Random Discussions

[Seeitsaveit13]

So why do you stay? Honest, curious question.

Work?
Family?
Weather?

No shit. That kind of money could make them ballers almost anywhere but NY and Cali.

[dakshdar]

Price per sq-ft here for most of what we looked at and what we ended up buying (2 years ago) was in the $450/sq-ft range. They're up to about $500/sq-ft now for the same houses/area.

My job, at my salary, doesn't exist anywhere else. And my wife's family lives 3 miles away.

[wdoupis]

I have a penthouse apartment in downtown Kharkiv and I pay 400 dollars a month. Come on down to Ukraine fellas

[Cnasty]

So why do you stay? Honest, curious question.

Work?
Family?
Weather?

No shit. That kind of money could make them ballers almost anywhere but NY and Cali.

That's the answer I thought but wanted to be sure. Their salary and housing evens out if you will I assume.

Move here, they take a large paycut but housing is super cheap.

Family being 3 miles away with a kid is clutch.

[Seeitsaveit13]

Price per sq-ft here for most of what we looked at and what we ended up buying (2 years ago) was in the $450/sq-ft range. They're up to about $500/sq-ft now for the same houses/area.

My job, at my salary, doesn't exist anywhere else. And my wife's family lives 3 miles away.

Right. But what about your job, at a lower (but cost of living adjusted) salary? Does that exist? I'm sure there aren't rocket scientists everywhere... the family thing can't be argued for sure

[nick]

in Toronto u have a better chance groiwng a third nut than buying a house. Avg is like 800k. When I was younger my parents were offered a corner lot 2 backyard multi car garage space for 330k and turned it down. Today its worth 1+ million. Hurts. hurts real bad.

[cougnix]

in Toronto u have a better chance groiwng a third nut than buying a house. Avg is like 800k. When I was younger my parents were offered a corner lot 2 backyard multi car garage space for 330k and turned it down. Today its worth 1+ million. Hurts. hurts real bad.

That's city limits though right? We live about 25 miles from Seattle 10 miles from Tacoma. Both of those larger cities are tough to buy in city limits, especially Seattle. People commute 40+ miles to work in Seattle in order to afford a home. I would kill myself if I had to sit in the 2 hours of traffic to get to work each day.

[ReignOnU]

I've looked at various areas on the west coast and it blows my mind how expensive homes are. Just for a laugh I started looking at homes in Compton. I feel like I'd have to make $400k a year to live like I do here, once you consider home, amenities, travel time, etc.

My wife loves the ocean and she'd move to the Jacksonville / St. Augustine area in a second if I could get a job there. But for me, if I'm going coastal, I would prefer west coast.

But like some of you guys, I have tons of family within 10 minutes right now. No daycare, we live in the community that we grew up in, so we know a lot of people and surprisingly, there is a lot to do in the SW Ohio area. About the only thing we're really missing is the ocean (and a pro sports team that can win a game).

I've visited the general area where Corey is now... that has to be one of the best places to live right now in terms of growth / opportunity and still having reasonable cost of living.

[dakshdar]

Just for more laughs, when we were house shopping we had two or three instances where we had the best offer in on the house (often over asking) and lost out to an all cash offer. All cash, for a $700,000+ house. It was crushing to have that happen when we thought we were getting a place we really liked, and it happened more than once.

[Cnasty]

We looked at over 75 houses as we lived in an apartment for a while when we first moved here.

We were outbid by cash offers on 2 houses. We also looked at multiple houses not even on the market yet that our realtor was privy too and they were already sold the moment we arrived it is so competitive here.

The one we bought was a friend of the realtors and we offered asking price and agreed in 1 day. We got extremely lucky.

[shel311]

Same here. The house we bought, we looked at and agreed on it before it hit the market. Our realtor was going to be the sellers realtor as well, that's how we knew about it.

I looked at a bunch of houses before the one we settled on. Only one house was "the one" and we saw it around lunchtime the 1st day it went on the market. My realtor emailed the realtor for the house to let them know we were going to make an offer, got a reply while we were still looking at the house stating it had gone under contract an hour before or something.

[Uuaww]

New Orleans is crazy too, though it has calmed down a bit.

I bought my house off of craigslist.

[dakshdar]

I get the feeling no one has good house hunting stories. Seems like just an awful all around process.

We fought with the sellers for weeks trying to finalize the price and all the details of the sale. After the initial offer was accepted and we had the inspection, we learned from the inspector that the roof was ready to go and in desperate need of replacement. The sellers admitted it was 30+ years old and was long overdue for replacing. Our problem was we couldn't deduct the roof replacement value from the offer and take care of it ourselves because we wouldn't be able to front the cost (more than $20k) to get it done after the sale. We had to convince them that the house value was severely impacted by the roof issue, but rather than reduce the offer we'd keep it the same if they had the roof done by the roofer we selected with the materials we stipulated. They finally agreed (I think once their realtor convinced them that after the results of the inspection they'd be unlikely to find anyone to buy the house without a new roof).

Still, the sellers were a pain. They admitted they were going to miss their move-out date by 2-3 days because they hadn't planned their move to their new place properly, and we were a week away from taking possession. It meant I had to get back in touch with my current landlord at the time to extend our lease, had to cancel and reschedule the moving truck, and had to ask my friends that were helping us move to help out a different day. Our realtor (who ended up sucking almost as much as the sellers) asked us to give the sellers a grace period but I was beyond done with dealing with them at that point. I wrote up an allowance that they could stay up to 7 additional days but that every day they stayed they had to pay into our escrow: the daily amount of Principle + Interest + Taxes + Insurance for the house, the daily amount of our extended rent in our house, and a $200 inconvenience fee per day. They had to pay in about $1k for the three days because they couldn't figure out how to plan their move during the 30 days we were in escrow. And at 5pm on the day they were to move out, we showed up at the house and they hadn't moved anything out of the garage yet (though the rest of the house was empty). They said they were coming back later that night to get the rest of the garage stuff. I so wanted to reset the garage door pin and padlock it (the guy had two motorcycles and tons of tools in there) but I'd had enough and just wanted them gone.

Fun add-on - we still get mail and packages for those assholes 2 years later. For a few months we'd contact our realtor and she'd pick it up, deliver to their realtor, and they'd get their stuff. After a while I could see that we were getting mail for them from the same senders over and over, so they weren't bothering to change their address even after getting the mail sent to them through us.

Now, I throw away all their mail. And they got a package last month that I just threw in my garage.

[Cnasty]

And they got a package last month that I just threw in my garage.

Fantastic ending.

[Uuaww]

yeah that sounds awful... I def. had a fantastic house buying experience.

I wanted to buy a house but didn't have a realtor. asked a friend and she recommended an awesome one. I am bored at work and checking craigslist and there is a house for sale that is too good to be true in the best area of the city. I ride my bike by it, duplex, outside is eh, but the location... Talk to the current renter and they are having an open house that Saturday (it was posted for sale by owner on craigslist on Wednesday). I ask my realtor to see it and he says sure since we need to meet. My buddy comes along with me b/c he knows New Orleans a lot better than I do. Saturday comes and we check it out. My buddy walks in and says "How much are they asking?" 328k, and he says, buy it. My realtor just looks at me and says listen to your friend.

The house was being sold by a divorcing couple. She had already moved to Seattle, he was getting ZERO from the sale but their divorce wasn't final until it was sold. He said whatever his wife wanted, he would agree to. 328k was what they had paid for it 6 years earlier. I put my offer in that day, wife ignores it. 5-6 days pass, repeat offers with 24 hours to reply, never does. Finally she says she was too busy, but agrees. Wants to close in 2 weeks without inspection. My realtor says sure, but knock off 75k on the price or do a standard sale but says we should be able to close in 25 days. She agrees to wait.

Home inspections go as planned for a house that didn't flood in Katrina and hasn't been updated since the 90s. My realtor asks for 15k in repairs, she counters with 7k, my realtor says don't respond, she agrees to 15k a day later. During the appraisal my realtor knows the girl that is doing it and tells her to nitpick this house as much as she can, appraise it as low as she is comfortable with. Appraised for 399k. Close 22 days after the offer was accepted.

Used the 15k for repairs to fix up the small side (it is a duplex) and lived in it for a year, then moved over to the big side and have been renovating it as I go. Rent out the small side for a little over half my mortgage + escrow. Got a house wayyyyy undervalued in a hot market all because she didn't want to use a realtor. My realtor said it probably cost her at least 100k.

[dakshdar]

You definitely win the house buying story.

I'm jealous that I never got the chance to buy my own place before having a family. But I spent my first 8 years out here just saving money and biding my time because I was never near able to put a down payment on a place I'd be willing to live in near where I worked. Just not a market for that.

The more I get into doing small projects and fixes around the house the more I wish I'd had a "first-house/fixer-upper" to do this on when I had a lot of time (and a little more energy).

[Weasel]

So true Joe. I use my current place as a trial run for most of my diy projects

[Uuaww]

youtube makes DIY so damn easy. You can learn literally everything on it. Learned how to drywall, lay brick, lay tile, grout, build a fence, etc. all from Youtube and then asking questions in HomeImprovement reddit... it is amazing.

[dakshdar]

I try to DIY what I can at home. I have re-tiled small sections of bathroom floor (we found some wood rot under a dozen tiles in one bathroom due to a leaking shower stall - cleaned out the rot, let the wood completely dry, put down backboard and re-tiled/grouted), replaced outdoor light fixtures, dry-walled one small area, etc.

I think I'd take more chances on bigger jobs if not for figuring out how to keep the kids out of it and how to convince my wife it's a good idea.

What I'd probably like to learn most next is fixing leaks in copper pipes. Looks like it's just cutting out the bad section and replacing with new pipe, and it comes down to having the tools and being willing to work under the house. Our plumbing isn't great: we've had two small leaks in two years and I expect we'll have more down the line. Would be nice to be able to take care of them on my own vs spending a couple hundred to bring out a plumber for it - especially just for pinhole leaks. Seems the biggest challenge is working in the crawlspace under the house...

[Wasted Memory]

Here you go Joe!

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