The Home-ownership Thread

[Ogre]

6 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

The wife and I just bought our first investment property. 

Well, the truth is, the offer was accepted and now we are in the long drawn out process of closing.Its a mix of nervousness and excitement to open this landlord chapter of our lives.

In Cheektowaga. Two units. Upper/lower. Over 1,000 sq. ft.in each. Only thing that sucks is the taxes. My god it’s obscene. NY state govt. just doesn’t get it. Or doesn’t care to.

Anyone an experienced landlord?

 

 What is the county’s cut? It’s not only the state with their hands in your pockets.

As for the landlording? Got out of it as soon as I could. They stop paying you(sometimes after years of paying faithfully)and it’s a real bitch to get rid of them. 

[North Buffalo]

16 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

The wife and I just bought our first investment property. 

Well, the truth is, the offer was accepted and now we are in the long drawn out process of closing.Its a mix of nervousness and excitement to open this landlord chapter of our lives.

In Cheektowaga. Two units. Upper/lower. Over 1,000 sq. ft.in each. Only thing that sucks is the taxes. My god it’s obscene. NY state govt. just doesn’t get it. Or doesn’t care to.

Anyone an experienced landlord?

 

Yes best to deal with college kids, studious ones... like math and science kids.  And then you charge enough so they leave after a few years.

Edited March 21, 2019 by North Buffalo

[Zamboni]

2 minutes ago, Ogre said:

 What is the county’s cut? It’s not only the state with their hands in your pockets.

As for the landlording? Got out of it as soon as I could. They stop paying you(sometimes after years of paying faithfully)and it’s a real bitch to get rid of them. 

I mis spoke ... yea it’s a combo of county and state. Vampires.

i have a good friend who owns several properties so we are getting great advice from him regarding protecting ourselves from bad renters and legally iron clad lease agreements. 

Of course nothing is foolproof....

[Doohicksie]

37 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

In Cheektowaga. Two units. Upper/lower. Over 1,000 sq. ft.in each. Only thing that sucks is the taxes.

What street?  I grew up in Cheektowaga.

[Wyldnwoody44]

Finally getting my travel wall together, it's been a month in the works, prolly about 250$ spent so far, I still have some things to fill out, thinking of doing an 18x18 compass decal in the bottom left with a saying, idk what yet. Then maybe 15-20 more frames and pics and I think it'll be set. 

[LTS]

7 hours ago, Ogre said:

Finally got around to building my lawn roller. My lawns are so lumpy that you can’t cut the grass without rupturing a spleen. All materials were salvaged so the only cost was time and electricity for the welder...I had removed the fittings on the LP tank and purged the gas with water last fall. The smell of the ethyl mercaptan lingered for months....

I cut a template to fit in the leveling ring on the bottom of the tank to find and mark exact center. I used the leveling ring to ensure the axle pin was perfectly square to the direction of travel. Cut the ring off and centered it on the other side and repeated the process. Cut off all the fittings and plug welded them closed, leaving one for filling and draining. Built a boxed frame with sleeve collars that fit snugly on the axle so there was no need for bearings. I’m going to add removable cheek weights tomorrow...I have about 400 lbs worth which will give me up to 1000 lbs...that should squish anything flat.... I want the cheek weights removable so I can also use them on the trebuchet that I have plans for this fall... so much fun!

Had to cut the pictures to be nice.

You wanna bring that thing north into HFL/Mendon?  I need my lawn beat to hell.  ?

[Sabres Fan in NS]

13 hours ago, LTS said:

Had to cut the pictures to be nice.

You wanna bring that thing north into HFL/Mendon?  I need my lawn beat to hell.  ?

Good to see you.  I was afraid we had lost you too.

[Ogre]

Finished product....I had planned on using an existing fitting as the fill/drain but decided to move it so the tank fills completely. When filled with water it’s about 1,000 lbs. Maybe that’s too much for such a small footprint? We’ll see on Sunday...

14 hours ago, LTS said:

Had to cut the pictures to be nice.

You wanna bring that thing north into HFL/Mendon?  I need my lawn beat to hell.  ?

You’re actually pretty darn close...I think we could work out a deal...most likely involving beer...

[LTS]

5 hours ago, Ogre said:

Finished product....I had planned on using an existing fitting as the fill/drain but decided to move it so the tank fills completely. When filled with water it’s about 1,000 lbs. Maybe that’s too much for such a small footprint? We’ll see on Sunday...

You’re actually pretty darn close...I think we could work out a deal...most likely involving beer...

Deals involving beer are perfect.  ?  Especially if you happen to like anything I make myself.  ?  

Wonder if I should aerate first... I'll hit you up though.  

[Ogre]

This is another project that I’ve been dying to tackle...I’ve had several ideas what I would do with this cantilevered arm that holds a hammock swing in the summer. I had a solid vision pop into my head Monday so I got right to work...all salvaged materials.

My wife thinks I’m nuts for dragging this material home but for the first time ever she was “blown away”. This project was a win/win for me. I enjoyed the hell out of it and my wife is looking at me through new eyes.? 

 

[MattPie]

My house is under contract, inspection results tomorrow. It's a great time to be going back to renting.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Hey,

Do yous (that's the plural of you, at least it is in some parts of NS) remember this one ...

https://www.viewpoint.ca/cutsheet/201821623/1

It's pending now because my wife and I (along with our bank) took our best (3rd) run at it on Friday morning.  This afternoon the sellers accepted our offer.

3rd time's the charm, they say.

Now the fun begins ... including owning 2 homes for as short a time as possible.  We need to do minor stuff to our home in order to sell it, but with my wife's health issues those can't happen until we move and get set up in the new house.  We have a glorified bridge financing pre-approved, so it should be a formality, but the bank will likely want to do some kind of appraisal, as we likely over-payed a bit.  Some things in life are worth it.

It's pending inspections ... closing for May 6th.

Edited April 8, 2019 by New Scotland (NS)
typing and stuff ...

[gris]

On 12/2/2015 at 11:54 AM, MattPie said:

YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND MORE MONEY PER MONTH TO OWN THAN RENT

My case is different, maybe I'm a  choosey renter. I rented in Williamsville, with a garage w/opener for $1800.

Owning my house near city line with a garage is $1000.

And........ I just realized how old this thread is.

Edited April 8, 2019 by gris
update

[MattPie]

5 hours ago, gris said:

My case is different, maybe I'm a  choosey renter. I rented in Williamsville, with a garage w/opener for $1800.

Owning my house near city line with a garage is $1000.

And........ I just realized how old this thread is.

Heh, no problem. Even with that spread, I'll wager that you'd make up that extra $800/mo on home expenses. Furnaces roof,  along with the little stuff like lawn care (seed, fertilizer), landscaping, minor repairs, dishwasher, etc.. I'm not sure if you $1000 included property tax and whatnot too. They always quote you the mortgage price, but neglect to mention the (around here) $500/mo you have to sock away for property and school taxes.

In any case,  house sale is moving along, repaired most of the stuff the seller wanted so far, getting things cleaned out and packed. I went the "pod" route to try it out. Unless it goes pear-shaped, seems like a great deal. For +-$100 more than renting a truck, I get the pod for a month, and since it's local, they pick it up on a scheduled day and drop it at the new place 1-2 hours later direct.

[Doohicksie]

This little guy likes to hang out outside my window.  I named him Zorro.

Edited April 12, 2019 by Doohickie

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Things are moving along nicely.

Had a very nice call with our bank manager this afternoon ... ?

Well and septic (I am not a fan, to say the least, of septic tanks) inspections are scheduled for Wednesday (our agent is taking care of that).  House inspection is scheduled for Thursday.  I will be there for that one ... clipboard and pen(s) ready.

Insurance in place.  

Lawyer has reviewed agreement and other docs sent by seller / seller agent.  All is good, so far.

It is looking more and more like this is happening.

[Samson's Flow]

After finally thawing out last week I noticed that a decent sized area of shingles had blown off my roof - probably from that crazy windstorm.

I love talking to contractors...

[Weave]

1 hour ago, Samson's Flow said:

After finally thawing out last week I noticed that a decent sized area of shingles had blown off my roof - probably from that crazy windstorm.

I love talking to contractors...

We had roofing and siding replaced 2 weeks ago.  Was a tough Winter by that standard.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

14 hours ago, Weave said:

We had roofing and siding replaced 2 weeks ago.  Was a tough Winter by that standard.

Our roof needed to be done, but we tried to squeeze out one last winter (2015).  That winter was unusually snowy and icy.  The roof barely made it through and we were lucky that the wood below the shingles was still in good shape.

[matter2003]

Owned my house for the last 13 years in the Buffalo area and ironically when we purchased it in 2005 our real estate agent said we probbaly slightly "overpaid" for it but that if we stayed a few more years it would likely catch up.

We didnt care because it was in a great area and on a quiet street to raise a family and the other houses we looked at were actually more expensive in other areas and we didn't like them as much.  As it turned out it was a great move as real estate prices in the WNY have skyrocketed since(well skyrocketed for this area lol) and its now worth approximately 55K more than what we paid for it based on Zillow estimates.

Over the years we have had to do some repair work, but we qualified for a weatherization grant that we ended up waiting on a list for 3 years but when they came in they replaced the furnace and hot water heater since they were both 15-20 years old and did a bunch of other minor things. Got a metal roof put on by a buddy in the roofing business and love it other than when it snows we get an avalanche off the one side of the roof by the door.  But that roof will be around longer than we will. So thats the only roof replacement we will need to do.

Just put in a new sump pump with a backup...that cost about $350. Replaced a lighting fixture and replaced 2 sections of fence in  the backyard and need to replace 3 more sections this year as those 4 or 5 wind storms over a month period we had really did a number on it.

Getting ready to spend some money for landscaping in the front yard this year.

Overall I'm pretty happy with everything, especially that we refinanced when the mortgage rates were down to a 3.875% interest rate at 20 years, cutting 5 years and 2.5% off our old rate.

Also some of the WORST advice people give is to pay off the mortgage early...DO NOT DO THIS!! Its a fools errand...on average the market returns 8% a year. If you take this extra money you could be investing and use it to pay down the mortgage you are giving up the difference between 8% and your mortgage rate AND the compound interest you would be earning on top of it. Your goal with money should be to maximize your long term worth and you will NEVER do this by paying off low interest things early at the expense of investing that money into higher earning interest things.

 

 

[Wyldnwoody44]

Idk, I pay an extra 450$ a month on the principal and my house I bought last year will be paid off in 14 years, instead of 30. That's huge if I ever want to sell and move as one of the only reasons I was able to get my place, was because I had no contingencies. I literally swooped in and took this house from 3 others because of that fact and paying the house off early and knocking down that principal is big. I'm no very investment savvy, but that's just another take on it ?

[matter2003]

14 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Idk, I pay an extra 450$ a month on the principal and my house I bought last year will be paid off in 14 years, instead of 30. That's huge if I ever want to sell and move as one of the only reasons I was able to get my place, was because I had no contingencies. I literally swooped in and took this house from 3 others because of that fact and paying the house off early and knocking down that principal is big. I'm no very investment savvy, but that's just another take on it ?

If you took that $450 a month and put it into investments you'd have a lot more than that after 14 years...

Fungibility of money states that earning x amount of dollars more is the same as paying x amount of dollars less. You should do whatever is more in your favor. In almost all circumstances investing money to make more $ is in your favor over reducing a payment.

 

If you invested $450 a month into investments at even a below average 8% return you'd have $141K after 14 years due to compounding interest.

If you received an average 12% return you'd have $195K.

Pretty sure you aren't saving anywhere close to that in interest by paying it off early. 

Edited April 20, 2019 by matter2003

[Wyldnwoody44]

2 minutes ago, matter2003 said:

If you took that $450 a month and put it into investments you'd have a lot more than that after 14 years...

Fungibility of money states that earning x amount of dollars more is the same as paying x amount of dollars less. You should do whatever is more in your favor. In almost all circumstances investing money to make more $ is in your favor over reducing a payment.

Are we talking low risk investments, or higher, as the ability to lose money with investing is far greater than in paying more principal. But then again, I am a literal idiot when it comes to finances ?

[matter2003]

3 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

Are we talking low risk investments, or higher, as the ability to lose money with investing is far greater than in paying more principal. But then again, I am a literal idiot when it comes to finances ?

see the edit I made for an example...we are talking about simply investing in mutual funds/IRAs that are well managaed and have produced these returns on average year over year.

The key to long term wealth in terms of investing is investing money each month and leaving it sit there to let the magic of compound interest take effect. On average the amount of money will double every 7 years due to compound interest. You dont freak out about the ups and downs of the market...when the market is down its actually better because you can buy more shares for the same money.

Edited April 20, 2019 by matter2003

[Sabres Fan in NS]

In Canada we are not subject to capital gains tax when selling a principal residence, so it is always best to pay the mortgage off ASAP.

In the States, I do not think there is that same capital gain exemption, but the only reason why I would not pay off my mortgage ASAP is that the interest is tax deductible.

+++++

We are making our way through the condition process on our purchase.  Things are going well.  One thing showed up on the septic inspection and one thing on the house inspection.  Neither are deal breakers, but after talking with a neighbour who just happens to be a septic system engineer I feel a lot calmer about the whole situation.  We are going to sit down and talk about it, but we will likely make an amendment to the deal and split the repair amounts 50/50.  Our condition day is Wednesday the 24th and they will all be met.

We are getting there.