TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 2, 2021 18:07:33 GMT -5
If I were to sell my house, it would be because I am going to senior living apartments. Once the organizing is done, that could actually happen. 2 bedrooms 2 baths are going for less than my mortgage in a newly built senior complex two towns over from me. Has underground heated garage, etc. It's not connected to any other elder facility so it is an apartment building. As you probably know I live in a condo. It has its issues, such as sometimes you get noisy neighbors, and people are close to you so you don't get the same privacy as a stand alone house. But when I see the time and cost single home owners have to budget for, I'm so grateful I live in a condo. If you find a good handyman, you're only responsible for the interior of the unit, and you're easily set. My handyman comes in every six months or so to take care of things broken, improvements, etc. and he's here for a few hours. Other than that, maintenance free living. This would be rent, so I would not be required to do any maintenance.
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TheHaitian
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Post by TheHaitian on Jul 5, 2021 22:06:17 GMT -5
In the DMV or DC it's going crazy which is another reason why I am not too crazy on the idea of upgrading now and prefer to fix the townhome we are in. There is no reason why we cannot put a small crib in our room for the first year or two and move the baby into Carlie's room, close in the deck area , insulated it and turn it into their playroom/family room.
A new development by us where 2 bedroom condos are going for 750k and 3 bedroom townhouses are going for 900k is 75% sold because for DC that is cheap for new construction. We looked into it and I was interested but not fully crazy! 1 townhome down the block is on the market for 695k and another one closed for 700k. Redfin has my home estimated at 662k and Zillow has it estimated at 700k. I think we could easy sell for 675k and up based on current trends.
My wife cousin closed on her raised ranch home in Arlington for 1.1 Million while 2 of my cousins bought similar raised ranch with similar layout in Newark and West Orange NJ for 350k and 400k. Actually theirs were more updated —- that should tell you what DMV location add to the price.
Yet they are building more and more apartment complexes all over DC and I wonder where are all these people currently and/or where are they coming from. Funny also all the constructions seems to be in what used to be mostly “black” neighborhoods or low income neighborhoods NE, SE, SW… little to no construction in the NW neighborhoods, just some flips or turning town homes into condos (so example a townhome like mine in NW would be flipped into 3 (2 bedrooms) condos, 1 on each floor. Because you know… certain neighborhoods in DC are very sought after even if you live in a broom closet.
Look I won’t knock it, to get my daughter into the right school I am willing to rent one of those broom closets too and use the address… sue me. I will sleep there 1 or 2 nights a week or my office from home. And I am dead serious!
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mamasita99
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Post by mamasita99 on Jul 6, 2021 18:35:29 GMT -5
In the DMV or DC it's going crazy which is another reason why I am not too crazy on the idea of upgrading now and prefer to fix the townhome we are in. There is no reason why we cannot put a small crib in our room for the first year or two and move the baby into Carlie's room, close in the deck area , insulated it and turn it into their playroom/family room. A new development by us where 2 bedroom condos are going for 750k and 3 bedroom townhouses are going for 900k is 75% sold because for DC that is cheap for new construction. We looked into it and I was interested but not fully crazy! 1 townhome down the block is on the market for 695k and another one closed for 700k. Redfin has my home estimated at 662k and Zillow has it estimated at 700k. I think we could easy sell for 675k and up based on current trends. My wife cousin closed on her raised ranch home in Arlington for 1.1 Million while 2 of my cousins bought similar raised ranch with similar layout in Newark and West Orange NJ for 350k and 400k. Actually theirs were more updated —- that should tell you what DMV location add to the price. Yet they are building more and more apartment complexes all over DC and I wonder where are all these people currently and/or where are they coming from. Funny also all the constructions seems to be in what used to be mostly “black” neighborhoods or low income neighborhoods NE, SE, SW… little to no construction in the NW neighborhoods, just some flips or turning town homes into condos (so example a townhome like mine in NW would be flipped into 3 (2 bedrooms) condos, 1 on each floor. Because you know… certain neighborhoods in DC are very sought after even if you live in a broom closet. Look I won’t knock it, to get my daughter into the right school I am willing to rent one of those broom closets too and use the address… sue me. I will sleep there 1 or 2 nights a week or my office from home. And I am dead serious! I did this last year, so DD could graduate at her high school I was actually paying rent, not just using an address so I felt ok doing it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2021 10:47:58 GMT -5
Well, now it's getting crazy. I mentioned my next-door neighbor whose house is apparently going to sell for $424K. Sale shows as Pending- apparently they're doing some repairs, including the cracked driveway. That one is 3,900 square feet, 5 BR. DH and I bought this one in 2015 for $258K and then sank $26K into getting the porch enclosed. This one is 3,300 square feet, 4 BR. I just learned in the HOA Board meeting last night that another house in our neighborhood is about to go up for sale. The owners haven't been there that long but they're moving to Las Vegas. They've had multiple contractors doing work inside. Realtor.com says it's 2500 square feet but last night they said 5,000, with 4 BR. They're supposedly listing it at $800K. It will be interesting to watch what happens with both places.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 8, 2021 11:05:56 GMT -5
DN3 is getting his house ready to sell. They aren't sure where they will live once it sells. I did tell them not in my basement.
Their realtor told them even here not to make an offer with a contingency of selling a house or it will not get accepted.
He did say that they have to make a competitive offer because there are not many houses available in their price range.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Jul 8, 2021 11:57:01 GMT -5
There's been a big neighborhood kerfluffle since the HOA announced about a year ago that they were selling off some of the neighborhood green space. It's not really within their rights to do this without a neighborhood vote. Lots of drama ensued and HOA funds were used to pay some legal fees to push this through.
Anyway, it's related to this thread because the space is right down my street, and signs went up this week showing 4 lots with future house construction for sale in the mid-500s. My house keeps going up and is worth $375k. How much do you think this will increase mine? Gotta dream of equity LOL.
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susana1954
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Post by susana1954 on Jul 8, 2021 13:05:19 GMT -5
DN3 is getting his house ready to sell. They aren't sure where they will live once it sells. I did tell them not in my basement. Their realtor told them even here not to make an offer with a contingency of selling a house or it will not get accepted. He did say that they have to make a competitive offer because there are not many houses available in their price range. My daughter and her husband have decided to sell their house because the market is so good. They have moved to her grandmother's farm. It's not an ideal situation for many reasons, which I won't list here, but it has allowed them to fix up their house, which would be impossible with five kids! They are paying rent even though the property is empty. She says they won't buy in this market so they will probably be there forever. Her grandmother isn't ever coming home from senior living so I guess it's sort of win/win for now. Empty properties deteriorate quickly, and this one has been empty for a few years.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Jul 8, 2021 13:46:49 GMT -5
The house DN3 lives in is really not suitable for a family. It was built in 1856 and much of it does not meet today's code. Over the last 150 years, there have been all kinds of additions, etc. that don't go well together. If a person is in to historical homes, this is perfect.
It only has 880 sq ft of living space. It's has 3 stories and 1.5 baths that work. The one on the floor where you enter has never worked. DN3 cleaned out the flue to the wood stove and it works. He did that a couple of years ago. He also had electrical and plumbing done for a dishwasher and washer and dryer when he moved in.
On the first floor (which backs in to the side of a hill) is this non-working bathroom, laundry room and kitchen. On the middle floor are the living room, a nice bathroom and a nice master bedroom. The 3rd floor is actually an attic. It supposed has 2 useable rooms, but it's actually one. That's where they have the 5 year old. It has a room with a toilet and sink. The steps from the 2nd to 3rd floor are very, very steep.
He has previously fixed the front porch roof. He said now the flue to the heating system needs repaired.
It's also too far from his job so they are looking for some place that will each of them about the same commute.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Jul 9, 2021 9:49:17 GMT -5
My DS finally has a closing date. It is a WHEDA loan (State of WI), so it is requiring some sort of MI, even though he will have about 37% equity/down payment between his down payment and the gifted equity from his grandparents. I have not seen the closing documents but DH was bitching last night that DS has to pay $14 a month MI and can't cancel it until the first year is up. I told DH to leave it alone as that only amounts to $168. I would like to read through the settlement statement though.
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formerroomate99
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Post by formerroomate99 on Jul 9, 2021 13:52:35 GMT -5
In the seven years I’ve lived here, nearly every empty lot in my town has been turned into apartments, so even though 80% of the land was taken when I moved here, the number of housing units has probably doubled or even tripled. Thankfully when my town was built, they built the roads twice as wide as I needed to, so the extra cars don’t really bother anything. They even put a 700 unit apartment complex at the end of my street without hurting my quality of life.
Despite all the building, the cost of housing has exploded in this area. I was priced out of my neighborhood within the year of moving in and my house value has doubled. Houses usually sell in a week or less, and you have to offer more than the asking price to have a chance. I have a feeling my kids are going to be living at home well into their 20s or leaving the area for cheaper digs when they grow up.
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Anne_in_VA
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Post by Anne_in_VA on Jul 10, 2021 10:04:32 GMT -5
We definitely would be priced out of housing in our neighborhood if we had to buy now. Houses have risen so high. Our next door neighbor just sold for $350+ for a 3 bed 2 bath house of about 1500 sf with a converted garage. Crazy. We’ve been here for 8 years and have a similar house which we paid about $220k. Neighbor paid about $250k 5 years ago for his house.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2021 17:36:25 GMT -5
Mister and I were talking about this again today. He was thinking about how hard it must be for people that don’t make much money to find something decent and affordable to rent or buy here and wondering how long it will be like this.
When we bought this house 2 years ago, technically I could’ve bought it by myself, but it would’ve been outside my comfort zone. Today, even if I sold my other house, I still wouldn’t be able to buy the house we live in if Zillow is even close to accurate. My income is more than the median household income for the county, so it’s not just low earners that are being affected. My other house has increased in value, but not at the same rate as this one.
How does it work when housing costs increase so dramatically and quickly, but wages do not? My income certainly didn’t, and neither did Mister’s. Houses use to be fairly cheap here, especially compared to other parts of the country. They still don’t cost as much as other areas, since those areas have increased also, but they have become expensive for this area.
A friend of our family lives in an apartment near us. Her rent is more than our mortgage payment, so renting is not necessarily the answer either. She’s a single Mom of 2 and literally works 18 hours some days. Is that becoming the norm to be able to live somewhere decent? And when I say “decent”, around here, the first thing I mean is halfway safe.
Yesterday, on the Nextdoor app, a lady posted about looking for somewhere to move to. She said she had to move because her landlord is raising her rent from $1750 to $2500 because “that’s what the market allows” and she can’t afford it. I can’t imagine.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 10, 2021 17:58:58 GMT -5
I don't know, though. Hasn't it always been tough to get into your first house? My first house cost 50% of my take-home pay. It was a fixer-upper in a bad neighborhood. My rate was 11%.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2021 19:19:57 GMT -5
I don't know, though. Hasn't it always been tough to get into your first house? My first house cost 50% of my take-home pay. It was a fixer-upper in a bad neighborhood. My rate was 11%. I bought my first house when I was 29yo. I don’t remember what my net pay was back then, but my PITI was just over 25% of my gross. It was a 3BR 1.5BA well maintained, all brick house in a quiet neighborhood that I felt was fairly safe for me and my children. Safe enough that in the summer we would go outside and play sometimes when we got home after I got off work…… at 10pm lol. We moved there FROM a bad neighborhood where I didn’t let my kids go outside and play even in the daytime. We spent a lot of time in parks back then lol. My quick calculations say a new hire at my job now with good credit (I’d been there 2 years when I bought my house) could buy my house or one like it today, but the payment would be a bigger percentage of their gross pay than it was for me when I bought it. The starting salary at my job is more than most of the other jobs in the area that don’t require a skill or degree. It’s actually more than the starting salary of some jobs that require a degree. This area has been unable to compete and entice some major corporations to move offices here when they were looking for new locations because we don’t have a large enough pool of educated/white collar employees to choose from if they did come here. We have plenty of warehouse jobs though. So, for the area, I have a “good” job. And I’m currently priced out of neighborhoods I would prefer to live in, that weren’t terribly expensive and completely out of my reach just a couple years ago. What about all the people that don’t have a “good” job, but would like to be homeowners? It use to be possible here, but it’s becoming more difficult with the recent price increases. I’ve read that houses for sale in the price range of my other house (less than $150k, which not too long ago was enough to get a pretty nice house…. larger, “nicer” and in a newer neighborhood than mine) have almost become unicorns…. even more scarce than the more expensive houses. I would consider that price range “starter homes”, like I considered mine when I bought it. But starter homes cost a lot more these days, and wages have not kept up with the increases in house values. Maybe I’m naive, it’s been said before that I am, but I’d like for responsible, working people in this area to be able to do what I was able to do in my late 20’s, or hell, even earlier if they can, and buy their own home, in good condition and a decent neighborhood…. if that’s what they want. I was able to do it, why shouldn’t they be able to do it too? I think I’ve already gone on a rant in this thread about “investors” buying so many houses in the area now. They call and text me all the time about my house, they even text my children. I just tell them I’m not interested and hang up, and I don’t respond to their texts, even though some text me 2 or 3 times in a day and ask me shit that’s not any of their business, like what are my plans for my house. I keep saying I’m going to start responding with “I’ll sell it to you for $250k”, knowing it’s not worth that. Not only do they bug me by pestering me, but also because they are part of the problem with the current housing market here. I have reason to believe that gentrification may soon become a thing where my house is located. But even if it’s not, I still want to keep my house and have it be a source of passive income when I retire. The fair market rent I could get now would be good, and I’m still paying a mortgage. It will be even sweeter once the mortgage is paid off. But that’s IF I ever manage to straighten out the current situation over there. I know I’m rambling. My apologies.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 10, 2021 23:42:10 GMT -5
I can't tolerate investors calling or texting me. I block them.
Interest rates are so much better now, so I think that does help level the playing field for first time buyers.
One thing I notice now is a starter home in this area is nothing like a starter home where I come from. They expect to get a lot more than I ever did.
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gs11rmb
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Post by gs11rmb on Jul 12, 2021 7:39:24 GMT -5
In the seven years I’ve lived here, nearly every empty lot in my town has been turned into apartments, so even though 80% of the land was taken when I moved here, the number of housing units has probably doubled or even tripled. Thankfully when my town was built, they built the roads twice as wide as I needed to, so the extra cars don’t really bother anything. They even put a 700 unit apartment complex at the end of my street without hurting my quality of life. Despite all the building, the cost of housing has exploded in this area. I was priced out of my neighborhood within the year of moving in and my house value has doubled. Houses usually sell in a week or less, and you have to offer more than the asking price to have a chance. I have a feeling my kids are going to be living at home well into their 20s or leaving the area for cheaper digs when they grow up. Sounds familiar. Our house is 1,400 square feet and we really could use another bedroom. We have about $250K in equity but the problem is all of the older smaller houses in my neighbourhood are being torn down and replaced with huge houses. So, ours is worth about $450K but the one directly across the street just sold for $1.5M (4,500 sq ft). We can't get a bigger house in our neighbourhood so the only option is to move further out. But, if we move to the Atlanta suburbs, once our kids are grown, we won't be able to move back into the city. My oldest was 13 yesterday so just five more years until she's off to college and we won't need to downsize .
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Jul 12, 2021 7:57:45 GMT -5
The fed really should increase interest rates, but it's not. That's the problem. The current interest rates are lower than they should be long-term. They are fueling inflation by keeping the current rates where they are. House prices tend to go down when interest rates go up.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Jul 12, 2021 10:02:00 GMT -5
I don't know, though. Hasn't it always been tough to get into your first house? My first house cost 50% of my take-home pay. It was a fixer-upper in a bad neighborhood. My rate was 11%. There's that rule of thumb - one's total mortgage (the amount one borrows) should be more than 3 time one's gross yearly income. Net pay (or take home pay) isn't a good measure when comparing to other people. I could extrapolate from the example of 50% of take home pay for a mortgage payment to mean AFTER saving 40% of gross pay in retirement and after tax savings. And after all one's payroll deductions - which might include some transfers to "sinking funds" for Vacation, Holidays, car repairs, etc... I would be thinking you were doing great financially - you've got all your bills covers and still have some left over for discretionary spending (that other 50% of take home pay...) Net pay is also different for singles. Our tax laws favor marrieds and having kids. Anyway back to the rule of thumb: A house that sells for 350K - would imply a Down Payment of: $70,000.00 and a mortgage of $280,000. That implies a household income of 90K or more. The total cost (350K) if it was 3x gross income would imply a 116K household income. All of which kind of begs the question - how does someone save up the 70K down payment and the 10K or so extra they may need at closing for prepaids and closing costs AND have 5K to 10K reserved for moving costs and all those things that come up in the 1st year of home ownership? OK, I'm sure many people buying their first home don't put down 20% and don't have much of a cash reserve after purchase. Perhaps we are going back to the days of only couples (double incomes) being able to afford houses? Is it singles being priced out of the market? Or are current homeowners giving up on saving for retirement? How do you juggle saving 15% to 20% of gross income for retirement with buying a home? (this assumes a career/income with no pension benefit).
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Jul 12, 2021 12:07:12 GMT -5
My nephew told us last weekend that his future wife’s family had $30,000 saved for her to buy a house. Their Wedding is Mid-August, and they are getting married YM Style. They rented a tent, and the Celebration will be on her Parent’s Farm/Land. I was telling my DD the other day that I am quite sure E has Student Loans, So don’t know if the $$ were to use at her option for Wedding or to pay off the loans or what, but they bid on a house being Auctioned off, and those $$ were what enabled DN to place the winning bid. I don’t know exactly how much of their own savings were in play, so they appear to be between 10-20% equity.
My nieces who became homeowners in the last few years, one did a small wedding & used the $$ her parents gave her for a down payment (she also has always been a careful spender),the other one, she and her DH did Travel Nursing for a few years. I have another niece who bought within the last month or so, they have saved for several years and bought much less house than they initially planned.
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nidena
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Post by nidena on Jul 12, 2021 13:08:40 GMT -5
Then there's the catch-22 that people can't save up their 20% downpayments for mortgages that will have $1200/monthly payments because they're paying $1800/mo in rent.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 12, 2021 21:51:32 GMT -5
You don't need 20% down for a mortgage.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 12, 2021 22:04:20 GMT -5
I don't know, though. Hasn't it always been tough to get into your first house? My first house cost 50% of my take-home pay. It was a fixer-upper in a bad neighborhood. My rate was 11%. There's that rule of thumb - one's total mortgage (the amount one borrows) should be more than 3 time one's gross yearly income. Net pay (or take home pay) isn't a good measure when comparing to other people. I could extrapolate from the example of 50% of take home pay for a mortgage payment to mean AFTER saving 40% of gross pay in retirement and after tax savings. And after all one's payroll deductions - which might include some transfers to "sinking funds" for Vacation, Holidays, car repairs, etc... I would be thinking you were doing great financially - you've got all your bills covers and still have some left over for discretionary spending (that other 50% of take home pay...) Net pay is also different for singles. Our tax laws favor marrieds and having kids. Anyway back to the rule of thumb: A house that sells for 350K - would imply a Down Payment of: $70,000.00 and a mortgage of $280,000. That implies a household income of 90K or more. The total cost (350K) if it was 3x gross income would imply a 116K household income. All of which kind of begs the question - how does someone save up the 70K down payment and the 10K or so extra they may need at closing for prepaids and closing costs AND have 5K to 10K reserved for moving costs and all those things that come up in the 1st year of home ownership? OK, I'm sure many people buying their first home don't put down 20% and don't have much of a cash reserve after purchase. Perhaps we are going back to the days of only couples (double incomes) being able to afford houses? Is it singles being priced out of the market? Or are current homeowners giving up on saving for retirement? How do you juggle saving 15% to 20% of gross income for retirement with buying a home? (this assumes a career/income with no pension benefit). I suppose I should have given more info. I was single at the time. Saving 0% for retirement or anything else. It was about 40% of my gross pay. I paid $30k for the place. I started at the bottom. It took many years to work my way up. I know it varies by location, but there are plenty of areas where you don't need to spend $350k for a starter home.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 12, 2021 22:06:42 GMT -5
My nephew told us last weekend that his future wife’s family had $30,000 saved for her to buy a house. Their Wedding is Mid-August, and they are getting married YM Style. They rented a tent, and the Celebration will be on her Parent’s Farm/Land. I was telling my DD the other day that I am quite sure E has Student Loans, So don’t know if the $$ were to use at her option for Wedding or to pay off the loans or what, but they bid on a house being Auctioned off, and those $$ were what enabled DN to place the winning bid. I don’t know exactly how much of their own savings were in play, so they appear to be between 10-20% equity. My nieces who became homeowners in the last few years, one did a small wedding & used the $$ her parents gave her for a down payment (she also has always been a careful spender),the other one, she and her DH did Travel Nursing for a few years. I have another niece who bought within the last month or so, they have saved for several years and bought much less house than they initially planned. Good for your nephew and nieces. It sounds like they've done well for themselves.
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minnesotapaintlady
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Jul 13, 2021 7:22:16 GMT -5
I know it varies by location, but there are plenty of areas where you don't need to spend $350k for a starter home. Yeah, definitely don't need to spend 350K here. Older starter homes are more like 130-180K. Still seems high to me since MY starter home was 42K, but that was 30 years ago. Most people are are not putting 20% down either.
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tractor
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Post by tractor on Jul 13, 2021 8:59:45 GMT -5
I still haven’t pulled the trigger on listing my “extra” house. Part of me doesn’t want to let it go, but I really don’t do anything with it.
Houses around here are still selling for cash in hours/days after listing. I could use the cash more than the house. I’m still trying to figure out where the cash is coming from, but we do have 20 new pot shops in our little town (10,000 residents), I think that may be the source.
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bean29
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Post by bean29 on Jul 13, 2021 11:28:03 GMT -5
My Son's House Purchase Finally closed yesterday. I guess having the DH's Para Professional aka "the cleaning lady" verify DS's employment was what did the trick.
There is lots of work to be done on the house. We now have to decide if DS will replace the flooring with vinyl plank or laminate or just refinish the hardwood. Bathrooms need updating, and DH says if someone is not careful when they take a shower in the 2nd floor bathroom, the water leaks down the outside of the house. I thought it should be glass blocked in, but DH wants to just cover the window with siding and fill it in so that he can just tile over where the window is now.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 13, 2021 12:56:54 GMT -5
Congratulations to your DS!
I don't have experience with vinyl planks, but know laminate can be slippery. I'd stick with the hardwood.
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buystoys
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Post by buystoys on Jul 13, 2021 14:35:35 GMT -5
Vinyl plank is nice if you mess up a piece or two, you can fix it easily as long as you kept some extra. Laminate looks more like real wood, though.
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Lizard Queen
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Post by Lizard Queen on Jul 13, 2021 16:00:13 GMT -5
Hardwood is worth keeping if it's in decent shape/you can sand it to make it look good.
I have a better quality vinyl plank. I like that I don't have to worry too much about it getting wet. At first, it felt weird on bare feet, but I've gotten used to it. I also have laminate, which hasn't been nearly as durable. Grew up with hardwood, so I'm meh about it. It's cold in the winter.
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bean29
Junior Associate
Joined: Dec 19, 2010 22:26:57 GMT -5
Posts: 9,939
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Post by bean29 on Jul 14, 2021 14:49:40 GMT -5
We had hardwood floors in the house I grew up in too. The first floor was carpeted over, and not refinished/exposed until we kids were grown and on our own. Now Mom has area rugs - so the Echo Chamber is muted.
Carpet mutes the noise and insulates the floors to retain warmth in the winter.
DS's house is a duplex. I am concerned that the first floor tenants will hear every movement, every time someone walks across the floor upstairs. $$ are in short supply though, so refinishing the upper floors is an economical alternative.
We pulled all the old carpet on the 2nd floor. I am not sure what we will do on the first floor. I walked through there this past weekend, but did not stop to look at the condition of the floor coverings. I found an HGTV article about refinishing the floors. I think the guys can attempt it with very little out of pocket cost. I don't know if they will decide it looks good, or if they will decide they need to do something else. the article said it can be very difficult to hold the floor sander, and if you stop in the middle of the room, the floor can get messed up. I think if DS handles the sander they will have a better chance than if DH does it, but I know DH will not agree.
There is a lot of wood look tile at Lowes. We did that in DH's office, and my Brother did it in his kitchen a few years ago. My brother suggested if they were going to tile over the hardwood, they maybe should take the old flooring out and start over. I don't think DH will go for that... but they would not use tile in the Main living area anyways - just possibly the kitchen which seems to have more issues.
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