Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I like what you have posted but have to ask you. You hire (hopefully) a really, good, qualified agent and then are not willing to take their advice/recommendation for an inspector? Please explain. If you trust your agent to act in your best interest, why would you not trust their judgement on an inspector....they see them on both sides of the transaction whereas you pick an inspector a few times during your lifetime. How do YOU know if an inspector is "bad ass?"
Yeah, I had these same questions.
I would definitely look askance at any realtor who said they had their own in-house inspector, or any other in-house service.
But they should be able to make recommendations, if you ask for them--not just inspectors but attorneys, title agents, mortgage brokers. They should be able to give you several names of each, from which you can choose your own consultant, using whatever criteria you wish.
And if your agent is really as good as you claim, and the inspector is as really as 'bad ass' as you claim, wouldn't the agent likely be recommending them?
I had to sell my first one because of terribly loud, continuously fighting and shouting neighbors.
On the second one, I've gone to neighbors of my neighbors, even their neighbors, and chat casually. Asked questions like, "Oh btw, I didn't have a chance to meet people who live next door, do you know them?"
This saved me, at least, as far as that neighbor told me, a similar experience I would have just like my first house. So I didn't buy it.
Bought my first house in 1971. Have owned many houses -- for personal use and as investments. So OP's questions are what have you learned; not personal preferences.
My lessons:
1. Location is still everything, and if you are working outside the home, long commutes are soul sucking and can damage your ability to parent and sustain a happy home.
2. Get the place inspected -- even if its a bad inspector, you'll learn more about the place and have someone else to blame instead of yourself when unnoted items fail.
3. Plan for maintenance. Set aside $400-500 in a special savings account each month as your maintenance fund. Use it for repairs and save the rest for the biggies that come along.
4. Take good care of the place to protect your investment and minimize costly repairs. Change HVAC filters every 1-2 months; protect sink cabinet bottoms with water seal paint, fix stuff that breaks right away. Conduct inspections a couple times a year and look for leaks, termites, fencing, etc. Oil your garage door tracks, clean your shower/tub grout, regrout when your tile is showing the need; clear your drains, paint the exterior when its showing signs of wear -- before the wood rots and stuff gets damaged.
5. Be a good neighbor and your neighborhood might stay nice: take your trash out shortly before pickup and put your trash containters away by nightfall. Don't park in front of neighbor's houses; put your own cars in the garage or in your driveway. Don't drive junk heeps; don't park on the lawn. Keep your grass, shrubs and trees trimmed. Go ahead and buy the girl scout cookies. Nothing protects your investment better than a good community.
You need to be smart when buying a house from a financial stand point. However, don't let i.e. $50.00 a month higher mortgage payment keep you from getting a house you feel checks all the boxes.
The reason I say that is if you have a job & historically are always getting a certain % raise take that into considering.
Granted that property tax & home owners insurance usually goes up every year (at least where I live) so you can expect a higher mortgage payment.
Of course this doesn't apply to everybody because some people are literally living on a tight budget and might not feel they have a bright future in the particular job they work at. But a lot of people do feel like 5-10 years from now they are going to be making a lot more money through advancements & you don't want to look back and realize you didn't buy your dream home simply because of wanting to not spend an extra $50-100 a month.
3. Plan for maintenance. Set aside $400-500 in a special savings account each month as your maintenance fund. Use it for repairs and save the rest for the biggies that come along.
4. Take good care of the place to protect your investment and minimize costly repairs. Change HVAC filters every 1-2 months; protect sink cabinet bottoms with water seal paint, fix stuff that breaks right away. Conduct inspections a couple times a year and look for leaks, termites, fencing, etc. Oil your garage door tracks, clean your shower/tub grout, regrout when your tile is showing the need; clear your drains, paint the exterior when its showing signs of wear -- before the wood rots and stuff gets damaged.
I think #3 is great advice. A lot of people spend thousands of dollars when buying a new house on just furniture, drapes, curtains, silverware etc. It's expected. But try and build up savings to pay for something unexpected because it will happen. Kinda similar to why many small businesses fail. They make so much money in the beginning & fail to save for a bad day. Then they have to buy new equipment & they just can't afford it. SAVE for unexpected costs.
#4. Agree big time on this too. I go under my house about 3-4 times a year just to inspect, look for leaks, look at any moisture issues. I found out once that my downstairs toilet was leaking. Would have never known this if i never went under the house.
Went into the attic and saw that the gable vent had a screen that was damaged. I got it fixed but if i didn't get it fixed rodents could easily come in the attic.
I think water is one of the biggest things to try and look for. Water can do serious damage if it goes unnoticed for a long period of time.
I've looked around the various outlets for plywood for my shop ceiling. I can say this much- the quality of plywood has gone the crapper in the past few years.
Shear strength is not the be all and end all. Take OSB in a frame and hit it with a big hammer, hammer goes through. Now take plywood, Hammer does not go through. Now picture a tornado or hurricane blowing broken bits of 2x4 or trees or mailboxes around.
Also OSB loses shear strength over time, especially in high humidity. If it gets wet, it is done. It will disintegrate. Protecting the edges does not keep it from getting wet, it just helps prevent the most common area of decay from dampness (as long as you do not cut it).
Saying OSB is "greener" is also questionable. The greener comes from the idea of using leftover tree parts more. Not form the pollution caused when it is burned or dumped. However OSB does decay into pretty much nothing very quickly when it is left outside, so maybe it is greener.
However it is true plywood is getting crapier and crapier. Still it holds up better in adverse conditions. I was just rebuilding a fence my wife had patched 8-10 years ago with leftover bits of plywood and OSB. The OSB was completely dissolved (100% of it). I could not even pick it up, it just fell apart. I dealt with it by running the lawn mower over it and turning it to mulch. Some of the plywood is still hard and usable if I cut off the edges. I set those asideie for future use. Other pieces of plywood were completely delaminated and fell to bits when lifted - again the lawnmower dealt with those.
If you buy a new house every five years, OSB is probably great. It is certainly much cheaper. I am more of a long term guy. I pay the premium for plywood.
Do not ignore the impact that the neighbors could have. Barking dogs, junk in the yard across the street, lack of parking on a narrow street, neighboring house has an 80ft cedar tree on the fenceline growing over and onto your roof, blah blah.
You can do a lot with your own house, but you are to a large degree at the mercy of your neighbors. Choose 'em wisely.
That's tough to do. When we first bought our current house, the neighbor was a sweet, older, quiet woman in her early 70's. She kept her place neat as a pin, and was the perfect neighbor. A few years later, she died of a fast-moving cancer, and her lowlife son moved in (she had 7 kids, and apparently he called dibs on the house.) I think it's still in probate, so things could change, but living next door to him and his family is awful. They're dirty, have aggressive dogs (we've had to install a solid fence to protect our dogs for theirs, and our eyes from the trash all over their yard). They're constantly getting citations from the city for not mowing their lawn, cars on the grass. The house is literally falling apart. Ugh.
On the other side, when we moved it the first neighbors were a bunch of single guys who partied hard, and were always having the cops called because of noise (not by us). Now a few owners later, the family living there now is friendly, with great kids and they keep the place looking great.
What I've learned in the 30 plus years since buying my first house - you can't pick your neighbors.
Shear strength is not the be all and end all. Take OSB in a frame and hit it with a big hammer, hammer goes through. Now take plywood, Hammer does not go through. Now picture a tornado or hurricane blowing broken bits of 2x4 or trees or mailboxes around.
Also OSB loses shear strength over time, especially in high humidity. If it gets wet, it is done. It will disintegrate. Protecting the edges does not keep it from getting wet, it just helps prevent the most common area of decay from dampness (as long as you do not cut it).
Saying OSB is "greener" is also questionable. The greener comes from the idea of using leftover tree parts more. Not form the pollution caused when it is burned or dumped. However OSB does decay into pretty much nothing very quickly when it is left outside, so maybe it is greener.
However it is true plywood is getting crapier and crapier. Still it holds up better in adverse conditions. I was just rebuilding a fence my wife had patched 8-10 years ago with leftover bits of plywood and OSB. The OSB was completely dissolved (100% of it). I could not even pick it up, it just fell apart. I dealt with it by running the lawn mower over it and turning it to mulch. Some of the plywood is still hard and usable if I cut off the edges. I set those asideie for future use. Other pieces of plywood were completely delaminated and fell to bits when lifted - again the lawnmower dealt with those.
If you buy a new house every five years, OSB is probably great. It is certainly much cheaper. I am more of a long term guy. I pay the premium for plywood.
I live in Montana. I removed the cheap aluminum corner trim on my house last year, hoping to get on the replacement before winter. The OSB that is 20+ years old was exposed (and in great shape). However I did not get around to the solid trim until this year. It went through 12 months of exposure and it still was totally fine. No swelling, no rot- just sun discoloration.
20+ years old and doing very well. It will stand many, many more years.
Oh and I can punch a hole in plywood with a hammer. Maybe not 3/4, but the other stuff? Yeah no problemo, lol.
The sad thing is that right now it appears that OSB is a much more consistent product than plywood. The reverse was true 20+ years ago.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
you can't pick your neighbors... but you can pick how close they are
