Those looking @ houses....

I have to say that it's pretty freaking depressing looking at houses. With our budget, I expected that we would have to updating. No big deal. We were expecting to see blue or pink bathrooms, green or orange kitchens, etc. We're not even seeing that. In the houses we've seen, the kitchens and baths are original (as in, from the 40's----before pink or blue bathrooms were even 'invented').

With the housing market as it is, we're suprised what people are charging for POS houses with no yard. It's ridiculous.

we just started to look and we looked at three houses, two houses were not even move in ready - you would have to put some work in it before sleeping in the place, some had extensive damage (ripped out copper/plumbing) etc. So now we are looking at the higher range of what we can afford and hope we can find something.

This is probably our only chance with the market being down to buy a house and afford it.

I figured we would have to do some work but damn some of these houses are completely SCARY!!!!

DH and I looked at 4 houses on sat.....

one need a lot of updating and the kitchen was sooo small DH and I could barely fit it and it was at the upper end of our budget so we wouldnt be able to update it for a while....

then house number 2 was ok but needed some work but had no basement which DH is uncomfortable with

then house number 3 was perfect but has no COs for all the work they have done so we prob wont be able to a mortgage approve for it

and house number 4 was rented out by room to different people so that was weird and creepy......
and it had a foot of water in the basement with no subpump, so nasty water just sitting there and active dripping from somewhere

so annoying

i just got sent a listing on a house that had no boiler, I am wondering if its worth it even though its really on the high side of our budget. I mean I am sure a boiler is like 5k and that would have to get done prior to moving in so that means not move in ready

I know there are mortgages that give you 30k extra for fixing up things that they will bundle with your normal approved amount. A boiler would fall into what needs to be done asap and not cosmetic.

I had seen a house where the owner answered the door 'your early' and had a cig dangling from his mouth and he ashed on his floor. DH smokes but my god never indoors and never would ash on his floor. The agent said - real wood floors and i looked down going - oh i thought it was black tile IoI

It's really so frustrating. We saw a house that I loved (from the outside) on Saturday. Perfect neighborhood. Shorter commute. Beautiful property. We would need to spend at least $50,000 before we could move in. DH is a carpenter so he could do the work himself-----but we couldn't even live there until a good chunk of work was done. Original boiler. Original electric.

Has any1 looked into foreclosures?

yea we are looking into foreclosures and short sales. i am finding scary that there most are listed as 'sold as is' and no guarantees so since everything is shut off in the house there is no way to test if anything works so you do not know what you could be getting yourself into with out investing into a contract prior to placing a offer(this is my understanding.)

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Posted by nifheim

yea we are looking into foreclosures and short sales. i am finding scary that there most are listed as 'sold as is' and no guarantees so since everything is shut off in the house there is no way to test if anything works so you do not know what you could be getting yourself into with out investing into a contract prior to placing a offer(this is my understanding.)

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That is really scary buying something 'as is' without knowing how it is on the inside.

I have heard that some people are animals and they destroy the house by inviting friends over to have forclosure parties. where they take down walls, fixtures, sinks toilets, pour cement into drains, take all the copper pipes out(because they can sell it) Take out anything metal including the burners, radiators, and baseboards, as well and sell it for scrap metal.

I also learned that if it is a short sale/foreclosure ask if people are there and if not does the electric at least run otherwise you have to pick daytime hours to view a house.

I just made an appointment for a 6 p.m. visit to a closed house and I told the agent how would we see the house in the dark with no electric? She said flashlights and I said if we can wait until the weekend when we can go during the day.

Donald Trump (that slime I know) but anyway I read in the paper that their only 3 reasons why people are selling in this crap market...

D- divorce

D- debt

D- death

in other words people are only selling if they HAVE to bc home values are so depreciated....

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Posted by lizzie217

Donald Trump (that slime I know) but anyway I read in the paper that their only 3 reasons why people are selling in this crap market...

D- divorce

D- debt

D- death

in other words people are only selling if they HAVE to bc home values are so depreciated....

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yea and thats why there is mostly crap on the market

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Posted by lizzie217

Donald Trump (that slime I know) but anyway I read in the paper that their only 3 reasons why people are selling in this crap market...

D- divorce

D- debt

D- death

in other words people are only selling if they HAVE to bc home values are so depreciated....

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That's probably true but in our area in NJ there are some from people having to relocate for work (a big employer is closing so many people are moving)...also DH's parents have been trying to sell their house for a while just to move to something smaller, and it's still on the market b/c they figure why not. They keep doing things to make it nicer and nicer....there are some out there!! They live in Shoreham if anyone is interested, and their house is nice!

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Posted by lizzie217

Donald Trump (that slime I know) but anyway I read in the paper that their only 3 reasons why people are selling in this crap market...

D- divorce

D- debt

D- death

in other words people are only selling if they HAVE to bc home values are so depreciated....

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That really seems to be true! All of the houses we looked at fall into one of those categories.

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Posted by skinny237

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Posted by lizzie217

Donald Trump (that slime I know) but anyway I read in the paper that their only 3 reasons why people are selling in this crap market...

D- divorce

D- debt

D- death

in other words people are only selling if they HAVE to bc home values are so depreciated....

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That really seems to be true! All of the houses we looked at fall into one of those categories.

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Of course on the flip side...if you find something you like you can get a deal

We have seeen sooooo many houses. Bid on 3 of them. It seems like the houses that ARE in wonderful condition turn key....ect...are selling fast and quick. Some are even going past the asking price...a bidding war!!!! So nice houses are a shortage these days.

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Posted by curiousgeorge

We have seeen sooooo many houses. Bid on 3 of them. It seems like the houses that ARE in wonderful condition turn key....ect...are selling fast and quick. Some are even going past the asking price...a bidding war!!!! So nice houses are a shortage these days.

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Honestly, we accept that we aren't going to get a NICE house. We just want one that isn't a total POS! We'll take a blue bathroom----we're not even seeing that!

we put an offer on a short sale a month ago and we are still waiting - fingers crossed!!

not all are bad.....we wouldn't look at any past 5 years old....so even though its sold 'as is' there are less likely to be problems in a newer home.....also we can still have the home inspected if our offer is accepted by the bank (which they turn on utilities for) and if there is anything wrong with the house we can try to re-negotiate with the bank or decide not to go through with the purchase of the home (say if the house has a bad roof we can say forget it, the roof is bad we don't want this property anymore).....at least that is how it is in florida......

none of the houses we saw were trashed.....the one we made an offer on was still being occupied at the moment but both times we went there the guy wasn't home......i guess he wasn't kicked out yet.....the people doing short sales would be stupid to destroy their home - IF they get an offer on their home they can avoid forclosure - so them trashing their home doesn't even make sense b/c they NEED someone to want their house......i guess i can see someone destroying a forclosure out of spite but in florida all the short sales we saw were in decent condition.....most were not occupied and you could see that it looked like the people left in a rush - some left furniture, one left clothes in the closet - but they didn't destroy anything.....maybe NY market is different?

i'm so discouraged!

you guys are scaring me!. DH and I are going to start looking soon....going to check out open houses this weekend.