Prepare to enter one of the craziest markets in history. Learn how not to be picky, and when you find something jump on it immediately.
get preaaproved asap, get different preapprovals for different levels of your budget $300, $350, $400. Meet with at least 3 lenders before you see a house or realtor. Just trust me the financials make a huge difference. Ask for closing costs credits if you will work with the lender Is your market super heated? If so working with a large brokerage will help, for example you want to be in a specific area. Find the brokerage that does the most transactions in that area, there is a better chance they will have pocket listings or coming soon's off market. In this crazy environment working with a realtor "team" has advantages as the team might have multiple agents available to show you properties at a moments notice
I get that people are like "It doesn't matter what the house looks like, it's still going to sell in this market" but if sellers dump 10k into a house on minor cosmetic stuff it would probably increase the value more than that.
Right. I’m not suggesting they should have done a bathroom remodel or anything, but at least clean the fucking place and make sure your renter isn’t living like a hoarder.
Depends on your situation. But the best piece of advice I ever got was to do two things: 1) buy for the house you’ll need in a few years instead is just meeting your needs now; and 2) set a number you’re comfortable with, then spend just a little bit more than that.
Yeah, we looked at a house that was 100-years old. It had a great lot but needed a good amount of cosmetic work. Some paint was peeling, the dogs had scratched/chewed up door frames, there was a spilled paint bucket in a room, dead wires on the outside of the house, etc. On top of that, it wasn't staged/cleaned and they took the worst listing pictures I have ever seen. We put in an offer at 65k less than asking. They countered at 40k under asking. After looking at it a second time, we figured with the age of the house and the current owner living there for 25-years there were probably tons of other things that were neglected. We pulled the offer, and the house has had two price drops and is still sitting on the market. If the guy put 10k into it and staged it, he would have gotten his original asking price.
This is solid advice. Just don't have three different lenders pull your credit if you can avoid it. Open Carry
Yea I’m looking at Marietta/Kennesaw. I’ve been watching the market for a couple months and it seems like any decent house in my price range is off the market the same day it’s listed.
rbox Can you elaborate on your HDMI runs and how you use them (over ethernet?) and what video devices are in use?
I thought as long as they were all within in a certain time period it was only treated as one on your credit report?
This is true in general. However, tons of people go absolutely berserk shopping rates and will have 20+ inquiries over a 2 month period. Get pre-approved one place, find out your official credit scores, then use that information to shop around if need be. Every lender doesn't need to pull your credit for you to find out what interest rate they can offer you. If you can tell them a purchase price, down payment amount, and your credit scores then they can probably quote you a rate without needing anything else besides the type of loan you're interested in. And if their offer is the most appealing you can go back to them to lock it in and get the ball rolling whenever you're ready. Then you're pre-approved and have only had your credit pulled a couple times despite talking to however many different lenders.
Just got preapproved yesterday. Realtor is coming by Saturday to give us an idea on what we can sell for. Also getting married in December so I’m just going to spend all my monies this year.
Well yea, once we have spawn I’m sure all the money will be spent. We’ve lived together for 2 years and share finances (aka she’s still in school) so I’m already familiar with her spending habits
Just this year my wife has mentioned building a two story deck with a staircase leading down to the river behind our house, putting in a 3 head mini split air system in the basement and doing a concrete pathway on the side of our house down to the basement and it’s only March 1. We’re talking like $50k worth of shit.
Small potatoes relatively but make sure you guys pay attention to this shit. Sold a house in November of last year and just got the renewal from my homeowners insurance carrier. Called them up and asked why (typically they are notified of sale by the closing attorney and send the net payment back to the escrow account for disbursement). Turns out the closing attorney "forgot" that part of the sale and net-net our old carrier is refunding us about a 1/3rd of our annual policy.
We ended up offering 45k over asking on a house (originally were going to do 40 but upped it because we wanted it really bad) and waived our selling contingency. Final and best was due at 10am and we were supposed to be notified by noon. Our realtor finally heard back at 4:45 that they were going with another offer and asked if we wanted to be back up. She said yes and they replied with “I will let the Sellers know it's an option. We are countering the offer they chose on a few items, so we will be in touch tomorrow once things are finalized.” I’m really curious what they offered and needed to be “countered.” I also doubt that they offered as much money as we did, so I don’t know why they didn’t take our offer.
Nothing special. When we built the home I had it set where I could have amp and satellite receiver all near media hub vs in the living room. I had 2 hdmi runs from it to the living room. They are unused now because we use appletv and soundbar. I did run 2x Ethernet to each tv location so I could do an hdmi matrix switch if I ever wanted to. I just didn’t want the hdmi in the panel so I pulled them and the speaker cable and will use wall plates for both. If Apple would allow video sync along with airplay audio I would be set.
Got the owner to carry on a commercial class B - 7.5 cap - with 3.5 year weighted average lease last year but required 35 percent down , about to refinance later this month. Should end at 15 percent cash on cash. Hoping Yellen stays in her lane.
Texas bros (and anyone really) If you were in this recent winter storm with extreme cold temps we arnt used to, check your condensation drain pipe on your HVAC unit in your house. I woke up yesterday to water dripping out if the ceiling in my guest bath (directly below my AC unit Apparently the 'p' trap on my condensation drain still had water in it and that water froze and busted the pipe Saturday night it was humid as hell and the AC finally ran enough to have saturated all the insulation and made its way through the sheet rock May have gotten my pergo wood floor in there too Just a suggestion for something that this mechanical engineer never thought to check My AC guy had even been up there since the storm, had to replace a fuse that blew during out power surges and he didn't see it
My shower base developed small spiderweb cracks. I assume it's an acrylic base. Is that something I can repair with an epoxy repair kit or am I hosed and have to replace it?
I posted a link a while back for this item. $10 but woke me up last night at 4 am because my sump pump died and we have a ton of melting snow in PA. Ran to Lowe’s at 6 am and new pump installed. would have easily cost me $1000’s in losses from all the shit on our basement floor if it flooded. THE BASEMENT WATCHDOG Model BWD-HWA 110 dB Battery Operated Water Alarm
Should be repairable if it’s acrylic or cast iron. You can probably fix it yourself it acrylic, but if cast iron I’d recommend a pro. I recently hired a company to repair a bunch of cast iron shower pans in the hotel I was building and they charged $175/pan. Probably would be more than that if it’s just one though.
Good idea to double check again. So your hvac is in the attic. I guess you weren't heating the attic during the storm, were you?
real estate is extremely location-dependent, but if you were in my area I'd advise delaying your purchase until COVID is over. Right now there is very little inventory, in part because sellers are afraid to put houses on the market. Don't bother with mortgages from commercial banks (like Bank of America, Citi, etc), use a mortgage broker instead, someone who is able to match you up with a variety of lenders. I have no idea how to pick a good agent. I sort of lucked out. I'd estimate that at least half of the real estate agents out there are some combination of incompetent, unethical, or both.
thanks, so legacy, and nothing 'new' is using it? I ran ethernet into the master on the wall where the tv is mounted. No other furniture is on that wall or in that area. I'd like to be able to play discs in the master - and think the best way might be putting a 4k blu ray player in the media closet (assuming no HDCP/copy protection issues over the equipment) and play it remotely so we don't have any furniture or media console on that wall. I think I could mount any hardware boxes on the back of the tv since its not a hyper slim tv/mount. aside from the apple tv, your equipment worked over the ethernet and associated equipment? I see a lot of chinese brands offering these products and I'm assuming there will be hiccups/handshake issues.
right, my house is pier and beam so all my plumbing comes from underneath. I was concentrating on trying to keep space heaters going down there, never even thought of the attic and with the power issues we were having (power would shut off for a second every 5 to 10 minutes for 3 days) I dont know that I could have gotten any heat up there if I had thought about it
Does anyone have a house wired for speakers that they don’t use? I fucking hate it but doing anything about it seems like more trouble than it’s worth.
My house has a few in ceiling speakers in the living room and several outdoor speakers that have unmarked wires all running into one spot. I only connected two on the patio to an old receiver. Figuring out the matching pair of wires and polarity was not fun
I’ve mentioned it in here potentially, but our house had about 30-40 speakers, all that didn’t work. I just patched all the speaker holes. It sucked, but it was going to bug me until I got it done. I got rid of some wires, but certain closets still have a ton. An example of a room..4 around the TV, then 3 more on the wall across from that fireplace. It was insane how many speakers they had.
An old trick we used in the good ole days was to take a AA battery with someone near the speaker. Connect the wires to the AA battery a pair at a time until they heard a pop, that would be the speaker for those wires. It wouldn’t hurt the speaker at all but would push the cone in or out depending on the polarity. Then use masking tape to mark those wires, hook up next speaker and start over.
Any way to access underneath? Just curious if you are seeing a defect in the surface, or if its cracked all the way through. If it's all the way through, repairs are likely a bandaid. That kind of damage stems from poor installation or movement in the substrate, or fat hookers in stiletto heels. Not that there's anything wrong with the latter, just keep them on concrete.
I am thinking about doing a large outdoor project: it'll involve re-plastering our pool, redoing coping, redoing deck around the pool and connected hot tub. Then it'll involve tearing down our existing wood deck, putting in stone steps, a stone patio, other features potentially like an outdoor fireplace or pit, covered area + outdoor TV, built in grill and maybe smoker and maybe outdoor fridge + prep area, etc. Basically a very large project. I wanted to get a sense for what folks here think about the following: - Use a general contractor I've worked with before. He did our kitchen. I like him quite a bit, very well intentioned, but I can't say he did things without any hiccups. Typical contractor bullshit, delays, mistakes, me needing to stay on him to get shit done and complain when shit wasn't done very well. He would do the CAD designs and then his team would do carpentry + electric and he'd sub out the stone and pool work - Use a Design/Build firm that is known for outdoor projects in our area. They are a large company. - Start with a landscape architect/designer and then utilize a contractor they suggest and have worked with before Any thoughts?
pperc I would probably weigh your options as such. Option A - 3 Option B - 1A Option C - 1B I tend to believe that a contractor who does the type of work should be able to steer your to the most economical solution. That is closely followed by a design professional (which I am and work for one) but that can be hit or miss sometimes. Your last option didn’t inspire me, but if you are comfortable with someone getting it some for you I think that goes a long way to being happy out the outcome.
I would bet they are expensive, but getting plans and finding a contractor wouldn’t be far off cost wise I bet. I had my patio I did this summer priced by a landscape company and the were 30% higher than what a concrete guy I know priced it at. I would probably get some estimates from a group like that though before I went to an LA for plans. Then depending on what they come back with decide where to go from there.
My 3 piece eero was installed in like 10 minutes start to finish including moving the tv stand to get to the modem I'm just saying, it's dumb easy and totally worth the money, imo