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ATP: Choosing a Home

Deacfreak07 said:
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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Womp. This was originally a big want but as we started looking at houses we've already kind of backed off of it. If it doesn't have a garage I do want some sort of basement or "extra" space to make up for storage and stuff, but that doesn't help weather wise, of course.
 
awakeandready said:
Womp. This was originally a big want but as we started looking at houses we've already kind of backed off of it. If it doesn't have a garage I do want some sort of basement or "extra" space to make up for storage and stuff, but that doesn't help weather wise, of course.
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It may be cost prohibitive, but this sounds like our logic going into buying our house. We figured, we haven't had a garage for years while in college and in apartments, why do we need one? If you can make it work in your budget, it's probably a lot better than trying to add one later. I would think with kids, this would be especially valuable. There is just a lot of outdoor shit to store with mowers, blowers, rakes, tailgate supplies, etc. You can solve all of that with a good shed if you have the space for it though.
 
I do still wish I had a garage, but at least I have a huge storage room off the back of my house that I can store everything in: lawn mower, ladders, lawn furniture, etc. It would be big enough to be a garage but I can't get my car around the back because there isn't enough space along the sides of the house. Not a lot of garages in Ardmore in my price range.

Random thing I didn't really consider when I bought my house: there were no window coverings at all, curtains or blinds. It wasn't very expensive in my small house (about $400 for simple blinds), but it was still a necessary extra. Just something to keep in mind and budget for it there are none, or just old-lady curtains that you don't like.

Look under carpeting to see if there are hardwood floors in good shape, if that's what you like.

Finding an already-fenced yard would be great if you will want a dog. Flat yard if you'll want a place for a playset or whatnot.

Once you buy, if you want to paint or refinish the floors, do as much as possible before moving in!!
 
My dream is to have a 80'x40' pole or metal building - the Garage Mahal.
 
garages are the shit. And super high walls suround your entire compound. And lots of inside mirrors. Pool. Outdoor bbq and kitchen. Assuming you are purchasing in ole meehico?!
 
Relatively vigilant guards at the colonia entrance gate but more importantly contracted by a security company with solid allegiances to the local jefes. I'd look for that before where the washers and dryers are. Also, probs won't have a dishwasher machine, the live in help will handle that...you will want to pay attention to how close their quarters will be to yours, kitchen, etc, their ingress and regress...
 
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awakeandready said:
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.
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Jefferson Elementary Panthers till I die

The (Brasky) family is royalty there
 
I love all these demands.

Around here, your best strategy is:

1) Find the bare minimum you can live in. This is also the absolute maximum you can afford.
2) Offer more than asking and wave the inspection because 7 other offers have already come in over the asking and all of them have waved the inspection.
3) Lose maybe 4 deals this way and reach a place of pure desperation as your lease reaches renewal or your carrying costs start drowning you on a previous property
4) Focus on new construction in a neighborhood that is advertised as having gotten rid of at least 75% of their crack houses
5) Blind-bid an unfinished home and pray the project actually gets done on time
6) Pat yourself on the back 2 years later as your extremely overpriced home inexplicably gains value year after year
7) Sell organs to send children to private school

- OR -

1) Move to the middle-of-nowhere and enjoy all the nightmares and traffic headaches of being near a big city with absolutely none of the benefits.
 
Having a garage is way more fucking awesome than I thought it would be.
 
DCDeac said:
I love all these demands.

Around here, your best strategy is:

1) Find the bare minimum you can live in. This is also the absolute maximum you can afford.
2) Offer more than asking and wave the inspection because 7 other offers have already come in over the asking and all of them have waved the inspection.
3) Lose maybe 4 deals this way and reach a place of pure desperation as your lease reaches renewal or your carrying costs start drowning you on a previous property
4) Focus on new construction in a neighborhood that is advertised as having gotten rid of at least 75% of their crack houses
5) Blind-bid an unfinished home and pray the project actually gets done on time
6) Pat yourself on the back 2 years later as your extremely overpriced home inexplicably gains value year after year
7) Sell organs to send children to private school

- OR -

1) Move to the middle-of-nowhere and enjoy all the nightmares and traffic headaches of being near a big city with absolutely none of the benefits.
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This sounds like buying a house in the Denver Metro, currently. :mad:
 
discdude said:
This sounds like buying a house in the Denver Metro, currently. :mad:
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My first experience trying to buy near DC - went to an open house of an FSBO 2 bedroom townhouse. Listed at $385k. Put in a bid with a $20k escalation clause and no agent to save the commission. Thought we had a good shot.

They got 22 offers. The winning offer escalated to $525k, waived inspection, and among other things gave the owners 8 months to remain in the house rent-free after closing.

The next weekend a builder announced 20 new townhomes starting in the high 6's and opened a mobile home style office to handle sales. We were laughing about why anyone would spend $700k on a townhouse - then the line was over 400 people long the first Monday morning it opened. Some people camped out overnight, the sold out in one day.

Joke's on us, they're worth $900k now.
 
BillBrasky said:
Jefferson Elementary Panthers till I die

The (Brasky) family is royalty there
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y'all went to a completely different building than where jefferson elementary is now

in fact, i believe manifest was a member of the class that went to the school that's currently jefferson middle K-8
 
TownieDeac said:
y'all went to a completely different building than where jefferson elementary is now

in fact, i believe manifest was a member of the class that went to the school that's currently jefferson middle K-8
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I'm aware Townie. You know bc I went there. And my mom taught there. And yeah Manifest went to the same school building for nine consecutive years.
 
DCDeac said:
My first experience trying to buy near DC - went to an open house of an FSBO 2 bedroom townhouse. Listed at $385k. Put in a bid with a $20k escalation clause and no agent to save the commission. Thought we had a good shot.

They got 22 offers. The winning offer escalated to $525k, waived inspection, and among other things gave the owners 8 months to remain in the house rent-free after closing.

The next weekend a builder announced 20 new townhomes starting in the high 6's and opened a mobile home style office to handle sales. We were laughing about why anyone would spend $700k on a townhouse - then the line was over 400 people long the first Monday morning it opened. Some people camped out overnight, the sold out in one day.

Joke's on us, they're worth $900k now.
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Just lost a bid on a townhouse in Northern Virginia this morning!!
 
DCDeac said:
My first experience trying to buy near DC - went to an open house of an FSBO 2 bedroom townhouse. Listed at $385k. Put in a bid with a $20k escalation clause and no agent to save the commission. Thought we had a good shot.

They got 22 offers. The winning offer escalated to $525k, waived inspection, and among other things gave the owners 8 months to remain in the house rent-free after closing.

The next weekend a builder announced 20 new townhomes starting in the high 6's and opened a mobile home style office to handle sales. We were laughing about why anyone would spend $700k on a townhouse - then the line was over 400 people long the first Monday morning it opened. Some people camped out overnight, the sold out in one day.

Joke's on us, they're worth $900k now.
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The waiving inspection thing is what threw me. I still cannot believe that any human in their right mind would waive inspection objections.
 
what year dcd?

bought our first place in nova back early 05 i think? seemed like the market tanked the day after we closed. we also had to waive inspection. as for waiving the inspection we agreed to that and had it inspected anyway before the delivered the home owner assoc docs. in va, at least, you can back out within 3 days of delivery (i think it's 3 days) if you don't like them. would have sucked but everyone was waiving it at the time.

we lived there about 5 years before having to rent it for a few. finally out from under it about a year ago. sold it for about what we paid. really sucked.
 
discdude said:
The waiving inspection thing is what threw me. I still cannot believe that any human in their right mind would waive inspection objections.
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So, I do a lot of work for a guy who is well into the top 1%. He has a house that he's not living in sitting in a very desirable part of SoCal. A few weeks ago, he sends me a California form purchase contract to review from another 1% bro who wants to buy his vacant house. Six figure deposit against a 7 figure purchase price, deposit completely non-refundable, all conditions waived, close in 40 days.

That's strong.
 
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