Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Jon Beck
Trad climber
Oceanside
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 02:53pm PT
|
they decide to rent out to Section 8 peeps who pack 15 people into a house
nonsense, Section 8 strictly controls who lives in the household. Violations are harshly dealt with, voucher is cancelled. 8+ years on the waiting list so people do not risk the voucher. Section 8 people are some of the best tenants.
I feel guilty collecting rents from tenants, I had no idea I was the idiot, go figure.
|
|
cavemonkey
Ice climber
ak
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 28, 2017 - 03:58pm PT
|
Thanks for everyone's insight
Lotta great and diverse minds on here
Made an offer and hoping to have running water
for the first time in 20 years soon!
Now back to your regularly scheduled climbing content🦍🐎
|
|
hooblie
climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 04:12pm PT
|
what the hell? i thought we were a bunch of goners
|
|
DanaB
climber
CT
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 07:14pm PT
|
From personal experience - the home inspection can miss some very important things, ie, issues that may cost you a lot of money.
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 08:21pm PT
|
Buy a boat, then you can move if you don't like the neighbors.
|
|
WBraun
climber
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 08:54pm PT
|
What do people do inside houses that cost 1/2 a million dollars and more?
|
|
Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 09:19pm PT
|
Median house price in Seattle is now about $730k which seems to me to be unsustainable, especially seeing how Seattle is no longer the great place to live it used to be; too many people and parking lot freeways
locals from around here say the same thing about all the $300K homes being built. LOL
|
|
F
climber
away from the ground
|
|
|
Jun 28, 2017 - 10:06pm PT
|
WBraun
climber
Jun 28, 2017 - 08:54pm PT
What do people do inside houses that cost 1/2 a million dollars and more?
The same thing people that live in tents, vans, caves and treehouses do. Eat, sleep, screw, and poop.
|
|
cavemonkey
Ice climber
ak
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jun 28, 2017 - 10:22pm PT
|
Seems awfully simplistic view to me
Carry on stupid merrikans
|
|
Flip Flop
climber
Earth Planet, Universe
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 06:38am PT
|
Buy the worst house in the best neighborhood that you can afford.
Hire your own home inspector, not the one recommended by the real estate agent. Listen to them.
As a rule of thumb your maintenance costs are equal to 1/3 of your monthly payment on a traditional 80/20 loan. Look at the big tickets like, roof, mechanicals, appliances, windows, driveway.
Buying now is risky as the market is hot and prices are up. Check the historical home values and don't buy if it's at the top of the curve.
Buy a house with potential for additions, especially a rental unit.
|
|
NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 08:10am PT
|
Most concise and useful thread I've seen here on this topic!
One that nobody else has said yet:
If possible, figure out now where you want to be long term- think about school districts for kids (all the way through high school- not just through elementary school) even if you don't have kids yet or not sure you want them. While it is true you can parlay gains on a first home to "move up" in the market to a nicer second home (assuming that prices increase after you buy), but you are also forever penalized by this strategy in terms of property taxes. Every new purchase resets a higher market value that locks you in to paying property taxes based on the value when you bought it. The longer you hold a piece of property increasing in value, the less taxes you pay overall (big savings).
Realtors will encourage you with "good schools" for elementary level, but then the high school might really suck and this might trigger a move later on that ratchets up your property taxes- maybe double or more. It might make $500/month property taxes turn into $2000/month or more if you have to move when kids reach high school. I actually pay nearly $1000/month right now, while my neighbor who bought 30 years ago probably pays $100/month.
In the booms and crashes I have seen in California metro areas, the best neighborhoods are the best value for the buck (sort of opposite what you might expect). They go up more quickly in the good times and crash less in the bad times. Usually this is correlated with the best schools through high school level too.
|
|
Winemaker
Sport climber
Yakima, WA
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 08:57am PT
|
locals from around here say the same thing about all the $300K homes being built. LOL Yeah. As I mentioned, when (not if) mortgage rate rise there is going to be some pain. That's why it's probably real smart to stay away from variable rate loans; with a fixed rate you know exactly where you stand.
|
|
the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 09:00am PT
|
Lot's of good general advice above.
There's lots of markets, so what's going on in parts of CA may be completely different than parts of AK.
Really need specifics of your situation, market, ect. to hone in on particular advice.
|
|
skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 09:10am PT
|
^^^^^I was just thinking the exact same thing. AK sure ain't CA.
|
|
Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 09:38am PT
|
My only advise to add is to inspect the hell out of anything you are going to buy. Check every small corner and try to understand what has been done to the house and especially figure out why. Be a persistent pest to follow up on every odd items, several might turn out to be the tip of the ice berg. If you have a life and are not a handyman by trade do not buy a place that is remotely a "fixer". It gets old to work a full day, then have to spend the entire evening fixing crap.
My case:
Inspector did a good job finding a few odd things on top of the usual stuff, all of which were corrected. Over the first few years we found more things, a few of which I wish we found earlier.
Two bathrooms had adhesive linoleum tiles, which were odd and not recommended for wet spaces. In one bathroom these covered up a repair of some water damage to the floor from the shower/tub. But the original leak was never properly fixed. In fact there were 4 (!) different leaks, and a rotted out floor joist. I soon could see my back yard through the 2'x2' gaping hole in the floor of the adjacent room as I ripped out all the rot. Finding the soft floor would have required the inspector to step onto one of two 6"x6" soft spots, as there was great effort put into making the crappy repair look good.
The second floor has two french doors that open to the deck, both were additions to replace single doors. One was a little funky, and is not square and has a twist in the frame. It has a draft and does not latch right and needs to be fixed still. It annoys me much more than it should.
There are a bunch more smaller issues, but basically the previous people were almost handy. If I had picked up on this from the more obvious issues we had corrected I would have been able to find about half of the remaining issues by poking around on my own.
Bonus: Buy a small house, resist the urge to fill it with junk. It is easy to become a slave to house payments, yard care, and junk shuffling. Less is more.
|
|
AKDOG
Mountain climber
Anchorage, AK
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 09:44am PT
|
^^^^^I was just thinking the exact same thing. AK sure ain't CA.
That is for sure; Warblers’ $1.5 million house would be 5 to 6000 sq ft + (A true McMansion) and cost over $500 a month just to heat in the winter. In Anchorage your property taxes alone would run about $20,000 a year.
|
|
DanaB
climber
CT
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 10:13am PT
|
My only advise to add is to inspect the hell out of anything you are going to buy.
Yes indeed.
|
|
rick sumner
Trad climber
reno, nevada/ wasilla alaska
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 10:39am PT
|
I would caution you that you are buying at or near the top of an overheated market (if your in south central or Fairbanks etc) and the economy could easily go south. The state government is an erratic and nonsensical body and the the state's primary tax payer-oil companies-have their backs against the wall in the third year of an oil price recession. That being said; evaluate the stability of your job, don't exceed the recommended debt to income ratios, and try to build or expand a liquid 1 year income buffer in case of unforseen difficulties. Good luck
|
|
the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 12:21pm PT
|
What's the alternative? For most people it's renting. You can compare rent cost to mortgage payments. If you are staying put and they are about the same then buy.
What's your potential return on investment? Of course it all depends on what the market does (need a crystal ball to know for sure). We bought one house in 2003 with 20% down and we're selling it now in a high market. We will get about a 17% gross annual return over 14 years. Not bad at all.
Our current house was bought in 2010 at the bottom of the market with 3% down. It's gone way up. About 380% gross annual returns! Best investment we'll ever make. Hard to beat that unless you were lucky/smart enough to invest early in something like Amazon or Google.
|
|
Moof
Big Wall climber
Orygun
|
|
|
Jun 29, 2017 - 02:53pm PT
|
I would caution you that you are buying at or near the top of an overheated market (if your in south central or Fairbanks etc) and the economy could easily go south.
It is easy to say, but hard to know for sure. In ~2004 I looked around the Bay Area and figured that prices were WAY too high and that a collapse was imminent. I expected a bigger drop than occurred, and I was off by about 4-5 years. Had I bought when I made the call I would have ridden the bubble and never gone negative. Our current market strikes me as the same, could pop any time, or run up another 30% over a few years and only deflate modestly.
If I had a crystal ball that would be great, but I don't.
Interest rates are low, and supply is constrained, which feels like bubble.
Lending is much more sane than last time, and we are only starting to see a wee bit of wage growth kicking in, which feels like the bubble pop might be a long ways off still, and may not be nearly as big of a pop as last time.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!