Moving Stories Continued...

[Canadian FIRE]

Well since my last post I've been busy. I took off to our new city and bought a house over the weekend. It's more money than I planned on spending(190K), but my goodness you get alot more house for about 25K more than I was planning on.

My agent summed it up best. "For an extra 25K you get about 60K more of a house" He isn't kidding. I went from an ok area with a fairly good house to a great area and within two blocks of a two schools with a great house that only needs some flooring and paint.

So that got me thinking, how often does this occur? Does every market have thresholds were the houses go from 'ok' to 'OH MY!' for only 20K more? Or is this just an odd local thing?

I look forward to everyone's stories.

CF

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian FIRE So that got me thinking, how often does this occur? Does every market have thresholds were the houses [you] go from 'ok' to 'OH MY!' for only 20K more? Or is this just an odd local thing?

It's universal. Happens at auto dealerships every day. Just ask CFB.

[macdaddy]

Canadian - what city was that in?

[CCdaCE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian FIRE So that got me thinking, how often does this occur? Does every market have thresholds were the houses go from 'ok' to 'OH MY!' for only 20K more? Or is this just an odd local thing? I look forward to everyone's stories.

Yeah, similar thing happened to me. *Spend 80-90 for total junk? Or spend 117 and it was totally remodeled on the main level and basement. *Slam dunk. *Lotsa similarities compared to what you experienced... we kept trying to stay around 100k ... all junk. * The decent ones were 110, the "excellent" ones were 135+. *Got lucky and found one the sellers were really tryin' to move, at an in-between price.

-CC

[Jay_Gatsby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canadian FIRE Well since my last post I've been busy.* I took off to our new city and bought a house over the weekend.* It's more money than I planned on spending(190K), but my goodness you get alot more house for about 25K more than I was planning on. My agent summed it up best.* "For an extra 25K you get about 60K more of a house"* He isn't kidding.* I went from an ok area with a fairly good house to a great area and within two blocks of a two schools with a great house that only needs some flooring and paint. So that got me thinking, how often does this occur?* Does every market have thresholds were the houses go from 'ok' to 'OH MY!' for only 20K more?* Or is this just an odd local thing? I look forward to everyone's stories. CF

Congrats on the new house. It sounds like you're really pleased with your purchase -- and that's the most important thing. As for "okay to OH MY!", that doesn't happen all that much in higher-priced housing markets. With that said, the key in high-priced housing markets is to focus on "potential" and the costs associated with reaching that potential. For example, if you find a 1970s (or earlier) house in a great school district, it's not likely to be showcase quality. The carpets, kitchen, bathrooms, etc... will need to be remodeled to various degrees. Yet if you educate yourself on what it might cost to put in new carpets, kitchen cabinet refacings/new linoleum, and the like, you can often find a real gem of a house that only needs $10-15k of TLC to shine. Although nobody likes to part with that kind of money out-of-pocket, you will have the advantage of customizing your new house to your tastes, rather than the tastes of its prior occupant(s). To ease the pain, you can (and should) remodel things on a "rolling" basis. It's hard to tackle the remodeling of different types of rooms at the same time, while still holding down a full time j*b.

Not to hijack this thread, but I think "okay to OH MY!" happens more often with cars and similar purchases. For example, you can go from a Hyundai to a Honda for 20% money, and you'll definitely notice a large difference in quality.

[Canadian FIRE]

Quote:

Originally Posted by macdaddy Canadian - what city was that in?

Regina, SK

It's a 2 story split.* 1550 sq ft and a perfect layout for a family home.* I will be slowly updating it.* Similar houses are going for 208K in the area and I got in at 190K so I can stand to drop in some cash.

How do you post a picture to the site? I got a nice shot of the outside.

Interesting, I never thought about the car comparison, but it works.* Keep it coming.

CF

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo! Quote: Originally Posted by Canadian FIRE So that got me thinking, how often does this occur? Does every market have thresholds were the houses [you] go from 'ok' to 'OH MY!' for only 20K more? Or is this just an odd local thing? It's universal. Happens at auto dealerships every day. Just ask CFB.

Oh Jeez Louise...

[laurence]

REW, you keep pushing CFB's buttons and he's going to take a certain fruit's name in vain again!

Whaddya expect CFB, you think a board full of tightwad LBYM is going to let you actually enjoy your money??

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I have money?

[Lena]

May be I should move to Canada. Where I live for an extra $20K you can may be get $10 (not, not a typo, I mean ten dollars) worth of "extra" house".

I can't find the crying icon

Lena

[spideyrdpd]

Hi
Being an Rei guy I think its the other way around. You go below a certain number and suddenly roofs are optional ...Or was that plumbing.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

With no roof, you dont need plumbing. Water just magically appears from time to time.

I'm still convinced that indoor plumbing was some guys idea to impress a woman. It makes absolutely no sense at all.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute Fuzzy Bunny I'm still convinced that indoor plumbing was some guys idea to impress a woman.* It makes absolutely no sense at all.

Maybe not from an engineering perspective, but when's the last time you used outdoor plumbing in the middle of the night/winter? That leaves an entirely different type of impression!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This probably isnt a good time to relate how often I pee in the back yard...

And then theres all the times the dogs want to go out to the front yard at night...i'm already there...

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

When we lived in 'Houston' [Clear Lake city], we foiund we could buy a house with a pool for the same price as one without a pool. We bought 'with'. I suspect that things have not changed in 20 years.

El Gitano

[ladelfina]

A lot of RE articles talk about pools as a potential negative: many buyers don't want the added maintenance, utility costs and insurance/liability.

As far as indoor plumbing is concerned, does anyone else have a dog that is perplexed by the fact that you poop/pee in the house and not way the hell away somewhere? I swear our dog thinks we are mentally deficient (for that reason, there could be others... ).

I've always lived in areas with kind of 'anomalous' housing markets, but if I think about the area I grew up in which is a bit more 'homogenized', I'd say, yes.. 10% more will get you something 'everyone else' doesn't have. I assume it's a function of the local labor market and salaries that keep a 'cap' on what you can effectively charge and what people are likely to do in terms of improvements/additions. Also local custom.. I think about Somerville, MA where the prices started going up and up, for the same triple-deckers with either asphalt or vinyl siding (or worse, asbestos). Few buyers or sellers, however, felt the need to "go upmarket" and spend extra to replace the chainlink fence with wood, or to put on wood siding, despite the fact that the houses were going for half a mill.

P.S. congratulations on your new home, Canadian FIRE! May you enjoy it for many years to come..