Home Buying Help Thread

[bigbadbuff]

6 minutes ago, kingseanjohn said:

If it were me, I'd choose option B. No sense in not looking in case something pops up that you love. If you don't find something, you'll at least have a better sense of what the market is doing. I'd just put that 3k aside now and not touch it. Worst case, you don't find a house in that time frame and you have that extra 3k at the end of the year.

I personally think the market is going to correct itself; not a crash though. Back in September Zillow put out that they were "predicting that home prices in the United States would rise another 11.7 percent over the next 12 months." Two months later they had to sell a lot of their recently acquired houses for a loss and stopped purchasing new ones. I think/selfishly hope that prices are going to go down by next fall when I'm looking to purchase a house myself.

I hope you are right! That is the direction I’m leaning towards myself. I want to get more for my money. I love my apartment but it just feels like throwing money away.

it is nice to never have to worry about shoveling snow though haha!

 

 

[kingseanjohn]

1 hour ago, bigbadbuff said:

I hope you are right! That is the direction I’m leaning towards myself. I want to get more for my money. I love my apartment but it just feels like throwing money away.

it is nice to never have to worry about shoveling snow though haha!

For sure! I'm in an apartment right now myself and I love not having to worry about yard work and maintenance.

If you haven't thought about it, I've been doing the math on additional things I'm gonna have to buy and it isn't pretty... Snow shovel/blower, lawnmower, ladders, hoses, washer and dryer, kitchen appliances, etc. Plus everything that I just want to have like a new bedroom set. It adds up quick.

[ramssuperbowl99]

11 hours ago, kingseanjohn said:

For sure! I'm in an apartment right now myself and I love not having to worry about yard work and maintenance.

If you haven't thought about it, I've been doing the math on additional things I'm gonna have to buy and it isn't pretty... Snow shovel/blower, lawnmower, ladders, hoses, washer and dryer, kitchen appliances, etc. Plus everything that I just want to have like a new bedroom set. It adds up quick.

I'm mentally planning on spending about ~$15k extra with the first year of home ownership solely because of stuff like that. I've had friends spend more than twice that by the time they get their "forever furniture".

It's crazy how much that all adds up.

[MWil23]

23 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

I'm mentally planning on spending about ~$15k extra with the first year of home ownership solely because of stuff like that. I've had friends spend more than twice that by the time they get their "forever furniture".

It's crazy how much that all adds up.

IMO you can start off small. For example, I'd recommend re-using your furniture for a bit, and here's why:

You, and DEFINITELY YOUR SPOUSE (speaking from every guy's experience ever) will want to get a feel for the "flow" of your home, whether it's the living/family room layout and style, to the bedroom (bed placement, whether you want an accent chair/furniture/TV/whatever), to a walk in closet (style, setup, dressers/not, custom IKEA or not, etc.), to the kitchen and dining area, etc.

Then throw in the outside landscaping. Obviously a mower and some basic lawn and garden tools are a necessity and you can buy those immediately, but what about mulch vs. river rock vs. planter boxes or whatever you want to have? What about patio furniture? What about storing all this stuff vs. using a garage vs. having an out-building?

In my experience, going room by room is the way to go, starting with the most important to you guys. For us, it was all the kitchen stuff, then the laundry room, then our bedrooms.

Our living room is still a bit eclectic and serves a functional purpose for now, and in the next year or two, we'll change up our furniture and buy new, matching the "flow" of our home that we've lived in for about right at a year and a half.

Just for what it's worth!

[ramssuperbowl99]

7 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

IMO you can start off small. For example, I'd recommend re-using your furniture for a bit, and here's why:

You, and DEFINITELY YOUR SPOUSE (speaking from every guy's experience ever) will want to get a feel for the "flow" of your home, whether it's the living/family room layout and style, to the bedroom (bed placement, whether you want an accent chair/furniture/TV/whatever), to a walk in closet (style, setup, dressers/not, custom IKEA or not, etc.), to the kitchen and dining area, etc.

Then throw in the outside landscaping. Obviously a mower and some basic lawn and garden tools are a necessity and you can buy those immediately, but what about mulch vs. river rock vs. planter boxes or whatever you want to have? What about patio furniture? What about storing all this stuff vs. using a garage vs. having an out-building?

In my experience, going room by room is the way to go, starting with the most important to you guys. For us, it was all the kitchen stuff, then the laundry room, then our bedrooms.

Our living room is still a bit eclectic and serves a functional purpose for now, and in the next year or two, we'll change up our furniture and buy new, matching the "flow" of our home that we've lived in for about right at a year and a half.

Just for what it's worth!

Yeah I should clarify that I am planning on spending $15k over the first year, not right away, and would definitely be patient in terms of not needing to be "done" with the house immediately. Seen enough friends make that mistake.

[MWil23]

2 minutes ago, ramssuperbowl99 said:

Yeah I should clarify that I am planning on spending $15k over the first year, not right away, and would definitely be patient in terms of not needing to be "done" with the house immediately. Seen enough friends make that mistake.

IMO do the rooms that nobody else sees or you don't need to use last. Everybody has their strengths/weaknesses for things. For example, I'm great at landscaping and have a mind/eye for it, but I struggle with utilizing closet spaces, understanding functional vs. looking good and matching a theme, consolidating into storage (my solution is to just donate and throw out extraneous stuff), etc.

So, allowing/encouraging my wife to run with the themes and me balancing her out on "functional" has actually been a lot of fun, and it's slowly but surely coming together.

I have no idea what people did before Pinterest (which is sometimes also the bane of my existence) and YouTube for theme ideas and DIY projects.

[Mox]

Anyone else simply waiting on the 3d printed home market to blow up, and jump in on that?

Edited December 10, 2021 by Bullet Club

[MWil23]

Just now, Bullet Club said:

Anyone else simply waiting on the 3rd printed home market to blow up, and jump in on that?

I'm actually looking at this pretty intently and weighing whether or not to expand as a landlord. Currently we rent out a section of our basement, and that's worked out great. (TL;DR: separate entrance, entirely furnished, sectioned off of the rest of the house, etc.)

I'm waiting for the market to dip, then looking at either buying a fixer upper and fixing it and renting it or outright flipping it...forming an LLC with a couple of friends and doing this on the side as a hobby while also bringing in some cash. 

I won't be taking food off the table or anything risky, but have a number saved up for the opportunity to do this and if I lose it, no harm no foul.

[Mox]

8 minutes ago, MWil23 said:

I'm actually looking at this pretty intently and weighing whether or not to expand as a landlord. Currently we rent out a section of our basement, and that's worked out great. (TL;DR: separate entrance, entirely furnished, sectioned off of the rest of the house, etc.)

I'm waiting for the market to dip, then looking at either buying a fixer upper and fixing it and renting it or outright flipping it...forming an LLC with a couple of friends and doing this on the side as a hobby while also bringing in some cash. 

I won't be taking food off the table or anything risky, but have a number saved up for the opportunity to do this and if I lose it, no harm no foul.

You're farther along than I am but we have similar long term ideas.

[MKnight82]

17 hours ago, kingseanjohn said:

I personally think the market is going to correct itself; not a crash though. Back in September Zillow put out that they were "predicting that home prices in the United States would rise another 11.7 percent over the next 12 months." Two months later they had to sell a lot of their recently acquired houses for a loss and stopped purchasing new ones. I think/selfishly hope that prices are going to go down by next fall when I'm looking to purchase a house myself.

They are projecting those prices to go up because of inflation. Cost to build homes has gone up 13% in the past 6 months in my market. This inflation is not driven by demand but cost inflation.  That cost then gets pushed onto the buyer in higher prices. I don't see a market correction because of this, more likely these pricing levels become the new norm because I don't think costs are going to go significantly down. 

Also Zillow stopped buying houses because their model couldn't predict the inflation happening. So they were buying houses with the intention to flip them, but the cost of renovating them ended up being way higher than they thought.  So they were losing money.  Zillow didn't get out of buying houses because they think the market is going to go down. 

[MWil23]

8 minutes ago, Bullet Club said:

You're farther along than I am but we have similar long term ideas.

I live in a college town with awesome college kids where I don't have to worry about them trashing it, partying, etc. (they have an honor code/code of conduct here). They're awesome and I'll gladly rent to them at any point. The housing market here is also always hot in terms of people wanting to move here. (Small town)

[Mox]

Just now, MWil23 said:

I live in a college town with awesome college kids where I don't have to worry about them trashing it, partying, etc. (they have an honor code/code of conduct here). They're awesome and I'll gladly rent to them at any point. The housing market here is also always hot in terms of people wanting to move here. (Small town)

That's an awesome spot to be. Glad they're responsible and have an honor code. That makes a huge difference, and your life much easier. As for expanding, if the market crashed I'd jump in immediately but it doesn't seem like that's coming right now.

[MWil23]

2 minutes ago, Bullet Club said:

That's an awesome spot to be. Glad they're responsible and have an honor code. That makes a huge difference, and your life much easier. As for expanding, if the market crashed I'd jump in immediately but it doesn't seem like that's coming right now.

I get bored easily, and I'm trying to balance really having a good ministry opportunity here for college kids that need good landlords, because unfortunately some are basically slum lords here, and making some money too. I'm content playing the long game/waiting game as well.

[Mox]

1 minute ago, MWil23 said:

I get bored easily, and I'm trying to balance really having a good ministry opportunity here for college kids that need good landlords, because unfortunately some are basically slum lords here, and making some money too. I'm content playing the long game/waiting game as well.

My whole financial outlook has been long term based, and to this point it has worked great, and allowed me to do things I've been wanting to do for some time. I get the whole 'get rich' quick thing but at the end of the day scamming kids and putting them up in garbage situations is pretty low.

[Forge]

21 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

They are projecting those prices to go up because of inflation. Cost to build homes has gone up 13% in the past 6 months in my market. This inflation is not driven by demand but cost inflation.  That cost then gets pushed onto the buyer in higher prices. I don't see a market correction because of this, more likely these pricing levels become the new norm because I don't think costs are going to go significantly down. 

Also Zillow stopped buying houses because their model couldn't predict the inflation happening. So they were buying houses with the intention to flip them, but the cost of renovating them ended up being way higher than they thought.  So they were losing money.  Zillow didn't get out of buying houses because they think the market is going to go down. 

This. The hard cost increase is a big factor that people forget about. I also don't see markets toppling any time soon, and if they did, it's a nationwide economy issue, which is bigger than just the housing market. Prices could stabilize where they are, but I do not see them decreasing any time soon either.