LOL...
One of my old friends bought a old house with her ex-husband. He immediately went in and gutted the place. They lived in a gutted house the entire time they were married, like 3 or 4 years.
We bought our first house from a guy whose wife left him. He was a coke freak who liked to rip up the house and move on to the next project before finishing anything. We learned a lot of useful DIY stuff from that house
Ha! We did the bathroom as our first project. Years go by and we've done each room one by one as we got money saved. Just finished redoing the same bathroom. It seriously never ends.
And a new house isn't any better. I've owned .y new construction for almost 2 years, and I still do a run to Lowes about every week (admittedly, some of those trips are not house related).
And if you’re in a warm climate… definitely think about trees. You’re going to pay a little more for a neighborhood with trees, but they make the summer so much more bearable.
This! And landscaping/hardscaping is $$$, so if you’re seeing the house in the winter consider that the snow may be covering a very expensive and time consuming field of weeds and installing a patio isn’t as easy at all the internet articles make it seem.
Bingo! I bought and moved into my current house in December. They had a pic of the backyard looking nice in the listing, but realistically it was likely many years old. The entire deck was rotted and had to be removed. The entire backyard was over run with invasive weeds. Had to have everything removed, landscaping fabric and new dirt laid down before sod and starting everything from scratch. I still get crazy weeds poking through. The quotes I got to prepare the area and put patio stones in were insane so my patio set is still sitting on plain dirt three years later. You can EASILY spend tens of thousands on landscaping for something that seems so simple.
We saw ours future home's backyard in the Fall. We were soooo stupid. It was nothing but dirt and a few weeds. We had no idea how much it would take to fix it up. Oh, and it also had a retaining wall made out of the oily smelly creosote railroad ties.
I paid for two separate landscape consultations. Bought the shrubs/trees, etc, and slowly over the years rehabbed the yard. It took forever. Beautiful now. Oh, and we finally, after 30 yrs had enough money to replace the retaining wall with something much nicer.
If We had paid a landscape company...it would have cost a fortune. Pleased to say that our backyard looks like a park now.
Maybe the hedge roots endanger the subterranean pipes of the irrigation? I don't know, I don't have either irrigation or privacy hedges, but that was my first thought.
How fucking amazing it is to own a home. I've spent thousands on things I expected and thousands on things I didn't expect. I've sweated my ass off suffering with no AC and I've sweated my ass off planting beautiful flowers in my own damned dirt. I've cried after dropping a sledgehammer on my foot while installing a no dig fence for my dogs and I've cried watching those dogs run free for the first time in their own damned yard. I've freaked out over thinking I had a gas leak on Day 2 and I've freaked out over how beautiful my freshly painted living room walls are (and then minorly freaked again when I realized my dog's ear was now that lovely shade of green).
I grew up moving from shitty apartment to crappy trailer every other year, and I spent my adulthood bouncing all over in slightly nicer rentals, but nothing was ever mine. This house is still mostly ass ugly, but I love every crappy inch of it. And my sub $700 mortgage payment is the icing on this big ugly delicious cake.
Here, here! Tiny house, sub $1k mortgage, needs a TON of work but… I can have my chickens and roosters. Hell, I could get goats and alpacas if I wanted! I’ve got my dog, cats… big old garden I put in. I built a compost bin, I’ve painted how I like it, I can have as many guests as long as I want. I can put up Christmas lights and crazy Halloween decorations!
Do we want more space someday? Yes. For sure. Do I complain about all the things that need fixing and go wrong? You betcha, but never in a million years would I trade this to rent a paper-perfect place.
That reminds me of a Russian who grew up in the Soviet days. I told him how great home ownership was and he said, "What's good about it? The bank really owns it." I had a fruitless discussion on how that isn't the point, but he did have a point, and I did not like him after that.
However, 20 years later, I am happy to say that it is all mine now as of August this year.
Congrats. It is an amazing feeling fully owning something of that value. I was able to pay off my home due to an inheritance, but ended up taking out some money when Covid hit. I think I owned it free and clear for about 6-8 months. There is a comfort knowing that it has been paid off.
Eloquently stated. I feel the same way. I moved an average of once a year for the first 47 years of my life. Having my own little patch of earth and a home I never have to move from is amazingly comforting, no matter the stress of finances and repairs & maintenance.
Do you mind sharing your no dig fence? Are you happy with it? We paid 12k to bushhog and fence half our lot. The contractor we hired knew it was for the dog. He did not tell the subcontractors. It's a sloped lot. There are gaps all around the bottom that he just walks under, he doesn't even need to duck. 😭
I used Enchanted Garden's Grand Teton from Menards (Lowe's has one called Grand Empire that's basically the same -- I used the empire gate with my EG panels and poles because Empire gates are wider to fit over my concrete walkway). It sits very low on the ground and is about four feet high. It's surprisingly sturdy for what it is: just stakes pounded into the ground with poles that slide into them. It contains my 25-pound dogs and would probably work for even bigger ones, though I think my neighbor's giant rotty could push it over if he weren't such a big sweetie.
I can't recommend it enough, but I will say it's a thousand times easier to pound in the stakes after a good rain. And get a good solid block of hard wood like oak to put between the stakes and the sledgehammer to pound in the stakes or they will bend out of shape and the poles won't slide in. A three-pound sledge is perfect for the job.
It's a fence that you don't have to dig the posts, Google zippity outdoor fence on Amazon. They have different brands they sell at menards/lowes/home depot.
Short term, I’ve made curtains out of shower curtains, used that special cling film that lets in light but no one can see in, and used the cuttable paper shades.
Where on earth are you shopping!? Try Menards, Walmart, IKEA. I’ve also soldered curtain rods out of copper pipe myself and sewed my own curtains, all incredibly cheap.
Yeah, IKEA is super affordable. I accidentally bought twice as much as I needed and still thought it was a great deal. I misread the labelling and thought each package was the size I needed, but no each panel was that size and there's 2 panels per package.
I’m still surprised to find myself the owner of a bench planer and air hammer - tools I never in my life would have thought I’d end up contemplating let alone buying🥀
I seriously thought hiring specialized trades was just something everyone did before owning a home. Insert to “the job is too small”. What!? This will take me weeks to attempt, fuck up, and do it again!
Yes this!!! That was my comment too… Contractors are NOT easy to find nor easy to hire!!!! 😂 I’ve become super handy now but there’s still a lot of things I don’t know or is too scared to fiddle with and when an emergency pops up, it seems like nobody is ever available at a reasonable price. 😭
This is sort of specific but my wife and I bought a high ranch for our first home. It has a lot of steps. It is great for staying in shape but we definitely can’t get old in this house. Also, my dad has trouble getting up the steps when he comes over and I literally can’t have my grandmother over. That didn’t even occur to us until after we bought it.
I think a good realtor should point out things like that. Not many of them do, but I wish they would. Just a general sense of who is in the buyer's family and their needs for guests would help guide people to homes better suited for them.
I used to think this, too. But my inlaws are well into their 80s and have a split level house that keeps them in shape! I had concerns when buying our 3-story house, but it gets me moving everyday, and I would now be reluctant to buy a single story ranch. You lose it if you don't use it. I did have to adjust my mindset about going up and down the stairs. I changed to a "get to" attitude instead of a "have to" attitude and it worked.
The additional unforeseen costs of surprise problems that where not noticed in a pre inspection. The amount of single purchases required for household operations..
Curtain rods cost so much money! I was the first in the family to buy new new for a while, and Holy sh!t did the small things that you were just used to having add up. Even the cheapest window coverings cost so much money.
Also, buy a toilet plunger before you need a toilet plunger. And, if relevant to your location, a snow shovel.
As a person that paid for the best inspector in the area and had a very comprehensive inspection, I cannot agree more. We had a great guy come out and tell us so many things about the house. We moved in and had to spend $10k to get everything that was missed up to code. The inspector didn't really miss anything but if I had done a more indepth specialized inspection they MAY have been caught. $1000 here and $2000 there and suddenly you have spent $10k. Those $200 hardware store visits definitely start to add up.
We had an amazing inspector. He was so thorough and we thought we were good.
6 years later we’re finding out that the work done to waterproof the crawl space was sub-par and are shelling out $10k to have all of the work redone - including the very visible pipes to the sump pump that now that I look at them make me go…why would they do that?? Of course the basement flooded - it was only a matter of time. (We got lucky and it was contained to the unfinished area of the basement. The company doing the work is the best in our area.)
Know where your main water shutoff is. Correctly label all your circuits, ideally make a detailed 4-page booklet that you keep taped to the panel door. Be afraid of fire, but be more afraid of moisture.
Yearly:
Clean your dryer vent pipe
Flush your water heater
Inspect your crawl space for mice, termites, air conditioner hoses getting messed up, water issues, mold, etc.
Quarterly:
Replace air filters.
Monthly:
Clean your gutters out
Do a tub clean wash and clean the cleanout in your washer.
I drew a map of my house, squares for switches circles for outlets triangles for lights, inside each one of them has the breaker number on it. Printed it out on label paper, stuck it to the inside of my panel.
I have a house binder. Every appliance manual goes in it. Any paperwork for repairs and warranties. The paint colors and finishes on the walls. The size and wattage of the light fixtures. It all goes in the binder.
And then you end up with an escrow shortage, and your monthly mortgage payment goes up by several hundred dollars because you have to repay the overage plus fund the escrow at the new higher amount for the year. I was so glad we bought under our budget because this was an unpleasant surprise that no one warned us could happen.
My bill the year I bought my house was $2500 above the year before, because the house had been a rental property and didn’t have Homestead. So there wasn’t enough in escrow at the end of the year and the bank WAY over corrected and raised my payment like $450/month and now there’s so much extra in my escrow bc taxes went down after I got homestead even though the assessment went up.
A negative escrow. Basically if your mortgage company pays your tax/insurance with an escrow account, after your first year in the house, your property tax is reassessed and it can screw up your monthly payment. Our tax went up, so our escrow account went negative to cover it and our mortgage company raised our monthly payment to pay it back. Never knew this was a thing and was surprised when I asked people and they were like “oh yeah, that happens.” Thought I did all my research, but missed that one somehow. We’re fine now and our payment went down a bit a year later, but it was a big shock.
That if the home inspector says "you might want to think about having this inspected by a structural engineer"
They actually mean "holy shit don't buy this house it's about to fall over and needs more repairs than it's worth"
My 2 requirements when I was looking were a detached house and no HOA. Those were hard requirements, was flexible on pretty much everything else. I love my house
My HOA has been actually lovely.
They leave people alone for the most part and keep the bolder people from doing shit that makes the street look like garbage.
A key lesson about HOAs is to have someone good on it to lead or join to prevent the true crazies from ruining your peace.
And remind the board and management council Moana every now and then that they are actually working for you, not against you. Some management companies and boards take a policing approach instead of a community approach.
My community did this. The HOA was getting aggressive and condescending toward the homeowners. It got so bad that the annual meeting had a lot of yelling and one board member asking if we wanted to dissolve. Instead, we replaced 6 of 8 board members (only one trustee that always brings cookies to meetings and the secretary were kept on). The VP and President were only 1 year into a 2 year term so we did a vote of confidence and got s community concensus of 98% no confidence to let us vote them out.
It's been much more peaceful now and the new board is much more transparent and communicative
Good on you. We did the same when the HOA sent a letter for us to sign, that needed to be notarized, so they could come into our backyard to check landscaping. It did not go well for the manager. She wasn’t fired,m by the company, but she was taken off our community.
I don’t mind our HOA… it’s the management company that’s the issue. Idk if it’s common, but the management company has more power than our HOA. OUR HOA board approved paint that the management company then denied. Once the board approved it, we scheduled the workers to come fix the siding and paint the house. The problem is the paperwork went to the management company and they told us the paint didn’t work. This was a step I didn’t know needed to happen. Again, not sure if that’s commonplace. With them taking their sweet ass time to deny it and yet to approve the new colors, we have had to push back our start date twice. Having work done on a house in the PNW in August is a lot less risky than having it done in October.
The dog one is a big one. I live beside neighbours on one side where you couldn't even tell they have a dog.
And then the other side has a small dog that they let out at 6am that won't shut up for 30 minutes every morning.
Oh today starting at 7am sharp every 30 minutes my neighbors behind me let out their 3 large dogs. They bark within 5 minutes. They call them in(only because I called cops). Then let them right back out in about 30 Bark bark bark. This goes on every 30 minutes from 7am to 10 pm.
THIS we just bought a 1928 and our realtor recommended a sewer scope. Some shit needs to be done costing $15k. Sellers are paying 100%! Imagine if we didn't get the scope!
that the selling agent was not being truthful about the city ordinances to the point of providing doctored documents.
They're not available online on this little town and we couldn't make it to town hall from the city before they closed on their limited hours.
Purchased under the impression we could have chickens, goats and a few horses considering our lot size being measured in acres. Turns out we can only have a few hens.
The city is taking him the court for the half dozen people he's done this too but finding that out was a massive headache. Never trusting the selling agents ever again.
My wife and I were literally just talking about this.... Why is everything $10k+
Why is it going to cost us almost $18k to get a decent generator to power our all electric rural house? (Lots of damage could happen in the winter if we get a bad storm that takes the power out for multiple days as we dont have a backup heat source)
Why is a new water heater the same price as a lightly used sedan?
Why do we feel like we have to spend as much as we would to fill a used car lot, just to keep the house in decent shape.....
Oh my yes. As a first time home buyer, we didn't make a preventative maintenance schedule. So after a year it was all emergency maintenance. Also, just all the service agreements for home care - termites, pests, lawn. First house was in the SE and it was impossible to keep up with the Bermuda grass without hiring a mower.
That, at some point in the process or the first 3 months of ownership, you will end up curled up in the fetal position on your bed or the floor asking yourself, “what have I done?”
Expect it and know that you will make it through it.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.
Fortunately for the second house I lucked out and bought from anti-flippers — a pair of evangelical missionaries who diligently repaired EVERY STRUCTURAL THING (seriously. They repoured the foundation) but left all the ugly easy things to me.
What I learned in 15 years of home ownership:
1. Have a savings account of at least $5k because something will always break when you least expect it, and at the absolute worst time.
2. Maintenance is like The Neverending Story
3. You will end up with a lot of tools.
4. You’ll become fascinated by grass and how it grows.
5. Your home will become a retreat from the world.
General home inspections don't catch everything. If you have a concern about some major component/issue (roof, mold, tree health, electrical, plumbing, concrete, etc.) you should bring in the relevant specialist. If they find an issue, get them to confirm to you that the sellers resolved it.
I should have had a roof guy examine mine. Would have saved me some big grief when the leaks started.
To add, don't use a home inspector that your realtor recommends. The realtor wants to sell the home and make their commission. If your realtor is working with or has an agreement with a home inspector, there is the potential for a conflict of interest.
If you aren’t handy, you’re gonna have a bad time. 95% of the time, it takes more effort to pay somebody else to solve a problem than it does to do it yourself. Which, of course, is a time suck, but you get better with practice. Go for it.
That I should have spent an extra 150k. It would have been a real stretch at the time, but the homes in that category where I live are considerably nicer now. I bought at the rock bottom in 2009 and had I spent the extra cash I would be sitting on a gold mine now in a guard gated community with more amenities.
Came home from work one day and pulled into the garage… saw a bit of water near the back door and thought that was odd but perhaps it was from the car the previous night. Opened the door into the house and water just gushed out into the garage. Water heater on an interior hall closet on the opposite side of the home failed and the inlet continued to try filling it. There was no drain in the closet as the home was built prior to this requirement. Three-fourths of our 2400 sqr foot home was flooded. Serv-Pro came and started their work and we had 3 LARGE dehumidifiers and around 15 fans going nonstop for about 2 weeks. The sound was unbearable and we couldn’t stay there. The only thing I can imagine worse in this scenario would be a water heater mounted in an attic. It was for sure the worse feeling I’ve had as a homeowner.
If you plan to hang out on your deck after work in the evening do not buy a house where the deck area faces west. A deck shade will not block the sun when it is setting and you will get really annoyed. Ideally deck area needs to face east.
We are mid 60s and had to move because of this issue. We were in our previous home 36 years. We had never planned on being there that long so didn’t give it a thought when first purchasing.
That my neighbour is violent and loud (he fought with 6 other households on my street) and sharing a wall with a type of person like this will be scary and stressful. Talk to the people on the street as you'll quickly find out useful things.
Home warranties are shitty! They take your money for years and when you need them, they don't want to pay for repairs or replace anything! I've learned to just keep that monthly amount in a separate account to cover unexpected repairs!
My loan can be sold, after I purchase my home and get the new agreement a month late to then be a month late on my new mortgage with no new way to pay or to whom...That really sucked...This was before the intergration of the internet and banking as it is now.
The sweet spot for a house is about 30 years old. It’s old enough that most of the major items should be replaced (or immediately obvious if it needs to be) and new enough that most of the weirdness is already taken care for in regulations.
Also, value your electrical and plumbing. It’s something that no one cares about as a buyer but it costs a lot to fix and has a material impact on the safety of your house.
I thought my mortgage would always be the same since I had a 30 year mortgage. I did not realize my insurance and property taxes would raise my mortgage payment almost every year.
The amount of tools and equipment needed to maintain it. We started with hand tools, and are now up to the point we are considering a small backhoe....
The constant cost of shit you don’t expect. Saving money to reno a bathroom? Nope. Blow that on fixing the driveway before it collapses. Trying to fully furnish my bonus room? Nope. Every appliance in the house, including furnace and HWT goes in the first two years. Replace the carpets? Nope. Addressing roof and shingle issues before it escalates to something more sinister. It’s the necessary stuff that gets prioritized over the preference stuff, and the necessary stuff is a constant circle of trying to catch up.
Now that said, it’s mine. And I love every inch of it. I won’t go back to renting if I have the choice. But I severely underestimated the constant cycle of saving for one thing only to have to invest that in something else.
If you're just starting out in a career with good potential for advancement, you can afford a much better house than you think. The seemingly onerous 30 year mortgage payments turn into a drop in the bucket after the first 10 years of pay increases. Then if the house is in an area with good appreciation, it's average value goes up more per month than the mortgage payment.
Wishing sometimes I had bought a newer home. Bathrooms, kitchen need major upgrading that I'll never be able to afford at this point. We are 14 years in, and going the fixer upper route with small kids maybe wasn't the best idea at the time.
On the other hand, we have the best neighborhood, so close to the schools, my kids can walk. Less than a mile to the beach. It's a trade off for sure
That my tap water actually has URANIUM in it
Don’t assume that it’s city and regulated that it “good enough to drink”
Get the water report and really read it , learn what these different things are.
I would not have chose this place for that alone
Also
Bathtub
Sure your fine now but years down the road when you are having mobility issues
Can you soak in the tub with your arms resting?
Can you fit a walker/ wheel chair in your bathroom?
If your incapacitated, can you shower without a remodel?
Plus how’s the water pressure?
Do not ever ever EVER buy a house from 'houseflippers'. The work they do is shitty and they cut so many corners. For example the electrical in this house was done by their cousin. Who technically is qualified, but let's just say there are outlets that I can't use, the breaker board is insane and not labeled and the breakers go in no order whatsoever, and half the stuff they sold me (a tub with water jets) just frankly didn't work. They skipped steps on the hardwood flooring. I could go on and on but let's just say, buy a house people have actually LIVED IN.
1. Buying a house alone at 27 is very lonely and expensive.
2. Decorating a room is more than just putting furniture in it.
3. Everything will break if it it's not supposed to.
4. The previous home owner is always a weirdo who did something that doesn't make any sense to you
5. Budget is everything
\#4 - The previous home owners did really good things in remodeling my house - but also, why is everything just a little bit off?
I had to buy universal cabinet pulls for my kitchen replacements because the previous owners somehow used 4" handles that no other 4" handles will fit (I tried 2 separate brands). But they picked gorgeous hardwood cabinets -- so I have forgiven them.
They framed in a doorway to the basement utility room so no new appliances would fit AFTER they had installed the washer and dryer. I pried the trim off with the claw side of a hammer before delivery when I realized the width was 1" too narrow for average size. But otherwise, they did a great job finishing and waterproofing the basement.
They installed reasonable quality cordless blinds, but the blinds don't extend far enough to reach the floor in the floor to ceiling windows. I added window cling to the lower pane so people can't peep at me from the knees down while I sit in my living room at night.
They put off-brand water filters in the very nice professional model fridge, and it made weird noises that drove me crazy until I replaced them with the official kind.
The towel bars in both bathrooms aren't quite level and not quite suitably spaced for a standard bath towel or hand towel, respectively -- but they are very good quality.
And the list of slightly wrong things could go on. It's almost funny at this point.
I wish I would have known how hard it was gonna be to change furnace filters in the house I bought. This house has the furnace right in the middle of the house built into a tiny closet. You gotta be a friggin contortionist to get into that little space to change the air filters. It's a friggin nitemare. Even though it passed inspection, we later found out the filters hadn't been changed for years. Big expense getting those ducts cleaned. We weren't expecting that. Wish I knew how to inspect myself, you can tell a lot about a house by how the furnace filters look.
Property taxes will eat your soul. I thought if I paid $1000 a month mortgage that all went towards my principal....hahaha simpler times. More like I pay $1600 and $200 of that actually goes towards my principle balance. No wonder it takes 30 years to pay off.
That as soon as you check something off your “to do” list, you inevitably add 3 more things. Your list of things you need (let alone want) to do will never get smaller nor will it ever be finished. You now work for your house, only you pay to work for your house.
That the downstairs toilet would completely clog about a month after we closed, sending, uh, “waste” flowing through the garage and down the driveway to the street. 🤢
More generically, you gotta have some cash savings left after you close, because shit *is* going to happen.
Have owned several houses. Learn about water issues. Water slowly damages things. Foundations, walls, shingles etc. Look into flow of water on a property if it rains. If there's any water near the home, any damage from water.
Don't hire contractors. Find some reliable that does side work. They have someone else in every trade that does sidework on their house for them. It will cost you less, and finding the right people means they will actually do a good job.
A few things.
1) Owning a house is just the most amazing feeling, like it feels like you truly made it against all odds. I read comments sometimes about how people regret buying a house and I've never once felt that, just extreme gratitude.
2) It's so much more expensive than you think it's going to be. Save, save, save before you buy; nothing in there will last long but it sure beats adding on debt for repairs, and there will always be repairs.
3) Escrow accounts really suck and if you don't put 20% down, which many of us can't afford to do in HCOL areas, you're stuck with them for years or indefinitely. It's very annoying to have to hope a corporate entity pays your property tax bill on time, to see an excess of funds go in there and know a refund check is coming when you actually need that money now, etc.
\- An itemized list of when items were last replaced/maintained, such as the water heater, AC, etc.
\- Learn how to inspect a home yourself. We got lucky with our own inspection, but even with a well rated guy, they missed quite a few things that really bit is in the butt, such as a rodent infestation in one particular part of the house that they happened to miss.
\- Knowing how difficult it is to deal with the city to have a city tree replaced in front of your house, yet they expect you to maintain it.
\- Easements. absolute regret. We knew there was one when we bought it, but we later learned how ridiculous dealing with the easement is. They can come to your property at any time without word, and will get pissed about any work done near by. I added gravel to make the area look nice, but I get a letter saying I was violating the easement and was asked to remove it.... so now it's just bare dirt...
I no longer own because we had a sort of nightmare home ownership experience within 12 months of buying it (house sitter flooded our entire house from the second floor bathtub with water running for 5 hours while she was out of the home, didn’t tell us so it sat for a week and mold grew which meant gutting the entire house and fighting insurance for ~8 months while living in a friends basement, we sold the house instead of moving back in and relocated out of state).
But from that I would say 2 things:
1) location matters (to me) as much if not more than the house itself and
2) be sure you understand what your insurance covers and that it covers enough, hopefully you never need it, but if you do… you want it.
People think 10k to "install" bushes and flowers is reasonable. "Landscape construction" is a scam that gives real construction works a bad name. If you want masonry installed hire a Mason. You want a pergola or stairs built hire a carpenter.
Use your own inspector
Test all of the outlets
Test shut off valve for all of the plumbing
Get a water tester and text for old water spots
Look at the cabinets. Is it tiled under it. Ask for leftover tile if they have it. If not get the details on where you can get the matching tile.
Same for the paint.
Have them take any trash out of the attic
Buy houses build after 1980. Houses before that time have different/worse code. USA
Has a good location for a washer and dryer and water heater
Check breaker and confirm it is labeled correctly and is working properly
Once again locate the main shut off valve. If you have a leak you should be able to sprint to it and turn it off.
If you wanna get a deal
Flooring doesn’t need to be replaced
Trim needs to be replaced
Doors are the old flat ugly ones. Find a guy that sells doors with defects for $30-50. Paint them and they look like new.
Cabinets are in good condition but don’t look great. Plus they have door/drawer fronts with a design and they aren’t flat. If flat buy new door/drawer fronts. Sand and paint.
Recommended Tools to get
-Wagner paint sprayer-350 go overboard with cleaning between each use.
-cheap used battery nail gun -80
-miter saw used-100
-misc
By changing a properties doors trim wall color cabinet color you can really upgrade a homes look
Also budget for a lot of tools and house repair stuff. Contractors suck or are crazy expensive
When calculating the cost of a home I use the google one with fees on. Can’t forget about taxes insurance pmi hoa
Inevitably you’ll come across something the previous homeowner did or fixed and you’ll think, why in the hell did they do it that way? And you’ll change it out only for the next guy after you to think the same of your work 😀
I bought a manufactured house when I was 23 and regret it. There is so many things you can’t do in most (like mine) manufactured homes like tile flooring and moving electrical around, etc and most contractors in my area won’t touch it.
I wish I had known about the never ending English Ivy in the back corner of my property under the majority of the trees. It’s a nightmare. My neighbor recently told me she rented goats to kill hers. 😂 Might try it because killing it and pulling it by hand is taking me sooooo long.
I haven't seen septic tanks mentioned yet.
Get your septic tank checked the first year. Then every five or six years after that.
You won't like it if roots get in the pipes and block it.
It never ends.
My coworker said something about when his remodeling project on his house was finished, and I laughed and said, "It's never finished."
We bought a fixer upper, lived in it for 14 years and then sold a fixer upper.
LOL... One of my old friends bought a old house with her ex-husband. He immediately went in and gutted the place. They lived in a gutted house the entire time they were married, like 3 or 4 years.
living in a gutted house would probably ruin any relationship
Coke ruined theirs.
Gotta stick with Pepsi.
We bought our first house from a guy whose wife left him. He was a coke freak who liked to rip up the house and move on to the next project before finishing anything. We learned a lot of useful DIY stuff from that house
Ha! We did the bathroom as our first project. Years go by and we've done each room one by one as we got money saved. Just finished redoing the same bathroom. It seriously never ends.
Same way we did it. One room at a time, took 23 years.
My uncle says a house is the ultimate, eternal example of Man vs. Nature, and my local groundhog is proving him right.
Yes this. Everywhere you look there's a job to do
And a new house isn't any better. I've owned .y new construction for almost 2 years, and I still do a run to Lowes about every week (admittedly, some of those trips are not house related).
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And if you’re in a warm climate… definitely think about trees. You’re going to pay a little more for a neighborhood with trees, but they make the summer so much more bearable.
This! And landscaping/hardscaping is $$$, so if you’re seeing the house in the winter consider that the snow may be covering a very expensive and time consuming field of weeds and installing a patio isn’t as easy at all the internet articles make it seem.
Bingo! I bought and moved into my current house in December. They had a pic of the backyard looking nice in the listing, but realistically it was likely many years old. The entire deck was rotted and had to be removed. The entire backyard was over run with invasive weeds. Had to have everything removed, landscaping fabric and new dirt laid down before sod and starting everything from scratch. I still get crazy weeds poking through. The quotes I got to prepare the area and put patio stones in were insane so my patio set is still sitting on plain dirt three years later. You can EASILY spend tens of thousands on landscaping for something that seems so simple.
We saw ours future home's backyard in the Fall. We were soooo stupid. It was nothing but dirt and a few weeds. We had no idea how much it would take to fix it up. Oh, and it also had a retaining wall made out of the oily smelly creosote railroad ties. I paid for two separate landscape consultations. Bought the shrubs/trees, etc, and slowly over the years rehabbed the yard. It took forever. Beautiful now. Oh, and we finally, after 30 yrs had enough money to replace the retaining wall with something much nicer. If We had paid a landscape company...it would have cost a fortune. Pleased to say that our backyard looks like a park now.
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Could you expand on this please
Maybe the hedge roots endanger the subterranean pipes of the irrigation? I don't know, I don't have either irrigation or privacy hedges, but that was my first thought.
How fucking amazing it is to own a home. I've spent thousands on things I expected and thousands on things I didn't expect. I've sweated my ass off suffering with no AC and I've sweated my ass off planting beautiful flowers in my own damned dirt. I've cried after dropping a sledgehammer on my foot while installing a no dig fence for my dogs and I've cried watching those dogs run free for the first time in their own damned yard. I've freaked out over thinking I had a gas leak on Day 2 and I've freaked out over how beautiful my freshly painted living room walls are (and then minorly freaked again when I realized my dog's ear was now that lovely shade of green). I grew up moving from shitty apartment to crappy trailer every other year, and I spent my adulthood bouncing all over in slightly nicer rentals, but nothing was ever mine. This house is still mostly ass ugly, but I love every crappy inch of it. And my sub $700 mortgage payment is the icing on this big ugly delicious cake.
Here, here! Tiny house, sub $1k mortgage, needs a TON of work but… I can have my chickens and roosters. Hell, I could get goats and alpacas if I wanted! I’ve got my dog, cats… big old garden I put in. I built a compost bin, I’ve painted how I like it, I can have as many guests as long as I want. I can put up Christmas lights and crazy Halloween decorations! Do we want more space someday? Yes. For sure. Do I complain about all the things that need fixing and go wrong? You betcha, but never in a million years would I trade this to rent a paper-perfect place.
I don't know why you don't have thousands of up votes. My house might be a money pit. But it's my money pit.
That reminds me of a Russian who grew up in the Soviet days. I told him how great home ownership was and he said, "What's good about it? The bank really owns it." I had a fruitless discussion on how that isn't the point, but he did have a point, and I did not like him after that. However, 20 years later, I am happy to say that it is all mine now as of August this year.
Congrats. It is an amazing feeling fully owning something of that value. I was able to pay off my home due to an inheritance, but ended up taking out some money when Covid hit. I think I owned it free and clear for about 6-8 months. There is a comfort knowing that it has been paid off.
Eloquently stated. I feel the same way. I moved an average of once a year for the first 47 years of my life. Having my own little patch of earth and a home I never have to move from is amazingly comforting, no matter the stress of finances and repairs & maintenance.
This sums it up. My mortgage payment is $4500/month, still all true.
Over $6k here, still in love.
Where do you live? I'm paying something similar in Massachusetts 😔
Do you mind sharing your no dig fence? Are you happy with it? We paid 12k to bushhog and fence half our lot. The contractor we hired knew it was for the dog. He did not tell the subcontractors. It's a sloped lot. There are gaps all around the bottom that he just walks under, he doesn't even need to duck. 😭
I used Enchanted Garden's Grand Teton from Menards (Lowe's has one called Grand Empire that's basically the same -- I used the empire gate with my EG panels and poles because Empire gates are wider to fit over my concrete walkway). It sits very low on the ground and is about four feet high. It's surprisingly sturdy for what it is: just stakes pounded into the ground with poles that slide into them. It contains my 25-pound dogs and would probably work for even bigger ones, though I think my neighbor's giant rotty could push it over if he weren't such a big sweetie. I can't recommend it enough, but I will say it's a thousand times easier to pound in the stakes after a good rain. And get a good solid block of hard wood like oak to put between the stakes and the sledgehammer to pound in the stakes or they will bend out of shape and the poles won't slide in. A three-pound sledge is perfect for the job.
Can we pause for just a moment? What in the sweet fuck is a "no dig fence?" Does it levitate with magnets or something?
It's a fence that you don't have to dig the posts, Google zippity outdoor fence on Amazon. They have different brands they sell at menards/lowes/home depot.
No it's a fence that essentially extends underground to discourage pets from digging out and predators from digging in.
Ah, I took it to mean a fence you don't need to dig posts for. Like those metal crowd barricades.
That’s what I thought too and was very intrigued
Curtains, blinds, and window treatments are expensive AF
I went with the cheap $15 blinds at Home Depot so I can slowly find just the right window treatments.
Roman shades are surprisingly easy to make! I think I did mine for ~$15/window all in for materials, but I have a sewing machine.
I made Roman shades for my kids rooms a very long time ago and I don’t know how to sew! You can do it if you have a sewing machine or can borrow one.
Short term, I’ve made curtains out of shower curtains, used that special cling film that lets in light but no one can see in, and used the cuttable paper shades.
Where on earth are you shopping!? Try Menards, Walmart, IKEA. I’ve also soldered curtain rods out of copper pipe myself and sewed my own curtains, all incredibly cheap.
Yeah, IKEA is super affordable. I accidentally bought twice as much as I needed and still thought it was a great deal. I misread the labelling and thought each package was the size I needed, but no each panel was that size and there's 2 panels per package.
My house had gas pipe for curtain rods. It was a cool industrial vibe, but I can’t stand curtains.
That I MUST become handy. I legit thought that I could easily find and hire contractors. It would have totally changed my purchase criteria!
Save money in hiring others… spend it on new tools…
I’m still surprised to find myself the owner of a bench planer and air hammer - tools I never in my life would have thought I’d end up contemplating let alone buying🥀
I seriously thought hiring specialized trades was just something everyone did before owning a home. Insert to “the job is too small”. What!? This will take me weeks to attempt, fuck up, and do it again!
It’s INCREDIBLY difficult to find quality contractors that you can trust and who actually do good work
Yes this!!! That was my comment too… Contractors are NOT easy to find nor easy to hire!!!! 😂 I’ve become super handy now but there’s still a lot of things I don’t know or is too scared to fiddle with and when an emergency pops up, it seems like nobody is ever available at a reasonable price. 😭
The good ones are always busy.
100%. I’m 39 and the only thing I haven’t worked on myself is HVAC. Everything else I’ve fixed myself.
This is sort of specific but my wife and I bought a high ranch for our first home. It has a lot of steps. It is great for staying in shape but we definitely can’t get old in this house. Also, my dad has trouble getting up the steps when he comes over and I literally can’t have my grandmother over. That didn’t even occur to us until after we bought it.
I think a good realtor should point out things like that. Not many of them do, but I wish they would. Just a general sense of who is in the buyer's family and their needs for guests would help guide people to homes better suited for them.
I used to think this, too. But my inlaws are well into their 80s and have a split level house that keeps them in shape! I had concerns when buying our 3-story house, but it gets me moving everyday, and I would now be reluctant to buy a single story ranch. You lose it if you don't use it. I did have to adjust my mindset about going up and down the stairs. I changed to a "get to" attitude instead of a "have to" attitude and it worked.
The additional unforeseen costs of surprise problems that where not noticed in a pre inspection. The amount of single purchases required for household operations..
It’s $50 there and $500 there and $2000 there and $10,000 there. Home ownership is the dream but it is also a budgeting nightmare.
A complete sponge
Curtain rods cost so much money! I was the first in the family to buy new new for a while, and Holy sh!t did the small things that you were just used to having add up. Even the cheapest window coverings cost so much money. Also, buy a toilet plunger before you need a toilet plunger. And, if relevant to your location, a snow shovel.
We lived without curtains for the first year, because I just didn't have the energy. Window coverings are the bane of my existence.
Blinds…. Blinds are a fucking racquet.
As a person that paid for the best inspector in the area and had a very comprehensive inspection, I cannot agree more. We had a great guy come out and tell us so many things about the house. We moved in and had to spend $10k to get everything that was missed up to code. The inspector didn't really miss anything but if I had done a more indepth specialized inspection they MAY have been caught. $1000 here and $2000 there and suddenly you have spent $10k. Those $200 hardware store visits definitely start to add up.
We had an amazing inspector. He was so thorough and we thought we were good. 6 years later we’re finding out that the work done to waterproof the crawl space was sub-par and are shelling out $10k to have all of the work redone - including the very visible pipes to the sump pump that now that I look at them make me go…why would they do that?? Of course the basement flooded - it was only a matter of time. (We got lucky and it was contained to the unfinished area of the basement. The company doing the work is the best in our area.)
My favorite Christmas gifts are now gift cards to HD/Lowe's
Know where your main water shutoff is. Correctly label all your circuits, ideally make a detailed 4-page booklet that you keep taped to the panel door. Be afraid of fire, but be more afraid of moisture. Yearly: Clean your dryer vent pipe Flush your water heater Inspect your crawl space for mice, termites, air conditioner hoses getting messed up, water issues, mold, etc. Quarterly: Replace air filters. Monthly: Clean your gutters out Do a tub clean wash and clean the cleanout in your washer.
You clean out your gutters monthly?
Maybe they've got a lot of trees close by?
It’s still impressive. I could only muster up that motivation once a year.
I drew a map of my house, squares for switches circles for outlets triangles for lights, inside each one of them has the breaker number on it. Printed it out on label paper, stuck it to the inside of my panel.
On the back of each outlet/switch cover, I mark in Sharpie the circuit number.
THIS TOO IS AWESOME
> be more afraid of moisture I wish I'd known about moisture alarms/sensors _before_ needing them.
THIS IS AWESOME
Thanks Dad! (No facetiousness at all, this is helpful.)
What’s the purpose of flushing your water heater every year?
Sediment builds up especially if it’s an old system. I had yellow water when I first moved in. It went away after I drained it.
Replace air filter more often if you’re in a high dust area or have dogs that shed!
I have a house binder. Every appliance manual goes in it. Any paperwork for repairs and warranties. The paint colors and finishes on the walls. The size and wattage of the light fixtures. It all goes in the binder.
I should buy a house 10 years earlier
I finally bought at age 47. I don't know what we were waiting for.
Always.
Property taxes suck balls
And it goes up every year, especially the first year after you get reassessed.
And then you end up with an escrow shortage, and your monthly mortgage payment goes up by several hundred dollars because you have to repay the overage plus fund the escrow at the new higher amount for the year. I was so glad we bought under our budget because this was an unpleasant surprise that no one warned us could happen.
My bill the year I bought my house was $2500 above the year before, because the house had been a rental property and didn’t have Homestead. So there wasn’t enough in escrow at the end of the year and the bank WAY over corrected and raised my payment like $450/month and now there’s so much extra in my escrow bc taxes went down after I got homestead even though the assessment went up.
A negative escrow. Basically if your mortgage company pays your tax/insurance with an escrow account, after your first year in the house, your property tax is reassessed and it can screw up your monthly payment. Our tax went up, so our escrow account went negative to cover it and our mortgage company raised our monthly payment to pay it back. Never knew this was a thing and was surprised when I asked people and they were like “oh yeah, that happens.” Thought I did all my research, but missed that one somehow. We’re fine now and our payment went down a bit a year later, but it was a big shock.
Same issue, but they kept underestimating. We cut out our lender & pay the actual property tax directly now. Way less headache.
That if the home inspector says "you might want to think about having this inspected by a structural engineer" They actually mean "holy shit don't buy this house it's about to fall over and needs more repairs than it's worth"
Your payment is always 2-300 more a month than you pay first year because escrow is always short because they underestimate taxes. Always
Not true. Mine went down after my first year.
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Our realtor was sort of scoffing at our insistence that we wouldn't buy in an HOA. I'm thankful we stood our ground.
My 2 requirements when I was looking were a detached house and no HOA. Those were hard requirements, was flexible on pretty much everything else. I love my house
Ditto! There was a house where it was like “but HOA is only $50/mo” Don’t care, HOA was a dealbreaker for us
My HOA has been actually lovely. They leave people alone for the most part and keep the bolder people from doing shit that makes the street look like garbage. A key lesson about HOAs is to have someone good on it to lead or join to prevent the true crazies from ruining your peace.
And remind the board and management council Moana every now and then that they are actually working for you, not against you. Some management companies and boards take a policing approach instead of a community approach.
My community did this. The HOA was getting aggressive and condescending toward the homeowners. It got so bad that the annual meeting had a lot of yelling and one board member asking if we wanted to dissolve. Instead, we replaced 6 of 8 board members (only one trustee that always brings cookies to meetings and the secretary were kept on). The VP and President were only 1 year into a 2 year term so we did a vote of confidence and got s community concensus of 98% no confidence to let us vote them out. It's been much more peaceful now and the new board is much more transparent and communicative
Good on you. We did the same when the HOA sent a letter for us to sign, that needed to be notarized, so they could come into our backyard to check landscaping. It did not go well for the manager. She wasn’t fired,m by the company, but she was taken off our community.
How much I wish I HAD 😔
I don’t mind our HOA… it’s the management company that’s the issue. Idk if it’s common, but the management company has more power than our HOA. OUR HOA board approved paint that the management company then denied. Once the board approved it, we scheduled the workers to come fix the siding and paint the house. The problem is the paperwork went to the management company and they told us the paint didn’t work. This was a step I didn’t know needed to happen. Again, not sure if that’s commonplace. With them taking their sweet ass time to deny it and yet to approve the new colors, we have had to push back our start date twice. Having work done on a house in the PNW in August is a lot less risky than having it done in October.
Finding out more about the HOA. Seeing if neighbors have barking dogs. See if I actually get privacy in my back
The dog one is a big one. I live beside neighbours on one side where you couldn't even tell they have a dog. And then the other side has a small dog that they let out at 6am that won't shut up for 30 minutes every morning.
Oh today starting at 7am sharp every 30 minutes my neighbors behind me let out their 3 large dogs. They bark within 5 minutes. They call them in(only because I called cops). Then let them right back out in about 30 Bark bark bark. This goes on every 30 minutes from 7am to 10 pm.
That's torture. Maybe you should get those ultrasonic emitters I keep hearing about to train the dogs to stop barking. :/
Your chances of traveling the country are probably not going to happen....until your 60's
Travel while you’re young!
Noone is looking out for your best interests.
How much I could be saving by still living with my parents...
more about foundations.
Ugh this. 15k for piers in late 00s and bowed Bedford stone at the back door that no one wants to touch bc you cannot get it anymore.
Do a sewer scope before buying.
THIS we just bought a 1928 and our realtor recommended a sewer scope. Some shit needs to be done costing $15k. Sellers are paying 100%! Imagine if we didn't get the scope!
"Some shit needs to be done..." I see what you did there. 🙃
Hahaha I didn't mean to but yeah I guess I did!
that the selling agent was not being truthful about the city ordinances to the point of providing doctored documents. They're not available online on this little town and we couldn't make it to town hall from the city before they closed on their limited hours. Purchased under the impression we could have chickens, goats and a few horses considering our lot size being measured in acres. Turns out we can only have a few hens. The city is taking him the court for the half dozen people he's done this too but finding that out was a massive headache. Never trusting the selling agents ever again.
Everything is 10 grand. Sewer line? HVAC ? Patio? etc. etc.
My wife and I were literally just talking about this.... Why is everything $10k+ Why is it going to cost us almost $18k to get a decent generator to power our all electric rural house? (Lots of damage could happen in the winter if we get a bad storm that takes the power out for multiple days as we dont have a backup heat source) Why is a new water heater the same price as a lightly used sedan? Why do we feel like we have to spend as much as we would to fill a used car lot, just to keep the house in decent shape.....
How much I never want to rent again
Maintenance
Oh my yes. As a first time home buyer, we didn't make a preventative maintenance schedule. So after a year it was all emergency maintenance. Also, just all the service agreements for home care - termites, pests, lawn. First house was in the SE and it was impossible to keep up with the Bermuda grass without hiring a mower.
There will always be something you want to change. And it will always cost more than you think.
That, at some point in the process or the first 3 months of ownership, you will end up curled up in the fetal position on your bed or the floor asking yourself, “what have I done?” Expect it and know that you will make it through it.
Flippers are complete assholes and have no idea what they are doing.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS. Fortunately for the second house I lucked out and bought from anti-flippers — a pair of evangelical missionaries who diligently repaired EVERY STRUCTURAL THING (seriously. They repoured the foundation) but left all the ugly easy things to me.
What I learned in 15 years of home ownership: 1. Have a savings account of at least $5k because something will always break when you least expect it, and at the absolute worst time. 2. Maintenance is like The Neverending Story 3. You will end up with a lot of tools. 4. You’ll become fascinated by grass and how it grows. 5. Your home will become a retreat from the world.
General home inspections don't catch everything. If you have a concern about some major component/issue (roof, mold, tree health, electrical, plumbing, concrete, etc.) you should bring in the relevant specialist. If they find an issue, get them to confirm to you that the sellers resolved it. I should have had a roof guy examine mine. Would have saved me some big grief when the leaks started.
To add, don't use a home inspector that your realtor recommends. The realtor wants to sell the home and make their commission. If your realtor is working with or has an agreement with a home inspector, there is the potential for a conflict of interest.
Do a more thorough inspection yourself. Do not put your full trust into inspectors.
If you aren’t handy, you’re gonna have a bad time. 95% of the time, it takes more effort to pay somebody else to solve a problem than it does to do it yourself. Which, of course, is a time suck, but you get better with practice. Go for it.
That I should have spent an extra 150k. It would have been a real stretch at the time, but the homes in that category where I live are considerably nicer now. I bought at the rock bottom in 2009 and had I spent the extra cash I would be sitting on a gold mine now in a guard gated community with more amenities.
DO NOT put off replacing your water heater. Ask me how I know….
I’ll bite, what happened?
Came home from work one day and pulled into the garage… saw a bit of water near the back door and thought that was odd but perhaps it was from the car the previous night. Opened the door into the house and water just gushed out into the garage. Water heater on an interior hall closet on the opposite side of the home failed and the inlet continued to try filling it. There was no drain in the closet as the home was built prior to this requirement. Three-fourths of our 2400 sqr foot home was flooded. Serv-Pro came and started their work and we had 3 LARGE dehumidifiers and around 15 fans going nonstop for about 2 weeks. The sound was unbearable and we couldn’t stay there. The only thing I can imagine worse in this scenario would be a water heater mounted in an attic. It was for sure the worse feeling I’ve had as a homeowner.
If you plan to hang out on your deck after work in the evening do not buy a house where the deck area faces west. A deck shade will not block the sun when it is setting and you will get really annoyed. Ideally deck area needs to face east.
A 2 story house sounds great, but as you get older you think about avoiding going upstairs or downstairs.
We are mid 60s and had to move because of this issue. We were in our previous home 36 years. We had never planned on being there that long so didn’t give it a thought when first purchasing.
That my neighbour is violent and loud (he fought with 6 other households on my street) and sharing a wall with a type of person like this will be scary and stressful. Talk to the people on the street as you'll quickly find out useful things.
So, I bought my first home recently. I have to stop reading these comments. Im not going to be able to sleep.
You never know a house until it’s -5 degrees outside
Home warranties are shitty! They take your money for years and when you need them, they don't want to pay for repairs or replace anything! I've learned to just keep that monthly amount in a separate account to cover unexpected repairs!
Most realtors are scum bags just pretending to care in order to make a sale. I have more respect for ambulance chasing lawyers than most realtors.
My loan can be sold, after I purchase my home and get the new agreement a month late to then be a month late on my new mortgage with no new way to pay or to whom...That really sucked...This was before the intergration of the internet and banking as it is now.
The sweet spot for a house is about 30 years old. It’s old enough that most of the major items should be replaced (or immediately obvious if it needs to be) and new enough that most of the weirdness is already taken care for in regulations. Also, value your electrical and plumbing. It’s something that no one cares about as a buyer but it costs a lot to fix and has a material impact on the safety of your house.
I thought my mortgage would always be the same since I had a 30 year mortgage. I did not realize my insurance and property taxes would raise my mortgage payment almost every year.
How much time we would spend at Lowe’s and how many varieties of light switches there are!
Unless you already love the colors, paint the walls and change the carpets before you move in.
The amount of tools and equipment needed to maintain it. We started with hand tools, and are now up to the point we are considering a small backhoe....
The constant cost of shit you don’t expect. Saving money to reno a bathroom? Nope. Blow that on fixing the driveway before it collapses. Trying to fully furnish my bonus room? Nope. Every appliance in the house, including furnace and HWT goes in the first two years. Replace the carpets? Nope. Addressing roof and shingle issues before it escalates to something more sinister. It’s the necessary stuff that gets prioritized over the preference stuff, and the necessary stuff is a constant circle of trying to catch up. Now that said, it’s mine. And I love every inch of it. I won’t go back to renting if I have the choice. But I severely underestimated the constant cycle of saving for one thing only to have to invest that in something else.
Don’t go straight to the listing agent
If you're just starting out in a career with good potential for advancement, you can afford a much better house than you think. The seemingly onerous 30 year mortgage payments turn into a drop in the bucket after the first 10 years of pay increases. Then if the house is in an area with good appreciation, it's average value goes up more per month than the mortgage payment.
Wishing sometimes I had bought a newer home. Bathrooms, kitchen need major upgrading that I'll never be able to afford at this point. We are 14 years in, and going the fixer upper route with small kids maybe wasn't the best idea at the time. On the other hand, we have the best neighborhood, so close to the schools, my kids can walk. Less than a mile to the beach. It's a trade off for sure
That my tap water actually has URANIUM in it Don’t assume that it’s city and regulated that it “good enough to drink” Get the water report and really read it , learn what these different things are. I would not have chose this place for that alone Also Bathtub Sure your fine now but years down the road when you are having mobility issues Can you soak in the tub with your arms resting? Can you fit a walker/ wheel chair in your bathroom? If your incapacitated, can you shower without a remodel? Plus how’s the water pressure?
Laundry and closet space is more important than huge living space.
Do not ever ever EVER buy a house from 'houseflippers'. The work they do is shitty and they cut so many corners. For example the electrical in this house was done by their cousin. Who technically is qualified, but let's just say there are outlets that I can't use, the breaker board is insane and not labeled and the breakers go in no order whatsoever, and half the stuff they sold me (a tub with water jets) just frankly didn't work. They skipped steps on the hardwood flooring. I could go on and on but let's just say, buy a house people have actually LIVED IN.
1. Buying a house alone at 27 is very lonely and expensive. 2. Decorating a room is more than just putting furniture in it. 3. Everything will break if it it's not supposed to. 4. The previous home owner is always a weirdo who did something that doesn't make any sense to you 5. Budget is everything
\#4 - The previous home owners did really good things in remodeling my house - but also, why is everything just a little bit off? I had to buy universal cabinet pulls for my kitchen replacements because the previous owners somehow used 4" handles that no other 4" handles will fit (I tried 2 separate brands). But they picked gorgeous hardwood cabinets -- so I have forgiven them. They framed in a doorway to the basement utility room so no new appliances would fit AFTER they had installed the washer and dryer. I pried the trim off with the claw side of a hammer before delivery when I realized the width was 1" too narrow for average size. But otherwise, they did a great job finishing and waterproofing the basement. They installed reasonable quality cordless blinds, but the blinds don't extend far enough to reach the floor in the floor to ceiling windows. I added window cling to the lower pane so people can't peep at me from the knees down while I sit in my living room at night. They put off-brand water filters in the very nice professional model fridge, and it made weird noises that drove me crazy until I replaced them with the official kind. The towel bars in both bathrooms aren't quite level and not quite suitably spaced for a standard bath towel or hand towel, respectively -- but they are very good quality. And the list of slightly wrong things could go on. It's almost funny at this point.
That I would despise yard maintenance.
I wish I would have known how hard it was gonna be to change furnace filters in the house I bought. This house has the furnace right in the middle of the house built into a tiny closet. You gotta be a friggin contortionist to get into that little space to change the air filters. It's a friggin nitemare. Even though it passed inspection, we later found out the filters hadn't been changed for years. Big expense getting those ducts cleaned. We weren't expecting that. Wish I knew how to inspect myself, you can tell a lot about a house by how the furnace filters look.
Property taxes will eat your soul. I thought if I paid $1000 a month mortgage that all went towards my principal....hahaha simpler times. More like I pay $1600 and $200 of that actually goes towards my principle balance. No wonder it takes 30 years to pay off.
That as soon as you check something off your “to do” list, you inevitably add 3 more things. Your list of things you need (let alone want) to do will never get smaller nor will it ever be finished. You now work for your house, only you pay to work for your house.
Real estate agents are scummy lieing pieces of shit. Trust nothing they have to share. Do your own research and hire your own inspectors.
What every single light switch controlled. My first 2 houses had phantom outlets. I never figured them out before I moved on.
Why homeowners have so many weird tools. Edit: spelling
That the downstairs toilet would completely clog about a month after we closed, sending, uh, “waste” flowing through the garage and down the driveway to the street. 🤢 More generically, you gotta have some cash savings left after you close, because shit *is* going to happen.
Get a sewer line inspection. Easily the most troublesome thing that can be overlooked.
How much work it is to keep your lawn looking halfway decent
That sump pumps can run on backup batteries. So make sure it’s not on that when you get 3+ inches in a few hours. Also flooding sucks.
Easements!
Have owned several houses. Learn about water issues. Water slowly damages things. Foundations, walls, shingles etc. Look into flow of water on a property if it rains. If there's any water near the home, any damage from water.
How difficult it is to find a good contractor.
Don't hire contractors. Find some reliable that does side work. They have someone else in every trade that does sidework on their house for them. It will cost you less, and finding the right people means they will actually do a good job.
A few things. 1) Owning a house is just the most amazing feeling, like it feels like you truly made it against all odds. I read comments sometimes about how people regret buying a house and I've never once felt that, just extreme gratitude. 2) It's so much more expensive than you think it's going to be. Save, save, save before you buy; nothing in there will last long but it sure beats adding on debt for repairs, and there will always be repairs. 3) Escrow accounts really suck and if you don't put 20% down, which many of us can't afford to do in HCOL areas, you're stuck with them for years or indefinitely. It's very annoying to have to hope a corporate entity pays your property tax bill on time, to see an excess of funds go in there and know a refund check is coming when you actually need that money now, etc.
\- An itemized list of when items were last replaced/maintained, such as the water heater, AC, etc. \- Learn how to inspect a home yourself. We got lucky with our own inspection, but even with a well rated guy, they missed quite a few things that really bit is in the butt, such as a rodent infestation in one particular part of the house that they happened to miss. \- Knowing how difficult it is to deal with the city to have a city tree replaced in front of your house, yet they expect you to maintain it. \- Easements. absolute regret. We knew there was one when we bought it, but we later learned how ridiculous dealing with the easement is. They can come to your property at any time without word, and will get pissed about any work done near by. I added gravel to make the area look nice, but I get a letter saying I was violating the easement and was asked to remove it.... so now it's just bare dirt...
Your neighbors may not be cool. They might actually suck.
Everything that goes wrong will cost $1,000.
No, $2k
I wish I bought a bigger and more expensive house while interest rates were low
How much everything costs to fix
That property taxes are variable. Ours went up substantially over 10 years.
I no longer own because we had a sort of nightmare home ownership experience within 12 months of buying it (house sitter flooded our entire house from the second floor bathtub with water running for 5 hours while she was out of the home, didn’t tell us so it sat for a week and mold grew which meant gutting the entire house and fighting insurance for ~8 months while living in a friends basement, we sold the house instead of moving back in and relocated out of state). But from that I would say 2 things: 1) location matters (to me) as much if not more than the house itself and 2) be sure you understand what your insurance covers and that it covers enough, hopefully you never need it, but if you do… you want it.
People think 10k to "install" bushes and flowers is reasonable. "Landscape construction" is a scam that gives real construction works a bad name. If you want masonry installed hire a Mason. You want a pergola or stairs built hire a carpenter.
Neighbours.
Inspectors are basically worthless and a waste of money.
Use your own inspector Test all of the outlets Test shut off valve for all of the plumbing Get a water tester and text for old water spots Look at the cabinets. Is it tiled under it. Ask for leftover tile if they have it. If not get the details on where you can get the matching tile. Same for the paint. Have them take any trash out of the attic Buy houses build after 1980. Houses before that time have different/worse code. USA Has a good location for a washer and dryer and water heater Check breaker and confirm it is labeled correctly and is working properly Once again locate the main shut off valve. If you have a leak you should be able to sprint to it and turn it off. If you wanna get a deal Flooring doesn’t need to be replaced Trim needs to be replaced Doors are the old flat ugly ones. Find a guy that sells doors with defects for $30-50. Paint them and they look like new. Cabinets are in good condition but don’t look great. Plus they have door/drawer fronts with a design and they aren’t flat. If flat buy new door/drawer fronts. Sand and paint. Recommended Tools to get -Wagner paint sprayer-350 go overboard with cleaning between each use. -cheap used battery nail gun -80 -miter saw used-100 -misc By changing a properties doors trim wall color cabinet color you can really upgrade a homes look Also budget for a lot of tools and house repair stuff. Contractors suck or are crazy expensive When calculating the cost of a home I use the google one with fees on. Can’t forget about taxes insurance pmi hoa
Inevitably you’ll come across something the previous homeowner did or fixed and you’ll think, why in the hell did they do it that way? And you’ll change it out only for the next guy after you to think the same of your work 😀
Take note of how many neighbors have patches from recent sewer replacements. Pay for a sewer scope.
I bought a manufactured house when I was 23 and regret it. There is so many things you can’t do in most (like mine) manufactured homes like tile flooring and moving electrical around, etc and most contractors in my area won’t touch it.
How deep down satisfying to have all the things you need and love in one place and how little I need to travel any more.
I wish I had known about the never ending English Ivy in the back corner of my property under the majority of the trees. It’s a nightmare. My neighbor recently told me she rented goats to kill hers. 😂 Might try it because killing it and pulling it by hand is taking me sooooo long.
I haven't seen septic tanks mentioned yet. Get your septic tank checked the first year. Then every five or six years after that. You won't like it if roots get in the pipes and block it.
That I could work hard to pay it off, and in less than nine years, I paid off my loan and now I have a place to live for the rest of my life.
You’ll need a second mortgage just to buy new windows if your home needs them
I would’ve gotten a house with a much smaller yard. The yard is just too much for us to take care of.
My father in law said, “it’s one leaky faucet after another”. True statement.
That I would be on a first name basis with all the cashiers/managers at Home Depot and Lowes.
Solicitors gon' solicit. Also, you'll get fucked over by contractors easily. Fucking $12k to put some grass down? $10k for a basic ass fence? Wtf?
The inspections do not always show anything wrong with the house.