Home Buying Thread

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Save up enough money to move somewhere with space?

[aychamo_aycono]

Originally Posted by Chaotic

I have friends in North Carolina and Virginia that are paying MORTAGES combined with property tax and misc bullshit that you have to pay when you own a house (home owners and such I imagine) for less then a decent apartment here. Florida, 50k house, ugh.

I know the feeling man. My girlfriend bought a house a few years ago. It was $68,000. It's two bedroom, one bath, all wood floors (tile in kitchen), utility room, big fenced in back yard, only thing is the kitchen sucks. Her mortgage is like $560 a month. I'm paying twice that for my rented townhouse and her place is better than mine (I have carpet and tile, all builder-grade hardware like posted in those pictures on the previous pages.) I'm paying all this money and no equity. She's paid like half her house off already. In practically the same amount of time I'll spend $68,000 in rent she'll have her house paid off and basically have that money in the bank when she sells the house.

About your $15,000 in the bank - save it!

[bofa]

My girlfriend bought a house a few years ago.

orly?

[Wolfen]

$15k? My advice: hookers and blow.

[ToeMissile]

My sisters just bought a house (1700sqft, 4bd, 2.5ba, all appliances except a fridge) about 40 min outside of Phoenix and their mortgage is less than what they were paying for a 2/1 apt. Cost them $85k

[Eomer]

lol, jesus titty fuck, it's still $250k+ for a decent bungalow in Edmonton. And that's for one that's 40-60 years old with not much work in an established, older neighbourhood or for a carbon copy chicken coup out in the boondocks. Even single bedroom condos are still $150k+ for something decent. And that's after the market corrected 10% from the peak.

It's unreal how much the market imploded in some parts of the US.

[Cad]

The some parts of the US thing is the key.. values are coming down a little here in Dallas but nothing insane like you're seeing some places (Michigan, Miami, etc). I wish it were, I'd buy like 20 houses tomorrow if they were as cheap as they are in those states.

[TheCutlery]

Originally Posted by Cad

The some parts of the US thing is the key.. values are coming down a little here in Dallas but nothing insane like you're seeing some places (Michigan, Miami, etc). I wish it were, I'd buy like 20 houses tomorrow if they were as cheap as they are in those states.

Yeah, prices still coming down very, very slowly here. They're obviously down, but it's a catch 22 of people who need to sell who can't take what the house is really worth because they owe more than that on the mortgage. Right now, really the only people who can buy a house are the people who don't own one currently, because there's just no fucking way you're getting rid of your house right now if you buy a new one. It'll be a long time yet I think before the market clears out enough for the current home owners to be able to jump back in the game and play too, and that means that prices are likely to drop further where I am right now until there's some breathing room and we're back to a balanced market.

[splorge]

Originally Posted by TheCutlery

Yeah, prices still coming down very, very slowly here. They're obviously down, but it's a catch 22 of people who need to sell who can't take what the house is really worth because they owe more than that on the mortgage. Right now, really the only people who can buy a house are the people who don't own one currently, because there's just no fucking way you're getting rid of your house right now if you buy a new one. It'll be a long time yet I think before the market clears out enough for the current home owners to be able to jump back in the game and play too, and that means that prices are likely to drop further where I am right now until there's some breathing room and we're back to a balanced market.

well, the house is "really worth" only what someone is willing to pay for it. and if they owe more mortgage on it than what people are willing to pay, its really worth less than zero.

if those people have the cash for a downpayment, they can always buy the new house and rent out the old one. rentals in some areas can come very close to covering the mortgage and costs. if it doesnt, sometimes you can refinance to lower the cost to bring the cash flow not so negative.

[Cad]

Originally Posted by Wolfen

Yes, it was. As for the inside stuff, it is upgraded from the basic install. Looks fine to me.

Here's a decent kitchen for reference.

[Sharmai]

Originally Posted by Cad

Here's a decent kitchen for reference.

If my grading scale for home kitchens was Low-end, decent, high-end and outrageous then that kitchen would be high end. Would you still call that kitchen only decent?

I.E. Low end kitchen would be like your basic apartment.
Decent kitchen would be your standard kitchen home and most stock built home kitchens.
High end kitchen would be marble counter-tops, all stainless steel appliances, two+ stoves, dishwashers, sinks, etc. Most high end stock built home kitchens and so on.
Outrageous would be all of the above plus heated floors, engraved walls, custom paint jobs, walk in wine cabinets etc.

just my opinion

[Cad]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

If my grading scale for home kitchens was Low-end, decent, high-end and outrageous then that kitchen would be high end. Would you still call that kitchen only decent?

I.E. Low end kitchen would be like your basic apartment.
Decent kitchen would be your standard kitchen home and most stock built home kitchens.
High end kitchen would be marble counter-tops, all stainless steel appliances, two+ stoves, dishwashers, sinks, etc. Most high end stock built home kitchens and so on.
Outrageous would be all of the above plus heated floors, engraved walls, custom paint jobs, walk in wine cabinets etc.

just my opinion

Stainless steel has nothing to do with high end - built-ins and commercial-grade appliances are high end, whether they end up being stainless finish or a wood paneling cover to match the cabinets. I prefer the stainless, but whatever.

My ideal kitchen has lots of custom millwork in the cabinets, granite countertops (nobody does marble, marble dents and scratches very easily, granite is pretty tough), Wolf or Viking rangetop with 6 burners and a griddle-top built in, at least one warming drawer, subzero built-in 48" or greater, custom stone backsplashes built by hand (no fucking tile), separate wet bar in the island apart from the sink with filtration, dual convection ovens built-in (again, Wolf or Viking), built in microwave, hardwood floors, butlers pantry, and I'd really like to see a clear ice maker integrated into the cold drawer area near the fridge.

Wine cellars aren't really part of the kitchen, they're usually built off of the den or living room. Custom millwork in a house really enhances the place but you're looking at big bucks to do it all over the house. I do like some of the special textures they can do on the walls, gives it a nice hand-done feel without the expense. Maybe it's cuz I live in Texas but I can't see heated floors being needed ever.

So yea, I'd call that kitchen decent. It's on the good end of decent, and I like the colors. But it's missing some shit.

[Sharmai]

If that's your ideal decent kitchen then what's high end? outrageous?

[Cad]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

If that's your ideal decent kitchen then what's high end? outrageous?

No I'd say what I described is high end. The picture I posted is decent, as it is missing several key features. Outrageous I dunno, most of the stuff I've seen that's way beyond what I described is just ostentatious or tacky.. I guess that's how a lot of people feel though, my comfort level is around what I described, more than that I'd call overdone. Other people might feel my ideal kitchen setup is overdone. To each his own I guess.

[Aaubert]

So, here I am at 25, married a year, and realizing that my money is disappearing the form of rent each month. I'm debt free, with each of us owning our cars, but not really in much of a position for a down payment yet. Both my wife and are kinda hoodlums, not planning on having kids for a bit, and wouldn't mind living somewhere that doesn't look terrifically pretty.

We'd like to start building equity instead of hooking up my brainless landlord with monies each month (one month our rent check died in the mail because the stamp got stuck to something else we were sending, so there was no stamp on it. We didn't get it back for 3 weeks, and our landlord never noticed, but got confused when we sent him double rent the next month...)

How soon should we start looking? What resources can we use to find foreclosures, etc? What credits are available for us? We have dual income, with mine being around 40k, hers being around 20k (wiki says the median household income for here is 35k), and that counts me being a student. How expensive of a place should we aim for? We don't really care about the whole "i'm a land owner" warmfuzzies, but we just want to be smarter with our money.

Additionally, we're planning on moving out of the country in the future... Hopefully 8 or so years from now. She's graduated with an international relations degree, I'm working on my masters for it, so that we can work in humanitarian aid overseas... In the meantime, we'd love it if the money we're paying each month is something thats worth 1/2 a house's worth in 8 years, instead of 10k/year just disappearing.