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Moving, mortgages, and renovations


Cerina
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Louis mowed some of our yard recently and did a good job. Of course we’re nowhere near an acre, but you might be surprised what they can do!

 

And yeah, that house seems like a hard pass.

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I could see my daughter doing our tiny patch of backyard with our electric mower. My son weighs 38 lbs, he's just too small.

This the view my husband hates. We stare right at the side of my neighbor's house, which is jammed in sideways so the builder could get one more house in on this lot. Personally I think they would've gotten more value out of a greenbelt, but we know that's not going to happen.

 

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Just got back from an open house on an older place that looked really promising. Built in 1979 but lots of upgrades since 2014. But then I get the pre-inspection report and the electrical panel is a rusty mess and needs replaced. That's the sort of thing that I consider a disaster waiting to happen. My husband is concerned that once you take off the panel, you will discover that the wiring is all corroded too, and none of the outlets are GFCI compliant. FML. People will only upgrade or fix what you can see and otherwise wait for the house to burn down.

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OMG!!! I know from experience as I just had to replace all my electrical in my 571 square foot condo after 14 years that that's the most expensive thing besides foundation or roof that you have to do to correct. It cost me $10.000 for my new panel and rewiring. I adore pre-inspection reports though. So many houses I liked a ton and I was like OH I don't have time to live through correcting that.

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Both houses are pending. I don't know if we are too picky or if people just have more money to fix these things. The first house was likely out of our budget. The second house, I have no idea what the electrical issues would've eventually been. But my husband wasn't that keen on the closed floor plan (1979 split level).

We looked at a house that was too small for our needs and too expensive, but the owner is bundling 2 lots for over 3 acres. I went to the open house and the owner is an uptight guy with a lot of money who thinks a lot of himself and what he is worth. He won't take a lower offer, I can tell. At least not yet. What I'm thinking is we wait a few weeks and reach out to the realtor to offer to buy the lower lot, which he just had cleared. I think my husband is so particular that we probably need to build our own house. He won't be able to get everything he wants (pool, detached office space), but he can probably get the important stuff (open floor plan, newer construction, nice kitchen). In the meantime, as I've said, we have a year.

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I am big on recycling and feel like buying a old house is good for the world. But new construction means I could move in and not a lot of worries besides the fact that for over priced housing I don't get ceiling fans or blinds. WTF is up with that? Almost every car sold in San Antonio gets tinting like a "free" thing that is added at the dealership but if you buy a house the best you're going to get is blinds on the front windows for new construction. 

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Its the weekend so that means looking at houses. We went to one that looked fabulous in pictures, but was sunken down low and was once again, not well maintained. They did a lovely job updating the kitchen and the master bath was half updated (left the hideous 90s tiled sink but new soaking tub, flooring, and shower). But there were holes in the wall all over, scuff marks on the walls (with signs claiming new paint throughout). The outside needed painted, garage doors needed replaced, and the pavers were uneven. Their photographer was great with the Instagram filters. My husband loves this area because its very pretty, but its overpriced, and honestly, moldy and old. The school district is supposedly The Best for students with IEPs, but I am starting to hear rumblings that they are starting to drop the ball similar to our school district and doing shady things like cutting live feeds of graduation when a student in special education is walking. There is a nasty school board election going on. It was also the first school district in the country to close because of COVID, and it took a governor's mandate to get them to reopen in the spring, they were trying to get away with not reopening.

Tomorrow I am going to 2 open houses a little closer to home. Right school district, smaller lots than we hoped for, but the backyards are all on a greenbelt so no staring at a neighbor's side of the house. The lots are still double what we have, so maybe that's enough. Luna loved romping on the 2 acres of the vacation house we stayed at. I kind of wanted enough space to get a second dog so she would have a friend (no more puppies, though, they are a pain in the neck).

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Renting is a pain in the ass.

Owning can be a bigger pain in the ass. Our house looks good, and we've been here 5 years. The previous owners did lots of "renovations". I put that on quotes because it turns out that lots of stuff they had done was either done on the cheap by unlicensed contractors, or done so that it looks great on the surface. Long story short, we've had lots of work done, but now we're up to major stuff that should have lasted years and years, but it is now time to fix.

Electricians coming tomorrow to rewire the place and replace all outlets and switches. Cost? A mere $8K.

Still to do: Completely replumb the whole house, because slow drains and clogged pipes and poor flow through the pipes under the house. Cost: Between $8 and $10 K... minimum.

Completely remove the deck and replace it. Cost $12K. 

Anybody got around $30,000 they're not using?

FML 

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Things are advancing over here. Friday we ordered carpet for the 3 upstairs bedrooms, upstairs hallway and the stairs themselves. The rest we're going to DIY some luxury vinyl plank. Should be fun. 

We removed the wall cabinets on the kitchen and so much bug shit fell onto the counters that now we're thinking we need to remove and replace the base cabinets as well. There is so much bug shit on the walls now as well. It's sooo gross. 

Oh and we had to buy a car last week, and we used renovation savings for the down-payment. Now I'm short $1500 for my DIY mini-reno AND need new kitchen cabinets. Ugh! 

Also my MIL is starting to freak out about all the demo. So far she really only knows that we've scraped most of the popcorn off the ceilings and removed most of the flooring. But she's freaking out regardless, and Trevor decided to respond by doing more kitchen demo. Now I think I need to have the kitchen at least 75% finished before she sees it again or she may die (or kill Trevor), so now I have a time crunch! 

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What is she freaking out about? Is this place definitely going to be yours or do you still have to figure out how to pay off her brother?

Saw 2 houses this weekend. First one is great but dated and the backyard needs work (don't be that asshole that throws down rock and woodchips because you don't know what to do with it. At least throw down some grass seed). Pre-inspection looked great. Kitchen is very small but the rest of the house uses the space very well. May have to knock out a wall and sacrifice the family room (its small and there is a formal living room plus a bonus room and a sunroom) to have a good kitchen. But the open house was a zoo, so likely bidding war. But we also heard today from our realtor that the seller is freaking out because they don't have any offers yet and offer review date is Tuesday. (Well if you give me until Tuesday you won't see an offer until Tuesday...). Location is fabulous, close to a huge county park. Neighborhood is considered one of the best in the area but that's also why the open house was a zoo. Every house is on a green belt which is fabulous.

Second house is newer with a lot of very recent upgrades. Monday review date and we didn't check it out soon enough to schedule an inspection, nor do I want to throw $500 every time we like a house. I hate this stupid market. Backyard is very tiered so a lot of it is not usable. Right next to the neighborhood park. Needs a fence. Only 7 people at Saturday's open house and 4 on Sunday.

I think we've actually decided against house 2 because there's no time for an inspection before doing an offer. We need to think about the 1st house. The thing is that I think there will be more houses in this neighborhood, so I'm not rushed.

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They have a lot of unresolved emotions still tied up in this house. But, honestly, the majority of their issues (MIL and her brother) is that they listen to everyone in the world BUT us. It's really starting to grate my ass tbh. They keep getting advice from other people (who aren't in real estate) about everything under the sun and much of it is just wrong. So we keep trying to correct and redirect and it's exhausting.

At one point MIL's friend Michael (who we've never met) told her that she needs to be careful because it sounded like "the kids" (what they all keep calling our 40ish year-old asses) were trying to put a lien on the property. And when she brought it up to Trevor he was just like "yes! that's our whole goal!" without explaining to her that a mortgage IS a lien. So wires were all crossed because apparently that little nugget was missing from her field of knowledge, and she got mad about it. I had to step in and explain that Trevor just meant a mortgage and there really isn't any other lien we could put on it. 

We've also been trying to convince her to put the property in her name and to pretend that she lives there to homestead it so that they can avoid capital gains taxes when we buy it. But good gravy they do not understand that one. 

She's also been convinced that we're devaluing it by starting demo and now it won't meet appraisal. I keep trying to tell her that an appraiser likely won't even see the inside. They'll go by square footage and comps. They might drive by a do an exterior visual inspection just to make sure it's not falling down. But even so, we could blow out the back wall and it would still be worth the $200k we're paying. The dirt alone is worth that much. There's just no way this house will appraise for less. None. Zero. I work in real estate. I know this for certain. But some yahoo (probably Michael) must've told her otherwise. 

Oh and they now think the reason we're waiting to get a loan is because we're asking for too high an amount. Plus, they don't want to pay taxes on the extra "profit" from the sale (the part they're going to return to us for renovations) which they wouldn't have to worry about if they homesteaded this damn thing. 

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Well, we lost the house that distracted me. Beautiful backyard, nice floor plan. A couple of issues like a roofed patio with a permit that expired with no inspection and a big crack in the concrete patio from settling. We had to respond quickly to a bully offer on Saturday and actually had the highest bid, but the sellers wanted a 30-day free rent back, and we said no. Ended up being a deal breaker. Honestly, I'm glad we said no. Our neighbors behind us sold their house December 1st and are still living in an apartment because they haven't won any houses or can't find the right one. The sellers apparently needed proceeds from the sale to put down a down-payment, and they are trying to buy in an even more expensive and competitive market. No thanks. Evictions in Washington were already impossible before the eviction moratorium.

We looked at another house yesterday. The yard is smaller but super private (greenbelt next to and behind). Meticulously maintained and some upgrades (although a few weird things like a railing between the kitchen and living room). I would like to upgrade the master bath eventually. But really good bones. Funniest part is it is literally 2 doors down from the place I posted pictures of. We will see what happens tomorrow when we put in our offer. Fingers crossed for us! 

Our realtor also came by and gave us some advice on fixes. New carpet but hardwood is fine without refinishing. Biggest fix needed is our fence. We know it needs replaced but we are talking $6k with a 2 month wait, and our neighbors are cheap ***holes who won't split the cost. They've been content to let my husband fix the fence for the last several years, so have fun once he leaves. So we are going to try to stain it to pretty it up. This needs done immediately before the 9 straight months of rain starts. The yard also needs re-seeded badly, so we will start on the front and we may resort to fencing off the grass in the backyard and making the dog poop on concrete until we move out. She trashes the grass because its so small.

Picture of ugly fence with repaired 2x4 included.

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That fence looks pretty ok actually. Once you power wash and stain, it'll look great. 

We're getting carpet installed tomorrow! I'm so excited. This weekend we start replacing the kitchen cabinets! I'm so excited. My hope is that by next weekend, we'll be done with the kitchen. It's a big hope, but doable. 

 

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Of course they did. Got any new pictures of progress?

My husband asked if we need to do anything before we move in. We kind of need a kitchen renovation but it is functional, and honestly, I'm kind of exhausted with the buying process and all the work we need to do here. The pantry is right next to the refrigerator there and it is not nearly big enough for my food hoarding husband. (We have easily double that space and it is absolutely stuffed full.) I kind of hate to lose the desk but I think we will need to sacrifice it. May need to do an entry way table instead, otherwise mail and other papers will end up on that kitchen island and his head will explode. (I already do this to him, sorry Mr. Skywalker.) There is another closet nearby that we could put some of the Costco type stuff in, and some other things we keep in our pantry (like BBQ tools) will need to move to garage storage. The island is also kind of small and not super useful. We may just knock it out and build a bigger one. I guess we are going to have to see if all of our crap fits. I think there are ultimately more cabinets here than our current house so it may work out.

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So...carpet guys ran out of carpet on Thursday which was a reschedule from the original day, Wednesday. Now they're coming back tomorrow to finish the stairs. 

 

These pics kinda suck, but here's some before, during, and after. 

 

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It will look good once its all done!

I decided to pull this thing off the wall because its kind of crappy looking and we're trying to get top dollar for this place. Someone wanted it on Buy Nothing. It is some great DIY, but the guy who owned the house before us was a total idiot and couldn't install anything properly or consistently. I think we have had to redo every single curtain rod because none were installed properly. On this one he used like 1 screw per bracket and a ton of magnets. I guess i should be grateful because there's less to patch.

Now we have to patch all this shit. Can I buy a new wall?

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