Home buying thread

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Khane

Khane

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I had a tenant with a toilet that was constantly running and they just never told me about it/tried to fix it. Turned my normal $250/6 mo bill in ~$1800/6 mo for that one pay period. I fixed it, and made my tenants pay the difference but the meter being broken had to be coupled with her just ignoring obvious running water problems throughout the house for it to get that high over a 13 month period.

But it doesn't take much. One faulty toilet and your water bill can get fucked real fast.
 
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TJT

TJT

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Why do you have the utilities in your name still? Is that common in CT?
 
Khane

Khane

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TJT said:
Why do you have the utilities in your name still? Is that common in CT?
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The utilities are not in my name, but water/sewer is hooked up to the entire house, not each individual unit, so typically water/sewer is covered by landlord since you can't actually divvy it up in any real way.

But they cover their own gas/electricity/cable etc.
 
U

Unidin

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It's the law here in Seattle. Water/Sewer/Trash in the landlord's name. I have keep telling my tenant every fucking year to stop watering the grass and just let it die in the summer. Probably going to pull it out and do some other landscaping because I'm tired of my water bill spiking in the summer.
 
Burns

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Unidin said:
It's the law here in Seattle. Water/Sewer/Trash in the landlord's name. I have keep telling my tenant every fucking year to stop watering the grass and just let it die in the summer. Probably going to pull it out and do some other landscaping because I'm tired of my water bill spiking in the summer.
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Look into native grasses.

While I'm not sure what grows in the NW, a good section of the country can grow Buffalo grass and other hardy, drought resistant grasses. Be aware Buffalo grass, in particular has a landscaping strain (more expensive), and a pasture strain; the landscaping grass grows thicker, and looks better when mowed (I think).

One of the recommended mixes for yards in Texas is Buffalo Grass, Blue Gamma, and Curly Mesquite (Thunder Turf mix on the website below).It is supposed to need no irrigation and can go a month+ before needing to be cut in the warmer months.

A specialty place in Texas has a good website for info on the Mid-West and South, but it may at least give you a starting point for the Pacific NW:
 
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U

Unidin

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Burns said:
Look into native grasses.

While I'm not sure what grows in the NW, a good section of the country can grow Buffalo grass and other hardy, drought resistant grasses. Be aware Buffalo grass, in particular has a landscaping strain (more expensive), and a pasture strain; the landscaping grass grows thicker, and looks better when mowed (I think).

One of the recommended mixes for yards in Texas is Buffalo Grass, Blue Gamma, and Curly Mesquite (Thunder Turf mix on the website below).It is supposed to need no irrigation and can go a month+ before needing to be cut in the warmer months.

A specialty place in Texas has a good website for info on the Mid-West and South, but it may at least give you a starting point for the Pacific NW:
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Yeah I was looking at something like that. Seattle has a program for properties where the roof runoff goes into the sewer. They'll pay you to divert it into a cistern and/or rain gardens. So I'll just have someone do that and it'll basically be free. Be RainWise - King County
 
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Sludig

Sludig

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I assume structural engineers are kinda like regular house inspectors where them looking at a home is useless if they are wrong? House has developed a crack that is worsening visibly.

Sure I can't prove any knowledge by sellers. But if I have to have some foundation work done, any idea of the cost might be converted over some part of the loan or homeowners insurance typically?
 
C

Creslin

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Sludig said:
I assume structural engineers are kinda like regular house inspectors where them looking at a home is useless if they are wrong? House has developed a crack that is worsening visibly.

Sure I can't prove any knowledge by sellers. But if I have to have some foundation work done, any idea of the cost might be converted over some part of the loan or homeowners insurance typically?
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Very unlikely your homeowners covers a long term wear and tear issue like a foundation crack unless it was caused by some covered event like a earthquake or flooding or something.
 
mkopec

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Id be careful of making any homeowners insurance claims anyway. We went out of town one weekend in like 2008 or thereabouts. When we came home the kitchen sink sprang a leak from one of the inlet pipes and the whole floor was soaked. Shitty part about it was it was a fucking Pergo like floor and that does not take kindly to water. Anyway I was going to take care of it myself but someone at work the next day mentioned, shit bro why not claim it on homeowners insurance. So we did. A person came out and inspected the damage, they made some calls and the next day a company came out and removed the bad floor set up fans all around the kitchen to dry the place out and the adjuster wrote me a check for like $5000.

The next week or so I get a notification in the mail that I was dropped by allstatre and to look for a new insurance company. Only one claim made by me EVER.
 
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Burns

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Sludig said:
I assume structural engineers are kinda like regular house inspectors where them looking at a home is useless if they are wrong? House has developed a crack that is worsening visibly.

Sure I can't prove any knowledge by sellers. But if I have to have some foundation work done, any idea of the cost might be converted over some part of the loan or homeowners insurance typically?
Click to expand...
Don't know much about foundation work, but there is a structural engineer that posts pictures on imgur almost weekly that you can look it. It will give you an idea of what they do and describes good and bad repair work he has seen and taken pictures of. Unfortunately, southern Cali has mostly crawl spaces, not slabs, but there are still a decent amount of damaged cement that he comes across.

 
ToeMissile

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Burns said:
Don't know much about foundation work, but there is a structural engineer that posts pictures on imgur almost weekly that you can look it. It will give you an idea of what they do and describes good and bad repair work he has seen and taken pictures of. Unfortunately, southern Cali has mostly crawl spaces, not slabs, but there are still a decent amount of damaged cement that he comes across.

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No idea about percentages overall, but all the neighborhoods around me are slab.
 
Burns

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ToeMissile said:
No idea about percentages overall, but all the neighborhoods around me are slab.
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I looked around his albums some more and found a few slabs. Maybe the crawlspace properties are older and the most in need of repairs, or some other factor for why most of his pictures look to be crawlspaces.

Here a few of the slab pictures (the albums usually contain a few different locations):
2022-11-15 22.09.13 imgur.com 382c69b227a9.png


 
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C

Captain Suave

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Burns said:
I looked around his albums some more and found a few slabs. Maybe the crawlspace properties are older and the most in need of repairs, or some other factor for why most of his pictures look to be crawlspaces.

Here a few of the slab pictures (the albums usually contain a few different locations):
View attachment 443260

Click to expand...

That photo album is giving me an anxiety attack. My house in Atlanta had a collapsing basement wall from clay expansion and it needed earth anchors and an internal I-beam to shore it up. Fuck foundation problems.
 
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Lanx

Lanx

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Burns said:
Don't know much about foundation work, but there is a structural engineer that posts pictures on imgur almost weekly that you can look it. It will give you an idea of what they do and describes good and bad repair work he has seen and taken pictures of. Unfortunately, southern Cali has mostly crawl spaces, not slabs, but there are still a decent amount of damaged cement that he comes across.

Click to expand...
thats-absolutely-terrifying-saturday-night-live.gif


he should make an onlyfans
 
Borzak

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Around the Dallas area, north TX they have shrink swell clay soils. Summer it dries out real bad and you get large cracks in the sooil that look like that first concrete pic. Then when it rains a lot they swell back up and close. They used to have a lot of foundation issues. Not sure if they changed how they do the foundation on homes there eventually. I know 20-25+ years ago it was a common thing to have issues.
 
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