Home Buyin/Maintenance Thread - Where most of us are 30ish but act 47. Oh, and fuck home inspectors

I've used their drills and stuff when I did construction and never really had a problem with them. No idea about a weed eater though.

 

Insurance question for you guys, mine is going up approx. 20% this year. I contacted my agent and asked why. He stated that storms that cause property damage are happening more frequently, thus resulting in my premium increasing. He then named some specific dates of storms and whatever and implied that in the future it would go down if there are fewer storms. I live in the midwest, so I feel like a couple of hailstorm and tornadoes would be expected each year.

This make sense to you guys, or is he just trying to make more money?

 

I'd call a few places and shop around.

 

I wouldn't recommend doing it yourself unless you get all the proper tools and shit.

It might not be lead based though, probably need someone to test it.

 

Do you have kids? If not, get a mask and scrape it yourself. Lead is toxic to children, not adults.

 

I have the Ryobi 40v. I really like it. You can buy attachments for aerating, trimming hedges, etc but I haven't used any of those so at this point I overbought.

 

How long have you been with them? Some insurance companies do shady shit and will do a 'loyalty tax'. Basically they know that you have been with them for a while and that it is a hassle to switch. They will jack up your rates until you call, then lower it by a little bit but it is still more than the original amount. I know it happens in auto insurance a lot, wouldnt surprise me if it happened for home insurance too

 

you'll be fine. but you'll have to buy new batteries every couple of years

 

Wait what?

Symptoms may be different in adults and children; the main symptoms in adults are headache, abdominal pain, memory loss,kidney failure, male reproductive problems, and weakness, pain, or tingling in the extremities.[22]

 

Wear a mask and you will be fine. The symptoms you cited are due to long term chronic exposure. The reason abatement is required is due to developmental impacts in children.

If you want it done right, depending on your state, hire a contractor a pay a lot. I know i did.

 

I was just confused about your wording about it not being toxic adults. It still is, just not as harmful as children.

 

Not nearly. The paint you are currently using likely has greater impact on you.

 

We're almost 6 years in, and aren't done with 1/2 of the renovations we want to do. It takes forever. I have a feeling that by the time we finish with what we want to do, we'll have to do some things - and then get to re-do some of the things we did early on.

 

Check your local regulations. In some areas, you have to be certified to work with lead paint or you can be fined.

 

A few things on this:

1. Yes, it's real. Insurance companies are losing money like crazy due to some of the weather experienced recently.

2. Shop around. Get an independent broker to look at things, as they (should) have access to multiple carriers. Larger regional carriers will (typically) have better rates and options for you.

3. Tell your existing broker to talk with underwriting and see what they can do. Mention that you're getting quotes from other sources.

4. He's not the one trying to get more money out of you, unless he represents different carriers and hasn't shopped around. The increase is at the underwriting level.

5. When you shop around, make sure the limits and levels of coverage are similar (or what you need). There are a lot of agents out there who will cut down the coverage level to get the business, but it really leaves you unprotected.

6. If you haven't already, try to combine policies for home/auto (and other toys, if you have them). There's a decent discount that gets applied under that scenario.

7. Don't buy life insurance through your home/auto carrier. That's what makes them the most money, and you can find it cheaper through an independent broker who specializes in life insurance.

8. Same as #7 goes for investments.

 

That post started out as 2 tips. LOL

 

Here's the flooring, cabinets, counters, carpets, etc that we'll be going with in the house. We're waiting on another granite sample to come in to see if we want to go with it. Hoping the builder can do some of the things we're wanting that they usually don't do.

 

For the current homeowners in this thread, how much did your house cost in relation to your income (or combined income if married)? 2 years salary, 3 years salary, less? interested to hear different view points and how easy it is to make those payments every month based on that.

 

I never based my decision on that. Make a spreadsheet with all your bills. Include line items for groceries, eating out, fun money. Then see what your net income is each month to see what you can afford.

 

Yea I'm not planning to base a decision on that, and I have an obnoxiously detailed budget already. I'm just interested in hearing what ranges are out there. The articles I read about it almost always show an amount that seems like it would make that owner house poor.

 

I didn't base mine on that at all, but it's about 3 years gross in my current position. Hopefully that changes in the next 6 months to a year.

 

Salary approximately of $105,000 without OT and bought a house for $212,000. Lady at the bank said you know we can approve you for up to $400,000 if you'd like. I'm like yaaaaaa no thanks peace

 

Bought a house last year. Purchase price was about 2x our gross annual income. Our mortgage payment (everything included) is around 27% of net monthly income.

I know plenty of people that double both those numbers. It's absurd.

 

Thanks, that's the type of thing I've been seeing (up to 4x income) and it just seems insane. There's just no way you could have a reasonable budget with a house valued at 4x annual salary, unless you're in one of those crazy real estate markets where an apartment is $4-5k per month or something.

 

I like feeling a little comfortable, being able to bank some money for whatever might come up someday down the road. Another thing you gotta remember is those interest rates... only place there gonna go is up.

 

I plan to get married in about a year, and my location plus combined salary puts us right on the edge of an interesting price range. 1.5-2x the salary gets a house that is plenty nice for our needs, but even 2.5x salary gets a mcmansion in that area (it's under $100/sq ft around there). Trying to force myself to stick to a reasonable budget and not get sucked in. It will also be my first house so I'm sure there are fees/expenses I'm not considering.

 

~1x. We didn't feel any bigger was necessary. Houses down the street are going for about 1.5-2x what we paid so we can easily do some remodeling down the road without worrying about pricing ourselves out of the market.

 

nm

 

So we just convinced this guy that's selling his home that he had listed for 2 years to sell. Surprisingly he accepted the offer contingent on the sale of our house. Wife and I are hoping ours sells because it's the only home near our family that we would consider moving to at the moment.

I guess I was shocked that he negotiated to my goal price. It was 75% of his asking price.

Aside from listing with an agent and getting in the MLS that pushes to zillow, trulia, etc... Any recommendations on selling a house?

 

This was my DIY project this weekend. It gets a little hot in the game room (right next to the attic upstairs), so I decided to get a bit more cold air blowing by getting a portable AC unit. It is a 10,000 BTU. I didn't want a window unit because it would look tacky, I wouldn't be able to close the window, and I would have to bypass that zone with the house alarm, so I went with a portable unit. With that, I can put up/take out the little panel that goes underneath the window as needed, so it works out well. I can also move the unit to another window if I want. I think where it is now is where it will work best though.

 

Get all your shit out of there. Want it to mostly be furniture. No family pictures up.

 

I took the same route as you. Similar salary without factoring in my wifes. I feel like the loan officer was really depressed when I told them I only wanted 185k for our home. We are doing a 75k reno, but I really want to pay down my student loans before I tackle and more debt than I have to.

 

I never understood or agreed with this. We live in a very family-friendly neighborhood and the couple that buys my house is going to be a young family like we are. Seeing pictures up gives it a home feel. People like that. Otherwise, it just looks like staging and sterile.

 

My wife's aunt is our reeal estate agent. The amount of shit she made us do to depersonalize and declutter was absurd. I get the decluttering part. That makes sense. I had to get a 10X15 storeage locker to put the shit since the house we bought didn't close at the time we listed ours.

Ended up doing a brdige loan because the girl at the bank fucked up on my loan. Now praying we sell ours and sell it fast. Just want to get that portion off my loan and refinance and get everything back in normal order finance wise. No payments until Jul 1, so it's not a big deal yet but it will be in the middle of summer.

 

Income to home price ratio is 1:1.5

 

Almost done painting. Can't wait to get moved in. No idea how a house built in 2005 and having three owners has never had paint on any of the walls.

 

Jesus those value to income relationships are crazy, I wish CA was like that. I'm probably 2.25-2.5x but have many friends north of that. Such is the market.

 

I build houses (family business) and flip houses (my side business) for a living. Bought a foreclosed house for 160k about a month and a half ago. 2700 sq ft. All on one level. 2 acres. All brick. Detached 2 car garage.

Having to invest about 60k or more in renovations. Going to be awesome when I'm finished. Should be done within about 2 weeks. I'll have to post the before and after pics here and see what you guys think. Definitely my largest, most expensive flip house to date.

 

yeah I'm guessing tmb has above average income because those numbers seem too low.

 

Well Tmb is a land of exaggeration so that doesn't surprise me.

 

Seems outrageous to me. In DC, a decent 1 bedroom apt is 400k+. A 2 bedroom apt or row home starts at about 500k and goes up quickly from there. I make a healthy salary, but I'm likely going to be in the 3-4x range in the next few months when I buy.

 

Yup; my fiance works at a firm and even with our combined salaries, we're at 2.5x in the DC suburbs.

 

Well I'm in a pretty small commuter city I guess you could say. Population of ~75,000 or so. There's lots of money in the town because of the oil refineries but still couldn't imagine paying big city prices on a place.

 

I'm saving up now to buy next year and 2x is probably my lower end and 2.5x is the top of my budget due to the Chicago real estate market. My wifes student loans and lack of high paying job really strangles my ability to save a lot every month.

Need to get a new car this summer, have a baby in November and then buy next June when my lease expires. Being an adult is stressful.

 

Previous house was about 2.5x my salary when I bought it as a single man.

We bought some property and will be starting a garage apartment in the next couple weeks. Combined land/"house" appraisal is a little over 2x our income. The worst part is all the money we put into clearing the homesite and putting in the driveway was worth nothing in the appraisal.