Home buying thread

sadris said:

As Vancouver's Housing Market Implodes, Furious Chinese Envoy Slams Real Estate Tax | Zero Hedge

I first not expect the tax to have this huge of an effect.

Good job local voters.

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Seattle needs to do the same thing. Our market is getting hit with a ton of foreign money too.

@a_skeleton_03 what are the good hoods around Bragg? I'm moving at the end of this month and will be staying with relatives for awhile, but will need to find a house in a month or two. A lot of people keep telling me Southern Pines but I checked it out last time I was there and I didn't really care for it.

Harnett County is another place to look if you are at Ft. Bragg (it's the county that sits right on top of Cumberland County where Ft. Bragg/Fayetteville is located). I haven't lived there for a couple of years but I knew some people who were willing to commute from Lillington and even as far as Fuquay-Varina and Angier (my hometown). The nice thing about that is that you are halfway between Fayetteville and Raleigh and still 2 hrs from the beach and 4 hrs from the mountains. If you want to be a little bit closer to post (assuming you are military), then Anderson Creek might be worth looking into. I know they have done a lot of building over the past 8-10 years.

I'm planning on moving back there in about 14 months and that's why I'm in this thread. I have a town home to sell and trying to figure out when would be the best time to put it on the market. It seems it would be easier to move out of a place that I was renting as opposed to trying to sell the town home that I have very quickly.

I've been looking at some custom built homes and was curious if anyone has experience with a custom built home. I'll be getting the VA Home Loan so my interest rate should be pretty good. I know nothing about buying land though. All I need is an acre, maybe not even that. My main concern is that I have a lot of student loan debt and that was my biggest snag buying the town home that I currently live in. They didn't understand that I have an income-based repayment plan so it kind of made the process drag out longer than anticipated. I don't have much equity in my town home at all right now, so I'm just hoping to break even. The next place I live though I want it to be a house. A place where I'll have room for all of my family's stuff, which is starting to become a bit of a hassle in a town home when trying to figure out where to put stuff we don't use all the time. Any input would be cool. Thanks!

That's not bad at all. Me and the wife just had our daughter's first birthday at the Aloha Zoo you guys have in (or near) Cameron.

My family lives in Hoke county (outside of Raeford). A lot of my soon to be coworkers and other folks I've talked to seem to think it's not a good place to live based on schools and what not, but I've spent a good deal of time there (and will likely live there for a month or two before finding my own place) I really don't think it's that bad. You guys have any opinions on Raeford?

Custom built home vs. a house that's already built? I've been looking at some custom built houses from http://www.schumacherhomes.com/ and I really like what I see. I'll be able to spend about 250k in about a year. In the mean time I need to figure out when to put my town home on the market. Anyone with experience with custom built homes here vs. buying a pre-existing structure?

calhoonjugganaut said:

Custom built home vs. a house that's already built? I've been looking at some custom built houses from http://www.schumacherhomes.com/ and I really like what I see. I'll be able to spend about 250k in about a year. In the mean time I need to figure out when to put my town home on the market. Anyone with experience with custom built homes here vs. buying a pre-existing structure?

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Yeah that isn't a "custom builder". That is just another mass produced builder that may or may not build a quality product. No custom builder has that many models, communities and covers that many states. It is simply impossible to build that many homes, over that large a foot print and have any sort of quality control. You might as well build with Toll Brothers or some other shit McMansion builder as you're simply throwing the dice if the subs they contracted in that area happen to be decent. We've rolled those dice before, sometimes you come up craps trust me.

Not to say they don't build a decent home. They certainly might. However you aren't using a custom builder, you are just looking to build a house. BIG difference.

As to what is better? Go knock on some doors in the neighborhoods and ask people what the problems were. Talk to the foreman in the areas and ask them what issues they've had and on what models. If you're nice and personable people will gladly tell you. Questions like, "hey if you were building in here what model would you like or avoid?" "Have you had any roofing leaks on the models?" Don't just ask people in the new areas either, they won't have problems yet that surface. Hit the developments that were done a year or more ago. Trust me, they have issues with certain models / homes. Things to watch out for and things that are a PIA to get done. I don't trust a builder that says they have no problems. I do trust a builder that knows what the problems are and knows how to fix them.

Walk the new construction and see how they are doing stuff. Quality and workmanship are important and have nothing to do with granite counters or wood floors. Any slap dick can do stuff like that. If you don't now what you're doing then grab a contractor buddy and go check out some units under construction.

My advice for you is to under spend on your home. You need less space than you think and you don't need to be saddled with a mortgage and payment for 30 years. Shit is going to come up in that time frame. So don't max yourself out.

We've built several homes over the years. They are a lot of fun to watch go up. Very rewarding when you move in. Very frustrating if you have major issues which we've had just once. Go figure on the largest and most expensive one. Enjoy and good luck.

I have a couple of well reputed realtors that I went to school with 15 years ago. Would it be better to talk to them about it? I won't be able to walk any construction site because I will be moving 10 hours away from where I live now. As for space...It's something that we desperately need right now. We are in a 1344 sq ft 2 bedroom townhouse with a 1 year old and hoping to have another in a year or two and I can only see us accumulating more stuff. I'd like to be able to have some land that I can build a barn on or put a building on for storage. I really do appreciate your input. It seems like you know what you are talking about and if I were in the position to follow through with your tips I'd really consider much of what you've said. I also wish I could afford something on a 15 year mortgage but we just wouldn't be able to afford it right now. I think I'm just ready to be out of a town house and ready to be in a house house. The stuff that custom builder has on their site makes things look really nice, but I know you have to pay more to get that brand new look. My wife hates those bathrooms they do though, with the tub between two sinks and what not. But yea, I'm so new to looking into buying a new home even though I have a town home that this post is all over the place, so my apologies.

Always so weird how people can buy a custom built / new house like it's casual.

Vinen how is your related living house hunt going? We are strongly considering it with my mother in law. We would have two places to sell so it's kind of overwhelming to think about but the talks have begun.

Falstaff said:

Vinen how is your related living house hunt going? We are strongly considering it with my mother in law. We would have two places to sell so it's kind of overwhelming to think about but the talks have begun.

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Related to my above comment.
We are looking for a new (or recently renovated) build that is either 2-family, has an in-law or can be easily converted into two separate spaces.

In the town we are looking in there has been a grand total of 3 houses which have met this criteria in the last few months.

It's expected to be even worse next year so we are considering moving further out from the city.

Vinen said:

Related to my above comment.
We are looking for a new (or recently renovated) build that is either 2-family, has an in-law or can be easily converted into two separate spaces.

In the town we are looking in there has been a grand total of 3 houses which have met this criteria in the last few months.

It's expected to be even worse next year so we are considering moving further out from the city.

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Farther.

Buy a 4 unit apt complex and transition from there?

calhoonjugganaut said:

I have a couple of well reputed realtors that I went to school with 15 years ago. Would it be better to talk to them about it? I won't be able to walk any construction site because I will be moving 10 hours away from where I live now. As for space...It's something that we desperately need right now. We are in a 1344 sq ft 2 bedroom townhouse with a 1 year old and hoping to have another in a year or two and I can only see us accumulating more stuff. I'd like to be able to have some land that I can build a barn on or put a building on for storage. I really do appreciate your input. It seems like you know what you are talking about and if I were in the position to follow through with your tips I'd really consider much of what you've said. I also wish I could afford something on a 15 year mortgage but we just wouldn't be able to afford it right now. I think I'm just ready to be out of a town house and ready to be in a house house. The stuff that custom builder has on their site makes things look really nice, but I know you have to pay more to get that brand new look. My wife hates those bathrooms they do though, with the tub between two sinks and what not. But yea, I'm so new to looking into buying a new home even though I have a town home that this post is all over the place, so my apologies.

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Good realtor can help and may have some info. Nothing compared with a day of walking a couple of their previous neighborhoods though and talking with owners. Don't buy a home from someone without walking the floor plans, models and seeing the development.

The look is nice. You're right, but they do charge for that. Making it look like the models is quite expensive, good bit of it is design work as well and not part of the bones of the house. Now it will vary quite a bit from builder to builder. They all nail you for upgrades but some do it more than others. They all have the same general cost structure. So if one guy is considerably more expensive take a look at construction factors to see if you'r getting anything.

Here, many builders will do a frame second floor over block first. Much cheaper and easier to do than doing all block. So when they are charging the same amount for the house but cutting corners there is a red flag. Where you are they are probably building all frame which is fine but may be using OSB instead of plywood. Not a big deal until you have a small leak and have to replace entire sheets of OSB on the roof where as plywood tends to handle small leaks much better. Sure they both are up to code, but one performs better overall where it really matters. There is a reason some areas ban the use of OSB on the roof. How do they attach the roof to the wall? Clips, straps? Staples? There are a lot of little things like that. Some use aluminum studs, some use all wood. You'd be surprised at the variety you can find in areas sometimes.

I'm not a fan of 15 year mortgages, stick with 30. You can pay it off faster if you want and you're locked in.

Just don't over spend on your home. People have a tendency to get the biggest model and over spend on square footage. Don't be fooled into buying the biggest house in the neighborhood or more house than you really need. You may feel the need to over compensate getting out of a home you feel is tiny.

Sometimes the upgrades aren't a terrible deal. However many times they can be. Many builders will offer multiple levels of wood floors, granite, cabinets etc. They charge incrementally and generally exponentially. The first upgrade is pretty cheap, second more expensive and the really pretty options are very costly. Adding all that stuff up and making sure you aren't getting screwed is important.

When we did our own flooring we got a 2k credit and saved the 15k they wanted to charge us for "real" wood which was just engineered. We had someone else install solid for 5k less on our own and had the builder just lay carpet for CO. Had someone do the floors and gave the carpet to our inlaws who redid all their bedrooms and tossed the rest. Not all builders are quite that bad but just be wary of what you're buying. They know full and well most people are just going to roll in there and not price check stuff. People tend to not want to deal with construction after finishing construction. Builders know this and can charge accordingly. Flooring, crown molding, lighting, appliances and paint / wall upgrades are some of the more expensive but dubious cost wise from the builder. In cases of floors and appliances they often will offer you a credit as well for not having to do them. Size of credit and if it is worth it or not varies.

We've never accepted builder appliances and have always done our own. Flooring we done our own once. Lighting we've never paid for upgrades. Same with crown and chair rails. Pretty trivial to do that later. Kitchens we tend to fully upgrade with the builder. Cabinets and granite are expensive anyway you go and it's a PIA to do later. Bathrooms, we tend to upgrade the master fully and depending on cost it can be worth it or not for the others. Size, vanity location and all the little details can make spare bathrooms trivial to upgrade down the road yourself. Paint, we let them paint it the color we choose. They usually will charge a lot extra per wall is you want to do something different. We've always just painted it ourselves. We also run our own low voltage stuff. Those Ethernet drops can get expensive.

The best builders will work with you. The cookie cutter ones will be take it or leave it.

I keep finding myself in this thread.

I am currently living in Clarksville, TN and need to be back in NC in 13 months. I need to sell my town house and I don't know how much money I need to save between now and then for closing and what not. I bought it for $112,900 and my payoff is $108,400. A town house similar to mine sold for $109k a couple of months ago. It's a military town, so there's actually quite a lot of people deployed from Ft. Campbell right now. Would I be better off waiting til the summer to put my place on the market so that I might be able to ask for more money in a few months or is this something that I should get ahead of before then? The area I live in has grown quite a bit in the past 2 years that I've lived here and there is a tire plant opening about a mile down the road with 850 full-time positions still available.

I'm concerned about property management because I will be a 9-10 hour drive away once I'm back in NC. Any experience, thoughts, or opinions would be helpful. Thanks.