I forgot to mention it here... I'm moving into a new apartment in March! After 9 years in my current live/work space, the deal has got worse and the outlook isn't good, no matter how amazing it is to have a juggling studio at home.
Rent when I moved in (2007): €515 per month.
Rent now: €1190 per month.
That's quite an increase! But as it's a commercial property, there is no rent control, and the minimum lease is three years.
I'll post photos of the new place once we're moved in.
If you need any advise or want me to scope out a property virtually let me know I love House hunting ^_^
Find me a 19th century farmhouse with totally modern electrical, plumbing, heating, and insulation. Oh, and no foundation issues or water intrusion problems or mold problems.
Preferably with ~4 acres of land. Maybe a mountain in the back yard. And a detached workshop.
If you need any advise or want me to scope out a property virtually let me know I love House hunting ^_^
Find me a 19th century farmhouse with totally modern electrical, plumbing, heating, and insulation. Oh, and no foundation issues or water intrusion problems or mold problems.
Preferably with ~4 acres of land. Maybe a mountain in the back yard. And a detached workshop.
Buy 4 acres of land and build the rest. That's pretty much your option.
If you need any advise or want me to scope out a property virtually let me know I love House hunting ^_^
Find me a 19th century farmhouse with totally modern electrical, plumbing, heating, and insulation. Oh, and no foundation issues or water intrusion problems or mold problems.
Preferably with ~4 acres of land. Maybe a mountain in the back yard. And a detached workshop.
Buy 4 acres of land and build the rest. That's pretty much your option.
We found a house that I rather liked (OK, it was early 20th and not 19th), and it had a goddamn mountain in the backyard. It would've needed some renovation work (convert from oil to natural gas, upgrade all the windows), but nothing unmanageable. It fit the above descriptor.
Until we reviewed the photos again. The camera showed things that our eyes didn't catch. Evidence of water intrusion and mold growth, possible shoddy cover-ups, and instances of water damage in the roof.
So you can find that thing if you're willing to sink work into it.
RE: 1978: That's practically new construction round these parts. Most houses in the area we're looking at are from the 50's or earlier.
EDIT: Der Jernsen: We're looking primarily in the Altamont, Voorheesville, and New Scotland areas outside of Albany - basically looking in the Town of Guilderland and the Town of New Scotland. We're also looking in neighboring areas, but generally west and south of Albany, below I-87, without being in the middle of fucking nowhere. We've looked as far south as the northern chunk of Feura Bush, and don't want to go farther south than that.
Our upper limit is a $200k mortgage and no more than $6k a year in taxes, combined. That's pretty well dictated the housing area to us, but we're cool with that. We're generally shopping in rural to superrural areas - not quite suburbia.
1974 is the golden year. Most every house built after that date has many of the modern construction you expect.
Can't beat that 40 year old construction quality!
But the mid 70s is the line between "old farmhouse" and "this is a modern building."
LOL
Up here, " old" doesn't start applying until you hit 100 years. We have colonial-era (not style, but extant from the mid-1700's) that you can like just buy. THAT is old.
I'm reminded of a saying about the difference between Europe and the US: "In the US, 100 years is a long time and in Europe 100 miles is a long way."
For real though, insulation, siding, sealing, ducting, plumbing: that shit all changed drastically in the 70s. I would be very leery of a house built before 1974 unless I had a lot of construction experience.
1974 is the golden year. Most every house built after that date has many of the modern construction you expect.
Can't beat that 40 year old construction quality!
But the mid 70s is the line between "old farmhouse" and "this is a modern building."
LOL
Up here, " old" doesn't start applying until you hit 100 years. We have colonial-era (not style, but extant from the mid-1700's) that you can like just buy. THAT is old.
I'm reminded of a saying about the difference between Europe and the US: "In the US, 100 years is a long time and in Europe 100 miles is a long way."
That is a super true. My house is a "new build" from the 1800s, the last place had bits from the 1600s in it ith the new stuff from the 1800s. That said 100 miles is a bit of a slog but not to bad. I mean Swansea is only two hours from me and that's a bit over 100.
For real though, insulation, siding, sealing, ducting, plumbing: that shit all changed drastically in the 70s. I would be very leery of a house built before 1974 unless I had a lot of construction experience.
I don't, but I have 3 friends in the home construction business and another one who does professional restoration of historic buildings, particularly timber-framed buidlings. We're talking about a dude who understands and repairs wattle-and-daub construction.
So I've got resources to tap for that express purpose.
Mmmm, PEX plumbing. Would beat the hell out of the place we saw that still had LEAD plumbing. And asbestos-wrapped pipes.
The house we just vetoed had cloth-wrapped wiring. So yeah, that would've been fun.
Modern electrical and modern heating systems have been some of my primary concerns. Buying a house without those is not a dealbreaker - I just knock a shitload off the offer and hire someone to replace it. That's the idea, anyway. I'm not opposed to buying a house and having it renovated into modern-ness, as long as the seller understands they'll get nowhere near their asking price if I have to do that.
Like the current front-runner with a buried oil tank. They emptied it 18 years ago and capped it off, but have no paperwork indicating that it was done in accordance with the law. So it'd fall on us to have it dug up and have the ground tested. Seller doesn't want to pay for it, so there's $10k they don't get in an offer right there.
My attitude is this - if you do something for me, I give you a break. If you make me do something, I give me a break.
It costs like $2500 to dig up an oil tank. If the seller wanted to do that, I'd make a more generous offer. Because I have to, I make a much less generous offer.
I am very willing to pay for ease and convenience.
That's huge. If you are willing to bid low, negotiate, and walk away from bad deals, you will fucking win in the end. Most people buying homes do not have the luxury of taking their time.
We're definitely not dragging our feet, but we've done 2-ish years of window shopping and have solid ideas about what we want. And our lease is up in November, so we've got some time yet.
Yea make sure you research the person who owns the property usually you can get these records from the county. Knowing that my house was a single 80+ year old with a 5 bed room house clued me in that she was going to take an offer after the house sat for a half a year on the market and saved me like 40k. Also because I did an extensive search I knew she had complained about flooding to the township
Apparently one of the "old" houses we're looking at may have been built in 1810. My friend who does this sort of thing for a living wants to get "all up in her" to examine her "modified tussenbalkgebiint."
Apparently I've come to know some people with rather diverse skillsets.
Every showing we have been to (3 so far) we have either had someone knowledgeable with us or taken lots of photos and had them reviewed by someone knowledgeable. I'm not sinking that much money into something without giving it a thorough pat-down and cavity search. The full TSA.
A lot of the "old" houses around here have had plumbing and electrical updates. The trick is identifying which ones are done right and which ones are "let's make this look okay as cheaply as possible so someone will buy the house."
Checking public records for occupants and complaints is a good idea too... once we're about ready to make an offer, we'll look into that.
That's huge. If you are willing to bid low, negotiate, and walk away from bad deals, you will fucking win in the end. Most people buying homes do not have the luxury of taking their time.
Our lease is up in 9 months. We need to close sometime in the 3rd trimester.
Comments
Rent when I moved in (2007): €515 per month.
Rent now: €1190 per month.
That's quite an increase! But as it's a commercial property, there is no rent control, and the minimum lease is three years.
I'll post photos of the new place once we're moved in.
Preferably with ~4 acres of land. Maybe a mountain in the back yard. And a detached workshop.
Until we reviewed the photos again. The camera showed things that our eyes didn't catch. Evidence of water intrusion and mold growth, possible shoddy cover-ups, and instances of water damage in the roof.
So you can find that thing if you're willing to sink work into it.
RE: 1978: That's practically new construction round these parts. Most houses in the area we're looking at are from the 50's or earlier.
EDIT: Der Jernsen: We're looking primarily in the Altamont, Voorheesville, and New Scotland areas outside of Albany - basically looking in the Town of Guilderland and the Town of New Scotland. We're also looking in neighboring areas, but generally west and south of Albany, below I-87, without being in the middle of fucking nowhere. We've looked as far south as the northern chunk of Feura Bush, and don't want to go farther south than that.
Our upper limit is a $200k mortgage and no more than $6k a year in taxes, combined. That's pretty well dictated the housing area to us, but we're cool with that. We're generally shopping in rural to superrural areas - not quite suburbia.
Up here, " old" doesn't start applying until you hit 100 years. We have colonial-era (not style, but extant from the mid-1700's) that you can like just buy. THAT is old.
I'm reminded of a saying about the difference between Europe and the US: "In the US, 100 years is a long time and in Europe 100 miles is a long way."
So I've got resources to tap for that express purpose.
Mmmm, PEX plumbing. Would beat the hell out of the place we saw that still had LEAD plumbing. And asbestos-wrapped pipes.
Failure to do so may lead to your death by fire.
Modern electrical and modern heating systems have been some of my primary concerns. Buying a house without those is not a dealbreaker - I just knock a shitload off the offer and hire someone to replace it. That's the idea, anyway. I'm not opposed to buying a house and having it renovated into modern-ness, as long as the seller understands they'll get nowhere near their asking price if I have to do that.
Like the current front-runner with a buried oil tank. They emptied it 18 years ago and capped it off, but have no paperwork indicating that it was done in accordance with the law. So it'd fall on us to have it dug up and have the ground tested. Seller doesn't want to pay for it, so there's $10k they don't get in an offer right there.
It's fun, really.
It costs like $2500 to dig up an oil tank. If the seller wanted to do that, I'd make a more generous offer. Because I have to, I make a much less generous offer.
I am very willing to pay for ease and convenience.
That's huge. If you are willing to bid low, negotiate, and walk away from bad deals, you will fucking win in the end. Most people buying homes do not have the luxury of taking their time.
Apparently I've come to know some people with rather diverse skillsets.
A lot of the "old" houses around here have had plumbing and electrical updates. The trick is identifying which ones are done right and which ones are "let's make this look okay as cheaply as possible so someone will buy the house."
Checking public records for occupants and complaints is a good idea too... once we're about ready to make an offer, we'll look into that.
10 acres, a real fixer up. but 100k, you'll need a new roof (however the kitchen looks more modern then the house and at least half the windows are replacement windows :-p So you could sink another 100k into fixing it up :-p