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+--- Thread: House Purchase Advice (/showthread.php?tid=8334)
Re: House Purchase Advice - WRXtranceformed - 02-01-2011
The good news is you can get a lot of house for your money nowadays...when it comes to upgraded stuff. The bad news is I'm sure it still costs a ton to buy a house up in that area. You might even want to look at some of the new home builders right now if there's a community anywhere close to the area you're looking in. They are still pretty desperate for sales and are often times undercutting the pricing of "used" homes in the same neighborhoods they're selling in with more options.
I remember when we were selling townhouses in Kirkpatrick Farms in Chantilly. We were blasting them out all day long at $395k+, then literally in the span of a week we dropped the prices like $80k. Not so happy former customers, but what can you do.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Apoc - 02-01-2011
Location should be first on the list and bold. The search area is a 4 sq mile area where they haven't built new houses in 20 years.
Re: House Purchase Advice - HAULN-SS - 02-01-2011
has our site been hax0red? everything with the word "news" is going to "greensboring.com" Noticed this on some post yesterday
Re: House Purchase Advice - WRXtranceformed - 02-01-2011
Apoc Wrote:Location should be first on the list and bold. The search area is a 4 sq mile area where they haven't built new houses in 20 years.Erm, that's generally going to increase the number of things from a maintenance standpoint you're going to want to keep your eyes on. 20 years is definitely dipping into the roof range, windows, sometimes HVAC (although you can probably get away with it longer in a townhouse). Hot water heater.
Re: House Purchase Advice - CaptainHenreh - 02-01-2011
HAULN-SS Wrote:has our site been hax0red? everything with the word "news" is going to "greensboring.com" Noticed this on some post yesterday
I've been bitching about that for over a year now. Nobody seems to care.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Jake - 02-01-2011
CaptainHenreh Wrote:HAULN-SS Wrote:has our site been hax0red? everything with the word "news" is going to "greensboring.com" Noticed this on some post yesterday
I've been bitching about that for over a year now. Nobody seems to care.
As the sole webmaster and runner-of-other-things-too, I don't have time to care. It's a designed-in "easter egg" by phpBB.
Re: House Purchase Advice - HAULN-SS - 02-01-2011
I tend to look at those things more as points for me to negotiate off more than it would cost to fix them. A shitty roof I bet you can knock 10 grand off and fix for 6 (going off prices from ~5 years ago in SWVA when I worked for my uncles construction company)
Re: House Purchase Advice - .RJ - 02-01-2011
WRXtranceformed Wrote:Erm, that's generally going to increase the number of things from a maintenance standpoint you're going to want to keep your eyes on. 20 years is definitely dipping into the roof range, windows, sometimes HVAC (although you can probably get away with it longer in a townhouse). Hot water heater.
Yep. I'm hoping I can find a place that these things have already been addressed, but its still going to be expensive. $250-300k in herndon, $300-350k in reston.
Re: House Purchase Advice - ViPER1313 - 02-01-2011
This is coming from a guy who bought a fixer upper, but I wouldn't let an outdated HVAC system / water heater / windows / roof scare you away from a house if the price is right. A new roof is under 5g for a townhouse, figure 3 to 5g for a completely revamped HVAC system, if a window is not broken it's not *necessary* to replace it, and water heaters are cheap (under 1g installed) to replace and super cheap to fix if not leaking. Just keep those numbers in mind when shopping around and make and offer on the house accordingly, knowing the amount of work it needs. More costly upgrades are decks, hard wood floors and nicer bathroom/kitchen setups. If you want them and the house you are looking at doesn't have them, be prepared to pay though the nose.
Re: House Purchase Advice - .RJ - 02-01-2011
Good to know. My budget for repair/renovation is going to be fairly small, I'm planning on putting 10% down on the house.
Re: House Purchase Advice - ViPER1313 - 02-01-2011
.RJ Wrote:Good to know. My budget for repair/renovation is going to be fairly small, I'm planning on putting 10% down on the house.Any particular reason why 10%? Are you planning on going with an FHA loan or no? It might make more sense to put down 3 to 5% and keep the rest in the bank for repairs. There is always something you are going to want to improve or needs fixing. Nothing says you cant make a large payment and lower the principle the exact same amount as if you used the cash as a down payment.
Re: House Purchase Advice - G.Irish - 02-01-2011
ViPER1313 Wrote:Word. That is what my girlfriend did and she was able to roll substantial renovations into the mortgage. You could do the same and do a much smaller amount of upgrades if need be..RJ Wrote:Good to know. My budget for repair/renovation is going to be fairly small, I'm planning on putting 10% down on the house.Any particular reason why 10%? Are you planning on going with an FHA loan or no? It might make more sense to put down 3 to 5% and keep the rest in the bank for repairs. There is always something you are going to want to improve or needs fixing. Nothing says you cant make a large payment and lower the principle the exact same amount as if you used the cash as a down payment.
But then again, getting a house that doesn't need any upgrades/repairs is a lot less hassle.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Ryan T - 02-01-2011
ViPER1313 Wrote:This is coming from a guy who bought a fixer upper, but I wouldn't let an outdated HVAC system / water heater / windows / roof scare you away from a house if the price is right. A new roof is under 5g for a townhouse, figure 3 to 5g for a completely revamped HVAC system, if a window is not broken it's not *necessary* to replace it, and water heaters are cheap (under 1g installed) to replace and super cheap to fix if not leaking. Just keep those numbers in mind when shopping around and make and offer on the house accordingly, knowing the amount of work it needs. More costly upgrades are decks, hard wood floors and nicer bathroom/kitchen setups. If you want them and the house you are looking at doesn't have them, be prepared to pay though the nose.
If you don't mind doing some work yourself some of those upgrades aren't horribly expensive. Decks are expensive, thats for sure. I also agree with paying out the nose for cabinets/countertops. Even if you hang the cabinets yourself quality ones are going to cost you a bit and I wouldn't try to put in countertops myself because scribing and contouring are a PITA. But if you are willing to lay the hardwood floors yourself you can do most of the house for less than the cost of a roof (depending on sq.ft. and quality of the wood of course). Same can be said for updating a bathroom. We had a friend of ours who hired a guy to seal and paint their ugly tub. It comes with a 10 year any default warranty and only cost $~300 and looked great. Tile can be had for a good price if you'll cut and lay it yourself. You can supply a whole kitchen with new appliances for the cost of a HVAC system and install it all yourself. All the appliances I've installed have been pretty easy.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Feersty - 02-03-2011
It's all about liquidity. 20% cash down if you can swing it gives you a great advantage and like Jay said you can avoid useless PMI. Seller's like to see lots of money in cash and that way your mortgage is not outrageous, and gives you advantage if you have to compete against other buyers. Like Lee said, NOVA is ridiculous, prepare for roommates. Don't forget title search and title insurance. Go through a credit union as well. 30 year fixed mortgage rates are probably gonna go up from here, so lock in as soon as you can. It took my wife and I a month and a half from when we first saw the house online until closing. Owning your own house sure beats the shit out of renting an apartment and pissing money away.
My house was built in 1998, new roof and new HVAC when I purchased it, so on seller's disclosure, recent roof and HVAC improvements would be good to see.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Evan - 02-03-2011
who hacked Feerstys account?
Re: House Purchase Advice - HAULN-SS - 02-03-2011
Buy the first thing you see. Houses arent going to last around here.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Mike - 02-03-2011
Evan Wrote:who hacked Feerstys account?
Even a monkey will hit CTRL+C followed by CTRL+V if you leave him in front of a keyboard for long enough.
Re: House Purchase Advice - Dave - 02-05-2011
Ryan T Wrote:+1ViPER1313 Wrote:This is coming from a guy who bought a fixer upper, but I wouldn't let an outdated HVAC system / water heater / windows / roof scare you away from a house if the price is right. A new roof is under 5g for a townhouse, figure 3 to 5g for a completely revamped HVAC system, if a window is not broken it's not *necessary* to replace it, and water heaters are cheap (under 1g installed) to replace and super cheap to fix if not leaking. Just keep those numbers in mind when shopping around and make and offer on the house accordingly, knowing the amount of work it needs. More costly upgrades are decks, hard wood floors and nicer bathroom/kitchen setups. If you want them and the house you are looking at doesn't have them, be prepared to pay though the nose.
If you don't mind doing some work yourself some of those upgrades aren't horribly expensive. Decks are expensive, thats for sure. I also agree with paying out the nose for cabinets/countertops. Even if you hang the cabinets yourself quality ones are going to cost you a bit and I wouldn't try to put in countertops myself because scribing and contouring are a PITA. But if you are willing to lay the hardwood floors yourself you can do most of the house for less than the cost of a roof (depending on sq.ft. and quality of the wood of course). Same can be said for updating a bathroom. We had a friend of ours who hired a guy to seal and paint their ugly tub. It comes with a 10 year any default warranty and only cost $~300 and looked great. Tile can be had for a good price if you'll cut and lay it yourself. You can supply a whole kitchen with new appliances for the cost of a HVAC system and install it all yourself. All the appliances I've installed have been pretty easy.
I'd rather pay somebody to get my HVAC right so if they did it wrong I have somebody to bitch at and have them fix it. In the realm of things, most of that other stuff really isn't that bad if you're willing to do the labor.
Last year we re-did our downstairs bathroom (tile floor, new sink, new toilet, new faucet, paint) for less than $500 and Lowe's cut the tile for us for free while we waited.
During spring break I had ~2 acres of land completely cleared of stumps and leveled, fresh gravel poured for my entire driveway and parking area, built three 8'x16' garden beds w/ fresh soil/mulch/peatmoss, and put up 300 feet of 8' privacy fence (5000 lbs of concrete = those posts aren't going anywhere) for a little over $4k.
It all comes down to what you're willing to learn and do yourself. That said, it's a good practice to get a couple quotes from professionals too so that you can properly evaluate how much your time is worth to you...
Re: House Purchase Advice - Feersty - 02-05-2011
Evan Wrote:who hacked Feerstys account?
:finger:
Mike Wrote:Even a monkey will hit CTRL+C followed by CTRL+V if you leave him in front of a keyboard for long enough.
Tired of renting yet? :finger:
Re: House Purchase Advice - Evan - 02-05-2011
that was a compliment Feersty