can't turn them on for a day your inspector may be able to hook up a generator, if they have one, to check electrical. 2) An inspector is only going to see things that aren't covered by drywall. You could have a plumber put a camera down the drain pipes if you're really worried. I'd suggest you work with a buyer's agent familiar with foreclosures, these are the kind of questions they can help you with. They would know who to contact locally for these things.
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Jul 28, 2014 13:30
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a shameful boehner posted:Speaking of trimmers/edgers, does anyone have any good recommendations? I got the mower but that pesky tall grass near the edges and the fence just sits there...growing...taunting me. I'm on my second model of a B&D automatic string trimmer and I'm not happy with it. It seems to jam pretty easily. If someone can suggest a a good bump and feed I'm interested.
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Aug 11, 2014 17:31
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Mitchnasty posted:So I bought a house How long have you had the house? Also, this is why people should test/look at everything during closing. It'll probably be difficult to prove that the furnace was broken before you took ownership, and you don't even know that's true.
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Oct 5, 2014 15:27
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and it was 3 degrees out yesterday while painting and flooring and the furnace won't light. It's only 4 years old and worked fine during the home inspection 45 days ago. Is the seller responsible at all for not disclosing this? Or am I screwed because I didn't try it on the closing date?
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PDP-1 posted:I'm buying the place with the intent to do some renovations, when that time comes I'll have to get a building permit and they're going to ask about the lead situation due to the age of the home. If lead is going to cause a huge price increase for that work I'd like to know about it now. Have you asked any potential contractors if either of those things is true?
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Oct 23, 2014 13:14
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QuarkJets posted:We are also getting a Termite inspection, but the seller is supposed to schedule it Why is the seller scheduling it? Did they pick the pest control inspection too?
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Oct 29, 2014 14:13
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Jastiger posted:What is that? Luckily the washer sits in a washer-sitty-in thingie. Unluckily, how the gently caress do you get water out of it lol. I would think there's a drain? Otherwise grab a towel and wring it into a bucket.
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Nov 3, 2014 23:07
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psydude posted:lol what We have very low taxes in MD. I'm in Montgomery County and my family in FL and NJ are confused by it.
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Apr 4, 2015 14:32
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Othin posted:Thanks, that's good advice. I found where that office is in the county so I'll head over there right after the inspection. The permits are online too. http://permittingservices.montgomerycountymd.gov/dps/online/esearch.aspx
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Apr 8, 2015 01:55
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As a Millennial I posted:I'm getting insurance quotes for a 75 year old house that's worth barely over $100k and the premiums are higher than my coworker's insurance on a house that's worth five times as much. What the gently caress? Quotes are based on risk, not strictly assessed value. Your house is 75 years old and carries more potential risk as an investment for that insurer than a modern house.
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May 11, 2015 20:58
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Andy Dufresne posted:I have an attic. Enjoy your hotbox.
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Jun 23, 2015 18:00
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newts posted:The thing is.. It's a good price and we need the deal to go through. We offered her 3% which I think is way more than fair, considering we have to hire our own lawyer for our end. I just wondered if we were being dicks about it. When we bought our agreement with our buyer's agent said that if we did FSBO and they didn't offer a commission we were responsible for it. On the other hand, don't think of this as 3% out of your pocket, it's 3% built into their offer that actually goes to their agent.
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Apr 15, 2016 14:03
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YanniRotten posted:We leased back to someone for a month after close because they were somehow unwilling to vacate their house until almost three months after the date we made the offer. That isn't shocking. For example, their new place may not be ready for a month or so until after they close on their sale. It's cheaper and easier to rent back for a month or than put stuff in storage and find a monthly rental. It also makes sense that they can't close on their new place until after they get the money from the sale of their old place. YanniRotten posted:they didn't bother to patch holes in walls, paint etc. Nor should they be expected to. They agreed to leave it in the same condition as it was during closing, not better condition. If there wasn't a requirement to patch holes, paint, or do other new work in the contract then it was not going to happen. WeaselWeaz fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Jan 24, 2022 |
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Jan 24, 2022 01:30
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