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.
As far as the location of that house, I've always hated that intersection. It's a busy intersection a house over from there - lots of car crashed right on that corner. Maryland Avenue is a busy stretch as well - up and down Maryland Ave there are car crashes regularly. Speeding is common.
There are some less-than-desirable neighbors in that little area as well.
So I live at a place now where I don't foresee myself moving at the moment. I broke up with my girlfriend a year ago and I am not going out of my way to find a new mate. If I live where I am now, and bought a beater for around $20-30K, and just fixed it up as I went along living in the other place I'm at, is that something I could do?
Sort of, when I got an extra couple thousand dollars here and there, stick it into the house? I can do drywall and basic stuff like that, and I have family/friends that are in certain industries that could potentially help me with bigger projects (an old friend of mine had his own roofing company, for example).
I have some interest in buying a "junk" house and I am wondering what are all the pitfalls and issues I might have and/or run into.
Hopefully I don't drag on too much here.
1. I have five figures more than once over but that is all I have.
2. I don't believe in the stock market for reasons I won't get into here, but I don't believe it in.
3. I want to "invest" my money, but I wonder if buying a house(s) would be better than buying gold/silver? Gold/silver can be lost if you don't have a safe-deposit box, too. A house is always going to be there (as long as doesn't get nailed by tornado)
4. What issues does a "junk" house like that have? Gutted appliances/water heater/copper pipes throughout the property? Frame damage?
5. The same house that was listed for $17,000 here was on the market later within that same year. I wish I could say I know what the "flipper" sold it for but It turned around so quickly I don't.
6. If I buy a cruddy old house to work on or "add to" as I live in my other place, what price MONTHLY would it cost me, bottom of the barrel just to keep my house? Would I have to keep water/gas on in the property, if I didn't live there? Property tax, obviously?
If you can help me with any of this, I would be grateful. I think the house could potentially be more of an "investment" I didn't even "flip", at least not right away. What I am saying is I don't even know if I'm looking at "house flipping" as the means to an end here. My means to an end is more of it's SOMETHING - unlike stock or speculations that I have little faith in, at least it's tangible. I need to put my money somewhere and I don't trust stocks and I don't even know if I trust my bank to be standing in a serious terrorist attack or some sort of other calamity that could hit this country.
If you can answer some/any/all (if they make sense) of my questions, I'd be much obliged.
Find a mentor. Someone who has been where you are and done what you want to do. SCORE is a government program which offers this service, or find one on your own.
Having owned low-end properties in my life, I can tell you that repair/remodel us horrifically expensive if you cannot do the labor yourself. Not to mention the fact that MOST of these kinds of houses are in neighborhoods with their own set of issues and problems.
I do not want to discourage you from following your dream, but go in with eyes wide open and know what you are getting into before you plunk your money down.
Scroll down the page just a bit and see the houses that are currently up for sale in comparison to the one on Maryland, realtor . com is linking similar properties. I don't know your market, however, it seems what is for sale in and around that listing, that this neighborhood is up and coming. I think you mentioned earlier that it's diversified, nothing wrong with that. There will always be neighborhoods that are middle/upper middle class in a somewhat close proximity to less desirable area's. There is only so much land on earth.
Some of the houses for sale now are listed just a bit under and some are just a bit higher, and others quite a bit higher and they need work from the looks of it. Get to know your market, comps, needs, etc.... You are not in a rush and that's good as you are a bit green in regards to real estate. Research, continue to ask questions and go from there, you will figure it out.
FYI, I think the house looked nice from the photo's and really like the wood trimmed windows, crown molding and totally dig the wood panel ceiling, that's me tho. I would have paid the selling price for it as well. As a poster said, older houses were built better (in most cases), attention to detail and craftsmanship were honored back in that time. That isn't a cookie cutter house and reminds me of an hold shot-gun style house a bit.
Good luck to you.
Last edited by photogal9; 04-26-2018 at 10:22 AM..
Scroll down the page just a bit and see the houses that are currently up for sale in comparison to the one on Maryland, realtor . com is linking similar properties. I don't know your market, however, it seems what is for sale in and around that listing, that this neighborhood is up and coming. I think you mentioned earlier that it's diversified, nothing wrong with that. There will always be neighborhoods that are middle/upper middle class in a somewhat close proximity to less desirable area's. There is only so much land on earth.
Some of the houses for sale now are listed just a bit under and some are just a bit higher, and others quite a bit higher and they need work from the looks of it. Get to know your market, comps, needs, etc.... You are not in a rush and that's good as you are a bit green in regards to real estate. Research, continue to ask questions and go from there, you will figure it out.
FYI, I think the house looked nice from the photo's and really like the wood trimmed windows, crown molding and totally dig the wood panel ceiling, that's me tho. I would have paid the selling price for it as well. As a poster said, older houses were built better (in most cases), attention to detail and craftsmanship were honored back in that time. That isn't a cookie cutter house and reminds me of an hold shot-gun style house a bit.
Good luck to you.
Thanks.
I can't stand the cookie cutter NEW houses I see all over the place in the suburbs. They look incredibly cheap so you and the other posters here than are talking about quality of craftsmanship, I get what you guys are saying.
I do not want to discourage you from following your dream, but go in with eyes wide open and know what you are getting into before you plunk your money down.
I don't know if it's a dream.
I think a lot of the scattered questions here are stemming from this premise: I have a sum of money; I don't really trust the stock market; I was told many years ago from a wealthy guy that buying land/reality was what he did with all his money.
I mean, that's kind of where I'm coming from. I don't even know how much I trust banks for that matter anymore...so If I can't keep a large sum of money in my residence. What options do I have at that point? I don't know if I like the idea of buying gold/silver and sticking it in a safe deposit box.
I guess I just want to sort of find out what this reality situation is all about.
It sounds like the home is priced about the value of the lot. That means someone has written off any value for the house, and considers it to be a tear down, and put a new home in it's place.
As far as the location of that house, I've always hated that intersection. It's a busy intersection a house over from there - lots of car crashed right on that corner. Maryland Avenue is a busy stretch as well - up and down Maryland Ave there are car crashes regularly. Speeding is common.
There are some less-than-desirable neighbors in that little area as well.
So I live at a place now where I don't foresee myself moving at the moment. I broke up with my girlfriend a year ago and I am not going out of my way to find a new mate. If I live where I am now, and bought a beater for around $20-30K, and just fixed it up as I went along living in the other place I'm at, is that something I could do?
Sort of, when I got an extra couple thousand dollars here and there, stick it into the house? I can do drywall and basic stuff like that, and I have family/friends that are in certain industries that could potentially help me with bigger projects (an old friend of mine had his own roofing company, for example).
Yes do that invest in a place to live. I don't know how much rents are in your area. In most places even a 1 bedroom rents for $750 a month. In 10 years that's $90K that you spent. Every time you pay your mortgage you are contributing to your net worth. Every time you pay your rent, you are contributing to your landlord’s net worth.
Be careful buying a beat up old home, better to buy something where you can get a mortgage that just needs updating.
Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't know enough to do this.
From what I can tell you don't know anything about what's involved in investing in real estate (or anything else), you don't have the construction knowledge to do the work yourself, you don't know how to value the property or manage it once it becomes habitable.
Sure, the house is a tangible object and that seems to give you some comfort, but it's a tangible object that will fall apart and fall to the ground unless you invest money and effort into improving and maintaining it.
You could try investing in gold or silver, but my understanding is that many people who do that aren't actually buying the shiny rocks, they're buying some kind of securities that document that they are the owners of a certain amount of shiny rock. You don't have to worry about losing your shiny rocks, but it probably doesn't give you the sense of comfort you're interested in.
If you want to invest it should be for the long term. You don't want to hear this, but the safest and most reliable way to do it, particularly for someone with limited knowledge, is index mutual funds. Yes, it's exactly what you said you don't want to invest in, but it also gives you a better chance of having it still be there, and probably increase in value, over time.
I think a lot of the scattered questions here are stemming from this premise: I have a sum of money; I don't really trust the stock market; I was told many years ago from a wealthy guy that buying land/reality was what he did with all his money.
I mean, that's kind of where I'm coming from. I don't even know how much I trust banks for that matter anymore...so If I can't keep a large sum of money in my residence. What options do I have at that point? I don't know if I like the idea of buying gold/silver and sticking it in a safe deposit box.
I guess I just want to sort of find out what this reality situation is all about.
Are you one of those people that believe the entire US financial system is going to collapse any day now? Do you really think it will be easy to establish gold as legal tender or anything similar? How do you know everything will revert back to the gold standard.
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.
