The Home Ownership Thread

[Piobaire]

Sisal gives better traction in severe weather conditions. True story.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

They're impossible dust collectors. Once this one is ready for the bin I will switch to a rug capable of being dry cleaned.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

I apologise if anything is incorrect in the above post, I'm completely smashed.

 

[VLSI]

Is it worth paying extra to buy a house that's very nicely upgraded? I'm conflicted again

 

[idfnl]

Thanks for the comments everyone....

If I were in the market for an upright vac (with hose), I would probably look at the LG vacuums.

http://www.lg.com/us/vacuum-cleaners/lg-LuV350P-upright-vacuum

Problem is that it looks too futuristic. I feel like a tool vacuuming with R2D2 in my hands. Also, want a canister.

Hotels use commercial grade vacuums which can expensive and heavy as hell. 

lefty

Interesting idea.

I commercial office machines at home. I have 2 printers, one is strictly for color laser printing, the other is a Xerox C2424 commercial all in one (no fax) which is brilliant with a USB fax modem. Win 7 has a solid fax utility that both sends and receives faxes, you can scan and fax in one shot over the network. You can pickup used commercial printers for a song. Ink is expensive, that's the only drawback.

I also have a polycom, great for conference calls, great speaker, beats a cordless phone speaker by miles: if you work from home regularly, I highly recommend it.

When you said non-powered hose, I was going to ask why not just get a shop vac. The limiting factor in vacuum cleaners is power draw--you can't pull more than 12 amps from common household circuits. Most vacuums have to set aside some of that power for power accessories, so a shop vac usually has more pure suction.

I have a shop vac, I've actually been using it for a while. There is a reason I want a regular vacuum. Its not useful.

Is it worth paying extra to buy a house that's very nicely upgraded? I'm conflicted again

Yes. Mine was and I'm really glad.

 

[Rambo]

My last 2 vacs have been Dyson's. I've tried the other brands you can get in BedBath/Sears/Etc and always found the Dyson to work better, be easier to use, etc.. One caveat - I don't have any pets that need to be vacuumed up after.

 

[RedLantern]



Is it worth paying extra to buy a house that's very nicely upgraded? I'm conflicted again

Depends on:
How much extra money?
what the upgrades are - are they what you would choose?
If so, is the premium you pay for them less than buying a less expensive home an upgrading it yourself?
If not, are you very picky? Will you end up wishing you had exactly what you wanted?
Do you have the cash to upgrade yourself?

 

[otc]

I'm pretty anti-ownership at this stage in my life...but I was just browsing around at apartment listings in an area I am considering, and I happened to look at some condo prices in the same place.

Hard to find direct comparisons (since the units for rent aren't the same units that are for sale) but it looks like things are so bad here that it might be worth it.

I'm talking...using the NYTimes rent vs buy calculator, setting home price appreciation to 0%, rent appreciation to 3% (been higher than that for me every year), picking a rent that seems a bit lower than the same level of unit and a purchase price that seems a bit higher, and finally, a mortgage rate worse than what I think I could get.
Even with all of that, it says buying is better in as little as 3 years. Usually those numbers are MUCH longer (certainly much longer than I would like to live in the same 1BR condo).

 

[Ataturk]



Depends on:
How much extra money?
what the upgrades are - are they what you would choose?
If so, is the premium you pay for them less than buying a less expensive home an upgrading it yourself?
If not, are you very picky? Will you end up wishing you had exactly what you wanted?
Do you have the cash to upgrade yourself?

One thing you should keep in mind is that interest rates are ridiculously low right now; you'll probably get a much better rate to buy a fixed up house than if you have to borrow money to finance a remodel.

I guess, I don't really know since I'd never borrow money to remodel a house... but whatever.

 

[VLSI]



Depends on:
How much extra money?
what the upgrades are - are they what you would choose?
If so, is the premium you pay for them less than buying a less expensive home an upgrading it yourself?
If not, are you very picky? Will you end up wishing you had exactly what you wanted?
Do you have the cash to upgrade yourself?

One thing you should keep in mind is that interest rates are ridiculously low right now; you'll probably get a much better rate to buy a fixed up house than if you have to borrow money to finance a remodel.
I guess, I don't really know since I'd never borrow money to remodel a house... but whatever.

I went to go see the house today. It's perfect for me but price is stupid high, so unfortunately I'll have to leave it unless the owner drops the price before I find something else. It's priced at what the house should cost if it was like everything other house its size plus just about every dollar the guy has ever put into it. I don't want to finance his remodel for the next 30 years no matter how low interest rates are right now. It would be about a 25% drop in my expendable income compared to other houses I'm looking at (that can't even come close to this one), could still live comfortably, but it's just a bad value at this time

 

[svelten]

I've been a condo kind of guy all my life, even though I grew up in a house. Now that I've finally started to mortgage a new condo development in an urban area, a lot of the things I didn't anticipate in apartment living are beginning to piss me off. For starters, dirtbags who don't even dispose of the trash properly by just dumping things into the hallways, guys who can't park and go partly into your cramped parking space and people moving in furniture at 3AM in the morning. Now I really see why some people opt to live in the suburbs in a house for the same price. Fair warning to everyone who has brushed off buying a house.

 

[idfnl]

^^ Condos w/ those sick condo fees???

Not a chance. Plus, no apt living for me. I need space.

 

[eg1]

Finally got fed up waiting and bought a hot tub. Very happy with that -- wish I had done it years ago.

Dominoes, though ...

No space left on the old (late 70s) 32 slot 100A service. Furthermore, the previous homeowners who had finished the basement in the 90s built cabinets around/in front of the service (located in the laundry room), which is a major code fail and meant that my hot tub installation would not meet code even if the service didn't need replacing.

So, ripped out the cabinet and installed a new 150A service (a bit of an oddball, but our house is too small to warrant 200A) with 40+ slots. Will wait until electrical is inspected (in the next couple of weeks) before repairing the laundry room. The cost/nuisance of THAT project dependent upon the wife's specifications ...

 

[lefty]

Wouldn't you get a little more resale value out of the 200 amp service? Didn't even know there was a 150.

lefty

 

[eg1]

Don't care about resale. As far as I am concerned, they can carry me out of here in a box!

150 is weird -- 125, also available, is weirder. House is about 2200 sqf and we already have every space finished (basement and garage) and are already running every electrical item imaginable indooors and out (pool, hot tub, landscape lighting) except maybe a lift/elevator. Even then, I still have at least 4 unused slots in the panel.

No need for 200A, and it would have required even more laundry room demolition.