First house

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Yep, Black mold = bad juju. A lot of contractors won't even do work on a house that has large amounts. The ones that will will ratchet up the price to cover all the health and safety precautions. Sorry to hear.

Yeah. This wasn't just spots of mold. There were sections of baseboard that were completely black, top to bottom. If that wasn't enough, two of the three bedrooms didn't even have closets! This was a one bedroom house with a den and an office advertised as a three bedroom.
 
I bought a house just as soon as I could afford the worst piece of crap for a song in my early early 20's, haven't looked back with onward and upward, (with a slight downward the last couple years...hhhhh)

You can't do a hidden man cave in a rental. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/hidden-man-cave-47433/

Of course with home ownership when the toilet first blows up on you, your first thought will be "I better call the landlor....oh crap, that's me."

Congrats. Great time to buy right now.
 
We looked at houses on Friday. We decided we wanted one of them yesterday. I emailed my agent today and we are signing an offer tonight.

That hollow ratting sound you hear? That's my head spinning.
 
Congrats. We're selling our first house and closing on the new home sept 10. 8 days later they close on our starter home.

Don't think of it as debt...its an investment. We only lived here a little over 6 years, and we'll pocket $7,000 from the sale after all broker fees, repairs, etc.

Go rent for 6 years and see if you get $7,000 back...let alone your deposit :)
 
Good luck Chshre.

Often the offering becomes a complex series of offers and counters based on price and things you want addressed from the inspection. Just hang in there.
 
Bah. We're probably not even going to see a counter offer. Got word that they got another offer at the same time as us so the bank may ask each of us for our "highest and best offer" and whoever gives the best one gets the house. This is annoying because we don't know what the other offer is. We could already have their "highest and best offer" beat, but we won't know. I'm just hoping the other offer was a total lowball and the bank will just throw it out and work with us, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
Worst case scenario: resubmit your original offer. If the other guy beats you out you're only out a little paperwork if not you get the house for the price you offered :D Seriously, you and your realtor (why the hell does firefox want to capitalize that? you don't write 'Doctor' or 'Garbage Man' do you?) know what the house is worth if you're in the ball park you're doing it right. Don't pay too much in the bidding war-- this ain't eBay.

The negotiation is the best part (IMHO).
 
Well, we'll probably offer what we wanted to pay if they ask for our best offer. That's only a little above what the first offer we put in on it was. We're still going to be a little below the asking price in the end, so if the other guy wants to pay at or over that, it's theirs and we move on to our second choice.
 
Don't chase price! Put in your best offer and see what happens. The best piece of advice from my realtor when I bought a house several years ago was try not to get emotionally attached to a house until you have actually bought it. It is hard, cuz sometimes you just walk in and it feels perfect. You start setting up the living room and the kitchen, and the brew space :) in your mind. You imagine entertaining your friends, bringing your family over, and showing the place off, and then you feel angry and deflated if something goes amiss and you don't get the house.

There is always another house out there that has that magic for your situation, and there is usuually a better one that you just haven't seen yet.
 
Back to square one. There was another offer on the house we wanted and it was for cash. Instant winner even if we offered a little more. So, we're back to lookin'.
 
Goodluck looking. Piece of advice, if possible stay away from Short Sales and Foreclosures. SWMBO and I are in the process of buying our first house as well and unfortunately it is a short sale. Saw the house, thought it was great, submitted an offer which got accepted. Signed the contract in April. Didn't hear for months(which is normal and we expected), then was told the bank would lose too much money and they could not accept the price and asked for 30k more. We continued looking at other houses and came to the conclusion based on what was out there it was still a good deal even at the 30k more so we signed an anmendment to the contract with the new price. Applying for a mortgage our bank does the appraisal and deems the house is worth 25k less than the new contract price. Now we are currently in limbo trying to get the price reduced and have not heard back.
 
Yeah, we automatically took those right off our list from the start. We're wanting to close in time for the 8k rebate.
 
Nope, gotta close by the end of November.

I wanted to go egg the house we lost after the new owners move in, but SWMBO won't let me. :D
 
I'll second the advice against short sales unless you are really patient and don't care about missing out on the rebate. I finally managed to close on a short sale after being in limbo half a year. It was a great deal and a great house but the waiting is awful.
 
I heard a rumor it might be $10K next year...

DON'T DO THAT TO ME!!! :p

We just did drive by and catburgler style window peeping this afternoon at some houses and have a new list for our agent for us to look at on Monday. This time we might throw offers at 2 or 3 of them and see who bites.
 
DON'T DO THAT TO ME!!! :p

We just did drive by and catburgler style window peeping this afternoon at some houses and have a new list for our agent for us to look at on Monday. This time we might throw offers at 2 or 3 of them and see who bites.

Whatever, we bought in 06. How do you think we feel? We missed all the incentives. But our home actually went up 10,000 in value over the recession, so that's not bad.

Learn to do stuff yourself. I put in a basement that probably would have cost $30,000 for about $5,000 and time. It contributed greatly to the increase in value.

Mike
 
Whatever, we bought in 06. How do you think we feel? We missed all the incentives. But our home actually went up 10,000 in value over the recession, so that's not bad.

Learn to do stuff yourself. I put in a basement that probably would have cost $30,000 for about $5,000 and time. It contributed greatly to the increase in value.

Mike

Yeah, I've been learning everything I can about working on a house. I do have the advantage that my father was a mason and I learned a lot from him. He's also willing to come stay with us for a while and help fix up the house. I'm really big on brick and stone so will probably be adding some of that.
 
Wish i could do that. For less than I pay in rent, I might be able to get a 40 year old mobile home that smells like cat pee... maybe.


BTW what the heck is the deal with houses smelling like a rotten cat box ?

DON'T DO THAT TO ME!!! :p

We just did drive by and catburgler style window peeping this afternoon at some houses and have a new list for our agent for us to look at on Monday. This time we might throw offers at 2 or 3 of them and see who bites.

I did that with several houses,
SWMBO and I are looking as well out on the eastside of the state. The market is great out here
you can get a wonderful house 3+ bed 2+ bath under 200k

we are at the contingent stage of the offer right now, there are a few little things that I WANT fixed they don't need to be.

what a pain in the ass


-Jason
 
It's a longshot, but we're putting an offer on a house with an 800sqft brewhaus! It has a covered concrete pad with double doors opening into the shop. Has power, concrete floors, a wood stove, shelves, work tables and even has cable. I'm seeing turning part of it into a pub! And it's in a golf course community. The HOA includes all the golf I want to play with no greens fees. It's a bit out of our range, but we'll throw an offer at it and the worst they can do is say no. We're making offers on two more houses that are a bit more realistic, but I have a few days to dream about this one before they turn us down. :D
 
Some pics I took:

The front. Open the doors, set up the rig right there.
Front.jpg

Shot from inside the doors.
inside.jpg

A couple shots of the workspaces.
workspace.jpg
workspace2.jpg

I want I want I want!
:mug:
 
One piece of advice is not to stretch your budget on your first home. We bought much less than what we could afford and it was the best decision we could have made. You would be suprised at what kind of expenses spring up on you.

Also when my wife lost her job and found out she was pregnant in the same week, it was still no problem.

Mike
 
That is a great plan.

I am doing the same thing.

I like being able to cover all of my monthly bills on one paycheck, just in case I get fired.

-Jason
 
Wow, that shed looks awesome. That the one thing I'm going to really hate about moving. In just a week or so we're moving from a nice rural location that provides me a sweet shed and huge garage to a more suburban subdivision that doesn't even allow the kind of shed I want :(

So, hopefully you get it. It's fun to dream and it looks like you'd have a lot of options when it comes to making your ultimate brew shed and/or man cave.
 
Of course with home ownership when the toilet first blows up on you, your first thought will be "I better call the landlor....oh crap, that's me."

There is another side to this for the diy'er. When I used to rent I often fixed things myself because it was immediate and convenient.

In my last apartment the insink disposal used to jam all of the time. It was stupidly underpowered and poorly built. It usually took a day or two before someone would get out there to fix it. Also, the appliances were of subpar quality also.

As a homeowner, when something breaks I control how and when it gets fixed and the quality of the work that goes into fixing it. Also, I now have great professional quality appliances and a stupidly overpowered stainless steel disposal. That thing could grind a cow without a hiccup.
 
Yeah, we're looking forward to upgrading appliances and whatnot in the future. A couple of the houses we're interesting in will require us to buy some of our own stuff since it didn't come with a fridge and/or range.

I'm still having fantasies about the big brewspace, but I know it's a long shot. Our offer is quite a bit below their asking price so I'm sure we won't get it. But, I figured it's worth a shot. Doesn't cost us anything to make a lowball offer and the worst that can happen is they tell us to piss off. We might get lucky and find that they have to sell NOW and are willing to let it go cheap. :D Worth a try for a brewspace that freakin' huge.

Another house we made an offer on that's more realistic has a really nice shed out back that has power, is insulated and even has double-pane windows in it! It's much smaller than that one, but would still be better than fermenting in my downstairs bathroom like I'm doing now!
 
Well a little update on the new place for me. Moved in last Saturday (29th) and I'm enjoying it. Being my first house I can't believe how expensive it is starting out. So many things you need that you just don't think about in an apartment or rental house. Things like a ladder, lawnmower, power tools, etc. There is one great thing though I've noticed. Stuff like yard work that I despised from growing up mowing an acre with a pushmower is fun when its your own place. I definitely take a lot more pride in my own place than I ever have in a rental. The wife has left me the whole garage to do with as I please so I'm now in the planning phase of the brewery and fill station (I'm an avid SCUBA diver and I've always wanted to be able to fill my own tanks). The only things holding me back are time and money.
 
My only piece of advice for first home buyers is to not try to keep up with the Jones'. You bought it, be proud of it, not having that awesome car and cool stuff is way more responsible than having a huge credit card balance.

NOTE: I have a huge credit card balance (I think anyway), not from buying stupid stuff but because we bought our house when we weren't expecting to and had no money to buy everything you need when buying an old project house :D CC bills are the devil. seriously
 
My only piece of advice for first home buyers is to not try to keep up with the Jones'.

agreed - one of the biggest reasons for the economic situation we're in right now is because most everyone tried to keep up with the Jones', not knowing that the Jones' were actually broke (well, living of massive credit debt, double or triple mortgages, etc)
 
We've got that mapped out. If we can close in time to get the tax rebate, that will clear our credit card debt (which isn't too bad as it is now anyway), pay for a few appliances, get little things we'll need (ladder, garden hose, mower, etc) and have enough left to have two house payments sitting in the bank for emergencies.
 
We're one of 2 offers on the house with the big brewspace. Don't know if the other offer was higher or lower, but they said they'd have an answer within 72 (bankers) hours.
 
Just wrote an earnest money check on a house! Not the one with the big shop, but it has a Trex deck and an oversized 2-car garage so I'd have plenty of brew space. My agent thinks they may be preparing to accept my offer without even a counter.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top