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This idea of decorating for the next guy is useless. I think most of this iron clad advice peddled by the Real Estate industry is a bunch of bunk. Basically if you follow their advice, you cycle dollars, padding the price, which gets them a bigger commision. Your net probably doesn't increase all that much. Especially if you put a true price on your time / materials / effort. The higher price in today's market is going to be the prime turn off to selling, not what color some closet is.
You are better off just doing what pleases you. Forget all this primping to sell. Price the house accordingly with all those dollars saved already deducted.
I knew a guy just a few houses down from my old house. Did all that bunk, poured dollars in out of his pocket. Wanted $385K, never got a sniff, changed brokers, did all the tricks. Highest he ever got was $265K offer, I never quite figured out why. I heard finally got foreclosed. What that market was desperate for where fixer-uppers priced right. You could actually find a buyer first time around and super quick. Ride a horse, ***** a house flipper.
The olde putting lipstick on the pig is a major part of the problem into day's market. People are demanding a premium based on subjective factors.
I went thru my last house and did a detailed inspection, 143 items on the list. 34 where sort of major. I needed a new boiler, new windows, new roof, etc. Fine figure it out, carry the one, subtract a bit here and dump it on the new guy. You usually will come out ahead. Plus people want to change the decor, change this, change that. The cream color thing is way over sold.
A prettied up pig at a super premium is probably why people can not sell most houses. I didn't even have to clean up the last house. Grabbed my junk, left the mess. Signed the papers, got the check, gave them the keys. They were in there the morning I left ripping it apart. I doubt that effort paid off for them. If I was liberal give them 10K profit net for a ton of work, plus a lot of potential to get sued. I saw the come on ad, they ran. Lies and **** lies.
The game does not always work when everybody knows the formula. A fixer sells better in many cases than a primped up pig and yields more profit for a lot less work. I will never buy a primped up pig. I will never buy a house with painted interior wood work. Painted interiors degrade with time. This big demand to paint it prior to trying to sell it. Natural finishes increase in visual impact with time. Don't got to do nothing. What broker goes around telling you that little fact?? You can never please the next guy, make the price attractive, they will buy it. Primping just makes them more picky. People are very strange animals.
Cosmic, I LIKE you! You just tell it like it is! No BSing! Where are you from? (curious) Now if you don't mind, could you please explain what you mean by FREE house? You sold house A & then bought house B straight out with no morgage. (GOD I wish we had no mortgage! I could write a BOOK on all the pain in the ass sh*t...! ) And then you put the extra money in the bank. So where's the FREE? Unless you mean "free & clear"...?
No, it really is FREE. Like I paid no money out of my pocket for it. I now live in Ohio, I sold a house in MA, coming on two years ago.
So I bought a house in Ohio, with basically the money I had in a checkbook, like the petty cash working money, another fixer for $24K. Hadn't been paid for the old house yet. Never even went to see it. Just had the fellow run around and take some pictures. Didn't really miss anything, seeing it would not have changed anything. I knew what it needed. Basically to be rehab'd. Nothing big ticket, send the guy a personal check, just needed a place to move to. In Ohio, you don't even need to go to the closing, I did it all by phone and mail.
I will pull it off as a total rehab'd house for an additional 10K out of my pocket, me doing all the work. The total deal, new furnance, windows, doors, wiring, plumbing, full gut on the bath and kitchen, paint and paper thru out.
So I get all the money out of the old house free and clear. I owned it out right. Put that money to work to earn back the money, I took out of the working checkbook. The earnings have now replaced the original amount, so by any definition the new house is FREE.
I have the same amount of money I started with and more, plus the new house which must be FREE. Basically what they used to preach but most people never seem to achieve these days. Take the equity out the old house and still have a replacement house. And those earning can go on forever.
The game the way they sell it today is exactly the opposite. They want people to "Take out the Equity" and keep continuously increasing their debt while they still own the house. They can never "Get to the good part". They must pay forever. Only the guru's of the real estate industry make out.
I know people who are retired and still have killer mortgages. Say What, how is that ever going to work? You were supposed to be able to take out the equity in cash and downsize or whatever and enjoy the proceeds for other purposes.
So if you do it like in the old days, the extra cash earns additional income / cash flow and if you manage it right, your next house can be FREE at some point. You will have all the equity you started with plus a new house or what ever you want.
For me I got an additional bonus just getting out of MA. Your living expenses drop to about half, so the money went even further. Plus I wound up with a better house in the end. About the same size, 1 bedroom less.
The other chuckle to the story was what a snug replacement. Turns out this guy owned the house for like 70 years. Must have been freezing. His fuel bills must have been out of sight. The entire house was just chock full of insulation, blown in rock wool. It was eveywhere, in the attic, in the wall, in the interior ceilings, interior walls, under the bath tub, etc. Bear to pull wires through. Old boy must have had them come a bunch of times and still was freezing.
Turns out he had the attic open to the interior volume of the house via a large store room. Jees, I go in there and look up and there is like a 5 x 3 foot opening up into the attic, like wide open. The attic is totally vented at the ridge and both ends to the outside. Bunch of stupid bracing tacked up there. Old Boy tried to heat Ohio for many, many years. Like having a door open year round. I don't know why nobody could figure it out.
I put a cat walk up in the attic, reframed it, closed that opening and presto, instant snugness. Never have to use A/C in the summer, still haven't turned on the heat yet, probably won't until December. I figure get another dog and candles and can heat it with that source.
Plus once I have mastered this little trick am planning on maybe getting another "County House" so I can have a get away place. It works so easy why not get another FREE one.
Actually if a fellow started doing this quite young you could wind up owning a whole town. Wouldn't need any of them tapes or gurus. The real trick is never to have any debt.
I also say them inspections and all that trash is useless. You can educate yourself to do it all. Plus don't be afraid to buy "AS IS" and do the remodeling work yourself. Anything to own the house out right as soon as possible. The real trick is never get into that high priced game where you work for the bank all your working life and maybe never finally get to actually even fully own it. Do everything to make your payments pay off the principle ASAP. Then maybe trade down and start collecting FREE HOUSES.
Plus decorate the new houses the way you want. Forget all that BS about primping to please the next guy. Price it right it will sell if that is your druthers. Always has, always will. Don't pay mega-prices, pour more money in the hope of getting a little back. You are just cycling dollars and making brokers rich. In fact, don't use brokers, they just mess up good deals.
Geesh!! It seems like people who are buying homes these days are buying in hopes of profit. Homes never use to rise in value like they have the past 7-8 years. People use to buy homes to live in and make it just that a "home".
We bought our home back in 2002 and that's exactly why we bought, to live in and grow old together
Me too but he should be putting the money in mutual funds! Banks give like 1.5% interest, this doesnt even keep up with inflation! Even treasury bonds at 4.5% is a much better choice and 0% risk. Mutual funds can go up 10-15% a year if you have a little knowlege where to put, which funds to buy.
Cosmic believes in fixer uppers but I dont want a house that needs alot of work but I also dont need a primped out house. Just want a big house with good bones, no decoration needed. I am not a house investor. When I move out of s. FL to SE OH ill be buying a house around $50k to live in!
Me too but he should be putting the money in mutual funds! Banks give like 1.5% interest, this doesnt even keep up with inflation! Even treasury bonds at 4.5% is a much better choice and 0% risk. Mutual funds can go up 10-15% a year if you have a little knowlege where to put, which funds to buy.
Cosmic believes in fixer uppers but I dont want a house that needs alot of work but I also dont need a primped out house. Just want a big house with good bones, no decoration needed. I am not a house investor. When I move out of s. FL to SE OH ill be buying a house around $50k to live in!
Any house for $50K in SE Ohio will need TONS of work. You might get an OK 1 bedroom condo there for $50K, but no house. I know people that lived in Athens, they tell me most of the even $100K homes in SE Ohio need a fair amount of work, and the $50K ones are tear-downs. Problem is, even if you buy a $50K house and put in another $50k just to make it livable (you're talking new furnace, re-wiring, plumbing work, new roof, new windows, new siding, insulation, new water heater), it'll still be worth less than you put into it because of its location. The job market there sucks something terrible, so if your at-home business fails (which over 80% of all new businesses do within 5 years) you'll be stuck trying to squeeze out a living in an area where jobs are scarce and poor paying when found.
Any house for $50K in SE Ohio will need TONS of work. You might get an OK 1 bedroom condo there for $50K, but no house. I know people that lived in Athens, they tell me most of the even $100K homes in SE Ohio need a fair amount of work, and the $50K ones are tear-downs. Problem is, even if you buy a $50K house and put in another $50k just to make it livable (you're talking new furnace, re-wiring, plumbing work, new roof, new windows, new siding, insulation, new water heater), it'll still be worth less than you put into it because of its location. The job market there sucks something terrible, so if your at-home business fails (which over 80% of all new businesses do within 5 years) you'll be stuck trying to squeeze out a living in an area where jobs are scarce and poor paying when found.
Ill let Cosmic explain how wrong you are. He would sell his house for $50k(which is more than he thinks its worth) and its in perfect condition now, kitchen needs a little updating but still is fine. Everything else is in excellent shape. I arent spending $50k for a 1 bedroom condo. This is Ohio, not Florida(ive seen $50k 1/1 condos in north Florida) Most of OH is cheap, especially the SE part. Again, ill let Cosmic explain as he lives there and he knows better than both of us.
Need affordable home... you're hearing what you want to hear. By shutting down your ideas, people are trying to help you, not hurt you. Cosmic's advice is cool and his efforts commendable... but not practical.
I wouldn't recommend "teaching yourself to renovate a home" so you can do it cheaply, especially on your first home. It's the biggest purchase of your life and you really don't have good odds on doing it correctly. The biggest project I would undertake is maybe adding a chair rail, bathroom tile, new garbage disposal, painting walls, or installing a garage door opener. When you're talking about plumbing & wiring, if you do this yourself with a "How-To" book, you're taking serious risks.
Southeast Ohio is cheap but Columbus is a big enough town to draw jobs etc. So there will be higher home prices than a totally rural area.
Ill let Cosmic explain how wrong you are. He would sell his house for $50k(which is more than he thinks its worth) and its in perfect condition now, kitchen needs a little updating but still is fine. Everything else is in excellent shape. I arent spending $50k for a 1 bedroom condo. This is Ohio, not Florida(ive seen $50k 1/1 condos in north Florida) Most of OH is cheap, especially the SE part. Again, ill let Cosmic explain as he lives there and he knows better than both of us.
Do you really believe someone has a $50K house for sale that's in perfect condition anywhere in 2006 America? Because some guy on an anonymous internet message board said he does, so it must be true? You need to check this stuff out IN PERSON, and get an inspection on the place. As someone who has seen $50K houses throughout Ohio, I can assure you that with extremely rare exception they're not in excellent shape.
Any house for $50K in SE Ohio will need TONS of work. You might get an OK 1 bedroom condo there for $50K, but no house.worth less than you put into it because of its location. The job market there sucks something terrible, so if your at-home business fails (which over 80% of all new businesses do within 5 years) you'll be stuck trying to squeeze out a living in an area where jobs are scarce and poor paying when found.
Not exactly true. You can get a very nice house for 50K, in fact I just saw one sell for ~low 30's was immediately bought and "Flipped" with nothing done to it and sold again to the person to live in for $49K. In total move in shape. Full sized, probably 3 to 4 bedrooms. Garage, lot, etc. In town.
There is something like 14 counties in SE Ohio, each will march to a different drummer. Generalizations are pretty useless. You have to understand it at a county level, rules, regs, taxes, etc. etc. Then exactly what is going on local and in particular what the house involved is all about. It can be all over the lot. There can be super deals, there can be horrible deals. You usually can't use the standard approaches, sure don't go around listening to that broker prattle.
Some houses will make sense as rehab projects, others never will, the trick is to have the skills to know the difference. It is a moving target. Many older houses will need to be rewired. A total job, from the transformer down. Lots of "Mismatched" screwed up houses where somebody "Upgraded" this or that.
One area to understand very completely. I did my present house complete, new everything, service overhead cable, new service cable / meter, 200 amp panel, total rewire throughout for like $800. Has gone crazy, might have to budget as high as ~$2000 today. It is not rocket science, you can do it by understanding one of those DIY books, most are pretty good. I have seen some horrible "Professional" installations here. One house was completely rewired with #14.
Lot of the plumbing an amateur could not do worse as I have seen around here. Anyone can rehab a house. It is far more about knowing how to manage the project, purchase the materials correctly, keep the budget and any schedule under control. The actual hands on stuff is over done as to what skills are needed. You can plug thru it. Nice to have somebody who has experience just to point out some things. Lots of tricks they never show you on them TV shows. I don't view those TV fix it shows as representative of how most projects are done.
You do need the proper tools and a realistic budget. Helps to have some extra hands, simple rules - Top to Bottom, Dirty to Clean. It can be done. Have to have the right attitude and be willing to do all the grunt work and stay with it until done. Don't go cutting corners. Can do it very cheap, I did a total gut on a bath for $400, will do the kitchen for $1000, including new stove / dishwasher.
It is also not true good paying jobs are not available in the area. You just have to search a bit, have some skills and be patient. Lots of oil / gas drilling going on, field service work oil / gas, coal mining, timber, etc. Some good jobs down on the river in those various fields, barges/tugs, dredging etc. Some fairly good paying county / state jobs. Truck driving, etc. Possible to commute fair distances to better paying jobs.
Athens county is not representative of the SE. Most people are talking about Athens the town. You probably can get some deals in the county.
In general what I am seeing local is nobody is selling. People are sticking tight. Most of what is on the market is total junk. Good properties sell almost immediately, especially if the price is somewhere in the true price range. Lots of con games being run by brokers and insiders. Lot of them being the inital buyer and jacking up the price for a resale. Some of it may even be illegal. Most things are way, way overpriced. You can get a good deal but need some sort of on the ground presence and knowledge of what is happening. The rules desperately need to be changed for disclousure of how a house has been manipulated in price before each sale. You can find out some of it but a lot is hidden as practiced today. The house you want may not be available on any day of the week, need a longer time horizon.
SE Ohio is a fairly big place, lot of the comments are in the range of "Don't have a clue". Lots of variations over the region, few iron clad rules as I know it. Is a place where you can find the Dream situation if that involves getting away from it all but still being close enough to civilization and having some reasonable degree of services.
Lot of people also have the weather wrong. Again it can vary a lot over the entire region, I love the clear skies, lots of sunny days, super clear nights. May vary 20 miles away. Being up in elevation is one of the tricks to selecting a location.
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) And then you put the extra money in the bank. So where's the FREE? Unless you mean "free & clear"...?
It really is FREE
They must pay forever. Only the guru's of the real estate industry make out.
