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.
My main point was that I don't understand why people would pay the prices they're asking for houses in serious disrepair. The sellers are being insulting to the buyers intelligence! I'm not talking about a few thousand $ in paint and such. That I would expect to do when buying a home.
As far as things showing up in inspections. I agree. And, I'm wise enough to know a lot of the things that will show up in an inspection right off the bat when I look at a house and they were often major repairs so I didn't want to get involved battling a homeowner about doing those repairs (and maybe losing the battle) at a cost of $500 per inspection. Inspections are not something you can keep doing over and over again. They are costly. You have to be pretty sure you intend to buy a house when you go that far. Unfortunately, we've already paid for two of them since last summer and then didn't buy the houses after what was found, so I know that up close and personal!
To: I_Love_LI_ but---you're right about what I said and I stand corrected, I guess. Although, I still think young people should save their money and live in a thrifty way if they want to own a home some day. It is the only way to do it as far as my own experience goes, anyway. And right now we're all thinking about that way of living once again I think. But, I also don't think that when these young people who have saved up a down payment for a home by scrimping and saving and working hard to buy that house, finally, that they should allow themselves to overpay for one in poor condition just because the seller thinks he can get away with it. That's certainly not fair. And by the way most definitely not all the crummy houses I saw were owned by baby boomers. It was NOT all baby boomers trying to rip off people of their children's age! And some of the nicer and more sturdy homes, although perhaps outdated, were estate situations and it was a baby boomer who had lived in them and passed away. I don't think baby boomers are the only greedy homeowners on Long Island.
I really don't mean updating a kitchen or bathroom when I say a house is in bad shape. If a kitchen/bathroom is clean and functional, but old fashioned, I could definitely live with that. (In fact that's exactly what our last home on LI looked liked, circa '63 and it didn't bother me at all--but I sure did know enough to keep it clean, painted, with no mildew and in perfect working order for goodness sakes.) What I'm talking about is dirt, filth, stink, a different 30 year old carpet in every room, old linoleum flooring, no screens, no closet doors, inoperable windows, missing trim and baseboards, room doors taken off their hinges, heaters missing the covers etc. None of those things are all that expensive to fix and I couldn't understand why the home owner wouldn't have fixed them as they broke and as the home owner lived there. I couldn't understand how some of the things ever happened in a normal home in the first place, for that matter!
Why wouldn't a person keep up their home for their own use much less to try to sell their house? If a screen falls out or gets a bad hole in it by accident--replace it! If a baseboard cover gets dented--replace it! If a window won't open--find out why and fix it! If you notice a board is rotten--first find out why it happened, fix that problem and then replace the rotten board before that rot spreads and it all becomes a huge job! These kinds of things are not overly expensive to do. I also saw structural problems like years and years of wood rot indoors and outdoors (which was REALLY common to see), badly bowed in roofs, roofs desperate to be re-shingled, and stuff like that. To my mind, anyway, these are things you keep up with as they first start beginning to happen (and the job will be smaller and less expensive) when you own your home and as you live there. It seems to me that if you can't afford the upkeep on a home or are too lazy to do it you wouldn't buy a house, because everyone knows that's part of owning one. And, if a person doesn't keep their house in decent shape then expect to get less for it when you sell--and if that's the way you want to live and you don't mind taking less when you sell, that's fine and it's your business. But, you really shouldn't think you're going to get the same price as your neighbor who DID take care of his home year after year as he lived in it!
And, I can't help it, but as time went on I just began to wonder why ANYONE would pay $250,000 or more of their hard earned money with the average taxes of about $7,400 for these homes that had not been kept up, were dirty, and/or structurally unsound. I also have to say I was shocked to see how some people live to tell you the truth. All in all it was an eye opening experience.
Lastly, I'd like to give a "shout-out" and my compliments to those people whose homes were beautiful, clean and obviously kept up. And, I_Love_LI_but many of those homeowners were YOUNG. It was soooo pleasant to walk into a home like that! And, I think they deserve top dollar in whatever market they're dealing in.
I also have to say I was shocked to see how some people live to tell you the truth. All in all it was an eye opening experience.
We looked for houses both in CT and on LI and I totally agree. What really shocked me was the smell factor. Houses that had serious pet stink, cigarette stink, dirty litter boxes, garbage cans overflowing with dirty diapers, toilets that were not flushed, yards full of dog crap, mounds of dirty laundry that you had to step over in the basement. I have a dog and two small kids so my house isn't always neat but it is always clean!
One house was having an open house and there was a "friend" sleeping in one of the rooms on the floor on a dirty mattress. At another, we had a scheduled appointment in the afternoon and when we got there the teenage kids were both asleep in their beds! Like at 2 in the afternoon so we couldn't turn the lights on to look at the bedrooms.
(One of my fave places was this house we saw, maybe in Melville? Can't remember exactly. It had an old dentist's office in the basement, with the chairs and everything, like from the 70's. So creepy! Like I would want to buy that house and make getting rid of your old dentist junk my problem because...? But it was clean at least. Just totally creepy.)
Anyway, good luck with your search! Lots of frogs out there in every price range.
Interesting to see the POV 360 degree turnaround now that OP is looking for a house on LI!
The explanation to everything back then was the younger generation is simply SPOILED ROTTEN, wanting MORE MORE MORE and expecting too much because they want a home they can afford that is not a total shambles! My, my, my ... how things can change. Now we should just DEMAND lower prices and that's that! Does that mean we're not spoiled anymore?
People pay the prices here because that's what the market is. I believe it was Tom Moser who said in a similar thread a few months ago - (and I'm paraphrasing) "A house is worth what it sells for".
You were tooting LI's horn not to long ago and couldn't wait to get back here, but now that you're in the same boat as the complainers you mocked, it's OK for YOU to complain. This is LI. The housing stock is OLD. Some of it is pre-WW2. People lived their lives and had money to pay the mortgage but clearly a lot of them didn't have money or any care about taking care of the house or updating it. Young people today look at these houses and think "wait - it's not just a mortgage I'm getting into - I've also got to worry about replacing the roof someday, buying new appliances, fixing broken tiles, etc" - things that they see previous generations did not take care of. I recently found a list my FIL had made of "one time expenses" when he bought his house 40 years ago. He had listed things like "carpet, siding, fridge" - ummmm....really? He bought that house planning to live his life there - did he REALLY think he could put down carpeting and have it last 40-50 years???? THis is how YOUR generation thought. Now you want to come back and you're paying the price. You even said it was the YOUNGER homeowners who kept their houses nice.
You're trying to play both sides of the fence here but you can't have it both ways. $250-$300K for a house on LI is a joke in most areas. THAT'S what young people are up against. And if you once owned a home here on LI as I believe you said you did, then you've certainly benefitted from that at some point in the not-too-distant past. I'm sure you think your previous house as "all that" when you sold it but I'm sure there are plenty of things that weren't that great. Do you REALLY think your buyer was thrilled with your oh-so-clean but circa 1963 bathroom? Doubt it - they were probably wondering who in the world lives with such an old bathroom. Same problem just a different degree as what you are talking about.
It's all really subjective... A family with 2 kids is NOT going to do very well in SB for under 3. I made a joke earlier in the thread about the cost of converting heat exceeding the cost to build the home - a stretch a bit maybe, but I think you got my point.
To the OP - I try not to come on here and blast LI too much because I still have my family and friends back there. I'll always have a special place in my heart for it. But, I had a very similar experience to you in looking for a home and got so fed up I left. BTW - this was in a higher price point then you, but I looked in many of the same areas.
The fact that these people aren't keeping up the homes is definitely part of it, but you also have to consider how homes were thrown up during the development boom on LI. We're not talking "solid", "quality", "custom" homes... Whether it's aluminum wiring or balloon framing or non-existent insulation - the list of issues goes on and on. Now take the fact that zero finishes went into the house, stuff like original windows, 3 layers of shingles on the roof, add in neglect, and you still have homes appraising (completely joke of a concept) for 10x what someone paid to build it 30 years ago. It boggles the mind. We're talking nondescript middle of the Island areas here... There's no "character" or "restoring it back to its glory" like you could see in a historic area of LI - it's a $#!@ joke to be honest.
There was no way I was going to pick up a renovation project even at the bottom of my range because I know once you peel back the onion you'll find it costs 5x times any estimate you got... I'd have to probably go into hock to finish it up and would never come close to getting my money back. Of course I could have just lived putting band aids all over it while my kids grew up... But, honestly - who wants to live like that while paying insane premiums to breathe the air?
Unfortunately, the housing stock is being held prisoner to the middle class. We want to blame someone, but I don't have an easy answer as to who... As the demographics continue to shift around LI and the banks/NAR/govco continue to try and artificially keep values inflated, I don't see a great future for LI until the chains come off those middle class homes and they get in line with the median income of the area. There ya go - a whole post and I didn't even mention taxes! (oops!)
My main point was that I don't understand why people would pay the prices they're asking for houses in serious disrepair. The sellers are being insulting to the buyers intelligence! I'm not talking about a few thousand $ in paint and such. That I would expect to do when buying a home.
It's called supply and DEMAND. If you are not willing to pay what other buyers are willing to pay, that is your choice. Just don't get upset when you don't see the house prices dropping to the level you are expecting.
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.
It was soooo pleasant to walk into a home like that! And, I think they deserve top dollar in whatever market they're dealing in.
