Technical > Home Improvement > Sort of home improvement questions

reply to BosstonesOwn

Re: Sort of home improvement questions

yeah Ive done , though to be honest the area is most important to me, I have seen a couple I loved but the wife did not.

Going to see some houses today and trying to explain to my wife in this area 350K is just not going to get us a house that we won't have to work on.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

reply to BosstonesOwn
If houses you would have wanted to put an offer in on keep getting sold before you have a chance to offer, your agent isn't doing their job well enough. After 100 homes, a good agent should be on the same page as you, and should spot good candidates the moment the listing comes on the market.

As others have noted, you need to be ready to offer. It sounds like your market is similar to what we have here - inventory is poor. Good houses are rare and when they come up, they go very quickly often after a bidding war unless their pricing is way out of line.

There's also no such thing as a perfect home. Every house is going to have something you don't like about it. After 100 homes you should have a pretty good idea what things are really must-haves.

Rehab is expensive and can involve a lot of unexpected costs. Living in a construction zone also sucks. Your wife has good reason to be concerned about it.
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AT&T U-Hearse - RIP Unlimited Internet 1995-2011
Rethink Billable.

The issue has nothing to do with the brokers, its an issue between the mister and misses have a differing view points. This is the third or fourth post by the OP over a year or so about home searches, bottom line is he hates the city, the mrs isn't moving and is just humoring the OP.

The cost thing is a red herring, Mrs knows what Mr doesn't want, "oh that's to expensive, let find one lower cost that you can spend the next 5 year fixing up"

If its worth anything, I have complete sympathy for the OP. Everett MA and surrounding areas are the last places in the country I would choose to live.

reply to telco_mtl

reply to BosstonesOwn
We started in 2008 looking casually to get ideas. Then in 2009-2010 we looked aggressively... found that much in our price range was junk, or had some glaring unchangeable issue (or two).

In late 2010 we bought one... I was aggressive about it, we saw it once, we knew it had major problems, but they were due to neglect, not some feature we couldn't alter.

In hindsight, this resulted in a few things---
- I paid too much considering all the work we had to do
- I underestimated the time and money it would take to do what we needed... the big things I got, it was the little things like, let's replace all these old hollow core doors...
- The street ended up being busier than I expected. The only way to have figured this out would be to have literally sat outside of it on a weekday morning--the street is a cut through between two areas, so we'll have 2-3 cars every minute and being after a curve in the road we get the wonderful sound of every a**hole driving jamming on their gas so they can go from the 25~30 around the curve up to 40 past our house before stopping at a 4-stop 150' later...

I'm still in the process of actually doing work. Yes, it's been 18 months! We even kept it empty for 4-5 months for the really heavy duty work. Once you move in it becomes a real struggle to find the time and energy to do things, especially once stuff is "functional".

The yard also takes up an enormous amount of time. It's about 2/3rd of an acre. I spent from 11AM to 7PM in the yard each day this past weekend... had to mow, had to pull a few older stumps from cut down shrubs, ran a new underground line from front to back for my downspouts, etc... you tell yourself, once I get these one-time things taken care of, it will just be maintenance--well I suppose that may be true, but it will take you a couple of years worth of weekends just to get there!

For me, buying this house ultimately ended up being a negative experience, I would have preferred to have stayed looking for something that was closer to complete and a better fit. In the market we were in (receding, down market) it was actually quite dumb of me to be aggressive, I should have accepted that I might have needed to spend 2011 or 2012 still looking. In a hot, appreciating, market, maybe this would have been OK because I could walk and make money... Right now I'm into this place for at least $60-70K more than I could take away after sell costs, etc...

Good luck.

BTW, during my rehab my relationship ended. Supposedly nothing to do with the rehab or house, but in hindsight I feel that it contributed. It added stress to our relationship, it took an enormous amount of my time and money which had previously gone to us. Maybe this wasn't a bad thing that it ended (I think it was a bad thing now, but maybe with time it won't)... but if I had it to do over I'd just keep renting.

reply to BosstonesOwn
How long did it take for you to find your homes and how much time do you currently spend in a month "making it yours ?"

1. As long as it takes. I spent over 14 months. I was lucky to have that luxury but I went through 2 realtors till I settled on 3rd one (charm) that LISTENED to me and pointed me at those with features I requested (e.g. gas for cooking/heat, garage or walk-out basement).

2. After 10 years, STILL spending time/$$$ on it. At time, it was 12 years old (appliances failed shortly after), builder had failed with roof (used now-banned retardant sheathing) so some work was picked up by association/insurance, windows were crap-grade, no storage in home, previous owner had pets that pissed everywhere (wish inspector had UV lamp...can hide the smell, but not the staining), also hidden damage (builder never flashed deck to house so imagine that one...). I can go on about paint, trim, remodeling, fixing backstabs (I prefer screws), and on...

I learned that (almost) everything can be fixed or changed. Yes, it depends on time/money. But the satisfaction of making it nicer, and getting folks to appreciate what I've done... all worth the loss...(I live in a townhome but I miss having yard...grrr...Ex got that )

But I think my next house will be a rough cut gem...and I the lapidary! Either than or I'm gonna get a builder...
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Splat

reply to BosstonesOwn
Thanks Folks keep em coming,

we actually made the decision finally of just upping the purchase price a bit and going with an already done house.

Hopefully it will save us some aggravation in the long run.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

6 pack says mrs won't find a house she likes this year .. the games is a foot

hehe im going to keep bumping till i run outta budget at this point, I make good money but dont feel like spending more then 1/3 of my monthly income on a home.

At this point , Im about ready to just buy another house and move there myself
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

reply to guppy_fish
Another side note , bought her a new car and only 3 weeks old and it is all scratched to hell by the kids on the block, She was depressed it happened.

I had to chime in and say see, if we had a driveway that we could actually use that might not have happened.

Fun Stuff right there. Although it sucks gonna cost me $500 deductible, Im hoping the little things like that and them stealing our mail and packages will help tilt the scales.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

reply to BosstonesOwn
I had to sit down with the wife to figure stuff out. I asked her everything that's required and optional on a new house. Her required were: Good school system, over 1/2 acre of USABLE land, 4 bedroom minimum, & 2 full bathrooms minimum. The optional things were: Pink dogwood tree(s) in yard, 2 car garage, master bathroom, finished basement, & fireplace. I found places that met all her required stuff and only showed her those places. We didn't get any pink dogwood's but we're planting on in the Fall. We only got 1 car garage but that's being knocked down and turned into a 2 car garage starting in 2 weeks. We scrapped the master bathroom idea. She got a 1,208 sq. ft. fully finished basement with a full kitchen, bathroom, & fireplace. I don't think I could have found a place without both of us making a required/optional list then combining it into a single required/optional list upon which to qualify houses against. I'd highly recommend that approach.

reply to Sennheizer
Appreciated, thanks