Home buying thread
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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are you making accounts on zillow/trulia etc and just saving every potential home? you can then plot out how well and when it sold by just looking at the history.
Screamfeeder
The Dirtbag
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I am. Redfin as well. I met with a realtor tonight that gave me some really good information on the different LA markets and which areas are booming for superficial reasons and where I should be looking for actual long term living.
For those of you that own, is it always this kind of "might go up...might go down" speculation or is there such a thing as the "perfect" time and place to buy. I know a few people that got lucky buying places in certain LA hoods(Silverlake/Los Feliz) that have seen their value skyrocket and others that haven't. Makes some of this seem like a crapshoot based on stuff way out of my control. If that's the case then why not just find the place I love in my range, but it and forget the market?
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Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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totally depends on your market, my cul de sac is totally, and my house and my neighbors house are the ones in constant sold/resold since this neighborhood was put up in the 90s, (which also means my house was the most updated and remodelled house since it had 3 owners, and everyone elses house looks like it's still in the 90s), everyone else are the original owners.
Like for instance, there's a family that has to move and they priced their house according to what we bought it for (since our plans are the same, yada yada, at 180, we negotiated from 180 to 175 and got upgrades), so i don't know what they want, and here's pics of their "90s" style house
compared to mine (these are the prev owner pics)
They've been on the market for half a year, and now they've dropped to 170... cuz they gotta move.
guess what? i'm sure they'd take 165 cash to move out.
(btw, i'm gonna move my bathroom mirrors up, the prev owners musta been some short ass ppl, cuz it cuts off my head, and i'm just 5'10, not some tall dude)
Anyway, i just wanna give you perspective that, who gives a shit on what the "market" thinks or moves at, in the end you're gonna buy from a singular owner, and how his/her current situation is and how they wanna sell.
That's like saying "the stock market is hot today, we all be making money", but youre fully invested in barnes & noble, who cares of the stock market is up, it's obviously doing jack shit for you if you've invested differently.
Disclaimer, I work for Chase Bank:
Just as a heads up, some mortgage lenders, like Chase, allow you to finance after the purchase to get your cash back out and will treat it like a purchase mortgage. In our case, it's within 6 months of buying the property. It's a nice way to be able to make a cash offer, but still not put all your cash into the house long term.
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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i mean, who wants to live in fucking kansas, thats why it's cheap.That for 180? Fuck you.
Wife and I trying to buy a house on a cheap ass budget for the Northwest. $250-260k, and can't find shit that we want to buy for a 3 bed 2 bath. It's terrible.
We even want to get for 250-300 houses, but they were gonna be huge 5bedroom 15k lot houses, that we'd have trouble to sell back in 5-10years (cuz no one would buy em)
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Crone
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Yea, I get it. It seems what I need to figure out is what's gonna be the next big tech town, since my career is in IT, and just move there before it gets too crowded. Have friends that bought all within the 2 years, and they are all up $100k value on their own. It's nuts.
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Screamfeeder
The Dirtbag
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ToeMissile
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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it's bumfuck Kansas! 4bdroom, 3bath.
Hell, i go and just flush the basement and guest bath once a month, just to make sure it works and there ain't no leaks.
What are you looking at over there 2bdrooms and 1 and 1/2 bath? heh
Screamfeeder
The Dirtbag
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For places I would actually live in in the right neighborhood? $800k-$1.5M.
And I want a 3x3 with a yard sooo...
Pops
Avatar of War Slayer
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My daughter bought her starter home, in Monarch Beach. Cheapest lot available in December, 2100 sf, 3 br, 3ba. $840K. You want the Westside or the beach, it's never going to be cheap.
Silverlake/Hollywood Hills is your kind of people, but I never liked living inland. Now I'm in the fucking desert, dementia has set in.
Silverlake/Hollywood Hills is your kind of people, but I never liked living inland. Now I'm in the fucking desert, dementia has set in.
Screamfeeder
The Dirtbag
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I'm actually looking more on the East Side. Specifically Mt. Washington, Highland Park, Cypress Park(saw a 5x4 today on a 10,000sqft lot that was perfect), Atwater Village, Frog Town etc and even as far as South Pasadena. Both me and my girl work in film & TV and while she is locked into working in Hollywood I have more flexibility. Silverlake/HH are just STUPID overpriced for the dumpiest homes. Had I been looking 5 years ago (when I didn't have the kind of money I do now) that would have been a better area.
So long as I can drive into certain areas in a few hours (Culver City, Palisades etc) I don't care about being inland so long as I'm not out in the goddamn boondocks. Plus, I can get to the beach in under an hour on my bike from all those areas so I don't mind at all.
We settled on a realtor we like and after spending this weekend looking at places all over the city, I am feeling much better about my options for a 30+ year property.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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Have any of you ever dealt with a home being partially or mostly built on land owned by your neighbor? Either on a right of way or easement? I've recently gotten into a property line dispute regarding a downed fence and some dead trees that seem hazardous. I went to the tax assessor's online portal and checked the property maps and, to my surprise, found that roughly 75% of my house is on my neighbors property. I went to the assessor's office and checked the paper maps to be sure and it was the same. The deed denotes a perfectly rectangular parcel of land, the iron pipes that still exist at the barriers show something similar though the northwest and northeast markers are no longer there which is where the dispute is arising and my house sits on and over that rectangular property line. The deed mentions a 12 foot right of way and references a map from 1963 (year the house was built) that apparently no longer exists. I am likely going to need a land survey done to settle the tree/fence dispute, which is with a different neighbor, but I don't know what the hell that's going to mean for the land my house apparently sits on that belongs to yet another neighbor.
When I bought the house I stupidly assumed something like this wasn't possible and that my attorney and/or title search would have found any issues. I am definitely the sole owner and the only lien on the property is from my mortgage company but this is an unsettling discovery.
When I bought the house I stupidly assumed something like this wasn't possible and that my attorney and/or title search would have found any issues. I am definitely the sole owner and the only lien on the property is from my mortgage company but this is an unsettling discovery.
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Khane
Got something right about marriage
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There was no survey given to me. The deed spells out the plot boundaries but my property is surrounded on 2 sides by forest so I wrongly assumed the property lines were much further east of where they are. It wasn't until one of my neighbors started clearing out his land and asked me to take down a dead tree that I realized where the actual property line was. I didn't even know this was possible.
My front yard, and a fence separating my yard from the neighbor directly in front of me is literally 40' past my property line and onto his. It's not even close. The only part of my house that is on my property according to the maps is the 500 sq ft living area addition that was put on some time in the 80s.
From what I can tell with the information I have available to me is that at one point my property and 3 of the abutting properties were all one parcel. One 1.7 acre lot was split into 3 equal sized lots to the east of mine and my 1.7 acre lot was left as is to the westerly side. 2 of those lots were then sold off but my lot and the lot directly to the east of where my house is were kept by the original owner. That owner then sold my lot to his children who built a house on it. All I can surmise is that because there is about an 8 foot dropoff down to flood plain about 80' west of my eastern property line they built on their parent's land with their permission because they wanted a back yard. The house + deck would barely have fit otherwise. So now my house + "my front yard" are not on my property at all. Until this past year the fence in my front yard which is on the east side and acts as what I thought was a property boundary was directly in line with forest line behind the other two easterly properties. Then one of those neighbors started clearing that forest (that I thought was on my property) and we found the iron pipe that marks his northwest property boundary and the beginning of mine. It's at least 40' west of where that fence is in my front yard (my house faces east if I hadn't made that clear). I couldn't believe it so I went online and then to the tax assessor's office to check and sure enough it was right. The maps even show my house partially on my property and partially on my neighbors.
It was explained to me at the time of sale that there was a right of way, which is noted on my deed, but my attorney told me it was for the driveway (I share a driveway with the property directly to the east of my house because my property is set back off the road behind the aforementioned properties).
My front yard, and a fence separating my yard from the neighbor directly in front of me is literally 40' past my property line and onto his. It's not even close. The only part of my house that is on my property according to the maps is the 500 sq ft living area addition that was put on some time in the 80s.
From what I can tell with the information I have available to me is that at one point my property and 3 of the abutting properties were all one parcel. One 1.7 acre lot was split into 3 equal sized lots to the east of mine and my 1.7 acre lot was left as is to the westerly side. 2 of those lots were then sold off but my lot and the lot directly to the east of where my house is were kept by the original owner. That owner then sold my lot to his children who built a house on it. All I can surmise is that because there is about an 8 foot dropoff down to flood plain about 80' west of my eastern property line they built on their parent's land with their permission because they wanted a back yard. The house + deck would barely have fit otherwise. So now my house + "my front yard" are not on my property at all. Until this past year the fence in my front yard which is on the east side and acts as what I thought was a property boundary was directly in line with forest line behind the other two easterly properties. Then one of those neighbors started clearing that forest (that I thought was on my property) and we found the iron pipe that marks his northwest property boundary and the beginning of mine. It's at least 40' west of where that fence is in my front yard (my house faces east if I hadn't made that clear). I couldn't believe it so I went online and then to the tax assessor's office to check and sure enough it was right. The maps even show my house partially on my property and partially on my neighbors.
It was explained to me at the time of sale that there was a right of way, which is noted on my deed, but my attorney told me it was for the driveway (I share a driveway with the property directly to the east of my house because my property is set back off the road behind the aforementioned properties).
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How long has your house been there? Squatter rights might apply at this point, as that structure has clearly occupied that space for a continuous period which may be sufficient to declare it yours. Problem solved. Your structure is on your property, and all surrounding property is the other land owner's responsibility. Make sure they cut the fucking grass.
Asshat wormie
2023 Asshat Award Winner
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Here in NY, if a house sits on someone else lot, it is a title claim for the entire value of the policy. Now it's possible that the title co knew about it and did not insure over this issue. In that case you sue the shit out of your attorney. But first you need a survey.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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