Home Improvement
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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!
They're alright, lower end units marketed to diy guys made by I think gree. Go to garage journal.com and do a search, lots of threads and pics of guys putting their own in.
Will not need someone to pull a vacuum if you have precharged lines.
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ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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This is a bit off-top, but didn't really feel worth it's own thread so fuck it:
How the fuck do people buy houses? Is it just the power of dual spousal income? Or is everyone living way the fuck out in nowhereville because every major city is unlivable due to housing prices?
I've gotten myself in to a pretty good spot in life I feel like, no divorces or other income drains like that, make 90k/year solo, have almost 100k saved in liquid cash, but I still feel like I'm nowhere near eing able to actually buy anything I'd consider reasonable? I'm currently in Chicago which is just right out for a variety of reasons (like lol they want 12k/year in property taxes ~300k condos and shit, gtfo), but everyplace else I've looked seems almost as unreasonable. CO/WA (not seattle, more like Olympia?) were both on my short list but I feel like I'm just too poor.
Where do y'all live and how did you make it work?
How the fuck do people buy houses? Is it just the power of dual spousal income? Or is everyone living way the fuck out in nowhereville because every major city is unlivable due to housing prices?
I've gotten myself in to a pretty good spot in life I feel like, no divorces or other income drains like that, make 90k/year solo, have almost 100k saved in liquid cash, but I still feel like I'm nowhere near eing able to actually buy anything I'd consider reasonable? I'm currently in Chicago which is just right out for a variety of reasons (like lol they want 12k/year in property taxes ~300k condos and shit, gtfo), but everyplace else I've looked seems almost as unreasonable. CO/WA (not seattle, more like Olympia?) were both on my short list but I feel like I'm just too poor.
Where do y'all live and how did you make it work?
Denamian
Night Janitor
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Hateyou
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Indiana. Cheap property taxes (cap at 1% home value) fairly cheap housing compared to other suburbs in the country. We have dual income and both make good money for our area, house was like $330 and we had a big down payment from our first house. I think that was the key for us. Our first home was moderate at $153k, stayed there for eight years, made the right improvements, built up equity. Worked a lot of OT cause we didn’t make much. Kept getting promotions so income increased, down payment made it so we didn’t need PMI the second time around. Payments are only $300 more than the first house, because we didn’t have much of a down payment with that one.
Since you’re single I’d say just start small, stay for enough years that equity builds up and keep the place up. Keep saving. Rinse repeat if you want something more expensive.
The housing market is a lot more expensive than when we started, so it may not be as easy as I’m making it sound, but if you can find something for $200-250k and make a 20% down payment you can afford it.
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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It's really hard to do with one income. If you had a wife making even half of what you did her income could cover the mortgage and you could both live on your income pretty easily. It's the way society is set up these days. People buying a house as a single person in a metropolitan area are either making exceptional income or they are slaves to their house. I heard plenty of stories living in CA of people buying nice houses and only being able to put thrift store furniture in them because their entire income was going into the mortgage. Then something like 2008 hits, they get behind on the mortgage, and they're fucked.
Hateyou
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Thrift store comment made me think of something. We bought all our dressers, end tables, bed frames, etc from Goodwill and sanded and painted them. We saved a lot by doing that and they’re functional. We have been using them since our apartment days and still use them in our expensive house. We’ve had some of them for ~15 years. We do buy couches and mattresses new of course, but the wood shit...go cheap.
My dad used to buy nice furniture then move and sell it cheap, rinse repeat. Probably cost him tens of thousands throughout his life.
My dad used to buy nice furniture then move and sell it cheap, rinse repeat. Probably cost him tens of thousands throughout his life.
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Fogel
Mr. Poopybutthole
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You kind of answered your own question. I moved from NJ to FL. NJ state income tax = 9%, FL = 0%. My property taxes in NJ - 4k on a 130k property, FL is 3,600 for a 200k property. My mortgage in FL for the 200k property is about the same as the 130k property in NJ. I'm also closer to the beach which is open almost year round and isn't plagued with mobs of people the few months it is like in NJ. Location can mean everything.
Airisch
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Give up on living in a dem controlled area and move to freedomland.
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Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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12k in taxes for what kind house? i was doing 6k for my familial home in bklyn valued at 900k...
*edit
oh jesus christ, i looked up some illionis cities, 2.8% county tax for mchenry county? wtf
you need to move to a real city
BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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If you watch FB/Craigslist you can get some amazing deals on furniture from people who are moving but you have to be fast. I bought a $6000 leather couch in perfect condition for $900 on FB and thought it was a great deal but since I've seen 2 or 3 like it go for $400-600. Got another couch that was like new for $200 and a solid oak dining room set with 10 chairs and a buffet for $900 (was also $6k new). The shit pops up very often but usually it's spoken for within an hour of being posted so you have to be fast. I'm lucky to have a girlfriend that watches the buy/sell groups on FB because I don't have time for that shit. You don't get to pick and choose or get it when you want, but it can save you thousands if you're not picky about what you get.
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Pancreas
Vyemm Raider
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That last paragraph describes me. I am going with a 2 unit converted farmhouse. The rental income will be 1k per month, current tenant only uses it as an office during the day. Not there nights and weekends.
I had to go 20 minutes west from work to find a decent place that wasn't horribly overpriced.
I understand being a landlord isn't for everyone, but being able to reduce all housing related expenses (mortgage,tax, insurance, utilities, maintenence/ repairs) to a couple hundred a month is amazing. Not to mention depreciation shenanigans.
My current rent is 800 a month with a 5 minute commute and this house will still save me money every month over that.
Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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you were renting b/4 you bought this farm w/ a wet dream tenant that practically pays the mortgage?
Pancreas
Vyemm Raider
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Yup. I had a house 4 years ago but got out of that when... (see the girls that broke your heart thread.)
I have been renting and saving for the last 4 years and finally decided to get off my ass and jump back in to the game.
ronne
Nǐ hǎo, yǒu jīn zi ma?
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Yea Illinois is 100% unlivable if you plan on owning anything, it's fucking insanity. I'm here cause of work currently and for renting it isn't bad, but I have legit no idea how anyone affords to own anything when their tax bill is the same as their fucking mortgage.
Erronius
<WoW Guild Officer>
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I've been watching the progression of the case that's now at SCOTUS, with HollyFrontier and RFA
The entire thing is pants on head retarded.
I don't understand the entire RIN market except in the broadest of terms, but all the exceptions handed out to refineries under Trump wreaking havoc in the ethanol industry is enough to make me think that it's all a horseshit house of cards that shouldn't ever have been built.
Farmers should be directing their complaints to all of the AG aligned politicians that created this mess, but I'm pretty sure they'll just blame everything and everyone but themselves.
I know for a fact that some of the midstream pipelines my company deals with blends ethanol themselves, post-refinery, but I'm sure the gov't needed the refineries legislated into the entire scheme as a way to prop up the entire fiasco
Falstaff
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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A lot of old/thrift store stuff is straight up better than new, because in previous decades they made furniture out of real materials with real techniques. A huge fraction of modern furniture is just stapled-together bullshit, unless you're buying custom from a local craftsman.
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Lanx
<Prior Amod>
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yea for the new house wife was like
"should we check out a new dresser?"
and i was like
"sure, but i still want to try to build a closet in the new house" (if anything we could just put the dress in the closet too)
so i opened the drawers and theyre all made out of nails and (just brade nailed) and glue and fucking kreg joints, thats like diy shit... in a furniture store?
naw if i buy furniture they better have dovetails and shit now
Hateyou
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Also this may be obvious but idk. One of the biggest things you can do to make a house affordable is not buying a new car. And by new I mean replacing one that’s fine. That’s the biggest thing we did that made our house affordable for us. Paying off our cars. When you have an extra $800+ per month not going to cars you can put that toward a mortgage or improvements instead.
When I paid off my Impreza I just continued to make my $400 payment (I know for a fact I can afford it, I just did it for four years) to an investment account instead. I saved up $30kish that way, so if something happens and I do need a car I can shift that money back to payments and I have money built up for a down payment. We’re actually finishing our basement with it (different kind of investment). I’ll keep doing this until this car dies probably, it’s only got 87k miles on it and I’ve had it for nine years, but it’s a Subaru so it could probably last another 200k miles. I really want a new car as it’s small, loud, no new tech but...
I believe that a lot of people in the US who are “broke” but make decent money is because of their car decisions (and going out to eat too much). Constantly having that car payment is a massive money drain that most people just assume has to be a part of life.
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