Rant: Home ownership

[Radbird]

We're looking at downsizing options.

In our area, most of the smaller houses are old and outdated. Newer homes are similar to what we have with smaller options being townhomes (yuck) or "55+" communities (double yuck). Plus housing is relatively expensive here. We want to lower cost as well as square footage.

If we want to simplify and save beaucoup dinero then heading back to the Midwest makes sense. STL is not an option because my sister and her family (affectionately known as the Cluster) would suffocate us. We are looking at Madison - affordable, smaller, some family & friends, close to 4 MLB parks, cheese curds, brats, beer (cue Jim winter rant in 5,4,3....).

If the kid settles in the Boston area, NE enters the conversation but we can kiss saving money goodbye. According to Zillow, her 675 sq ft apartment in Cambridge is worth more than our current home.

Then there's always the south of France....

[jim]

We found a 55+ year old house that had been remodeled. The only damn thing that hadn't been replaced in the last 5 years was the water heater. It's listed as 1200 sq feet, but it doesn't count about 400 feet of a finished lower level. It's a very unique layout, in fact we almost didn't come out to see it because it just didn't sound right. It has no front door, there are two side doors with a carport that extends from the house at the side door. It's awesome because I can grill out there in the rain, but I found out you can also set off the CO detectors if you leave the grill there. We moved from a 2800 sq. foot house with a full partially finished basement, so I wasn't sure how I would do. I miss the closet space in the last place, I miss the town the house was in, and I don't like how I have to go out a side door to get to the back patio. But otherwise I miss nothing. Having too big of a house is just not my thing. I don't understand people that upsize when they are my age and the kids are leaving the nest. I have a couple of friends that did that, and it just seems bass ackward to me.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

I live in a like 800 sf house kind of in this hipster area. Houses are expensive (like 150-200 $/sf). We have 2 adults, 1 child, 2 dogs and a cat. Weve put offers in on houses but to be honest, it isnt too small unless we have company. I rather like it. Plus energy and gas bills never add up to more than 150. Which is nce. At some point we will probably move to something a little roomier, but dangit I will miss how quaint this house is. Plus its super cheap rent comaritively bc mrs. Aw has been here 5 years and got a good deal at the time which looks like a bad ass deal now and the landlord loves us as we you know pay and keep the place in good shape. That said, I cant imagine he makes a good return on his investment....he's probably sunk everything weve paid him the last 5 years into repairs.

[IMADreamer]

Downsizing and simplifying I can recommend. We just moved into this house 1.5 years ago, much smaller and we really enjoy it. He halved the square footage from our last house. Very easy to clean, harder (but not impossible) for me to lose my wallet and keys, cheaper, lower taxes, etc..

+++

I've learned that simplifying life, in general, is a good thing.

I can fully agree with simplifying life. I've been much happier since quitting almost all of the committees and things I was on. "going to the meeting tonight?" No chance in hell. I always have my cellphone with me but I rarely have it on. I went through my closet last month and got rid of almost all my clothes. I think I have four pair of blue jeans, three pairs of shoes, one pair of work boots, about 15 shirts which is about 10 too many, etc. My next project is to get rid of misc [expletive]. Knick Knacks and things people have given me, souvenirs, etc. It's just stuff and I don't need it.

I've never understood needing a modern "updated home." I've seen those house hunting shows and the wife always seems to be [expletive] about the kitchen being out dated. I'd rather get an outdated kitchen, save the money up front and then fix it the way I want it. Not the way some contractor doing it on the lowest dollar wants it.

[pioneer98]

I totally agree that homeownership just is not the boon that some people think it is. By the time you factor in property taxes and all the maintenance you often would be better off renting. I go back and forth, but I think you guys are on the right track to go with as small a home with as little maintenance as possible.

The first home I owned was a small condo townhouse. We paid like $120 in association due every month. But I figured they would pay for at least some of the maintenance with that money, right? Nope. When the buildings needed new roofs, they put a special assessment on everyone, and we all had to pay $1,500 on top of our dues. The next year as I was selling my place, they decided to put new siding on all the buildings. I was forced to pay $1,200 for siding I'd never even get to see when I lived there. The only stuff my association dues seemed to cover was the lawncare and the common areas like the swimming pool. Literally everything else was mine to pay for, even the fence between my back patio and the common area. $120 per month is an awfully expensive way to share a swimming pool.

Our current house was built in 1955. I was advised to buy the water and sewer line insurance, due to the vintage of our home. I'm so glad we did. We had our sewer line collapse and we ended up with water in our basement, about ankle deep. If we had not purchased the insurance it would have cost us $10,000 out of pocket to repair the line. Instead we only had to pay a $1,500 deductible and then of course we had been paying the premiums. Stuff like this never gets factored into the homeownership equation.

We spent $9,000 on replacing retaining walls that were crumbling, and that was actually a great deal given to us by a friend of a friend. Some quotes were twice that. These walls are huge. One is 6 feet tall and 60 feet long, and it supports the land our garage sits on. If we didn't fix it, the garage would have slowly continued sliding towards the alley. We'll have to put a roof on within the next 5 years or so. That may end up being the most expensive one yet. We'll see.

[cardinalkarp]

Man, would I be pissed if our HOA tried to pull that! We pay $110 a month for dues (and a yearly assessment of $375) but haven't had any problems when it has come to major repairs and they've had to do quite a few (replace a bunch of siding & a new roof due to hail storms).

[pioneer98]

And notice the things I am talking about: roof, sewer line, retaining wall...none of these things are going to increase the value of my home. They are just purely maintenance. We have made some improvements to the inside, too, but we have a long, long ways to go, and we've been at this 8 years already.

[IMADreamer]

I'd be pissed if I had HOA dues. I've never met anyone who has an HOA where the people in the HOA take the tiny shred of power they have and try to make themselves out like some third world dictator.

Good luck on the roof Pioneer. We did that about two years ago and they got us for 10k. That was with a buddies company doing it. He was quite a bit cheaper then the other couple guys I got quotes from.

I've to to do retaining walls this summer. Hoping I can do that myself though.

[pioneer98]

Man, would I be pissed if our HOA tried to pull that! We pay $110 a month for dues (and a yearly assessment of $375) but haven't had any problems when it has come to major repairs and they've had to do quite a few (replace a bunch of siding & a new roof due to hail storms).

I was irate when I had to pay the $1,200 for the siding that wouldn't even go on for another 6 months, which was way after the closing date. But since I was the owner at the time of the assessment, it was on me.

The person who bought it also made me install one of those radon mitigation systems. That was $1,500. It was the first one installed anywhere in our association, so they were all concerned about how it would look from the outside. It took them weeks to finally approve it. Those are a racket invented by the real estate industry, IMO. The buyer also had the furnace checked out and they made me replace that as well. I did negotiate some of that into the price though, because that is quite an expense.

Then after making me pay all of that, she threatened to sue me after she moved in, saying I withheld information about water damage. We only lived there 4 years, and we never once had water in the home. Evidently some previous homeowner had a leaky backdoor and some of the floorboards did have some water damage. But it had been carpeted over and the leaky door had been fixed so we never even noticed it. She found it when she was replacing the carpet. When our lawyer contacted us saying she might sue, we told her to take a hike and that was the last we heard of it. She failed to have a full home inspection so it was on her (she only had the furnace inspected).

The only recourse I had out of all that was I sold at the right time and ended up selling it for quite a bit more than I paid. I basically got back all that money I put into it, and covered closing costs. I only had to come up with like an extra $1,000 to have enough to close on our new house and have a 20% downpayment on it. We were lucky.

[pioneer98]

I've to to do retaining walls this summer. Hoping I can do that myself though.

I'd like to learn how to do retaining walls, but this was not a starter project to learn on. The big wall is nearly the width of our property (just under 60 feet) and it is 4 feet tall on average (varies from about 5 feet to 3.5 feet, because it is on a hill, too). Then above that wall is a "tier" about 10 feet wide, then another smaller wall above that, which is about 2 feet tall. Then above that small wall is our yard and garage. The "tier" area is really nice. They built in a couple steps down to it from our yard, and we have a nice garden area there. This big wall cost like $8K, which was an absolute steal.

The other wall we just went ahead and did at the same time since the guy was giving us such a good price. That one is only 2 feet tall or so and it does not have a tier...but it is like 80 feet long, between our driveway and our neighbor's property. That one cost $2K. Then we hired him to put in some nice plants in that garden area and to do some other work near the house. He didn't give us as good a deal on that other smaller stuff, but so what. He probably saved us like $6K or $7K on those walls, so I figured what the heck.