If you haven't closed yet, look at 203k mortgages. You can roll in reno costs and they usually go off post reno appraisal value at closing.
Good thought, but it looks like you pay PMI regardless of the down payment. We have the money to put down for 20%, so we're trying to avoid PMI. Here's kind of where we are: purchase price would be $365-$370,000. We'd put down 20% and could use about $30,000 for some renovations. We have savings, but figured it'd be best not to touch that nestegg in case something went haywire with the reno and we needed funds.
I didn't think you had to pay PMI on a 203k, but could be wrong. A lot of banks only want to loan up to 80 LTV for a HELOC. You might be able to find an online bank or possibly a credit union.
It's an asphalt driveway, about 80' long. Jet-black came by and put a nice black seal coat on it and repaired a crack.
This is actually really good advice. I called an independent agent in town and they came in about half priced as the big companies (the coverage is basically the same as well).
Would be careful with some insurance companies. The reason some of them have such low rates is because they don't pay on many claims.
Actually, you're less likely to get paid full value on a claim from a major insurance company vs. a large regional carrier. The Big 5 have more resources to keep you from receiving what you're due, and more motivation to withhold the payouts - and more lawyers in-house to tie it up. Unless it's a major disaster, then they're just writing checks as quick as they can because the government will back them.
I'm excited to see this thread has been restarted. We moved in to our house from a condo last May. We were carrying two mortgages until September and then had a baby in November so we were limited on what we did to furnish or do anything else in our new house. Off the top of my head, we bought a bed for the master, bought a dining room table set, replaced all of our curtains/blinds because about half were gone, painted and furnished a nursery and painted a (guest) bedroom. Spoiler Nursery (before things were hung on the wall and the blinds were installed). My wife is crafty so she bought the fabric and made the bed skirt, sheets, blanket and curtains. This spring we've started to get much more active though. Two weeks ago we replaced the only 5 windows in the house that were still original (1959). This week we furnished our basement with couches and a rug for an area that we plan to use it as a kid play area once he is old enough. Spoiler New couch for basement This rug arrived yesterday and now lays in front of the couches. The next step is much more major. We love our house but there are some places where it could function better so we hired a firm to come over this Friday to measure our entire house and then design a new master floor plan. They will include remodeling projects and rough price parameters for each so that we can prioritize them. The company does everything from handy-man to design/build from scratch and they have their own cabinet making and landscaping companies so it will be interesting to see what they come back with.
I wasn't talking about regional vs major insurance company. I was talking a company that has especially low rates which can be a large provider.
Finally got around to setting my lighting schedule with my TCP app for when I'm away. Having lights turn on at "random" times instead of the same time every day and night is awesome.
Help me get rid of carpenter bees. The kid's playground thing in the backyard is fucking infested with them. You go out there during the day and there are 10-20 of those fat fuckers buzzing around it. I know the males don't have stingers and the females aren't normally aggressive but it's still a bit intimidating to go out there with that many of those fuckers flying all around you. Last Fall when we moved in, we noticed the playground thing had holes and shit in it like it had some termites or carpenter ants or something. Never imagined that it was going to be carpenter bees! If you guys aren't any help, I'm probably just going to burn it down this weekend.
Full auto air soft guns and go to town. Or a 22 pistol with rat shot. Obviously make sure the young ones aren't around for all this.
Yeah, I fully expect that. Some of the projects (further down) on the list will be a kitchen renovation (including opening up a wall to the dining room) and creating a brand new master bathroom. We realize, if we ever do them, those are going to be expensive projects. We are more likely starting with things like removing a built-in desk in our family room and making that space a dry bar with a beverage refrigerator, updating old fireplaces, adding cabinets and storage to an office to make it more of a sewing/craft room for my wife, figuring a furniture layout and wall color for our living room and dining room, etc. Before we do some of the projects we just want to make sure they make the most sense in the overall floor plan of the house and that for instance the colors won't clash if the dining room is opened to the kitchen and family room in the future.
Going to be doing a roof replacement here soon... What should I expect to be shelling out? 10 Grand? House is 2 story 2,500 sq ft
Sounds about right, more in an urban type area and of course how many layers of shingles and any repairs.
I have American Standard Cadet 3. Has two different flushes. One for piss and one for shits. It's like $188.
Smoke is supposed to pacify them as well, IIRC. Unless your kids are going to be upset, my vote is to burn it down.
Depends on where you are of course. I have a 1700 SF one story house, got my roof done for 8K last year. That was the lowest of the estimates we got, work was solid, haven't had any issues
I live in the burbs in Ohio and the house has the original roof (house built 1994), so 1 layer of shingles
Just replaced 3 in my new house. Took me an hour total. The tile work and apoxy stuff I had to do in the guest bathroom though I'm now working on my back patio. It needs to be ready for football season. Outdoor couch, fire pit, smoker all setup facing in my french doors to the TV.
Just quoting one of your posts. The American Standard Cadet 3 is the correct way to go, you want an elongated bowl and the Right Height spec if you are bigger guy. More bowl, more height. I've put them in every home I have ever lived in and so have my parents (family company is a moderatly large plumbing and HVAC contractor, so we have seen some shitty toilets) For install unseat the old, get rid of it, stuff a rag in the shitter pipe to stop sewer gas, clean up the flange with a scraper and prep the new. Buy a wax ring with a collar attached, stick it on the bottom of the toilet, set it, twist it slightly as you push down, square it and tighten the bolts, just be SUPER careful not to over tighten and bust the base. I'd replace the john bolts too if I were you, they just slide into the closet flange. Tankless water heater; do your research, unless you go really big it likely will lessen pressure. Also note the maintenance, they have to be "cleaned" yearly with an acid to keep stuff flowing correctly, and it can be a bitch.
They make a product called BEE GONE, not sure it's good to use on a playground though. I used Sevin from Lowe's and it kept them away for a while. A tennis racket is your best option though...
I'd say I'm average height and weight. Just bought a house with tiny seats and it sucks. Looks like I'll be going with that Cadet 3 based on you and Connor. Doesn't seem like a real hard job to do at all. As far as the tankless, that's good to know about the pressure. One thing I don't want to do is lessen the water pressure upstairs. It's not bad as it is but I wouldn't want it to lessen.
I'm good with the tennis racket approach. I'm about to resort to that around my place. Some places are starting to look like swiss cheese. The chickens can only catch and eat so many of the carpenter bees.
This is what's pissing me off. The birds in the area should be having a bumblebee feast but they aren't. Fuckers.
Nope. It's tall and wide. Also the seat is soft close, so you don't have to worry about slamming toilet seats and waking female guests.
Actually I think 2 of these are going to be my next purchase before anything else. Would make sense with my travel schedule. http://august.com/
Not a lot of options for a HELOC there. My advice as a former loan officer and now an account executive at a wholesale lender would be to put down what you can minus the costs of the reno, do lender paid mortgage insurance. There is no monthly mortgage insurance, so your monthly payment would be lower, and the lender paid mi can be paid up front with credit from the interest rate. If you're using a broker, ask them if they use united wholesale mortgage, and our pay advantage program. Not trying to pimp who I work for because this wouldn't make me money anyways, I just think that's going to be your best option given the situation. If you have any specific questions feel free to shoot me a pm.
Ah, similar size for mine, but mine was in a pretty bad state of disrepair as of our purchase. I asked a contractor that was paving the neighborhood how much to resurface, and he came back with $2k ball park. Probably due to 3" asphalt needed on the entire thing.
Can you explain taxes to me? It's been five years since we bought our home, so I forget how it all works. If the home we're looking at paid $8,000 in taxes in 2014, and we buy the home in June, we pay $8,000 in taxes through the year and then it's reassessed beginning in January? One of the homes we're looking at doesn't have a homestead exemption. Would we be able to do that beginning in January? How much would that drop the taxes?