Starting to look at houses...carpet questions

[jesse]

Sellers bank accepted my short-sell offer. Starting inspections soon.

 

[wsuffa]

Sellers bank accepted my short-sell offer. Starting inspections soon.

Congrats, Jesse, and good luck.

 

[tonycondon]

good news!

 

[CJones]

Congrats! or sorry - depending on the results of the inspections.

Good luck!

 

[jesse]

Congrats! or sorry - depending on the results of the inspections.

Good luck!

It'll be interesting..I need to buy a lot of stuff:
lawn mower
weed whacker
washer
dryer
fridge
stove
hoses
maybe all new carpet
..and who knows what else

 

[mikea]

It'll be interesting..I need to buy a lot of stuff:
lawn mower
weed whacker
washer
dryer
fridge
stove
hoses
maybe all new carpet
..and who knows what else

Jesse,

Come by me and help load up the minivan.

I have extras of all those plus fridge, dishwasher, freezer, ...

 

[CJones]

It'll be interesting..I need to buy a lot of stuff:
lawn mower
weed whacker
washer
dryer
fridge
stove
hoses
maybe all new carpet
..and who knows what else

two words - "scratch 'n dent" (three words if you count the 'n). We got our W&D at a more reasonable price b/c they dinged it with the forklift while unloading it at the dock. Scratched the paint on it. "OH NO! Now all the people that see my W&D will see the scratch!" Pffft! Sometimes you have to ask about s & d stuff, though...

Try not to end up in a 'I need it now' situation and you can shop for some decent deals on that stuff.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Jesse- congrats!

As for Chris Jones's advice, I think there is a place that sells S&D off Holdredge Ave- but I don't know anything more about it. The sales demo units I've seen at (name your store) always looked beat to **** for a relatively small amount off.

Depending on how strong your back is, you may consider adding "snowblower" to your list.

 

[jesse]

eDepending on how strong your back is, you may consider adding "snowblower" to your list.

The driveway isn't too big and I need the workout. Plus -- too much crap like that then I'd need a shed. It never ends!

 

[Cap'n Jack]

The driveway isn't too big and I need the workout. Plus -- too much crap like that then I'd need a shed. It never ends!

And too much stuff makes less space for the homebuilt:smile:

 

[mikea]

The driveway isn't too big and I need the workout. Plus -- too much crap like that then I'd need a shed. It never ends!

What ya talkin? At least YOU gots a garage. Try parking a tractor outside in the winter.

 

[Henning]

The driveway isn't too big and I need the workout. Plus -- too much crap like that then I'd need a shed. It never ends!

I never have seen the enticement of "owning a house", you never own it anyway, you're just renting it from the government.

 

[CJones]

I never have seen the enticement of "owning a house", you never own it anyway, you're just renting it from the government.

True, but at least by 'owning' it, if you decide to move you will (hopefully) get most of your 'rent' paid back to you, if not more.

I'm renting right now, and I have most of the 'joys' of ownership - lawncare, snow removal, etc., but when I move all I'll get is my original deposit. All the rent money I've paid is gone down the tube with nothing to show for it.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I never have seen the enticement of "owning a house", you never own it anyway, you're just renting it from the government.

Oh I don't know...I know some people that got lucky- bought low the when the market went down in 1990; sold in 2001 just before a minor market crash and bought in 2002. They sold again in 2007 just before everything went to heck and bought in 2008 when things were fairly low. The buying and selling was due to job changes. They have more cash socked away now than they would have had if they had rented, but they lucked out on the timing.

They did a good job leveraging their cash (although they were lucky in the timing as well).

 

[jesse]

True, but at least by 'owning' it, if you decide to move you will (hopefully) get most of your 'rent' paid back to you, if not more.

I'm renting right now, and I have most of the 'joys' of ownership - lawncare, snow removal, etc., but when I move all I'll get is my original deposit. All the rent money I've paid is gone down the tube with nothing to show for it.

Unless of course you need to move and then can't sell the house. Then you're stuck paying for two

 

[Gary]

Unless of course you need to move and then can't sell the house. Then you're stuck paying for two

Guess one could always rent it out - but that has it's own problems.

Good luck with the home purchase, but remember, nature abhors a vacuum! The house will, seemingly by it's own accord, fill up with "stuff", most of which you will never remember why it's there!!

Gary

 

[Henning]

Guess one could always rent it out - but that has it's own problems.

Good luck with the home purchase, but remember, nature abhors a vacuum! The house will, seemingly by it's own accord, fill up with "stuff", most of which you will never remember why it's there!!

Gary

Long distance landlord is a position I will not risk again. I prefer living on other peoples boats and spending other peoples money...

 

[Gary]

Long distance landlord is a position I will not risk again. I prefer living on other peoples boats and spending other peoples money...

Long distance landlord?... Understand that completely, not a good position. As far as the OPM, Other Peoples Money - you related to former (soon to be incarcerated) PA state rep. Vince Fumo? That was his favorite saying. Hopefully your use of OPM is legal, his wasn't.

Gary

 

[Anthony]

Long distance landlord?... Understand that completely, not a good position. As far as the OPM, Other Peoples Money - you related to former (soon to be incarcerated) PA state rep. Vince Fumo? That was his favorite saying. Hopefully your use of OPM is legal, his wasn't.

Gary

I've done the long distance landlord thing. It works if you have good tenants. Its a nightmare if you have bad tenants. Screen the heck out of the tenants and it just might be a good situation. It helps if you have a friend or relative close by to check on things now and then.

 

[CJones]

Long distance landlord is a position I will not risk again.

My parents have been burned not once.... not twice... but THRICE while trying to run a long-distance landlord situation. The most recent 'burning' was by my mom's first cousin that was her best friend growing. Actually paid the rent twice in about two years of living there. My parents were trying to help her out by giving her a place to get out of an abusive relationship and help her get on her feet. Before they knew it, her kids and their spouses were living there. But apparently between 5 people, they couldn't come up with $400/month for rent.

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Dean]

Unless of course you need to move and then can't sell the house. Then you're stuck paying for two

I am in that boat right now, during the week I live 100 miles away from the wife and airplane. Sure hope the house sells soon, I sure miss one of them.

 

[Henning]

Long distance landlord?... Understand that completely, not a good position. As far as the OPM, Other Peoples Money - you related to former (soon to be incarcerated) PA state rep. Vince Fumo? That was his favorite saying. Hopefully your use of OPM is legal, his wasn't.

Gary

Yep, legit. Amazing what I've spent in the last month and a half. When my credit card runs out, I have a number I call and I get another $100,000. I did it twice in a week before....

 

[Gary]

Yep, legit. Amazing what I've spent in the last month and a half. When my credit card runs out, I have a number I call and I get another $100,000. I did it twice in a week before....

Not bad at all, more power to you! And they say the economy is crashing and all the good jobs are leaving!

Gary

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Not bad at all, more power to you! And they say the economy is crashing and all the good jobs are leaving!

Gary

The good jobs have left- he's out in Australia or some other place IIRC- but not in the USA.

 

[Henning]

The good jobs have left- he's out in Australia or some other place IIRC- but not in the USA.

I'll tell ya, it would have been cheaper and faster if they would have just stuck the boat on Dock Express from Singapore, shipped it to Ft Lauderdale, done the refit, then shipped it back to Singapore. We would have been surfing 2-3 months ago and spent a half a million less.

 

[jesse]

Jesse,

Come by me and help load up the minivan.

I have extras of all those plus fridge, dishwasher, freezer, ...

Thanks for the offer Mike -- appreciate it -- although I think the logistics would be too difficult. That is a *long* drive

 

[jason]

Well, if the house has leaks there should be water in there right now. We just had one hell of a storm pass through.

 

[Richard]

Run a French drain on the uphill side and the back of the house. Run it to "daylight" at the curb. It looks like you have sufficient gradient slope to let gravity do the job. There may also be a natural spring uphill of the property. Talk to the neighbors. They may be reluctant to admit casual water from their property so be tactful in the investigation.

Get out there and do the calcs and surveying before digging. You need to figure the fall of the pipe~therefore depth of the trench. Call DIGALERT before you dig. They come out for free and ident any pipes under the ground. Hire a backhoe for a couple hundred dollars. Total bill: >$1,000. Try to put the drain inside of the roof dripline if at all possible.

For treating the garage wall, look into a coating (elastomeric or other) you can apply to the exterior of the wall. Yeah, that means digging a narrow trench to spray or roll the coating.

Ixnay the tile drain to nowhere. You don't want a sump in your garage. But before you fill it in, find out where the ABS pipes lead from. Color dye in water is a simple test. Also, a plumber could walk the pipe with a video camera but would cost a Benjamen or so.

If the gutter downspouts are draining correctly and the gutter system is in working condition the fix is dirt simple; extend the "fall" of the downspout out frm the house. This may mean connecting all the spouts to a single line and running it towards the street. $50-150 and viola, fixed!

All this for $1,000-1,500. And it would likely cure future water damage. Treating current damage is a separate deal but it's inexpensive and simple. Requires copious elbow grease.

If you really like this property, you should proceed forward on this purchase. Try to negotiate with the bank(s) to see if they'll discount the price or even cough up some bucks. It wouldn't be the first time and it doesn't hurt to assert your (their) delimma.

 

[Richard]

BTW: I'm not suggesting you spend even one penny before closing the sale. What I'm saying is this looks like an inexpensive fix and should not prevent you from moving in.

I forgot to add: the soils composition is a factor. Layers of clay/sand/clay... is a bugger because it's hard to dig but also because of varying porosity of the layers.

 

[Ted]

Yeah, expect to spend the next several years acquiring everything that you need for the house. Fortunately summer's end is approaching (especially by the time you close), so you may get by without a lawn mower and weed whacker until next year. I closed on my house in September, and didn't need to mow it again until the following year. The washer and dryer you'll want sooner rather than later - at least Tristan will.

I'm three years into home ownership and still don't own all the little things, but I figure that if I haven't needed it by now I'm probably alright.

 

[jesse]

Well---a bit of an update....Inspections found minor things -- I accepted the house. I was scheduled to close on August 25th and everyone told me doing so wouldn't be an issue.

Fast-forward to today--August 21st. I receive a call saying that there is no way we can close in August and they cannot tell me when I can close. The sellers bank (Wells Fargo) hasn't yet provided my bank with a final letter of some sort (Wells Fargo). I have already committed to moving out of my apartment. I also had appointments setup to get cable installed, carpet cleaned, etc.. ****.

The Realtor has offered an apartment (efficiency) she owns for Tristan and I to stay in for free until its worked out. So we'll have to do that. It is in a pretty ****ty area though (13th and F).

Damn banks.

I wonder if I can write a song like that "United broke my guitar" guy......and..."Wells Fargo made me homeless!".

 

[wsuffa]

Well, that sux.

A colleague of mine in LA (he's a VP) didn't get final approval for his loan until the morning of closing.

Like you, he had committed to moving out of his rental property, yada, yada...

At least you didn't get screwed by the appraisal. That's a real problem around here.

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Dang banks!
We did a deal last month and talk about being yanked around. Its not exactly a good market to be a lender here, either. Had to be the tough guy at least twice to make them play fair... hard for me to do, but they came around.

 

[Richard]

My last house was a short sale and held by 3 separate banks. Those banks aregued amongst themselves and otherwise delayed providing the docs. Escrow dragged on for almost 5 weeks past the due date. We stayed at a friend's home for 3 weeks plus several hotels until final closing. And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights so we were prevented by floods in helping the process along.

Think of it as a vacation campout.

 

[TMetzinger]

Never make plans until you've got the closing date agreed to in writing by all parties, and ensure there are penalties for those who back out from the closing. Sorry for your trouble, but it sounds like your Realtor is stepping up (which reflects well).

 

[ScottM]

Jesse I feel for you. On my house I did make the closing. But, Wells Fargo who was my mortgage company, almost blew the hole thing days before the closing. It took me and my lawyer to send several threatening calls reminding them of their obligations to get the job done.

I don't think it is just Wells Fargo that stinks either. I think that each of these mortgage places stink. Recently a friend offered a bank cash for a house that they were selling. The bank took three months to get back to him. His deal that he offered required a 14 day response. So when the bank finally came to him he reminded them that deal had been forfeited by them but if they were still interested in selling he would re-offer them 10% less and they needed to get back to him within 14 days. They took 21 days to respond. He then told them that the offer was void and that if they wanted to sell he would be willing to buy at 5% more off (15% total form the original price). They finally got that acceptance in on time. What a bunch of idiots.

 

[Skip Miller]

It is a problem the banks are causing for themselves!

I refinanced my home maybe six months ago, with Chase/JP Morgan bank. I was at work at 8:30 am and received an email from the mortgage processor. She was located in Phoenix. I called to discuss her question and making small talk, said "you are at work early today".

She said she routinely works 12 hour days five days per week, 8 hours on Saturday, and a half day on Sunday.

These banks are grinding the employees into the ground. The only reason they can get away with it is that there is a line of unemployed a mile long waiting for one of them to quit....

-Skip

 

[jesse]

Well. We're moved into our ghetto "efficiency" apartment. Really uncomfortable vibe here and lots of people I'd rather not be anywhere near me, yet alone my neighbors. Hopefully the bank will get their **** together in the very very near future.

 

[Dave Siciliano]

I'm not seeing many closings occur on the agreed to date right now; I'm really sorry you're caught up in it. You've heard about the bank issues--Sheila now has more than 400 on her sick list. Most banks have to originate in a manner where the mortgage flows through to a gov'ment agency. Their having issues too. At my last closing, it was the title company that couldn't get things right. I raised several questions about the docs and they couldn't get answers.

Welcome to the club! Glad you found a place and hope you're able to get in there soon.

Best,

Dave

 

[jesse]

Well -- we've been in our ghetto efficiency apartment for a month now waiting to close. The seller's bank recently said that I can plan on an October 20th close but don't count on it.

My bank is charging me another $350 on my closing costs since it is taking so long. Sigh.