Home buying thread

Noodleface

Noodleface

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Seventh is in MA, our housing prices are quite absurd.

What area Seventh? $500k for 3500sq/ft on half an acre isn't really that bad. Mine is 1500 on 1/4 acre and it was $265k
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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The funniest add-on for my new construction were those lines in the windows. Don't know what they're called but you know the things that make it look like it has a grid? Well the front-facing windows the builder provided them but for back and side windows it was an add-on. I didn't buy them. It wasn't expensive but it wasn't cheap. Like $400-$600 or something.

Other than that some of the stuff 7th is talked about was included in the price. Garage door opener wasn't but I just bought one at Sears for $100 and install took like 2 hours. Its a really nice opener too. Got it on mega sale!
 
Cad

Cad

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I'd rather be looking at a new build where I can see what they're doing inside the walls/foundation with the plumbing and electrical/network wiring and structure than be looking at a house thats already buttoned up and you have no fucking idea what is under there most of the time. If you buy a pre-built spec house, count on them having done the plumbing and electrical at the bare minimum building code, and that anything which is usually out of sight is probably the cheapest builder-grade shit they could get, regardless of the price of the house.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Next house for sure is new construction for me as well.

Ours was rehabbed but built in the 40's. Tiny closets and the guy really should've upgraded the electrical. I'd like to pick what we have next time.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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Cad_sl said:
I'd rather be looking at a new build where I can see what they're doing inside the walls/foundation with the plumbing and electrical/network wiring and structure than be looking at a house thats already buttoned up and you have no fucking idea what is under there most of the time. If you buy a pre-built spec house, count on them having done the plumbing and electrical at the bare minimum building code, and that anything which is usually out of sight is probably the cheapest builder-grade shit they could get, regardless of the price of the house.
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My pops had his house built, a McMansion in a Detroit suburb. And yes, this allowed him to do the little extras while they were building the thing, like run cat-5, cable, run speaker wires in the ceiling in the living room, insulate some inner walls, like bathrooms, so no one hears a shower or someone flushing a toilet. It also afforded him to change some design shit up, like forgoing a huge ass soaking tub for a bigger and bad ass walk in shower. I remember he was there every day after work while they were building the thing.

Im done myself though. We found a nice 1970s ranch and we decided to stay here. Its like 2K sq/ft in a perfect community, good schools and all that. Ive spent about $25K so far throughout the years to upgrade this fucker too. Biggest thing was a new driveway we put in last spring for $15k. The other shit was pretty much going from room to room and upgrading it. I even redid all the hardwood floors myself a few summers ago. We only have the kitchen and our large bathroom to do still for fully upgraded house and the kitchen is next.

I would rather invest in some vacation property in northern michigan, maybe close to Lake Michigan or Huron where we can just go up there on a whim, 2-3 hours a way and enjoy the summers and even winters. The kids enjoy that shit too with their dirt bikes and golf carts and shit like that. thats more important to us than the next McMansion in McSuburbia surrounded by more shitty McNeighbors.
 
popsicledeath

popsicledeath

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Build quality varies widely, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone. The surprise to me is when the companies are building the same handful of floor plans over and over and can't seem to manage that without a ton of fuckups. All 3 of my direct co-workers moved into a housing tract built by a local mass builder and all pretty much had the same issues with quality and poor execution. Like light switches being installed upside down or to the wrong lights or putting in the wrong trim or the wrong version of backsplashes (sometimes you get free upgrades, other times you get rushed corrections that look like shit). Little things that are fixable, usually, but a ton of them. And as mentioned, using the absolute bare minimum in material quality, which is expected, but then not being able to execute the same floorplans over and over? That scares me.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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Noodleface_sl said:
Next house for sure is new construction for me as well.

Ours was rehabbed but built in the 40's. Tiny closets and the guy really should've upgraded the electrical. I'd like to pick what we have next time.
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Thats the biggest issue with older houses on the east coast. Back then they had tiny closets and generally didn't have the bathroom off the master. I'm guessing if they rehabbed the house they made it an en suite, though.
 
Borzak

Borzak

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I like when they do a new development and they have 2 house plans and a right/left of each of those for 4 total. The rest is just adding extras and paint schemes. See this even in housing areas of $400k which isn't exactly cheap in the south. Never understood it.
 
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koljec_sl

shitlord
845
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Tenks_sl said:
The funniest add-on for my new construction were those lines in the windows. Don't know what they're called but you know the things that make it look like it has a grid? Well the front-facing windows the builder provided them but for back and side windows it was an add-on. I didn't buy them. It wasn't expensive but it wasn't cheap. Like $400-$600 or something.

Other than that some of the stuff 7th is talked about was included in the price. Garage door opener wasn't but I just bought one at Sears for $100 and install took like 2 hours. Its a really nice opener too. Got it on mega sale!
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Grille inserts that make the glass look like it's got panes. Form without function. I would go with that only on a colonial. Otherwise the grid option eats up sunlight and view.
 
S

Seventh

Golden Squire
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Noodleface_sl said:
Seventh is in MA, our housing prices are quite absurd.

What area Seventh? $500k for 3500sq/ft on half an acre isn't really that bad. Mine is 1500 on 1/4 acre and it was $265k
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NH, just over the border up Rt 3, you get a lot more for your money the further out from Lowell-ish you go. This house would be 900+ in Lexington/Concord. I feel like we got a great price on the house regardless, and the builder/developer has a pretty good reputation. All of the shit he's nickel and diming us for is stuff that I can do myself, it's just a pain in the ass.

Today's another great example - since the kitchen isn't done yet, I emailed the realtor and asked if they could fire in some under cabinet lighting. Not because it's hard to do, but because it's a fuckload easier to run the wires before you hang the cabinets. I offered to buy a light kit from them, or just pick up my own and drop it off. I figured eh, if it's $250-300, it's worth it for me not to have to bust my balls for half a day fishing wire. The realtor emailed me right back and said "no problem, the electrician is still here, he says $900." (wtf?!)

Needless to say I passed on it, but at this point it's starting to piss me off. It's partly our "fault" (for lack of a better word) for not being more thorough before we signed the P&S, but some of this is pretty damn ridiculous. I get that the builder doesn't have to do a single thing more now that the house is sold, but I figure if I have a house full of contractors and they can do some small shit here and there to make my life easier, it's worth the money.
 
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Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
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Just get some battery powered LEDs under the cabinets. Anymore with LEDs you don't need to run power everywhere since the bulbs are so efficient the batteries last forever.
 
Cad

Cad

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Seventh_sl said:
NH, just over the border up Rt 3, you get a lot more for your money the further out from Lowell-ish you go. This house would be 900+ in Lexington/Concord. I feel like we got a great price on the house regardless, and the builder/developer has a pretty good reputation. All of the shit he's nickel and diming us for is stuff that I can do myself, it's just a pain in the ass.

Today's another great example - since the kitchen isn't done yet, I emailed the realtor and asked if they could fire in some under cabinet lighting. Not because it's hard to do, but because it's a fuckload easier to run the wires before you hang the cabinets. I offered to buy a light kit from them, or just pick up my own and drop it off. I figured eh, if it's $250-300, it's worth it for me not to have to bust my balls for half a day fishing wire. The realtor emailed me right back and said "no problem, the electrician is still here, he says $900." (wtf?!)

Needless to say I passed on it, but at this point it's starting to piss me off. It's partly our "fault" (for lack of a better word) for not being more thorough before we signed the P&S, but some of this is pretty damn ridiculous. I get that the builder doesn't have to do a single thing more now that the house is sold, but I figure if I have a house full of contractors and they can do some small shit here and there to make my life easier, it's worth the money.
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Just go run the wires yourself before they hang the cabinets. The only thing you need is the wires in the walls, you can hook it up to the switches later.
 
Big Phoenix

Big Phoenix

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Borzak_sl said:
I like when they do a new development and they have 2 house plans and a right/left of each of those for 4 total. The rest is just adding extras and paint schemes. See this even in housing areas of $400k which isn't exactly cheap in the south. Never understood it.
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People are functionally retarded, its the only thing that makes sense because who in their right mind would buy a $300k+ cookie cutter house that packed into a subdivision governed by a shitty HOA?
 
ZyyzYzzy

ZyyzYzzy

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Fuck forgot how much moving into a new house sucks. Wife and I have stayed up to 1 every day since Subday doing shit and we haven't even put a dent in what we need to do.
 
Noodleface

Noodleface

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Seventh_sl said:
NH, just over the border up Rt 3, you get a lot more for your money the further out from Lowell-ish you go. This house would be 900+ in Lexington/Concord. I feel like we got a great price on the house regardless, and the builder/developer has a pretty good reputation. All of the shit he's nickel and diming us for is stuff that I can do myself, it's just a pain in the ass.

Today's another great example - since the kitchen isn't done yet, I emailed the realtor and asked if they could fire in some under cabinet lighting. Not because it's hard to do, but because it's a fuckload easier to run the wires before you hang the cabinets. I offered to buy a light kit from them, or just pick up my own and drop it off. I figured eh, if it's $250-300, it's worth it for me not to have to bust my balls for half a day fishing wire. The realtor emailed me right back and said "no problem, the electrician is still here, he says $900." (wtf?!)

Needless to say I passed on it, but at this point it's starting to piss me off. It's partly our "fault" (for lack of a better word) for not being more thorough before we signed the P&S, but some of this is pretty damn ridiculous. I get that the builder doesn't have to do a single thing more now that the house is sold, but I figure if I have a house full of contractors and they can do some small shit here and there to make my life easier, it's worth the money.
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Oh nice, I'll be practicing with a band in NH over the summer for a halloween show in WOOOSTAH
 
Khane

Khane

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ZyyzYzzy_sl said:
Fuck forgot how much moving into a new house sucks. Wife and I have stayed up to 1 every day since Subday doing shit and we haven't even put a dent in what we need to do.
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I still live in the same lame apartment I've been in for 8 years precisely because of this. I'm just too lazy to move.
 
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