buying a house stinketh (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Philip, are you on your own? No realtor, no lawyer, best friend to provide moral support? I was house hunting the past two months and the realtor was really useful in informing me about many details.

But I've given up on home ownership for a while. I don't think it's a smart financial thing to do, for me in my area.

Bought for $125,000 and sold for $153,000 less than a year latter

I'll just observe that though appreciation is about $30k, the profit (here in Rochester) would be about $12k. Good money for sure, but unlikely in some parts of the country.

 

[Micheal]

When I was getting ready to sell my house I had my Realtor over to take pictures. I was watering the plants and flowers outside for a little while before he arrived. About ten minutes later he showed up and started taking pictures of the property, I own about an acre. When we went into the house to take some pictures of the inside I could hear the sound of water running down in the basement. The pipe must have frozen & cracked over the winter and this was the first time that I had used it since last summer. (It was now Spring)
The water was pouring through the drop ceiling at the bottom of the stairs like a fountain! I'm just glad that it was nowhere near my HT!
I ran out and rented a shop-vac, sucked up the water and had the pipe professionally repaired. I can only imagine what the basement would have been like had I been outside for more than 10 minutes.

I was upfront with the buyers and showed them the receipts for the repairs.

 

[Philip_G]

Philip, are you on your own? No realtor, no lawyer, best friend to provide moral support? I was house hunting the past two months and the realtor was really useful in informing me about many details.

yeah, pretty much.
A good family friend is a real estate lawyer, but he is in Portland OR and not much use to me on CO real estate laws :frowning:

 

[MikeAlletto]

Another thing, when we locked our fixed rate, all it took was a phone call. I made a habit of calling the mortgage office every day and finally locked when it dropped to the number I was looking for.

When I locked in my rate I did call them and tell them to, but they faxed over documents stating my rate and type of loan that I needed to sign and fax back, only then was my rate truely locked in.

But you do need to keep after these people. They move at their own speed because most of the time they'll get paid whether they meet your close date or not. At first I didn't want it to feel like I was nagging but then I woke up and said "hey, these people are supposed to be working for ME! I'll nag them as much as I want to. When I say jump they should say how far!"

 

[Philip_G]

well, looks like it's all gone through, they're "going to pay some more of the closing costs" for me because of the interest mix up, I guess it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but I'm still not thrilled. We'll see what some is I guess.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Wow! That's great! But I can't imagine buying a house as a single 30 year old guy and living there for 22 years. And most people don't live in San Jose, with really hot property values.

It's not really great. I've been stuck in a 1000 square foot "starter" house all of my life. The cost of better houses has always increased at about twice the rate of my raises.....

 

[Steve Schaffer]

When my last ex and I split up we agreed that I could buy the house from her (she had bought it prior to our marriage). I was to give her $5k and take over the FHA assumable loan.

She'd already moved out a couple of years earlier and I'd been making the payments on the house loan which was still in her name.

We finally got around to the process of switching things over and were working with a local title company to get all the paperwork done for us. I had to dig out tax forms and other records going back 5 years and take them to the title company which was to handle all the details of escrow and such.

I was told this process should take about 3 weeks to a month. As the time went longer than originally estimated I called and called and always was assured that things were fine.

After 6 months had elapsed I got a phone call from the title company--the escrow officer in charge of our case had just been fired and our file had been found at the bottom of some desk drawer--nothing had been done with it from the start and I had to dig up all the information all over again because of the time lapse.

In hindsight I probably should have sued or at least gotten them to give me a break on the fees they charged me.

 

[Philip_G]

Ok, someone bumped the thread so I guess I'll update it.

I finally heard back tonight at like 5pm that the loan is done and got the final figures, all is well. I close tomorrow at 8am. They also made good on the interest rate, I get my ernst money back (1500 buckaroos)
even the payments worked out to be a few bucks (like 20) less than I had budgeted, so all is good and I can get a GOOD nights sleep tomorrow

 

[DaveF]

Glad things worked out for you, Philip. Post pictures when you move into your townhome

 

[Philip_G]

well I closed...
showed up at 8, the title people were ready, but no loan packet. It showed up an hour later after MANY phonecalls. The real estate agent for the seller showed up a half hour late a perfect end to a screwed up transaction.

I moved my washer and dryer in, what a pain, BARELY fit in the closet, I mean 1/4" to spare or the door wouldn't close.

then the garage door popped out of the track perfect.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

Well heck, you have the weekend off, don't you? That gives you 2 whole days to fix the stupid door track.

Glenn.

 

[Philip_G]

I fixed it last night, it has a funky i-drive garage door opener (like this http://www.wayne-dalton.com/whatsnew...New_idrive.asp )
and the cord got tangled on the door and unplugged it while it was pulling it up, I think it got the door cockeyed and popped it out, I bent the track a bit to get it back in there then "precision adjusted" it to work a bit better with some channel locks

I do have to say though, that is the coolest door opener I have seen. There's a beam in the way, so no room for a traditional opener. It mounts above the door and pulls it up at each side with a cable connected to the bottom of the door. Kinda nifty

 

[Bob Graz]

That is a pretty cool opener. I like that.

 

[Philip_G]

Ahhhh the joys of home ownership

like I mentioned I got the washer and dryer in, saturday I hung some blinds, and ran the water line for the ice maker. Today I caulked the entire kitchen along the edge of the tile and baseboards, as well as the windows (inside, call me anal but I think it should be done) and all the bathrooms, and entry way. No water under the baseboards, thanks. My mom's house is only 3 years old and there's some grunge growing under there from water, I assume. I'm not big on housekeeping but that bugs me to no end.

also spent a few hours on my knees sealing all the grout with a foam paintbrush and a damn $30 bottle of grout sealer, coat #2 is to come later tonight or tomorrow. They say this brand can last up to 15 years, so I figure 2 maybe 3 coats now and I can forget about it.

Hey, should I seal the grout on the tile surrounds in the showers? or is it a special water resitant grout? it would be a MASSIVE PITA to do by hand, maybe I could spray it on..

I did other stuff, but I can't remember it. I ran copper for the ice maker (hate plastic) and ran it along the back of the cabinets on the inside, but I have a lazy susan in the corner with not enough room for the tubing I think, so I ran it out next to the oven and under the toe kick where you can't see it, I guess that's OK, afterall it is copper. I did some other junk too that I can't remember. It's been mid 90's here and the house has no AC, so it's been slow going. I should buy home depot stock.. spent a BUNCH of cash there this weekend

the neighbors were watching a movie last night and it wasn't too bad, I could hear it standing in the hallway next to the wall, but out in the family room it wasn't very noticeable, with a TV on I hopefully wouldn't notice. I'm super worried I'll get moved in and be unhappy due to the noise.. thanks to phil hamm's thread


Ok I've now edited this enough times that I change subjects ever other line, job well done

 

[MikeAlletto]

I should buy home depot stock.. spent a BUNCH of cash there this weekend

Get used to it. I think I was up at Lowes or Home Depot every weekend the first few months in my house.

 

[Philip_G]

I lucked out some, I had a 50$ and a 40$ gift card, it covered my 3 blinds and the sealant, so I dind't spend THAT much I suppose.
Luckily the HD by my place is GREAT, they're super super helpful in there, the one near where I am now is impossible to get any help in.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

If you got Lowe's in your area you might want to check out their website. When I moved in I found that they had a new home buyers coupon. I got it either through their site, or from the post office when I changed my address. It gives you 10% off on a purchase up to $1000 or something like that. Plus you can get their credit card and pay for it in 6 months. I bought some shelves, a ladder, some other tools, ceiling fans, and a bunch of other stuff with that. Its amazing the amount of stuff you have to buy when you first get a house.