Home Buying & Real Estate Thread

[nachobroadweezy]

any thoughts or experiences on houses next to gas stations, oil change spots or used car lots? have been sort of looking for a cheap house for nearly a year now & it looks like prices are lower when the property is next to a gas station or auto related business. unsure if it'd be any worse than living in an industrial area in terms of adverse effects on health, any response is appreciated.

I would get the soil tested, it's not expensive just takes a few weeks. You never know if a storage tank has leaked or if they are illegally dumping contaminants.
In NJ there's a lot of sites in industrial cities with contaminated soil that require remediation such as a concrete cap or excavation of 8 inches.
Personally I would avoid it, I don't even eat at restaurants directly next to dry cleaners.

 

[nachobroadweezy]

House coming along!!

This is gorgeous. Details, town?

 

[turbospartan]

Looks like my neighbors are getting ready to sell. Just cut down a tree in their front yard, have some dumpster rentals out there for cleaning up their backyard, and looks like they're installing egress windows. It will be interesting to see how much they get (if they are selling, and not just updating) and how the economy / corona factors in

 

[fluid hips]

nah, it’s not good for family life. The inner city raises great people but I rather my children NOT have to endure foolishness...

plus it’s too crowded. It’s over the top!
I’m looking towards the Woodbury Commons outlet area, for obvious reasons. Lol

but NYC was dope when it had soul and made tough people... this new stuff is for the birds.

Upstate is such a broad term New Yorkers use. I thought you were talking of Syracuse or Albany.

They should really introduce midstate. I don't consider rockland, orange county, Westchester etc as upstate but alot of people in NYC do

Having lived upstate for a year near Syracuse, I wouldn't do it as a single person. Things get boring real quick but if you have a family to raise, then it makes sense.

 

[ksteezy]

This is gorgeous. Details, town?

Thanks bro!!

Beacon NY

bout 1.5 hour train ride fromGrand Central....straight shot...visited this past weekend, Sheetrock went up, taking shape slowly...

 

[edshoecator]

Rich!
The house looks good.

that master closet is huge

leave the tree. Put a hammock and flourish

 

[laced navajo]

Dope house bro!
cant wait to see the finish product

 

[s0lefunk]

The lady and I are in the market for a new build. Found a builder we liked and the lot we want finally got released. Sales team gave us the option list a few weeks ago and we finally priced out everything. Made some compromises to stay in budget. Yesterday we go to get a contract started but corporate revised the option list and of course prices went up a good 20% on almost everything...

Hoping we can go in and negotiate. We were already at the top end of our budget and this increase puts us well over.

 

[ksteezy]

One piece of advice about a new build, accept the reality that whatever your projected closing cost is at contract signing, when all said and done, they’ll pull 20-40k more out of you....fight for those allowances....that’s where you get some of your money back...so this before signing, once you sign is a wrap, we’ve already gone about 40k over and not even halfway through...lol

 

[ksteezy]

Dope house bro!
cant wait to see the finish product

Thanks brother! I can’t wait either

 

[mplsdunk]

Damn ksteezy

I vote leave the tree, backyard is gonna be naked without it and it kind of blocks your neighbors so you guys aren’t staring at each other.

congrats man, gonna be super nice.

 

[ksteezy]

Thanks man, I’ve been going back and forth about that tree, but in the fall is super nice and also gives our master really good shade in the summer, on the flip side it does block the Mountain View a bit and the natural light coming into the room

 

[freshpairs]

A patient’s husband of mine was saying to get an umbrella policy. That to get minimum coverage on everything and add the umbrella policy. Anyone know anything about this?

 

[Mark Antony]

Trying to figure out where the hell some of these buildings get off charging a 1k condo fee, and why people buy them. Makes no damn sense.

 

[Fozz]

Big *** backyard
Could literally put another house
Or full size basketball court

That's a huge yard, man. Outside Livermore/Mountain House area?

 

[mplsdunk]

yeah they are high as ****.

I was looking at condos but when they hit you with that HOA you could buy a house and hire lawn care and snow removal for the same price.

plus what’s stopping them from upping the price?

 

[B Sox]

Elevators/gym/pool will get that condo fee up there with the quickness.

 

[turbospartan]

A patient’s husband of mine was saying to get an umbrella policy. That to get minimum coverage on everything and add the umbrella policy. Anyone know anything about this?

I have an umbrella policy on my homeowner's. Don't know what it really covers, I think only liability type ****. I got it because I have dogs, and to add like $1m on the umbrella was very little extra per month.

I'd suggest getting sewer backup and/or code upgrade coverage too. I had both, and when our basement flooded last year they had to tear everything out down to the concrete. Then they found the wiring and other items were out of code, so that extra code insurance saved us at least another $10k out of pocket.

 

[thenewjs23]

Hopefully my wife and I close on our house Friday.

 

[polosanddunks]

The lady and I are in the market for a new build. Found a builder we liked and the lot we want finally got released. Sales team gave us the option list a few weeks ago and we finally priced out everything. Made some compromises to stay in budget. Yesterday we go to get a contract started but corporate revised the option list and of course prices went up a good 20% on almost everything...

Hoping we can go in and negotiate. We were already at the top end of our budget and this increase puts us well over.

Gonna be hard to negotiate on new construction. They selling a volume of houses there right now? If not you might be good.

Expect those surprises in cost at closing too. Luckily when I got my new house they covered all closing cost etc and the house was built already to our spec so it was no optioning stuff from the ground up (they get you there too on pricing).

 

[nachobroadweezy]

Thanks bro!!

Beacon NY

bout 1.5 hour train ride fromGrand Central....straight shot...visited this past weekend, Sheetrock went up, taking shape slowly...

Beautiful town, I go hiking up there. Artsy and some diversity too. Great pick.

 

[Upptempo]

Planning to get a crib by end of year but living in NYC it's been apartments most of my adult life. I'm not bringing any furniture with me but was curious what to expect in furniture costs. Would need everything I.e dining room, bedroom, living room, etc. My assumption is $15-20k but thought maybe I could keep it closer to 15k if I don't go hard trying to get the fanciest ****

 

[s0lefunk]

Planning to get a crib by end of year but living in NYC it's been apartments most of my adult life. I'm not bringing any furniture with me but was curious what to expect in furniture costs. Would need everything I.e dining room, bedroom, living room, etc. My assumption is $15-20k but thought maybe I could keep it closer to 15k if I don't go hard trying to get the fanciest ****

I think you could do a lot with 15k though it all depends on your style and size of your place.

I’ll be in a similar boat in a few months. Just signed a contract for a new build and we’re making a list of the essential furniture we need. We plan to splurge on the living room sofa and master suite bed.

Keep in mind a home is a long-term, never ending personal project. You don’t need to have it fully furnished immediately upon move in. Take your time. Don’t be afraid to get affordable/temp pieces for an immediate need and just upgrade later.

Gonna be hard to negotiate on new construction. They selling a volume of houses there right now? If not you might be good.

Expect those surprises in cost at closing too. Luckily when I got my new house they covered all closing cost etc and the house was built already to our spec so it was no optioning stuff from the ground up (they get you there too on pricing).

Just saw this. We were able to get an extra 10k in incentives on top of the 15k offered through the in-house lender. 5k since we had been working with the sales team for over a month and another 5k for the Mother’s Day promotion. We were waiting on a certain lot to be released and already got a quote based on the old option pricing. Sent an email to the sales team showing how much the price increased from our original quote. They escalated to corporate and were able to give an extra 5k.

In the end we got back down under the high end of our budget.

 

[slaughterx]

15-20k on furniture... you would be getting a lot of nice stuff. Hell you can probably full furnish a house for half that and still get some pretty nice stuff. I got all my stuff in Colorado at American Furniture Warehouse and it's all pretty nice, Italian leather couch and loveseat, nice lift top coffee table, glass dining room table, couple of chairs... set me back less than 3k. Got my bedframe and mattress, lamps, TV stands from Amazon... less than a stack. Only thing I don't have is a dresser because they're a pain in the *** to move but even those were a lot less expensive than I thought.

 

[solewoman]

If it’s just you, then yeah you can do a lot with 15k. But if you have a family or you want some legit quality furniture. 15k will go quick. But don’t rush yourself or go into debt furnishing your spot. We’re still looking for a formal dining table and we’ve been in our place since dec. I’m pretty picky though and want something solid wood.