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ATP: Choosing a Home

I don't know what the districts are called but Jefferson or Whitaker elementary schools are involved. HTTD has been looking at the school stuff mostly.
 
I never really got the insistence on having washer/dryer on same floor as the bedrooms but there are only 3 of us right now so maybe that changes as we get older/more kids.
 
awakeandready said:
I never really got the insistence on having washer/dryer on same floor as the bedrooms but there are only 3 of us right now so maybe that changes as we get older/more kids.
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Trust me, as someone who has gotten older and had more kids, having the washer/dryer on the same floor as the bedrooms is indeed something worthy of consideration. It certainly isn't a make or break sort of thing, but it is one of those "if I could change something" issues about my house. If I were building a house, as jhmd is contemplating, I would do just as he suggests.
 
CHICK-FIL-A+DWARF+HOUSE+FOREST+PARK+GEORGIA+Jonesboro+Road%252C+Chick+fil+A+Dast+Food+Chicken+Sandwich+Restaurant+Diner+Combination+Clayton+County+Forest+Park+GA..JPG
 
Lots of good advice here. I would add this general principle - buy in the best neighborhood you can afford, but buy the cheapest house in that neighborhood. As someone else said, do not buy all the house the bank will approve. 25% of after-tax income on housing is about right, less than that if you can manage it.

One more thing: if you have/will have kids, think about where all their toys and junk will go. At our old house, the family/play room was right off the garage and beside the kitchen. I had to step through/over/on all their crap a million times a day, and my wife the neat freak was constantly cleaning it up/fighting with them about cleaning it up. Now, the play room area is in a part of the house out of the main traffic flow. If people are coming over, I just shut the door. My wife is still a neat freak, but I essentially ignore whatever mess is going on in that room. Makes a huge difference.
 
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awakeandready said:
RTQ alert: is oil heat source a huge pain?
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It's expensive but getting it filled is no hassle at all. You can just call, give them your credit card number and ask them to put 100 gallons or whatever in tomorrow. I would have happily lived on with it had the furnace not died. With an underground tank, the biggest annoyance was that there is no gauge so no clear way to know how much is left.
 
Only downside to washer and dryer on the second floor is the potential for burst water lines. Has the potential for some serious $$. Sounds a little overly cautious but I've known it to happen. Ugly mess.
 
The W/D on the same level as the bedrooms is pretty overrated in my book. I just wouldn't want it in the basement.
 
Couple things on oil vs. gas:

1. Oil is cheap right now, but it will get expensive again one day. Pricing is dependent on wonky stuff like what side of the bed the Saudis wake up on or how the Chinese economy is doing. Natural gas, on the other hand, is domestically sourced and has very stable pricing. My opinion is that natural gas is a much better bet right now.

2. Underground storage tanks are a potential environmental problem, especially as they age. This can cause issues when you go to sell the house, i.e. the universe of potential buyers is smaller and you may have to pull the tank (very expensive) as a condition of closing. The state of NC used to have a fund to help homeowners defray the cost of environmental clean up from USTs. Our lovely general assembly just ended that this year.

I pulled my tank last year and was probably one of the last North Carolinians to get a check from the fund. $7,000 in clean up costs.
 
I used to work for a plumbing contractor, most of the home inspectors we dealt with were idiots. I would find a reputable electrician, plumber, and GC to do their own inspection. If you know of a good GC, they could probably get their individual trades in their at the same time.
 
Make sure the house has backyard access. We have a neighborhood lake behind us and it is tight on both sides so getting any kind of repair equipment behind the house is a bitch. That's not something I thought of at all.

Talk to your local friends about inspectors and get the best one you can. That'll save a lot of dough and give you negotiating power when offer time arrives.

Living in the county you don't pay city taxes although you can get most of the benefits.
 
Deacon923 said:
Couple things on oil vs. gas:

1. Oil is cheap right now, but it will get expensive again one day. Pricing is dependent on wonky stuff like what side of the bed the Saudis wake up on or how the Chinese economy is doing. Natural gas, on the other hand, is domestically sourced and has very stable pricing. My opinion is that natural gas is a much better bet right now.

2. Underground storage tanks are a potential environmental problem, especially as they age. This can cause issues when you go to sell the house, i.e. the universe of potential buyers is smaller and you may have to pull the tank (very expensive) as a condition of closing. The state of NC used to have a fund to help homeowners defray the cost of environmental clean up from USTs. Our lovely general assembly just ended that this year.

I pulled my tank last year and was probably one of the last North Carolinians to get a check from the fund. $7,000 in clean up costs.
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This. Absolutely make sure there are no UST's on the property. $7,000 in clean up costs is dirt cheap compared to some stories I have heard.
 
NoVaDeac said:
Yes. Depending on how old the house is the tank may be rusting out and about to spring a leak. Changing that out is super expensive if it happens
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Yeah most of the responses on this thread have convinced me to run away.
 
Probably what you want to do when you find a house you like is talk the owner into letting you and HTTD and your Squirrel live in the house with them for a while, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, just to feel it out and make sure it's not haunted.
 
By the way, how did we get all the way to post 58 without someone pointing out that the #1 thing you need to make sure of is that there are no ghosts in the house. Shit man, you could have the sweetest house on the block, but if there's some kind of goblin or poltergeist infesting the home who starts banging around at night or throwing pots and pans or Tvs or seducing HTTD or appearing at your bedside and pushing on your chest whilst you sleep whilst whispering "get ouuuuuuuuuuut" or "I'm going to killlllllll youuuuuuuuuuuuuu," bro you don't want any part of that house bro.
 
The biggest regret the Mrs. and I have is not getting a garage. We bought a house with a finished garage, which we like because we have an extra BR/BA + bonus room. However, no garage is a pain with regards to storage, winter weather, and we have a tree that rains chestnuts down on our cars in the driveway a few months out of the year. Unfortunately, our lot doesn't leave a ton of room in the backyard for a shed or a carport/garage addition. That's going to be a huge priority for us when we do finally move.
 
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