Also, you will drive yourself nuts researching energy efficiency. Some people swear attic fans matter, some don't. Some swear that temp adjustments help, some don't. It's really bonkers
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Homeowner Thread |OT| A Thread for Homeowners
- Thread starter vacantseas
- Start date
I can imagine. The place I just bought does have an attic fan. Not sure what that is about.
I also bought a larger place than I need and there will definitely be unused areas. And the basement cannot be sealed off, no door.
What is the difference between a gas and electric dryer? I've seen people discuss it but didn't really pay attention. (I think the house I bought comes with an electric one. There might not even be a gas hookup in the laundry room).
It's definitely not an educated bias--it just feels less safe considering even electric dryers can be a fire hazard. Beyond that I only know that gas dryers don't have to use the 240V outlet.
My inspection is on Monday. Anything you all think I should pay extra attention to? The inspector sounded pretty competent and said he would prefer it if I stick with him for the whole 3 hours it might take.
As for gas vs electric, we had both over the course of places. The gas dryer feels like it does a better job with the clothes. As for efficiency, didn't notice much of an uptick in costs.
Absolutely be there the entire time. This way you can ask about things, and if they're worth their price they should be telling you stuff as well.
Things I would worry about:
Electric panel
Foundation
Roof
Internal structure meaning are walls missing or modified, was a room added on, etc.
Those are all things they will look at it, but make sure if you see anything that's off you ask for a bigger look
Absolutely be there the entire time. This way you can ask about things, and if they're worth their price they should be telling you stuff as well.
Things I would worry about:
Electric panel
Foundation
Roof
Internal structure meaning are walls missing or modified, was a room added on, etc.
Those are all things they will look at it, but make sure if you see anything that's off you ask for a bigger look
If you don't see the inspector actually walk the roof, push hard for it. With my current house, the inspector just looked from a window. Shingles were fine, but the actual wood underneath them was bad. Which was obvious to anyone who actually got up on the roof. So we ended up with almost a $20,000 expense right away when moving in. Also, try to beat the inspector there so they can't say that they did something prior to you getting there.
The only caveat to this would be if they can see the roof from the attic space. Our attic is all exposed so he did a visual inspection that way.
I'll keep that in mind for the roof part of the inspection. The disclosures said the roof is new (complete tearoff 2017) and my realtor thought the hardwood and carpets were all new also - though the disclosures didn't state that specifically. All the windows are post 2008 too. So I am hoping nothing major pops up. Single owner from construction to today, it looks like they've taken good care of it.
Inspector reports MUST be viewed through the lens of the local property market. If you're buying an old house in Waco, Texas, and the inspector comes back with everything from black mold to Indian burial ground, walk away. If you get a similar report in San Francisco, or Seattle, for example, you may have to accept that you're buying a toxic deathtrap with a murderer living in the attic.
Our last inspector was the brother of our long term realtor, who is also a close family friend (otherwise that would be a fantastically bad conflict of interest, btw), so we got a pretty brutal list, but it was 100% accurate.
Our last inspector was the brother of our long term realtor, who is also a close family friend (otherwise that would be a fantastically bad conflict of interest, btw), so we got a pretty brutal list, but it was 100% accurate.
Another interesting thing. My realtor put in a clause saying that I would be willing to make up the difference between appraisal and sale price if it was under $5000. The selling agent said that was what made them pick our offer over two other essentially equivalent offers. I never realised there were so many types of supplementary clauses that could be included in the offer.
There's no way the appraisal is coming back within 5K of sale. The appraisal is always based on the actual cost of the structure, factors in nothing else.
It's to protect him if the seller is trying to sell above appraisal--very common in hot markets. And since banks will only cover up to the appraisal amount, it protects the seller because it tells them that the buyer has cash available.
Sorry, was confusing all the different values (tax, insurance, mortgage). Reminds me of this:
We've had both, I prefer gas for no reason really, it might feel hotter, I don't know.
Gas dryers tend to be a little more expensive as well, like $25 or $30 for the special hookups
Ha yeah closing will sneak up. This is why i always say 20% is not ideal and if you can swing it either do 10% or save for 25%. You quickly get a few grand in closing
Yeah. Turns out I am essentially paying 1 years worth of property taxes. Some to reimburse previous owners for their prepayment and some to make up escrow because I'll have only three months before the next summer taxes payment is due.
Nice fireplace.
I need to know how to get rid of weeds on my lawn. I'm paying a local guy to maintain and cut grass but man even my dad's lawn is more luscious.
I need to know how to get rid of weeds on my lawn. I'm paying a local guy to maintain and cut grass but man even my dad's lawn is more luscious.
Oh my god, I got an estimate of closing fees.
Yeah, it's brutal. Mine were over $20,000 which is why we just went with 10% down because we didn't want to completely decimate our savings. Northeast is especially shitty because of the taxes and shit.
Speaking of inspectors, I thought ours did a really thorough job (spent over 4 hours) and gave us a detailed 25 page report w/ pictures and everything but he missed w/ the roof. Whether or not our problem was visible, it didn't rain for a month after we moved in and then the first rain came and we had a leak. It wasn't that bad and we were able to manage but finally got work done on the house recently and we couldn't finish he inside w/out fixing the roof. Ended up getting half a new roof put on and the roofer said that there was actual water pooled in the valley of our roof and that the shingles were bad.
So it might seem like overkill but I'd see about doing a hose test if possible on a roof that isn't fairly new because problems can crop up that aren't visible to even an inspector.
Escrow will sneak up on you. Any time your taxes go up, and they will, expect a letter in the mail with "We need X dollars to make up the difference".
I have an ecobee with 3 sensors that was recently installed (my home is ~70 years old). It actually made a light year of difference in the efficiency of our 40 year old furnace. You can configure profiles for time/sensor configurations. So if nobody is in a room, the ecobee just won't use that sensor to determine the average temp. A cold/drafty room won't impact how your system thinks to heat because it's not using that sensor to determine the average temp. At night, we only use the sensor in our bedroom to determine the temp, so the extraneous rooms aren't having an impact on the temp determination.
Awesome, thank you. Did you have someone install it or were you able to do it yourself?
What kind of heating / cooling do you have though? In a forced air system it's very possible to have poor air flow in some vents and thus those rooms could be cooler or hotter than they need to be causing the furnace to run more than it needs to.
i would never do this in our market., because more often than not the appraisal is going to come in lower than the sellers list value. but other markets are stupid crazy.
this is incorrect. the appraisal takes in the neighborhood, and other recent home sales up to like 6 months.
For the house we built it was a lot harder, first we had an appraisal before we ever broke ground that just factored in the value of the land and the estimated cost of the house plans, and then we had an appraisal when the house was done for final financing. The guy that did the final appraisal came in over 60k less than the first appraisal, he included property as comparable that were like over 2 miles away (its a rural area) that had more acreage and that that house was built in the 1950s or something and thus our house wasn't worth as much in his eyes. This almost screwed us.
Also the guy who did the appraisal was an idiot, he said our garage was a 3 car when its clearly 4(2 double garage doors) car with additional storage on one side, and they missed an entire bathroom.
also RE the attic fan, a proper attic fan is for homes that doesnt have HVAC, specifally air con. You wait till its cooler outside than inside and open all the windows and doors and turn the fan on and it sucks the hot air out of the house and brings in the cooler air. My mother in law has one, its pretty cool. An attic fan that just sits in the attic to "move air around, to keep the attic cool" is a waste of time and money.
I am in a town in Michigan where the market is crazy. The house got listed Friday afternoon. I viewed it Saturday afternoon. Offer got accepted Monday afternoon. (Two other offers were received at list price, same as me).
But if that room is unoccupied, it is not included in the temperature leveling algorithm. If that room is occupied and lags constantly from the other two sensors, I wonder if the ecobee is able to alert you about it.
Oh man, I think I'm ready to start looking for stuff in the Seattle area. I have no idea even where to start, I guess I need to find a realtor somewhere and figure out what my expectations should be?
Had a water line blow out in my new house in the attic above the garage. Thank all things in this world I was home and heard it go. It was 23 degrees below freezing outside and the lines didn't have proper insulation. Idiot contractors.
Barely avoided a disaster there, although the ceiling and the walls in the garage got the brunt of some water damage. The ceiling in the kitchen was slightly damaged (visually), but I fixed that with stain blocker/primer. Have to love home ownership.
I also replaced a stripped gear in my garage door opener this past week. Learned something new by taking it apart and fixing it myself.
Barely avoided a disaster there, although the ceiling and the walls in the garage got the brunt of some water damage. The ceiling in the kitchen was slightly damaged (visually), but I fixed that with stain blocker/primer. Have to love home ownership.
I also replaced a stripped gear in my garage door opener this past week. Learned something new by taking it apart and fixing it myself.
I know about what I want my mortgage to be but I have no clue about down payment, fees, inspections etc and how taxes figure into it.
Oh my god, I got an estimate of closing fees.
My loan guy worked the closing costs into my loan (and anything else I had to pay he worked out with all those involved). I brought a bank check for $240 at closing as a "show of confidence" or something like that, haha.
I was aiming to go 0 down at closing, but managed to get close through negotiations with everyone.
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Ah this sounds similar to what I read here http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/musings/fans-attic-do-they-help-or-do-they-hurt
This is reminding me I still need to finish insulating my attic. I did a little over half (~$600 for rock wool) but should really finish the other half. It's just such a miserable experience.
Did you shop around?Oh my god, I got an estimate of closing fees.
Yeah. Other places were charging me less on the origination (and associated fees) but their interest rates were higher. So at some point, they all seem to have a similar margin. I finally just went with the one my realtor recommended because they were super responsive and on top of things.
Most of my closing costs are escrow and property taxes, so not really a "cost". Huge numbers though. -_-
Subbed. We are in the early stages of our home search because we have had enough of overpriced rents, "luxury apartment homes", and lack of space.
We have a pre-approval and an agent that is really knowledgeable. Exciting times, but there is still so much to learn.
We have a pre-approval and an agent that is really knowledgeable. Exciting times, but there is still so much to learn.
good article.
the only thing i disagree with is their last section on hvac/duct work/water heater in the attic. In Texas there's not a lot of places to put those, we don't have basements. The solution is radiant barrier, which can actually be installed by home owners. Ive been in attics in summer in Texas that dont have it and about died. Our new house has a radiant barrier on the roof and insulation is on the attic floor, ive gone up there in July and its not that bad, its still hot, cause its fucking hot out side, but you don't get the convection cooking of the attic that you do without a radiant barrier.
putting insulation on the underside of the roof instead of the floor means all your cooled air is going to go right through the dry wall into the attic and your electric bill will be enormous.
That site also drove me nuts with vapor barriers because it's all over the damn place for attics. Either way, I need to do another 10'x20' feet of attic space with rockwool in place of the shitty old r19ish batts that were done.
Hi homeowners (and soon to be homeowners), I have some questions about a mortgage offer that I received, and while I asked it in the Mortgage 101 thread, there is little activity over there so I figured I'd ask it here.
Basically, I would like to get your opinion on whether I should look for different mortgage offers or if the one I have is fair.
I was pre-qualified through a mortgage broker for a 30-year, $160,000 mortgage at 4% interest (based on an estimated $200,000 sale price where I'd plan on paying the 20% down) and the estimated closing costs are at about $9,000, which seems about right given what I'd read about closing costs (they should be about 2-5% of the sale price).
The confusing part to me is that in the cost worksheet provided by the broker there are separate line items lumped into a category called Prepaid Items/Reserves that are about another $6,000. These items include Daily Interest Charges, Hazard Insurance Premium, Hazard Insurance Reserves, and County Property Tax Reserves. As a first time home buyer, I didn't realize that the broker would collect all of those payments up front (I didn't know much about escrow before last week, either). Should these Prepaid Items/Reserves be considered closing costs or are they really their own separate thing? If they are part of the closing costs, then I'd be paying about 7.5% of the sale price in fees up front which doesn't seem like a good deal, especially because my credit score is hovering awfully close to 800.
It may be a good mortgage offer, but I'm just unsure about how to interpret all of the costs, so if you could help set me straight, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Basically, I would like to get your opinion on whether I should look for different mortgage offers or if the one I have is fair.
I was pre-qualified through a mortgage broker for a 30-year, $160,000 mortgage at 4% interest (based on an estimated $200,000 sale price where I'd plan on paying the 20% down) and the estimated closing costs are at about $9,000, which seems about right given what I'd read about closing costs (they should be about 2-5% of the sale price).
The confusing part to me is that in the cost worksheet provided by the broker there are separate line items lumped into a category called Prepaid Items/Reserves that are about another $6,000. These items include Daily Interest Charges, Hazard Insurance Premium, Hazard Insurance Reserves, and County Property Tax Reserves. As a first time home buyer, I didn't realize that the broker would collect all of those payments up front (I didn't know much about escrow before last week, either). Should these Prepaid Items/Reserves be considered closing costs or are they really their own separate thing? If they are part of the closing costs, then I'd be paying about 7.5% of the sale price in fees up front which doesn't seem like a good deal, especially because my credit score is hovering awfully close to 800.
It may be a good mortgage offer, but I'm just unsure about how to interpret all of the costs, so if you could help set me straight, it'd be greatly appreciated.
So, you don't have to escrow insurance and property taxes. Property taxes aren't due on thr US at least until the new year. Some people pay them before so they can claim them on their taxes the following year. But you'll get a bill in the mail telling you when it's due and at what point there are fees for not paying.
However, you will generally have to have insurance at thr time of closing.
If you don't escrow the taxes then you are solely responsible for saving that money and paying it on time.
I am very new at this ( I went through this discussion for the first time yesterday), but here is my understanding.
All pre-paid and escrow amounts are not real "costs". These are items you would spend even if you were paying 200,000 cash for your house, just on a different schedule and directly to the seller or the government.
The prepaid property taxes is you reimbursing any taxes the previous owner already paid. The large upfront escrow/reserves collection is them trying to make up for any payment coming up soon. (Insurance and property tax are paid in lump sum and there might not be 12 installments before the next payment due). These items will get "corrected" in the last year of your loan or the escrow will cut you a cheque for the excess at the end.
The real one time cost of the loan and purchase is
1 - origination and underwriting and processing fees.
2 - appraisal fee - unavoidable.
3 - title fee and title insurance - you can shop around
What do you all do about insurance? I am going to take the requirements document to an agent tomorrow but the terms and the process of me buying it but setting up a payment from the lender just seems like such a clunky method.
Also, the online insurance quote asked about a million questions. Some that even the original builders might now know answers to...
Also, the online insurance quote asked about a million questions. Some that even the original builders might now know answers to...
What's a "normal" range? Redfin/Zillow keep saying $250-$300 in their calculations but my first progressive quote said $50.
I would imagine that can vary depending on your state. My premium coming up is $1010 with a dwelling value of $302,000. Last year it was $758/$300,000.
(I should give them a call...)
It's all dependent on your home and the area. I have State Farm whom offers extra protection for sewer, hvac, and mold. So those could add a few extra bucks. I think I also have partial flood insurance because I'm 2 miles from the ocean and 1/4 mike from a creek.
Whoa, that's a huge jump. So when they say dwelling value - does one pick loan amount or purchase price or cost to rebuild or something like that?
I might end up with State Farm too, seems to have the best rates around here based on everyone I've asked. I think my lenders requested hazard insurance, including flood. Might pick up more options based on inspection results on Monday.
(PS: Thank you all for your patience with my questions)
It's cost to rebuild. There are some other large numbers in there that I'm not remembering, but the deductible is 10% of the cost to rebuild.
Yeah, you're getting played. Maybe get some quotes from other companies. Not sure if they do business in your area, but Amica Mutual has always been good to us.
Hoo boy, got our escrow statement, and we way overpaid. I expected some because our 2017 valuation is for an incomplete house, but now they're setting us up to way underpay this next year.
Kinda want to take that fat check and invest it rather than let it sit in escrow for another year though...
Kinda want to take that fat check and invest it rather than let it sit in escrow for another year though...