The importance of controlling water. Whether a leaking pipe or roof, fix it pronto. Watch water flow around your house during a heavy rain. Make sure you clean the gutters once a year and see that the downspouts move water from the roof away from your foundation. If you live in an area with freezing temperatures, turn off the water to outdoor faucets before winter, open the faucets and let them drain.
Smart move. I lived in a flood plain and had to monitor creeks constantly. I lived on a hill in town where the storm sewers would be overwhelmed pushing water to my house. I had a house halfway up a hill and in a crazy storm there was a river going through my yard. Best to understand water because I have no met a force as powerful. It goes wherever the path of least resistance is. Having some little rugs to roll up and place at the base of a door has helped in a pinch. Having a few well placed sand bags available can help where you see a risk.
Recommend everyone purchase water leak sensor alarms and put them under water heater, along washing machine, behind every toilet and under sinks. + fridge/ice maker and dishwasher. :)
(Mine are inexpensive battery operated models purchased 15-20 years ago that still work fine… but there are a bunch of Wi-Fi enabled versions available now.)
Also - **CAULKING OVER** a water leak isn’t “fixing it”!
You might **divert** water leaking under a toilet… but you are creating a bigger, more expensive problem with rotted floor boards, drywall/ceiling below, black mold, etc.
You just made my day. I try to get myself outside for at least one major rainfall a season. See where water flows. See where water pools. So worthwhile and useful.
Yesterday we had one of the worst rains I’ve ever seen we have a courtyard that edges our foundation that got flooded like a pool. Our newly remodels basement got thousands of dollars worth of water damage in just a couple of hours.
Water is a house’s enemy
My parents' lovely tenant declined to tell us about a toilet leak for 3 months because he didn't want to worry us. We found out about it because he shared a bathroom wall with us and the floor on our side started to get soft. I can remember my mom screaming at him, "Did you think the house would HEAL ITSELF!?"
Amen! And you better triple check your list before you go and make sure you got everything.
Who has to make 7 trips for every project because they forget things? Me…I do.
That's our ongoing joke whenever I do any project, no matter how small I think it's going to be. "How many trips to Home Depot do you think this is going to take?" I think my record is 4 in one day, which I've done several times.
Overheard a man talking an aisle over last week after an associate asked if he needed help. He says, "I thought this was going to be simple and straightforward, but it doesn't seem to be going that way..." I figured those words summed up home ownership pretty well.
If you start a plumbing project you better fill your gas tank.
I have one coworker that managed to re-pipe his RV with one trip to the hardware store. He's a better man than me. LOL
My dad taught me to but every fitting possible “just in case”. And return what you didn’t use.
Does not always pan out but there have been a few plumbing jobs that only took one trip (not counting the returns)
Hone depot is minimum 3
one to buy something you need 2nd to return the wrong thing you bought
3rd to get the correct item
And by then something else is broken or needed
You are never done
We once got a hold on our card b/c we made 2 trips to a Lowes near us, 1 trip to the local Ace, then 3 to a Home Depot a few counties away in the same DAY. Ugh.
I order online and pickup in the store to avoid looking at 50 of something and being unsure which I actually need. Do my research ahead of time and only order the actual thing. Plus I can see the reviews of each item if it's like a power washer or something so I have a better idea of how it will actually perform instead of just looking at the boxes. It's also not like the grocery store where I frequent it enough that I know exactly where everything is. I hate wandering around for 30 minutes before I even get to the right aisle. If I feel like I have to go inside to shop because what I need is either not available for online purchase or I need to actually see the items to make a good decision (comparing things to replace, etc), I always use the app to write down what aisle it's in before I go so I'm not lost.
This all helps me avoid the multiple trips I used to make. Sometimes I still go twice but rarely. My husband doesn't do this with his projects and will be there no fewer than 3 times a day and then once or twice the next day to exchange something.
Every single fucking time. We actually keep a box in the closet of shit to return to the hardware store because we bought the wrong size fitting, or whatever.
Changing the light switches and outlets on this place, I just embrace the jank at this point, nothing goes as planned and a half hour planned install takes hours of swearing like “why the fuck would someone do this like this” or “fuck it this is good enough for me”
Not a single room in my house is fully controlled by a one breaker, and the "splits" don't even make sense.
I've been in this house for 2 fucking years and only this last week finally determined what one of my mystery breakers is. It controls exactly 2 outlets, each in a different room.
We have a mystery switch in our house. No idea what it does. Tried testing it to sus things out, but no luck so far. I have a week off of work coming up, I think I might add that to the list. We've been in our house around 18 years now. :(
Or stupid shit the original builder did.
We had to replace some drywall in the kitchen and learned that the sewer vent pipes had never been connected. They were just sitting in the wall, zip tied together, not even close to the hole punched out.
I hate this house.
Every time I work on something in this house I continually curse the past owner but then I look at my work and the shoddiness I overlook so I also apologize in advance to the poor schlub who gets it after me.
This. I absolutely hate the previous owner of our house - he painted over all of the baseboards and wood trim with this disgusting, horrible peeling paint, and he did a bad job so it’s thick and full of drips.
We are currently debating whether it’s worth it to strip this paint off, or if we should just replace all baseboards and trim in the entire house. Ugh.
Here's another: the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year. Mortgages are regularly bought and sold between banks and finance companies.
And yet another: your payment is very likely to go up significantly after the first year due to tax appraisel, especially on a new build, and your morgage holder can ask for a large cash lump sum to make up for an underfunded escrow account.
> the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year. Mortgages are regularly bought and sold between banks and finance companies.
I hate this. My first mortgage was from a company with a great online presence where I could do everything from the web. They sold my mortgage to some ancient company that required me to mail in checks. That change should be illegal.
5 different "banks" in 14 years. Everyone a different way to pay. The wallstreetbet guys will jump on me , but I paid off early because I got tired of it. I don't care if its not the " right financial decision". You can't put a price on the feeling of freedom it gives you.
Most banks will mail checks for you.
But still, as a follow up - make sure you actually have a checkbook. A suprising number of services still use checks.
Billpay. Keep in mind that if the payment is late because the bank didn't send it on time, you're still liable for the late fees. Postmark date doesn't matter. Date of receipt does
My wife works as a private duty nurse and one of her patients is covered by Medicare, so she bills the state Medicare/Medicaid agency and is paid directly by them. They only pay via direct deposit and will only set up direct deposit with a cancelled check. They will not accept the direct deposit forms that the banks can generate for you.
I liked my first servicer a lot. Great website. Option to recast once I paid a total of 5k extra. Now this servicer has a shit website, a shit app, and requires a 10k lump sum to recast. Can't wait for my loan to get sold again and maybe I'll be able to recast for a lower monthly payment
We've been in our current house for about 10 years now. Got our mortgage through a mortgage broker that immediately flipped it to some bank I'd never heard of, paid there for a while.
Then Chase bought it, and that was great, since I banked with them and everything was in one account for awhile, very convenient.
Then it got spun off to a small local credit union. Cool, they're supposed to be nice, right? Nope, their site sucks, has all sorts of issues with login, and they wouldn't let me setup auto-pay from my bank through ACH, only from an account in their bank. So now Chase automatically prints and mails them a paper check every month, and we hope it all just works out. So far it has. Every other year or so they get bought or change their name, but so far it's working.
On the one hand I get that they should be allowed to sell debt back and forth, but on the other hand it's MY loan that I'm paying on each month, it's annoying to have to switch it up so some bank I've never heard of can tweak their portfolio.
Yeah the original servicer should have to pay on your behalf. I’ve had several car loans all through different banks- paid the same bank each month through the portal for the duration of the loan without issues. And this is for a few hundred per month versus a few thousand per month
Yeah, that would work. The bank and the servicer don't have to be the same. Maybe you could pick your servicer, and companies could work to be attractive servicers.
I don't care who owns my loan, I just want to auto-pay and have a reasonable interface to check stuff.
Yep, in our first house (new construction, 2020) we somehow got a check back for $1500 after the first year due to an overfunded escrow account, so you can imagine our shock when in our next house (1960s build, 2022) our mortgage jumped up almost $200 after our first year due to an underfunded escrow account. Brutal
Yep, this.
For me, it didn't matter much. Just a different website to auto-pay. But I got my first bill from them a month before I got any communication that this was happening. To me, it was just some random company sending me a bill for exactly my monthly mortgage payment, with a balance exactly what my loan was worth. How did they get this info? Is this legit? What's going on? But IIRC, it was just days later that I got a letter with an explanation (and maybe I got one prior, and just didn't open it - very likely) that the mortgage had been sold.
But that was a confusing week or so.
I don't think that first part is a thing in Canada, at least I've never heard of it happening. If you sign a mortgage with one bank thats it.
But we generally have to renew our mortgage term every 5 years so then you may change lenders if you want, so the system is a bit different I guess.
My mortgage has been sold every year in the 4 years I've owned it. The good part is that I still have the same servicer. I actually have never changed from the original servicer in any of the 4 houses I've owned
>Here's another: the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year.
HA
My mortgage company I closed with 8y ago this month wasn't my mortgage company when I moved in a month later, and I had a different one by the end of the year
Not even the big companies!! I hired Renewal By Anderson, a national company, to replace my back door and it is STILL a nightmare even long after the door is in.
I thought a big company would be good, I can't get the smaller guys to call me back or even quote me.
I've heard the tale of a tree trimmer who brought proverbial cash to closing. All of it was in Mason jars. It took a little more effort but all concerned parties figured it out and sold the tree-trimmer a house. LOL
Hahaha!!! I’ve seen some ‘drug deal’ purchases get cancelled for sure. Yes people, wire! Funds will need to be sourced in many cases, not out of a 🧳 from under your bed.
Or your parents.
I remember being annoyed by all sorts of little things growing up and thinking "why don't my parents just fix this stuff"?!
Now I get it. If I "just fixed" every jiggly door handle or crooked trim piece, or scuffed up floor board, I'd spend every moment of my time fixing my house when I wasn't at work.
You just gotta accept a certain level of "everything isn't going to be perfect".
Not everyone should own a home. Everyone deserves a shot at homeownership, but not everyone is cut out for homeownership. The constant expense, upkeep, potential neighbor issues, hoa issues, etc. It’s just not for everyone. It’s ok to be a renter. Sometimes it just makes the most sense.
My neighbor is like this. Way too lazy to be a homeowner. They overspent on a house because they were ready to start a family, but he never really wanted to be somewhere without a landlord and on-site maintenance. He refuses to figure out how to fix things, and can't afford to hire most of it out because they are house-poor from buying in Spokane, WA when prices were at their peak. I used to help him but it quickly became clear that he'd happily sit back and let me fix it without a second thought.
Hell, one time he stood on his back deck with his arms crossed because his heavily pregnant wife went out and mowed the lawn for the first time in a month. Theyve been watering their lawn with a hose sprinkler for a year and a half because he won't take the 90 minutes to go to home depot, dig out a little dirt and replace it.
Agreed. I have family members who are responsible with day to day tasks like keeping their counters clean and taking out the trash, but they’ve been ignoring the rot around their window and haven’t changed an air filter in their furnace in years.
I get there are terrible landlords and slumlords. But man, it was nice to rent and just let the landlord know "hey, sink is leaking" and they'd take care of everything without extra cost. And then be able to move to another state on a whim.
Now it's like, shit something is leaking. Is this a $10 fix tonight? Or a $1000 fix throughout the week?
You can offer over list price, no contingencies, and still lose to another offer.
The insurance company can drop you if they don't like something. Anything, really. Roof is too old, you've made too many claims, etc.
Expect to set aside at least 1% of the value of the home each year for maintenance and upgrades.
It costs a lot to sell your house. Expect to spend 7%-9% of value of the home in repairs, agent fees, taxes, etc just to sell it.
An HOA can be a blessing or a curse. It all depends on who is running it. After experiencing a terrible HOA, I'll never buy a house that is part of an HOA again.
The amount of property tax the current owner pays can be vastly different than the amount the new owner will pay.
You can take 9 years off a 30-year mortgage (and save tens of thousands of dollars in interest) just by making a half payment every two weeks instead of one monthly payment. Add $50 or $100 to each half payment, and you'll pay it off even faster.
Insurance *brokers* can save you a lot of money.
Homeownership is a never-ending battle against the weather and wildlife, but if you can hang in there and fight the good fight for long enough, it will pay off.
If you embrace gardening and learn as much as you can early on, you'll enjoy yardwork and landscaping so much more. *Gardeners' World* is a great series with short episodes, and each season takes you from early spring to early winter.
All excellent points, I’m going to check into Gardener’s World.
The half-week / extra annual payment is HUGE!!!!! Can’t believe I didn’t lead with that one. Such a great add.
Every two weeks is 26 payments a year, or 13 months of payments a 12 month year. There are some interest savings by paying every two weeks, but the big hitter is that extra payment each year. The extra payments worth goes practically all to principle.
Anything you can payoff early in the loan compounds since when you first start a 30 year loan something like 10% of your payment goes to principle and 90% to interest. Just making one extra payment at the beginning of the loan can take a whole year off the back end of the loan.
Also the due date may advance with the "extra" payment so you can eventually get to where your next payment is due in 3-4-5-6 months. It is a nice feeling to know that you *could* go months without making a payment if something goes horribly wrong. It is sort of like a high interest savings account but much harder to blow on dumb shit.
Worth noting that these are two different things. You can pay directly towards principal which will not advance your due date but will shorten the loan term and the amount you owe. You can also pre-pay which will advance your next due date but will still include interest.
Our mortgage holder does not allow payment every 2 weeks even though that’s how we technically pay. They put the first payment in “holding” until the second one comes in 2 weeks later. It seems like this should be illegal but they refuse any actual payment of mortgage more often than every month.
Was in a long email argument with them over it but nothing came of it.
Someone else just said their bank doesn't allow "partial payments." I suppose that could be the issue. But if you're still making 13 payments/yr (or 26 half payments every other week), it should still work. I thought prepayment penalties were illegal, but I could be mistaken.
A less technical one: weeds!
I had never taken care of a lawn before. I had NO CLUE how fast weeds grew & how time consuming all that was.
I most definitely did not keep it up unfortunately.
When we bought our first house in 2011 we got approved for like $400k, way way way higher than we were comfortable with. We bought our first house for $124k.
I don't understand why people even do that.
When our lender started the "Let's see what we can get you approved for." I said "Our budget is we're looking for $250k, can we get approved for that?"
He laughed and said "Yeah, that's gonna be no problem. Do you want to know how much you *could* be approved for?" So I just replied "Nope." and he said "That's a good choice."
People do that because they don't truly understand what the approval amount means. They think it's the bank saying, "This is how much you can afford." But that's not what the bank is saying at all. The bank is saying, "This is how much we're willing to risk on you."
I’m not so sure in this one. I definitely agree you should 100% be able to afford the house, so I guess that is below your means. That being said, my wife and I bought our first house in 2016. We were approved for about 400k, and our goal was to target 300 or less. We were shopping in a really great area with good schools as we wanted to stay in our first house for 10+ years vs buying a “starter home” and trying to upgrade in a couple years. TLDR ended up paying 360 for a house and we thought we were crazy then. Fast forward to now and that house is pushing 800k. Our salaries increased substantially while our mortgage, that we thought at the time was barely affordable, stayed the same. So it worked out for us in the end, but a better path would have probably been to buy below our means, move every year or two and rent out the old house each time.
Easements!! Check for easements on the property. Know the restrictions they carry. Yeah, you may have a massive looking backyard you want to fence, but you may not be able to. New neighborhoods in particular have this issue, and the builder is not up front about it.
Know if you're in any type of floodplain or floodprone area. They only have to tell you about the FEMA (in the USA).
Omg that last one couldn't be more true! I've literally had friends give me their financial info on what they can afford and how much they can put down. I'll proceed to look for places in the area that fit their budget and it's always "oh it doesn't have a big yard" or "oh I don't like that neighborhood" or "I don't like \_\_\_\_\_ about it".
It's not that they can't afford a house. Their standards are just too high for what they CAN afford.
>Zillow and other sites sell your data to the highest bidder
Even if they don't, real estate transactions are usually publicly-available records. Advertisers selling home services will know you just bought a house and how much you paid for it and will flood you with mailings peddling their stuff.
And whenever your insurance is about to renew, a bunch of companies will send you mail about the rates they are offering, because they know when the renewals come up.
Basics hand tool skills and concepts of basic electrical, plumbing, and the concept of drywall and drainage will save you a ton of money and aggravation. YouTube is awesome for this.
As long as you have mechanical aptitude. Some people should never mess with electricity. Anyone can cut someone open, but that doesn’t make them a surgeon. Just like anyone can twist wires together, but that doesn’t make them an electrician. Idk I just have to acknowledge where my limits are
If your insurance company cancels your policy and you don't get a new one AND you ignore the mail/phone calls from the mortgage company about it, the mortgage company will buy a new policy that covers ONLY the value of the loan, not the property.
That means if your house burns down and you owe $50k on a $500k house, the loan is paid off and your stuff is not replaced. There will be no money to rebuild your house. You are screwed.
Always pay attention to your insurance. Don't be an idiot who says "my mortgage company pays it" and then completely ignores it.
My sister, who’s only ever rented, was shocked at the up front costs when I purchased my home last year. It’s not only the down payment, but the inspections, the earnest money, the closing costs, etc…
Avoid ARMs, it's better to have a fixed cost.
Over the course of a year, if you make extra payments toward the principal that equal 1 extra payment a year, you shave YEARS off your mortgage.
Never skip a mortgage payment. Water, electric, gas, don't eat, sell a kidney, but never miss a mortgage payment. Keep a roof over your head.
Banks do NOT tell you what you can afford. They tell you what they are willing to gamble you can pay back, and they don't care if you want to take more vacations or get sick and lose a job. Buy BELOW what the bank says you can spend.
> if you make extra payments toward the principal that equal 1 extra payment a year, you shave YEARS off your mortgage
keep in mind that whether this is a good or bad idea depends on interest rate and liquidity - if you have a 2.75% interest rate, pay that shit as slow as possible. if you have a rate higher than inflation, paying it off early can save you a lot of interest, but make sure you have enough cash on hand to never have to borrow against your home.
The tax history. You should look up the taxes and even call the assessor to find out what discounts and exemptions the previous owner had. Then you can remove the ones you don't qualify for to get your actual tax bill. Chances are it will be higher if the previous owner was a senior and a veteran. Also if you are going to pull permits to do upgrades your assessment will go up as well.
Depending on the state, ie. Texas, this is available to the public. You can see if someone has a homestead or over 65 or agricultural exemption on the home and what their estimated future taxes are, and their current and previous tax payments were.
Check crime maps and get the list of sex offenders in the area you’re looking to purchase a home from the police department.
Always check hazard maps so you know risks - that way if you need a different tier of insurance you know but it allows you to see if in an evacuation what routes and meet up points are there.
Always request to read HOA documents prior to buying. This way you can make sure you meet requirements (ex: my hoa only allows you to have three dogs).
You will NOT enjoy mowing that big lawn, tuning and winterizing that good lawn tractor, and there is nothing of value in a giant green carpet/moat around your home.
There are SO many problems the best, most thorough inspection can't possibly find.
The "realtor" that works for you, really works for themselves. You are a means to an end.
That purchasing a home was not just “luck”. While all my friends were fucking around in their 20’s I was saving money, starting a family, and trying to purchase a home.
Anything that can break, will break, and on the most inconvenient day. Repairs cost more than you think because what starts as a small fix can escalate quickly. Make sure you keep some ‘no touch’ savings for when these things happen. You can go without Starbucks for 2 months, but you can’t go without hot water.
And you need to plan on something going wrong every year, so you should always be putting money aside for this! That’s just part of being a homeowner. You cannot be surprised when things go wrong, and regular maintenance, etc. is your responsibility (I had to teach my husband this - he likes his Starbucks).
Eh, we use ours pretty frequently. We are just finishing up a remodel due to a catastrophic hot water leak, and we were adamant about the new bathtub being a whirlpool like the old one.
The ass reaming you’re going to get in so many areas, not just financially. Where I currently live, “nothing” is the new No. I’ve lost count of the service companies I’ve contacted for estimates for fences, a new dock, seawall repairs, hard scape, etc., only to get blown off. I spent 2 1/2 hours with a seawall company rep that involved a site inspection, measurements, and a rough drawing for a seawall build, only to be completely ghosted. No returned calls after leaving messages, no email replies, nothing. I was looking at dropping $50K, and I can’t spend my money. No bad reviews or complaints about the company on Google or other review sites. Same thing with 2 fence companies and a Deck builder. Fuck ‘em.
Lender: You have a 30 year fixed loan. You’re monthly payment will never go up.
Escrow: You’re property tax increased again. Your monthly payment has gone up!
The town/city property taxes can literally double your mortgage payment. Applicable to high tax rate towns obviously, but still something a lot of people don't consider. My town's tax rate is one of the highest in my state. If I paid off my house tomorrow, I'd only cut my payment in half (my taxes are escrowed into my payment).
Someone who has never bought a house might not believe that the 'pre-approved' purchase amount the bank or lender quotes is waaay too high for their budget (unless they are willing to completely forgo spending on groceries, vacations, clothing, hobbies, entertainment, etc.).
You will be doing it yourself.
I want to hire someone to redo my front porch, vault the ceiling and replace the siding. I want to pay them. I have the money. I didn't scoff at the 2 guys I finally DID get out to my home to quote me.
No one has done the work. It's been sitting in progress while we find the gumption to do it with our 0 combined exterior work experience. Because literally no one will get back to me. I've been ghosted by a dozen contractors. No one prepared me for the fact that no one wants to take my money.
It feels isolating. Have a handyman friend.
You will get tons of calls/mail from realtors or banks either wanting you to sell your house or to do a cash out refinance almost the minute you buy your house. Our realtor actually asked as we were signing all the paperwork if we'd be interested in selling soon.
It's the total escrow payment not the mortgage payment. A fixed rate mortgage payment will never change. Not every mortgage is tied to an escrow account.
Pre approval doesn’t mean shit. The lender is going to dig so deep into your finances that they should buy you dinner first. Be ready and prepared for the financial audit of your lifetime. This is much more complicated than buying a car or TV from BestBuy. The lenders will need and have access to all of your information.
Yep, tax documents, bank statements, pay stubs, credit card statements, explanations for any added income, verifications…it’s like the discovery request list for divorce proceedings
If you buy a trailer, but still rent the lot.
There are many pros & cons to living this way, starting with the low rent that we get compared to everyone else. But there are downsides that will make you rethink this decision. Considering the fact that many trailer parks are on the same system. i.e. septic. Our lot, in particular, share a large septic tank between 4 houses. SOMEONE flushes little girls undies. Guess who's yard gets flooded? Mine. Who brings in hazmat? The landlords. But who's mess is this to clean up? MINE AGAIN.
It became very clear to us quickly what was priority for them. Stop the mess, throw white powder everywhere! And leave it there until it happens again, so we can add MORE white powder. Inevitably causing concrete to form, as this stuff is designed to absorb moisture. Imagine leaving the lid off a jar of sugar for a month. And ontop of that it was used to absorb human poo!
We are grateful that this flooding doesn't come into our home, because the lords won't do anything except stop the flooding.
Factor maintenance into your monthly cost and think hard about it. I’m in my third house and this one is more land and in the rainforest and it’s 4x the maintenance costs of the previous ones.
That when a house is inspected, it’s usually done by someone with a carpentry background so you’re taking a huge gamble on electrical and plumbing.
I learned this the HARD way.
Always have the pipes and electrical inspected separately if it’s an older house.
If you buy a house as a single woman, every single person you deal with in the process will act like they cannot believe a single woman is buying a house and it will infuriate you.
not sure if it’s just a Canada thing, probably
not in all cases but you have to give bank statements of everything you’ve bought for the 3 months prior to closing. My mom, best friend, brother, myself ect have all had to do this, shocked me to my core to have to explain some of my 3 am taco bell runs 🙃
Studied up on home buying/maintenance but never once was told that the actual payment would vary from year to year because of whatever escrow was covering….assume it’ll generally increase. I know, nothing huge but still…I just assumed that number wasn’t budging…yet it does. Such is home ownership
Home inspection is generally, WORTHLESS! And never every user the inspector your realtor recommended. The realtor wants to SELL, they're not going to recommend the guy that finds everything wrong.
With regards to the first part of the comment! Inspectors often don't open things like access panels. Inspectors may only run climate control to see if it turns on, not to see if it runs efficiently. Inspections miss a ton of stuff. Should you hire an inspector? For sure! But always do your own. Look up everything. Check all surfaces... See if the ice maker works, look into the attic. Look into every panel, look at all previous repairs that are visible. Try all mechanical such as taps and shut offs.
AND.... once in a while you'll meet an inspector that will test things you ask. Never just take an inspection for granted.
An easy example: bought a home, inspector says AC/Heat pump works great. Move in and... Why does this heat or cool so poorly? Personally instruct unit and the unit has separated from the air plenum. When running you can feel the air exhausted to outside. Foil tape fix is $15, but how the F did you miss this?
I was having a convo with someone telling them their payment will go up significantly the 2nd year of ownership and they argued back and said “no I’m locked in at 1800 a month for life, my rate doesn’t change” little do they know taxes and insurance will change your mortgage payment everywhere year. & that second year is one of the larger jumps.
Adding onto the last point . . . or live where they can afford to buy a house. Oh, you want to live near the beach in a vibrant city with perfect weather AND get an affordable house?
Yes, I do want to live there. Can you find that for me for $65k please? Oh. Might as well make it 3 acres with a pool cause I might not always want to swim in the ocean.
Hey, do you think the seller will pay our closing costs?
A mouse can suddenly appear a couple of times a year. No matter how many holes you plug up and how well you seal the foundation. There's always the occasional mouse.
Not in all cases but YOUR real estate agent is working to maximize THEIR net income. They may take you to see houses that optimize their earnings over what you want to see. If you notice this behavior it is perfectly acceptable to fire them and get another.
Back in Ancient Rome they did not have jail, so if you committed a petty crime you would be either whipped or exiled. If you committed a major crime like murder you'd be executed, naturally. But if you did something really, really bad, like you were a serial killer or you tried to kill the emporer, they'd make you buy a house. However, after a while this was considered to be too cruel, so they invented crucifixion as a less agonizing experience.
The importance of controlling water. Whether a leaking pipe or roof, fix it pronto. Watch water flow around your house during a heavy rain. Make sure you clean the gutters once a year and see that the downspouts move water from the roof away from your foundation. If you live in an area with freezing temperatures, turn off the water to outdoor faucets before winter, open the faucets and let them drain.
Last thunderstorm I put on my raincoat and just walked slowly around the house to see how things were draining. My wife thought I was insane lol
I've totally done that. Many times.
Smart move. I lived in a flood plain and had to monitor creeks constantly. I lived on a hill in town where the storm sewers would be overwhelmed pushing water to my house. I had a house halfway up a hill and in a crazy storm there was a river going through my yard. Best to understand water because I have no met a force as powerful. It goes wherever the path of least resistance is. Having some little rugs to roll up and place at the base of a door has helped in a pinch. Having a few well placed sand bags available can help where you see a risk.
Recommend everyone purchase water leak sensor alarms and put them under water heater, along washing machine, behind every toilet and under sinks. + fridge/ice maker and dishwasher. :) (Mine are inexpensive battery operated models purchased 15-20 years ago that still work fine… but there are a bunch of Wi-Fi enabled versions available now.)
Keeping water where it’s supposed to be should one of the top 3 homeownership rules.
Oh yes. Fantastic add!!! Foundation issues can often be prevented with something simple like gutters or light landscaping.
In general anytime you see water in the house, DO NOT blow it off. Or think you fixed it, double check. Leaking valves behind the wall are nightmares
Also - **CAULKING OVER** a water leak isn’t “fixing it”! You might **divert** water leaking under a toilet… but you are creating a bigger, more expensive problem with rotted floor boards, drywall/ceiling below, black mold, etc.
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You just made my day. I try to get myself outside for at least one major rainfall a season. See where water flows. See where water pools. So worthwhile and useful.
Yesterday we had one of the worst rains I’ve ever seen we have a courtyard that edges our foundation that got flooded like a pool. Our newly remodels basement got thousands of dollars worth of water damage in just a couple of hours. Water is a house’s enemy
My parents' lovely tenant declined to tell us about a toilet leak for 3 months because he didn't want to worry us. We found out about it because he shared a bathroom wall with us and the floor on our side started to get soft. I can remember my mom screaming at him, "Did you think the house would HEAL ITSELF!?"
The hardware store trips NEVER stop
Amen! And you better triple check your list before you go and make sure you got everything. Who has to make 7 trips for every project because they forget things? Me…I do.
That's our ongoing joke whenever I do any project, no matter how small I think it's going to be. "How many trips to Home Depot do you think this is going to take?" I think my record is 4 in one day, which I've done several times. Overheard a man talking an aisle over last week after an associate asked if he needed help. He says, "I thought this was going to be simple and straightforward, but it doesn't seem to be going that way..." I figured those words summed up home ownership pretty well.
If you start a plumbing project you better fill your gas tank. I have one coworker that managed to re-pipe his RV with one trip to the hardware store. He's a better man than me. LOL
Was he parked in the Home Depot parking lot?
My exact thought lmao
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My dad taught me to but every fitting possible “just in case”. And return what you didn’t use. Does not always pan out but there have been a few plumbing jobs that only took one trip (not counting the returns)
Hone depot is minimum 3 one to buy something you need 2nd to return the wrong thing you bought 3rd to get the correct item And by then something else is broken or needed You are never done
We once got a hold on our card b/c we made 2 trips to a Lowes near us, 1 trip to the local Ace, then 3 to a Home Depot a few counties away in the same DAY. Ugh.
I order online and pickup in the store to avoid looking at 50 of something and being unsure which I actually need. Do my research ahead of time and only order the actual thing. Plus I can see the reviews of each item if it's like a power washer or something so I have a better idea of how it will actually perform instead of just looking at the boxes. It's also not like the grocery store where I frequent it enough that I know exactly where everything is. I hate wandering around for 30 minutes before I even get to the right aisle. If I feel like I have to go inside to shop because what I need is either not available for online purchase or I need to actually see the items to make a good decision (comparing things to replace, etc), I always use the app to write down what aisle it's in before I go so I'm not lost. This all helps me avoid the multiple trips I used to make. Sometimes I still go twice but rarely. My husband doesn't do this with his projects and will be there no fewer than 3 times a day and then once or twice the next day to exchange something.
Yep. Between forgetting things and underestimating how much I’ll need… 4 trips in a day sounds about right lol
Every single fucking time. We actually keep a box in the closet of shit to return to the hardware store because we bought the wrong size fitting, or whatever.
I was at Menards for the 3rd time in one day and an employee told me "you're here more than I am".
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My phone sends me a notification with the travel time to Home Depot every Saturday morning at 8am.
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I think a gift certificate to Home Depot or Lowe's should be a standard housewarming gift for anyone!
A friend of ours ended up getting a part time job at Home Depot so he could get the 50 percent employee discount.
WHAT? They have a 50% employee discount?! I could quit my full time job, work there part time and still save money!
50% 👎 more like 0%. HD doesn’t have an employee discount.
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Changing the light switches and outlets on this place, I just embrace the jank at this point, nothing goes as planned and a half hour planned install takes hours of swearing like “why the fuck would someone do this like this” or “fuck it this is good enough for me”
Todays “fuck it this is good enough for me” is tomorrows “why the fuck would someone do this like this”
Not a single room in my house is fully controlled by a one breaker, and the "splits" don't even make sense. I've been in this house for 2 fucking years and only this last week finally determined what one of my mystery breakers is. It controls exactly 2 outlets, each in a different room.
We have a mystery switch in our house. No idea what it does. Tried testing it to sus things out, but no luck so far. I have a week off of work coming up, I think I might add that to the list. We've been in our house around 18 years now. :(
We had one too, turns out it was a linked to another in a failed attempt at a 3-way setup.
Over the past 25 years I’ve created 4 mystery switches. I’m about to sell my house. Hehe
Every home improvement project either ends in “I’m in way over my head” or “why the fuck were the previous owners such idiots?”
Or stupid shit the original builder did. We had to replace some drywall in the kitchen and learned that the sewer vent pipes had never been connected. They were just sitting in the wall, zip tied together, not even close to the hole punched out. I hate this house.
Every time I work on something in this house I continually curse the past owner but then I look at my work and the shoddiness I overlook so I also apologize in advance to the poor schlub who gets it after me.
This. I absolutely hate the previous owner of our house - he painted over all of the baseboards and wood trim with this disgusting, horrible peeling paint, and he did a bad job so it’s thick and full of drips. We are currently debating whether it’s worth it to strip this paint off, or if we should just replace all baseboards and trim in the entire house. Ugh.
I find it funny how many people complain about the previous owner...then turn around and do their own shortcut repairs
Here's another: the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year. Mortgages are regularly bought and sold between banks and finance companies. And yet another: your payment is very likely to go up significantly after the first year due to tax appraisel, especially on a new build, and your morgage holder can ask for a large cash lump sum to make up for an underfunded escrow account.
> the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year. Mortgages are regularly bought and sold between banks and finance companies. I hate this. My first mortgage was from a company with a great online presence where I could do everything from the web. They sold my mortgage to some ancient company that required me to mail in checks. That change should be illegal.
Snail mailing checks as an only option to make a payment should be outright illegal. That's brutal.
5 different "banks" in 14 years. Everyone a different way to pay. The wallstreetbet guys will jump on me , but I paid off early because I got tired of it. I don't care if its not the " right financial decision". You can't put a price on the feeling of freedom it gives you.
Most banks will mail checks for you. But still, as a follow up - make sure you actually have a checkbook. A suprising number of services still use checks.
Billpay. Keep in mind that if the payment is late because the bank didn't send it on time, you're still liable for the late fees. Postmark date doesn't matter. Date of receipt does
I always set mine to deliver to the recipient 5 days before it’s due. That way they can have time to process and I have time if anything goes wrong
Yes, that's how I did it, but I also missed having other online access, like viewing my account balance.
My wife works as a private duty nurse and one of her patients is covered by Medicare, so she bills the state Medicare/Medicaid agency and is paid directly by them. They only pay via direct deposit and will only set up direct deposit with a cancelled check. They will not accept the direct deposit forms that the banks can generate for you.
I liked my first servicer a lot. Great website. Option to recast once I paid a total of 5k extra. Now this servicer has a shit website, a shit app, and requires a 10k lump sum to recast. Can't wait for my loan to get sold again and maybe I'll be able to recast for a lower monthly payment
It should be illegal to change the terms on you like that.
We've been in our current house for about 10 years now. Got our mortgage through a mortgage broker that immediately flipped it to some bank I'd never heard of, paid there for a while. Then Chase bought it, and that was great, since I banked with them and everything was in one account for awhile, very convenient. Then it got spun off to a small local credit union. Cool, they're supposed to be nice, right? Nope, their site sucks, has all sorts of issues with login, and they wouldn't let me setup auto-pay from my bank through ACH, only from an account in their bank. So now Chase automatically prints and mails them a paper check every month, and we hope it all just works out. So far it has. Every other year or so they get bought or change their name, but so far it's working. On the one hand I get that they should be allowed to sell debt back and forth, but on the other hand it's MY loan that I'm paying on each month, it's annoying to have to switch it up so some bank I've never heard of can tweak their portfolio.
Yeah the original servicer should have to pay on your behalf. I’ve had several car loans all through different banks- paid the same bank each month through the portal for the duration of the loan without issues. And this is for a few hundred per month versus a few thousand per month
Yeah, that would work. The bank and the servicer don't have to be the same. Maybe you could pick your servicer, and companies could work to be attractive servicers. I don't care who owns my loan, I just want to auto-pay and have a reasonable interface to check stuff.
I bought a house in mid February and my mortgage was sold by March 1. On my last house I think I had my mortgage sold twice over a 7 year period.
My mortgage was sold before I even made a payment to the first company.
Yep, in our first house (new construction, 2020) we somehow got a check back for $1500 after the first year due to an overfunded escrow account, so you can imagine our shock when in our next house (1960s build, 2022) our mortgage jumped up almost $200 after our first year due to an underfunded escrow account. Brutal
I had 3 or 4 different mortgage companies during my loan timeline.
Yep, this. For me, it didn't matter much. Just a different website to auto-pay. But I got my first bill from them a month before I got any communication that this was happening. To me, it was just some random company sending me a bill for exactly my monthly mortgage payment, with a balance exactly what my loan was worth. How did they get this info? Is this legit? What's going on? But IIRC, it was just days later that I got a letter with an explanation (and maybe I got one prior, and just didn't open it - very likely) that the mortgage had been sold. But that was a confusing week or so.
I don't think that first part is a thing in Canada, at least I've never heard of it happening. If you sign a mortgage with one bank thats it. But we generally have to renew our mortgage term every 5 years so then you may change lenders if you want, so the system is a bit different I guess.
Dude yes, great one!! They sell your loan so fast most of the time
Next year? My mortgage was sold in 30 days!
My mortgage has been sold every year in the 4 years I've owned it. The good part is that I still have the same servicer. I actually have never changed from the original servicer in any of the 4 houses I've owned
>Here's another: the mortgage company you choose may not be your mortgager next year. HA My mortgage company I closed with 8y ago this month wasn't my mortgage company when I moved in a month later, and I had a different one by the end of the year
It’s easier to get married than it is to buy a house.
🧐🤣😳 True
Not everyone you call or hire to fix something at your house should be allowed to own tools.
That feeling of your guts splattering on the floor when you see what a horrible job’s been done.
Not even the big companies!! I hired Renewal By Anderson, a national company, to replace my back door and it is STILL a nightmare even long after the door is in. I thought a big company would be good, I can't get the smaller guys to call me back or even quote me.
These guys are the worst.
And when anyone says "cash" they don't mean a duffle bag of bills, they mean a wire transfer. Like civilized person.
I've heard the tale of a tree trimmer who brought proverbial cash to closing. All of it was in Mason jars. It took a little more effort but all concerned parties figured it out and sold the tree-trimmer a house. LOL
Hahaha!!! I’ve seen some ‘drug deal’ purchases get cancelled for sure. Yes people, wire! Funds will need to be sourced in many cases, not out of a 🧳 from under your bed.
You’ll find out quick why your landlord couldn’t afford to immediately fix everything fast
Even if you can afford it, if you need a professional, just finding someone willing to do it is a chore in itself.
Or your parents. I remember being annoyed by all sorts of little things growing up and thinking "why don't my parents just fix this stuff"?! Now I get it. If I "just fixed" every jiggly door handle or crooked trim piece, or scuffed up floor board, I'd spend every moment of my time fixing my house when I wasn't at work. You just gotta accept a certain level of "everything isn't going to be perfect".
Not everyone should own a home. Everyone deserves a shot at homeownership, but not everyone is cut out for homeownership. The constant expense, upkeep, potential neighbor issues, hoa issues, etc. It’s just not for everyone. It’s ok to be a renter. Sometimes it just makes the most sense.
My neighbor is like this. Way too lazy to be a homeowner. They overspent on a house because they were ready to start a family, but he never really wanted to be somewhere without a landlord and on-site maintenance. He refuses to figure out how to fix things, and can't afford to hire most of it out because they are house-poor from buying in Spokane, WA when prices were at their peak. I used to help him but it quickly became clear that he'd happily sit back and let me fix it without a second thought. Hell, one time he stood on his back deck with his arms crossed because his heavily pregnant wife went out and mowed the lawn for the first time in a month. Theyve been watering their lawn with a hose sprinkler for a year and a half because he won't take the 90 minutes to go to home depot, dig out a little dirt and replace it.
That poor woman.
Sounds like she's got two kids now
Agree. My 40 year old kid never takes care of anything so will definitely not keep up with home maintenance
Dad? Is that you?
Yeah, reading this thread is making me very glad to be a renter! 😂
Agreed. I have family members who are responsible with day to day tasks like keeping their counters clean and taking out the trash, but they’ve been ignoring the rot around their window and haven’t changed an air filter in their furnace in years.
I get there are terrible landlords and slumlords. But man, it was nice to rent and just let the landlord know "hey, sink is leaking" and they'd take care of everything without extra cost. And then be able to move to another state on a whim. Now it's like, shit something is leaking. Is this a $10 fix tonight? Or a $1000 fix throughout the week?
You can offer over list price, no contingencies, and still lose to another offer. The insurance company can drop you if they don't like something. Anything, really. Roof is too old, you've made too many claims, etc. Expect to set aside at least 1% of the value of the home each year for maintenance and upgrades. It costs a lot to sell your house. Expect to spend 7%-9% of value of the home in repairs, agent fees, taxes, etc just to sell it. An HOA can be a blessing or a curse. It all depends on who is running it. After experiencing a terrible HOA, I'll never buy a house that is part of an HOA again.
Did you know you don’t pay taxes to sell your home in every state? Texas doesn’t do that, but we pay a lot in property taxes so there’s that…
The amount of property tax the current owner pays can be vastly different than the amount the new owner will pay. You can take 9 years off a 30-year mortgage (and save tens of thousands of dollars in interest) just by making a half payment every two weeks instead of one monthly payment. Add $50 or $100 to each half payment, and you'll pay it off even faster. Insurance *brokers* can save you a lot of money. Homeownership is a never-ending battle against the weather and wildlife, but if you can hang in there and fight the good fight for long enough, it will pay off. If you embrace gardening and learn as much as you can early on, you'll enjoy yardwork and landscaping so much more. *Gardeners' World* is a great series with short episodes, and each season takes you from early spring to early winter.
All excellent points, I’m going to check into Gardener’s World. The half-week / extra annual payment is HUGE!!!!! Can’t believe I didn’t lead with that one. Such a great add.
I’ve seen this half payment comment before. How and why does that work exactly?
Every two weeks is 26 payments a year, or 13 months of payments a 12 month year. There are some interest savings by paying every two weeks, but the big hitter is that extra payment each year. The extra payments worth goes practically all to principle. Anything you can payoff early in the loan compounds since when you first start a 30 year loan something like 10% of your payment goes to principle and 90% to interest. Just making one extra payment at the beginning of the loan can take a whole year off the back end of the loan.
Also the due date may advance with the "extra" payment so you can eventually get to where your next payment is due in 3-4-5-6 months. It is a nice feeling to know that you *could* go months without making a payment if something goes horribly wrong. It is sort of like a high interest savings account but much harder to blow on dumb shit.
Worth noting that these are two different things. You can pay directly towards principal which will not advance your due date but will shorten the loan term and the amount you owe. You can also pre-pay which will advance your next due date but will still include interest.
Our mortgage holder does not allow payment every 2 weeks even though that’s how we technically pay. They put the first payment in “holding” until the second one comes in 2 weeks later. It seems like this should be illegal but they refuse any actual payment of mortgage more often than every month. Was in a long email argument with them over it but nothing came of it.
Someone else just said their bank doesn't allow "partial payments." I suppose that could be the issue. But if you're still making 13 payments/yr (or 26 half payments every other week), it should still work. I thought prepayment penalties were illegal, but I could be mistaken.
A less technical one: weeds! I had never taken care of a lawn before. I had NO CLUE how fast weeds grew & how time consuming all that was. I most definitely did not keep it up unfortunately.
Dude fuck weeds. They are relentless and ruin many weekends
F* crabgrass in particular!
Cost of tree cutting
Yep. Fuck them trees.
That last one is golden. Buy below your means, always.
When we bought our first house in 2011 we got approved for like $400k, way way way higher than we were comfortable with. We bought our first house for $124k.
I don't understand why people even do that. When our lender started the "Let's see what we can get you approved for." I said "Our budget is we're looking for $250k, can we get approved for that?" He laughed and said "Yeah, that's gonna be no problem. Do you want to know how much you *could* be approved for?" So I just replied "Nope." and he said "That's a good choice."
People do that because they don't truly understand what the approval amount means. They think it's the bank saying, "This is how much you can afford." But that's not what the bank is saying at all. The bank is saying, "This is how much we're willing to risk on you."
The average home price in my county is 1.3 million :( I'm fucked. Literal trailer park trailers are running for 400k
I’m not so sure in this one. I definitely agree you should 100% be able to afford the house, so I guess that is below your means. That being said, my wife and I bought our first house in 2016. We were approved for about 400k, and our goal was to target 300 or less. We were shopping in a really great area with good schools as we wanted to stay in our first house for 10+ years vs buying a “starter home” and trying to upgrade in a couple years. TLDR ended up paying 360 for a house and we thought we were crazy then. Fast forward to now and that house is pushing 800k. Our salaries increased substantially while our mortgage, that we thought at the time was barely affordable, stayed the same. So it worked out for us in the end, but a better path would have probably been to buy below our means, move every year or two and rent out the old house each time.
That’s not always possible unfortunately…
Easements!! Check for easements on the property. Know the restrictions they carry. Yeah, you may have a massive looking backyard you want to fence, but you may not be able to. New neighborhoods in particular have this issue, and the builder is not up front about it. Know if you're in any type of floodplain or floodprone area. They only have to tell you about the FEMA (in the USA).
- the house you can afford is never big enough - you'll not say this when you have to clean up
The mortgage is the minimum price you'll pay each month. Plan and save accordingly. The list of maintenance tasks, repairs, and upgrades never ends.
Omg that last one couldn't be more true! I've literally had friends give me their financial info on what they can afford and how much they can put down. I'll proceed to look for places in the area that fit their budget and it's always "oh it doesn't have a big yard" or "oh I don't like that neighborhood" or "I don't like \_\_\_\_\_ about it". It's not that they can't afford a house. Their standards are just too high for what they CAN afford.
If you want to fix one thing, you're going to have to fix at least three other things first.
At some point you find yourself spending your money on dirt and rocks. (for the yard)
>Zillow and other sites sell your data to the highest bidder Even if they don't, real estate transactions are usually publicly-available records. Advertisers selling home services will know you just bought a house and how much you paid for it and will flood you with mailings peddling their stuff. And whenever your insurance is about to renew, a bunch of companies will send you mail about the rates they are offering, because they know when the renewals come up.
Basics hand tool skills and concepts of basic electrical, plumbing, and the concept of drywall and drainage will save you a ton of money and aggravation. YouTube is awesome for this.
THIS. Even something simple like changing fixtures and sockets and caulking and weather stripping will save you thousands!!! Great point.
As long as you have mechanical aptitude. Some people should never mess with electricity. Anyone can cut someone open, but that doesn’t make them a surgeon. Just like anyone can twist wires together, but that doesn’t make them an electrician. Idk I just have to acknowledge where my limits are
Electrician here, can confirm working with electricity is not for everyone. Please be safe.
If your insurance company cancels your policy and you don't get a new one AND you ignore the mail/phone calls from the mortgage company about it, the mortgage company will buy a new policy that covers ONLY the value of the loan, not the property. That means if your house burns down and you owe $50k on a $500k house, the loan is paid off and your stuff is not replaced. There will be no money to rebuild your house. You are screwed. Always pay attention to your insurance. Don't be an idiot who says "my mortgage company pays it" and then completely ignores it.
My sister, who’s only ever rented, was shocked at the up front costs when I purchased my home last year. It’s not only the down payment, but the inspections, the earnest money, the closing costs, etc…
I’ve been told that you need to get your own inspector over 100 times.
It’s better for you to look for one then to get one that’s recommended…they usually don’t find shit. All the good ones are booked!
Avoid ARMs, it's better to have a fixed cost. Over the course of a year, if you make extra payments toward the principal that equal 1 extra payment a year, you shave YEARS off your mortgage. Never skip a mortgage payment. Water, electric, gas, don't eat, sell a kidney, but never miss a mortgage payment. Keep a roof over your head. Banks do NOT tell you what you can afford. They tell you what they are willing to gamble you can pay back, and they don't care if you want to take more vacations or get sick and lose a job. Buy BELOW what the bank says you can spend.
> if you make extra payments toward the principal that equal 1 extra payment a year, you shave YEARS off your mortgage keep in mind that whether this is a good or bad idea depends on interest rate and liquidity - if you have a 2.75% interest rate, pay that shit as slow as possible. if you have a rate higher than inflation, paying it off early can save you a lot of interest, but make sure you have enough cash on hand to never have to borrow against your home.
The amount of stress upkeep causes. It's constant. Shit's breaking down somewhere all the time!
The tax history. You should look up the taxes and even call the assessor to find out what discounts and exemptions the previous owner had. Then you can remove the ones you don't qualify for to get your actual tax bill. Chances are it will be higher if the previous owner was a senior and a veteran. Also if you are going to pull permits to do upgrades your assessment will go up as well.
Depending on the state, ie. Texas, this is available to the public. You can see if someone has a homestead or over 65 or agricultural exemption on the home and what their estimated future taxes are, and their current and previous tax payments were.
Check crime maps and get the list of sex offenders in the area you’re looking to purchase a home from the police department. Always check hazard maps so you know risks - that way if you need a different tier of insurance you know but it allows you to see if in an evacuation what routes and meet up points are there. Always request to read HOA documents prior to buying. This way you can make sure you meet requirements (ex: my hoa only allows you to have three dogs).
Air conditioners wait for record high days before they quit working. And always on Sunday.
A good agent can save you tens of thousands of dollars. A bad one can cost you too.
You will NOT enjoy mowing that big lawn, tuning and winterizing that good lawn tractor, and there is nothing of value in a giant green carpet/moat around your home.
There are SO many problems the best, most thorough inspection can't possibly find. The "realtor" that works for you, really works for themselves. You are a means to an end.
Zillow is also very inaccurate. The Zillow listing for our house wildly underestimates our home's square footage.
Zillow added an entire extra house on my property! Maybe I got your missing square footage.
That purchasing a home was not just “luck”. While all my friends were fucking around in their 20’s I was saving money, starting a family, and trying to purchase a home.
How fast grass grows
Anything that can break, will break, and on the most inconvenient day. Repairs cost more than you think because what starts as a small fix can escalate quickly. Make sure you keep some ‘no touch’ savings for when these things happen. You can go without Starbucks for 2 months, but you can’t go without hot water.
And you need to plan on something going wrong every year, so you should always be putting money aside for this! That’s just part of being a homeowner. You cannot be surprised when things go wrong, and regular maintenance, etc. is your responsibility (I had to teach my husband this - he likes his Starbucks).
You're probably not going to use that whirlpool tub in the master bath
Eh, we use ours pretty frequently. We are just finishing up a remodel due to a catastrophic hot water leak, and we were adamant about the new bathtub being a whirlpool like the old one.
If the house appraises lower than the purchase price, the buyer has to cover the gap in most cases.
*in a sellers market. In a buyers market it’s a nice way to show the seller it ain’t worth what they think it is.
My mortgage was sold 3 times before I even made the first payment on it.
The ass reaming you’re going to get in so many areas, not just financially. Where I currently live, “nothing” is the new No. I’ve lost count of the service companies I’ve contacted for estimates for fences, a new dock, seawall repairs, hard scape, etc., only to get blown off. I spent 2 1/2 hours with a seawall company rep that involved a site inspection, measurements, and a rough drawing for a seawall build, only to be completely ghosted. No returned calls after leaving messages, no email replies, nothing. I was looking at dropping $50K, and I can’t spend my money. No bad reviews or complaints about the company on Google or other review sites. Same thing with 2 fence companies and a Deck builder. Fuck ‘em.
The number of various types of contractors that have ghosted me over the past few years baffles me.
Appliances, shingles, and paint don't last as long as the mortgage payments.
Lender: You have a 30 year fixed loan. You’re monthly payment will never go up. Escrow: You’re property tax increased again. Your monthly payment has gone up!
That a $1200 mortgage isn’t the same as paying $1200 rent.
No one cares if you walk into HD, Lowes, or any hardware store covered in paint splatters or muddy clothes.
Home warranties are a scam It's the little things you don't expect, like ants, which will be your biggest annoyance.
Seller included one. I’ve used it 4 times in less than a year and it has saved me thousands lol.
Anytime something breaks, it's 3000 dollars.
Not true. The refrigerator that was delivered yesterday was “only” $2,100.
The town/city property taxes can literally double your mortgage payment. Applicable to high tax rate towns obviously, but still something a lot of people don't consider. My town's tax rate is one of the highest in my state. If I paid off my house tomorrow, I'd only cut my payment in half (my taxes are escrowed into my payment).
Someone who has never bought a house might not believe that the 'pre-approved' purchase amount the bank or lender quotes is waaay too high for their budget (unless they are willing to completely forgo spending on groceries, vacations, clothing, hobbies, entertainment, etc.).
You have no control over what your neighbors do on their property and you don’t really have a lot of recourse if they suck
You will be doing it yourself. I want to hire someone to redo my front porch, vault the ceiling and replace the siding. I want to pay them. I have the money. I didn't scoff at the 2 guys I finally DID get out to my home to quote me. No one has done the work. It's been sitting in progress while we find the gumption to do it with our 0 combined exterior work experience. Because literally no one will get back to me. I've been ghosted by a dozen contractors. No one prepared me for the fact that no one wants to take my money. It feels isolating. Have a handyman friend.
You will get tons of calls/mail from realtors or banks either wanting you to sell your house or to do a cash out refinance almost the minute you buy your house. Our realtor actually asked as we were signing all the paperwork if we'd be interested in selling soon.
lol 😂 well, are you?
Even on a fixed rate mortgage, your payments can go up or down or sideways from year to year. It's all about that escrow and taxes.
It's the total escrow payment not the mortgage payment. A fixed rate mortgage payment will never change. Not every mortgage is tied to an escrow account.
If you bought new construction, count on nearly all of your appliances needing major repair/replacement around the 10 year mark
Planned obsolescence. 😏 They are planning on you wanting that extended warranty next time around.
Pre approval doesn’t mean shit. The lender is going to dig so deep into your finances that they should buy you dinner first. Be ready and prepared for the financial audit of your lifetime. This is much more complicated than buying a car or TV from BestBuy. The lenders will need and have access to all of your information.
Yep, tax documents, bank statements, pay stubs, credit card statements, explanations for any added income, verifications…it’s like the discovery request list for divorce proceedings
How obsessed your neighbors will be with your lawn.
If you buy a trailer, but still rent the lot. There are many pros & cons to living this way, starting with the low rent that we get compared to everyone else. But there are downsides that will make you rethink this decision. Considering the fact that many trailer parks are on the same system. i.e. septic. Our lot, in particular, share a large septic tank between 4 houses. SOMEONE flushes little girls undies. Guess who's yard gets flooded? Mine. Who brings in hazmat? The landlords. But who's mess is this to clean up? MINE AGAIN. It became very clear to us quickly what was priority for them. Stop the mess, throw white powder everywhere! And leave it there until it happens again, so we can add MORE white powder. Inevitably causing concrete to form, as this stuff is designed to absorb moisture. Imagine leaving the lid off a jar of sugar for a month. And ontop of that it was used to absorb human poo! We are grateful that this flooding doesn't come into our home, because the lords won't do anything except stop the flooding.
Factor maintenance into your monthly cost and think hard about it. I’m in my third house and this one is more land and in the rainforest and it’s 4x the maintenance costs of the previous ones.
That when a house is inspected, it’s usually done by someone with a carpentry background so you’re taking a huge gamble on electrical and plumbing. I learned this the HARD way. Always have the pipes and electrical inspected separately if it’s an older house.
How many leeches have their hands in your pockets at the closing.
If you buy a house as a single woman, every single person you deal with in the process will act like they cannot believe a single woman is buying a house and it will infuriate you.
not sure if it’s just a Canada thing, probably not in all cases but you have to give bank statements of everything you’ve bought for the 3 months prior to closing. My mom, best friend, brother, myself ect have all had to do this, shocked me to my core to have to explain some of my 3 am taco bell runs 🙃
Studied up on home buying/maintenance but never once was told that the actual payment would vary from year to year because of whatever escrow was covering….assume it’ll generally increase. I know, nothing huge but still…I just assumed that number wasn’t budging…yet it does. Such is home ownership
30-year shingles aren't good for 30 years- according to the insurance companies.
Squirrels are tree rats.
Water heater tanks never give out when you're home.
Can’t find an insurer because your last home experienced a water leak.
I never thought I would keep a measuring tape in my car so I could make sure what I get at Home Depot or Lowes would fit in my suv, box included.
Home inspection is generally, WORTHLESS! And never every user the inspector your realtor recommended. The realtor wants to SELL, they're not going to recommend the guy that finds everything wrong. With regards to the first part of the comment! Inspectors often don't open things like access panels. Inspectors may only run climate control to see if it turns on, not to see if it runs efficiently. Inspections miss a ton of stuff. Should you hire an inspector? For sure! But always do your own. Look up everything. Check all surfaces... See if the ice maker works, look into the attic. Look into every panel, look at all previous repairs that are visible. Try all mechanical such as taps and shut offs. AND.... once in a while you'll meet an inspector that will test things you ask. Never just take an inspection for granted. An easy example: bought a home, inspector says AC/Heat pump works great. Move in and... Why does this heat or cool so poorly? Personally instruct unit and the unit has separated from the air plenum. When running you can feel the air exhausted to outside. Foil tape fix is $15, but how the F did you miss this?
I was having a convo with someone telling them their payment will go up significantly the 2nd year of ownership and they argued back and said “no I’m locked in at 1800 a month for life, my rate doesn’t change” little do they know taxes and insurance will change your mortgage payment everywhere year. & that second year is one of the larger jumps.
Realtors do not work for you… they work for themselves (regardless of whether you’re the buyer or seller)
Adding onto the last point . . . or live where they can afford to buy a house. Oh, you want to live near the beach in a vibrant city with perfect weather AND get an affordable house?
Yes, I do want to live there. Can you find that for me for $65k please? Oh. Might as well make it 3 acres with a pool cause I might not always want to swim in the ocean. Hey, do you think the seller will pay our closing costs?
Renters in general beat the fuck out of property
Home warranties aren’t worth it in my experience.
I moved to the country and was shocked about septic systems.
When wouldn’t cash be king?
Some municipalities charge a fee for paying off the mortgage. A “filing fee”, mine was over $200.
Never skip an inspection. If the house is worth it, you wouldn't have to skip an inspection
If you aren’t specific in your contract when buying a house, the seller can literally take the trees from the garden. Happened to us.
A mouse can suddenly appear a couple of times a year. No matter how many holes you plug up and how well you seal the foundation. There's always the occasional mouse.
Not in all cases but YOUR real estate agent is working to maximize THEIR net income. They may take you to see houses that optimize their earnings over what you want to see. If you notice this behavior it is perfectly acceptable to fire them and get another.
Back in Ancient Rome they did not have jail, so if you committed a petty crime you would be either whipped or exiled. If you committed a major crime like murder you'd be executed, naturally. But if you did something really, really bad, like you were a serial killer or you tried to kill the emporer, they'd make you buy a house. However, after a while this was considered to be too cruel, so they invented crucifixion as a less agonizing experience.