Changing the balance of quality of life and financial independence

[LOL!]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo! I vote wait for the relo company to take ownership. ...

We bought our house from a relo company. We had made an offer to the owner a few months before, but he blew us off. When the relo company got the house, we had our buyer's agent find out info on every house the relo company had sold in the previous 12 months. We learned that they never sold a house for more than 7% BELOW their original asking price (which in turn was below the original owner's buyout from their company). That came in handy when they made a counteroffer to our initial offer and said it was final. We just laughed until they agreed to our offer.

[spncity]

Just a question...

Could a metal roof interfere with cell phone reception inside the house?

I've always been curious about this.

spncity

[cute fuzzy bunny]

It could, depends on where the house and cell antenna are relative to each other. House up on a hill with a cell phone tower down below in a valley, probably not much of an effect. House down in a valley with the tower up on a hill, might have more of an effect.

On the flip side of this are some interesting paint and paint additives you can use on your homes interior to block incoming and outgoing signals. Kinda nice to limit your wireless network to just the inside of the house, but screws up your cell phones, radio reception and so forth.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny On the flip side of this are some interesting paint and paint additives you can use on your homes interior to block incoming and outgoing signals. Kinda nice to limit your wireless network to just the inside of the house, but screws up your cell phones, radio reception and so forth.

So... combine a metal roof with this paint on your walls and you've got tinfoil hat for your house?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The metal roofs the tin foil hat. I'm not sure what the paint counts for, but I'm sure I can come up with something funny by the time I finish drinking this giant cup of coffee.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny I'm not sure what the paint counts for...

Ear flaps.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

[donheff]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny

Is that from Monty Python's "I'm a Lumberjack" skit?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Of course it is!

[JB]

Congratulations on your new place.

I lived in a house with a metal roof for 6 months. It was in a rainy location and it was very loud. The house didn't have insulation which was probably may a factor.

our solar water system is fantastic. In the last 12 months I've used the electric backup for 2 days! It might work well for 3 seasons in your area.

[DangerMouse]

Most houses in Australia have a metal roof. With the products available today they have a long life and come prepainted so no need to apply colour. I love the sound of rain on a tin roof, very relaxing and makes you so grateful that you are inside instead of out in the rain.

http://www.stratco.com.au/products/roofingwalling.asp

When we last lived in Australia we also had solor hot water. Best hot water system we ever had. We had to use the booster for less than 3 months a year, and that was only when we had days of continual gloomy weather. It definitely helped our electricity bill.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Current status...

Had the rot/pest inspection. Plenty of trim needs replacing, and a couple of sheets of siding. Seller will do this.

One thing I noted with the old 2+2=5 brain construct was that the only window in the house thats new was a brand new sliding glass door, and that the only carpet he replaced in the house was the carpet in that room. I asked about it and was told that the old door had developed a bad seal, and that it was just as cheap to replace the door as to fiddle around with replacing a bad piece of glass in an old door.

Today we found a 6"x6" dry rot in the wood floor under the new carpet, right at the floors edge at the center of the door. Of course I'd stuck a screwdriver in at both ends of the door as thats usually where a leak will cause a problem, but not in the middle.

So basically they had a leaky door, it ruined the carpet and rotted the floor. They pulled out the door, left the dry rot (would have been a cheap, easy fix to do it with the door out of the frame), covered it up and then threw new carpeting in to further hiding it. Both the door replacement guy and the carpet guy would have seen the rot and told the seller, who did not disclose it.

Man I hate people who hide stuff badly and lie to me.

I'm planning on asking for more money off...$5k in total...but I have a feeling i'm going to get smacked with an emotional seller who just had his pants pulled down. And the price is already pretty good.

The nagging feeling I have is that theres other halfassed stuff and hidden goodies that i'll discover and have to fix :P

Nothing else in town of this caliber and price range though...not even close.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I should also add that he put in a 220 circuit, also without permits, and thats half-assed. Wire runs on the ground in the (wet) crawlspace, pokes through a hole into the garage and theres about 10' of it coiled up next to the water heater. Plug is higher amps than the breaker. Totally without permits and not to code, and he didnt disclose that either.

[KB]

Makes you wonder if that is why the price is so low. He might have had others 'find' the same problems you are uncovering. I'd be worried about what else is wrong with the house that you haven't found.

Since I am not terribly handy fixing stuff around the house, I hired an inspector to monitor my house while it was being built. He caught some potential problems in time for them to be fixed. I'm so glad I had him during the process.

Hope you get this sorted out quickly. The wiring without a permit would scare me off.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Eh, thing is that its nothing I cant resolve, but the sale price + repairs is starting to get far enough north that we can buy a newer, better maintained property for close to the same money.

Attraction this has is that I can bleed money into it over the next 5 years, and pay property tax basis on 500k instead of 600k, and have the stuff done with materials I like and the way I like it done.

Also, guy has no chance of pulling in another cash buyer that can do the work as cheaply as I can, so he has a huge opportunity cost of going back on the market and waiting for another buyer, and will probably have to cut his price below what i'm offering anyhow.

It could go two ways...he gets embarrassed and throws in the towel, gives me another 5k or so off to make me feel better about eating the place and its problems, or he gets tough and digs his heels in, and ends up selling it for less to someone else.

His big problem is that the relo company he's working with wont let him take offers with contingencies, so a couple of buyers dropped their offers. Price is low because its in a less desirable area of this very nice town, but its still dang nice! And it very clearly hasnt been updated or well maintained. First words out of my mouth in the driveway the first time we pulled in was "wow, this is going to take a lot of work just keeping it caulked and painted...". And he's had to keep dropping the price as he's been on market since august.

I'm just trying to equalize my own emotionality about the matter. Its a cheap price on a nice big house on a nice big lot in a nice neighborhood in a great town with a lot of amenities. We've got 3-4 days of time spent with it and $500 in inspections done, and my inspector (who i trust implicitly) says its basically a pretty good house and that he's seen much worse for the money.

We're down to a 1%-1.5% difference. People just seem to struggle with little numbers that they understand and spend all the time, but cant contrast them with those great big huge numbers. $550k to $510K? No problem! Oh...another five thousand? Over my dead body!!!! :

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The sellers agent just called me irrational.

Excellent!

[KB]

He probably advised his client to not list all those things on their disclosure statement. Now he's having second thoughts about it.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

That would be pretty bad advice.

After all, i've got a $14/month lawyer standing by!

[KB]

Maybe you should call your $14 lawyer and ask their advice

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hey dont tempt me...

I'm irrational!



The sellers agent cracks me up. Calls me and tells me he has a buyer coming in from the bay area to look at it and make an offer on saturday.

I told him my agent would open up for me that morning and I'd be sure to leave copies of all of the inspection reports for them to peruse during their viewing.

Its a bad idea to play hardball with me. Especially when ya got nothin'.