Money Pit -Home Purchase (house, neighborhood, new construction)

[DJboutit]

If the house your planning to buy needs any of these 2 or more it is a money pit
Roof
Total new electrical system
Major plumbing Work
Foundation work
New AC system

[NTT]

Originally Posted by DJboutit

If the house your planning to buy needs any of these 2 or more it is a money pit
Roof
Total new electrical system
Major plumbing Work
Foundation work
New AC system

Not necessarily. If you know in advance, these will open up for a whole lot of negotiation in the price.

[DJboutit]

Yes but most people buying homes are not looking to spend more than $5k on repairs on a house after they buy it

[NTT]

It all depends on how much one had set aside to purchase a home. My home needed a new roof and a new AC, I negotiated the price down to $25K. It was feasable.

[ethanw]

I disagree with one of the posts that new homes lack quality and they're money pits.
If you manage you building process the right way you should get maximal quality granted that the builder does quality work. Is all about managing the building process.
I made 6.8%/year profit on my first new house which I sold it after 7 years for a very heafty profit in Missouri City First Colony. Very pleased with the money I made
On my second home I already see the value going up very quickly since they're only 50 houses in the area and they just now started to built much further down, which is not as convenient as my area. Is all about location, location and location.

To me realstate has been always very lucrative and I own properties in Asia & Europe. Only once in my life I broke even but not lost money when I sold my flat in Docklands London. I never been upside down in my realestate purchases.

[testmo]

you take a pretty good risk buying a home in an area that hasnt even finished developing yet and is so far away from the city

our last home's land value was higher than a friends home appraisal in a new developed suburb in cypress

money pit depends on how much money you have to spend, how much you love the home, time, and patience. everything can technically be fixed and most home repairs are a lot less expensive then they realize. if it aint broke dont fix it (and if it isnt contributing in some way to further damage - most things dont)

[ethanw]

My new house is not far away from the city of Sugarland. Is actually even closer to the city than my old house.. I don't see the risk. As I said I already sold my older house in the area and made a fantastic profit.
If you refer to Houston as a city that's a different story and I am not sure if I even wanna start the argument. I never cared for Houston housing to be honest so I never looked into the feasibility of buying there. Too much unevenness and inconsistencies, too much variety that I don't care for. In the burbs you get a lot of house for the money even with a brand new house. I like it here and traffic is not bad. Top 45 minutes to get to work and I can live with it. I used to commute from London to Paris 2H 1/2 or Hong Kong to Macau 1H 1/2 or Kuala Lumpur to Cyberjaya 1H, and I was perfectly fine with it.

Originally Posted by testmo

you take a pretty good risk buying a home in an area that hasnt even finished developing yet and is so far away from the city

[TimBomb]

anything you pay for monthly is a money pit

[mtgmike]

You may have done just fine on that house if the lot is a nice size, etc. The electrical box shouldnt be that bad. Old type breakers are very expensive to replace one at a time, but replacing the whole box with the newer style will be a good investment. Get more estimates than usual on this job. Most big corporate type companies will see it as an opportunity to murder you, but I bet you can find an independent electrician who will base the job on how long it takes him, not just how big of a job it seems to a layperson.

Water heater labor costs are all about access. I did my own in a house that had the tank in the garage, easy as pie. I paid for someone else to do my current house, which has it in the attic(no way Id try that).

I second the water filter idea vs repipe. Id look into a whole house filter setup if you have easy access to the main water line coming to the house. If not, just do one in the kitchen.

[fordlover]

The main thing I didn't like about new homes was that they are on such tiny lots. We more than doubled the size of our lot by going from a house built in '06 to a house built in 1983. But we picked carefully, I found a house that had copper water pipe, 2x6 T&G subfloor upstairs, no HOA to deal with, about 500 more sq. ft. than the old house, lower tax rate, 3 car garage, etc. for less than 25 grand more.

For comfort sake we upgraded the elec. panel box to a new unit with larger capacity for less than 500 bucks, well worth the piece of mind, just something to think about since certain brand old panel boxes have been known to start fires.

If the water heater is in the attic, I advocate replacing it every 10 years, especially if you have hard water in the area. I helped replace a 25 year old water heater in a house once that had so much built up rust, minerals, etc. in it it weighed more than 3 guys could lift. Luckily for us it was on the first floor, but was still a nearly impossible job.