Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Didn t work out.

buying a house isn't all that different from dating. and i suck at dating, so good luck with the house.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by humfrz

What didn't work out? Why not?





humfrz

They liked the offer, but they want us to commit to closing on our house 30 days from now, which is not realistic. We are just now getting inspections etc. And expect to put it on the market in a couple weeks. They think I will have trouble selling my house in the hottest market in the world now.

What is really silly is they want 30 day close, then want 1-2 months rent back because they are in the same situation as us: have a kid graduating high school first week of June. What would be wrong with a 60 day close? We both need time? Oh well.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

They liked the offer, but they want us to commit to closing on our house 30 days from now, which is not realistic. We are just now getting inspections etc. And expect to put it on the market in a couple weeks. They think I will have trouble selling my house in the hottest market in the world now.

What is really silly is they want 30 day close, then want 1-2 months rent back because they are in the same situation as us: have a kid graduating high school first week of June. What would be wrong with a 60 day close? We both need time? Oh well.

Eh. Never know. We put our first offer in on the house we're in now nearly two months before we got an offer accepted. It's not as hot a market, but this particular neighborhood is close. Then we had to negotiate on their utter lack of maintenance (like, half the rooms the lights didn't work. They didn't care. Turns out it was just light-bulbs in all but one spot... but we had no way to know that, could easily have been electrical problems... which I also suspect isn't quite right...)


Then 2 days before closing, they asked for another month. I felt bad, but they had 60 days from when they accepted the offer to closing. And they had their house on the market for at least two months additional while we bickered over price.


Had to replace the roof 2 years into ownership (12 year old roof... installed wrong, our third $600+ repair and we said no, just fix the whole roof for $6k...) and recently a furnace... deck needs work, so much lack of maintenance coming back to bite us. So not sorry we denied the month on two days notice (also, we needed to be out of our old house so it could be painted and the home-theater space turned back into a normal room so we could put it on the market).


House ownership sucks. It's a money pit. At a guess we've spent between $250k and $300k more than we would had we rented in 18 years of home ownership. Old house was an $85k loss. If we get past our mortgage and can afford to live here long enough, that'll come down; interest bites and only balances out over time. Property tax though... it's nuts here. More than the mortgage on our first house. In fairness, it's a bigger house on a much smaller lot. And the commute is so much better (over two hours shorter, daily)


Don't lose sight of the house if you want it. Maybe it'll sell, but maybe it won't if their demands are unreasonable to all buyers.



Also, asking you to move in 30 days, but then asking you to pay for their need to move out sooner than they'd like is stupid. Pay their rent, but make them pay your costs for maintaining two houses... bet it balances out in your favor.


Back to cleaning this monster of a house for me

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by cjd

House ownership sucks. It's a money pit.

Don't have to tell me. I've spent easily $250k on this house since 2002. You name it, I've replaced it. Every window, every door complete plumbing, both clean and dirty side, roof, all floors, both bathrooms and kitchen stripped to the studs. Two water heaters, three water softeners, all concrete, every fence, all landscaping. I could go on and on.

However, it has gone up about a million dollars in that time, which is good and bad. Good if selling and moving out of crazy silicon valley. Bad if staying with out of control property tax, and no hope of home ownership for your kids.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by cjd

... Then we had to negotiate on their utter lack of maintenance (like, half the rooms the lights didn't work. They didn't care. Turns out it was just light-bulbs in all but one spot... but we had no way to know that, could easily have been electrical problems... which I also suspect isn't quite right...)

[/QUOTE]

as an electrician, i've seen this more than a couple times now. it's surprisingly common. some people just ain't care about maintenance. the worst one's are actually the "my dad/grandfather/spirit animal was a ____[laborer of some sort]____" and then they decided that they inherited all the appropriate knowledge to accomplish the task themselves, with a roll of duct tape, a case of beer, and the discount section at the local ace hardware.

and then you get houses like mine, where it was built in '64, and they kept it clean, but didn't update anything the entire time unless something went out(furnace is '80-something, roof is 15-20 yrs old).

[cjd]

Originally Posted by soundman98

as an electrician, i've seen this more than a couple times now. it's surprisingly common. some people just ain't care about maintenance. the worst one's are actually the "my dad/grandfather/spirit animal was a ____[laborer of some sort]____" and then they decided that they inherited all the appropriate knowledge to accomplish the task themselves, with a roll of duct tape, a case of beer, and the discount section at the local ace hardware.

and then you get houses like mine, where it was built in '64, and they kept it clean, but didn't update anything the entire time unless something went out(furnace is '80-something, roof is 15-20 yrs old).

I'm starting to lean toward learning the trade, and that sort-of scares me. This house was built in 2003/4.



Last electrician we had in for some work won't be returning. Trying to chase down why the charger for my wife's car keeps insisting it has no ground (in Chicago, conduit carries earth). So I dug in. GFCI on the roof deck was leaking and already shot (they'd replaced it... but not the box seal). I disconnected that at the junction box inside. At least 6" of the hot line into the garage had insulation scraped off on one side, and it was just curled up in the box (remember, the box carries ground)... wrapped in tape for now. Went nearly three weeks, and it started acting up again. And a tester always indicates ground is good. I mean, far as I can tell it's regular conduit to the garage, which is buried... May have to measure voltage differential. Or try to find someone that's a little less sloppy. Need to figure out how to get more circuits anyhow - down to two, and I need to run at least two for my home theater, another two for my workshop... plus would like an installed charger in the garage.


Whee. Ever do work in IL?

[EAGLE5]

Buy a house with acreage. That's a money pit! Anyway, I dunno if our house has gone up in value more than we've put into it, but it probably has. Hard to know what it's worth.

We may be in this house for the next 5-10 years. Then I think we'll move into some luxury apartment with really thick walls and no maintenance.

Check out https://luxuryhomeslasvegas.com/idx/...vegas_nv_89145

I'd love to retire there. HOA is like 2500 a month, which is a lot, but 2500/month in upkeep for a 4000+ square foot apartment is a bargain. Now I just need to work for the next 10+ years so I'll have enough money to retire there.

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by cjd

I'm starting to lean toward learning the trade, and that sort-of scares me. This house was built in 2003/4.



Last electrician we had in for some work won't be returning. Trying to chase down why the charger for my wife's car keeps insisting it has no ground (in Chicago, conduit carries earth). So I dug in. GFCI on the roof deck was leaking and already shot (they'd replaced it... but not the box seal). I disconnected that at the junction box inside. At least 6" of the hot line into the garage had insulation scraped off on one side, and it was just curled up in the box (remember, the box carries ground)... wrapped in tape for now. Went nearly three weeks, and it started acting up again. And a tester always indicates ground is good. I mean, far as I can tell it's regular conduit to the garage, which is buried... May have to measure voltage differential. Or try to find someone that's a little less sloppy. Need to figure out how to get more circuits anyhow - down to two, and I need to run at least two for my home theater, another two for my workshop... plus would like an installed charger in the garage.


Whee. Ever do work in IL?

yes, actually. my company does do work in chicago. we're based out of indiana, just over the border in schererville, i grew up in crook county though. (i don't really do side work, as i've got too much updating on my own place to accomplish!)

edit: re-reading your post, it sounds like you've already checked for ground-- it could just be as simple as a bad outlet that you're plugging into. sometimes the prongs that grab the plug stretch out and the outlet just needs to be replaced.





chicago's rough because the ages of places vary drastically, and there's so much that's done unofficially because all the red tape costs so much and takes so much longer. was it built in 2003, or remodeled in 2003? that's a huge difference in chicago.

when electric first came to existence, they ran the wires through the existing gas pipes, somehow. in that same era, the prevailing electrical theory was that it was safer to switch the neutral than the hot wire--there's still a ton of places in chicago wired those ways(scares me every time i come across it).

there's also the era where outlets were non-polarized, so a lot of stuff got hooked up randomly, without respect for hot/neutral.

in your case, it's possible that it's hooked up backwards, and/or the conduit rotted out-- again, there's a ton of places that use thin-wall emt conduit instead of the required rigid conduit that's rated for direct burial(because it's cheaper by a large amount, and it's easier to work with, but not code compliant unless it's encased in concrete, but it still rots out). though it is possible to still get a ground through that pipe if enough of it is left in the ground.

the 2 alternatives are to either, a: install a ground rod just outside the garage, but use the existing power wiring from the house(less desirable, because if that power wiring fails(50/50 chance), there's no other choice but to resort to option b after already spending the money on option a) or b: trench a new run from the house to the garage(most desirable).

most companies these days run ground wires now in trenched runs because electrical devices now need that ground where they didn't before, and things happen to stuff in the ground, intentionally or unintentionally.

[ls1ac]

Just wait till you have to fix a drain pipe in Cook county, cast pipe with lead and oakum. Can not use PVC, keeps the plumbers in work.

[ls1ac]

I love RULES. I was setting up a shop to work on electronics at my house in Eugene Or. I put in a fully bonded system and called for an inspection. The guy shows up and says a bonded system is only for commercial shops. I pointed out the law says that it is a better system and therefore is legal, he said he did not like it. I gave him a fiver said go down the street get coffee and come back. I hooked the wire to my trailer hitch and removed it. Not the best way to do it but I was not pleased with the idiot.

[ls1ac]

One more comment about Chicago. You have to run conduit to within two feet of any light or appliance then no more than two feet of BX to the device. I call this BS, this again stops most people from doing DIY repairs themselves or they do it illegally. Witch leads to many problems with house buying.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Then I think we'll move into some luxury apartment with really thick walls and no maintenance.

Check out https://luxuryhomeslasvegas.com/idx/...vegas_nv_89145

I'd love to retire there. HOA is like 2500 a month, which is a lot, but 2500/month in upkeep for a 4000+ square foot apartment is a bargain. Now I just need to work for the next 10+ years so I'll have enough money to retire there.

Looks affordable.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

Apparently building a home is even more painful a process..

Yep, I hear that. I had three new houses built for me in California. The first two I watched being built on a daily basis. The third house, I stopped by after the foundation was laid, to make sure it was the right floorplan, then came back when it was ready to move it. Why didn't I watch the third house being built? Because I couldn't handle seeing the shoddy workmanship -


humfrz

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by jsimon7777

Buying a home is a painful process.

It doesn't have to be - it helps to have a good buyers agent -


humfrz