"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
03/10/2018 at 22:58 • Filed to: house shopping
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"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck)
03/10/2018 at 22:58 • Filed to: house shopping | 2
| 26 |
It was another spectacle. In the 20 minutes we were there, 27 people showed up. Virtually all of which were well-to-do investor/landlord types. I was the only one out there going over the exterior and perimeter while all the shmucks yucked it up inside.
It was a hard flip. New paint, new fence, new roof, new vinyl (UGH) siding. But the kitchen with its original hardwood felt about 2" out of level compared to the rest of the home. This will come into play later.
Anyway, outside: they had thrown down new grass but your shoe actually sinks in two inches everywhere you step. What the hell? So I walk through more mud that’s supposed to be grass. I find a creek running down the slope through the backyard. There’s also an unnerving body of standing water behind the garage. The creek runs down 30 vertical feet into an unlabled bigly big body of water maybe 20 feet away from the house. Also on that side was a brand new cedar fence that was not properly treated, parts of which were visibly soaked 3 feet up. You could look under the fence and see that some pickets were 6" deep in the mud, some 3" deep, and some 2" above. Given the consistency of the soil, the slope of the property, and the large body of water directly outside of the fence, it appears there is some rather extreme erosion going on.
In addition, also too close to the steep drop, is a shed. They took the time to paint it, but I found the two outer corners - again, facing the slope - shimmed up with small cuts of 2x4s. The roof on the shed was not replaced. As a result, the ceiling was seized with white mold and soaked.
We go to leave, but I come across a storm celler on the side of the house. Oh hell yeah I’m gonna take a look at this Trainwreck. What? Oh, they BOLTED IT COMPLETELY SHUT with a new metal slab so you can’t get down there. Hmmm.
The search continues.
House that isn’t going to sink into the river for your time:
benjrblant
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:05 |
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Ban vinyl!
fintail
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:05 |
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Sounds like PNW quality. It’s funny how this is first world Murka save for when it comes to the quality of housing stock.
“well-to-do investor/landlord types” - maybe too far north of the money laundering set, but maybe they are branching out north of Kirkland now.
A friend/co-worker of mine recently “won” a bidding war in Columbia City - because he was the underbidder, and the winner backed out. I have to ask why - either there’s a portal to hell in the basement (probably like the “storm cellar”), or they only moved the headstones. So now he’s in for nearly three quarters of a million for a decent but ordinary house in an “up and coming” area where the frequency of shootings is declining. The bank of in-laws helped him make this investment.
WilliamsSW
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:07 |
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That’s awful. I’d like to smack the flipper with one of the 2x4s holding that wreck upright.
Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:07 |
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Aluminum siding or GTFO.
pip bip - choose Corrour
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:08 |
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My only suggestion is you might have to move to another state to get a decent hour at a reasonable price
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Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> fintail
03/10/2018 at 23:08 |
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I have to admit when I found out my buddy’s first house was actually bought by his mother, I have not been able to look at the same since. He does not know I know and he has championed from day one that he did all through hard work and good money management. Sigh.
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fintail
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:12 |
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Reminds me of the luckyboomers who bought nice houses in west Bellevue or Magnolia etc for 80K 35 years ago and now can’t grasp how anyone under 40 or so has a tough time making it in this market.
I know almost nobody in my age demographic in this area who didn’t at least get down payment help from family.
lone_liberal
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:30 |
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I know it’s wearing on you but you’re acting with your head and not out of desperation so you’re winning. We’re going to go take a look at a new construction tomorrow. I don’t have a lot of hope since spec houses have uniformly shitty finishes around here but it’s on a big cul-de-sac lot so we’ll look.
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benjrblant
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:35 |
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These flips are all over the market here too. The thing that frustrates me most about them is that it might have had potential before the churn-n-burn flip. In all honesty it probably sold for $100k less too. Now these “investors” have essentially masked the problems of a house making it more difficult to repair and are dishonestly selling a needy structure as a sound one.
I might have been able to afford a house before the flip. I definitely could have done the work myself and likely done a better job too. Now that it’s been “improved” I can’t afford it and it’s no better anyhow.
Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> fintail
03/10/2018 at 23:40 |
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My wife and I got into a house on our own, but it was hard, we make pretty good money, and we ended up a lot further out than I wanted to. There’s just nothing closer we could afford and where we ended up we could barely afford. We just discussed yesterday that we probably couldn’t afford a house in our neighborhood today and it has only been 5 months.
smobgirl
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/10/2018 at 23:55 |
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So have people started cold-calling you offering to buy your house?
I’m not house shopping right now because I think it would be financially wiser to scrape mine and start over here, but that’s the crap I’m dealing with now. Like, almost daily. And I can’t even put my finger on why it’s so aggravating but it SERIOUSLY pushes my buttons.
I think they’re probably the same sort of people trying to pull that crap on you as a buyer. UGH.
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fintail
> Eric @ opposite-lock.com
03/11/2018 at 00:01 |
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With the right down, I suspect it isn’t impossible - it is keeping up with it that would worry me. 3% down on 750K isn’t unimaginable. The monthly, however, plus insurance, taxes etc, plus what might happen if the renter penalty is repealed.
This is a mildly depressing point:
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Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
> lone_liberal
03/11/2018 at 00:11 |
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Who’s the builder?
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Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> fintail
03/11/2018 at 00:26 |
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Well, we wouldn’t take a loan that high relative to the house price and our house payment consumes more than a third of our take home income in spite of how much we put down. I’m terrified of this new property tax change, which is going to increase our monthly housing expense by at least a couple hundred...
The mount of money that we’ve spent in the last couple years between the wedding, house, and furniture is absolutely staggering. Thankfully, the only thing we had to go into debt for was the house.
CB
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 00:40 |
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Man, buying a house sounds like it sucks. I can totally understand why my girlfriend’s parents built theirs.
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lone_liberal
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 00:57 |
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Some outfit called Bernfield Homes. I’ve never heard of them. They aren’t one of the big outfits over here.
Dogsatemypants
> benjrblant
03/11/2018 at 01:21 |
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The shitty part is that there are a large number of properties just sitting unoccupied and off market. Investors, private citizens, banks. Profit is the motive, and I can’t really fault them for that. But the bubble will have to burst eventually.
E92M3
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 01:25 |
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It may be about to get even worse for you.
There’s been so many CA and PNW investors buying up houses here, that many neighborhoods are enacting new covenants that requiring the owner to live in the house for a min of 2 years before they can rent it. People are tired of remote landlords not keeping the houses maintained as well as the rest of the homes.
diplodicus forgot his password
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 08:46 |
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Wahts wrong with vinyl siding? Idk anything about siding really.
MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 09:31 |
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Is buying a lot and building an option? Seems like you’d be way ahead doing that.
Steve in Manhattan
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 12:02 |
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The one you looked at - is it a “knockdown?” I know the LA market gets like that sometimes when the house is just bought for the land. We have a version of that next door - a former substance abuse treatment center is being gutted and two floors will be added - $2 million condos will be the result.
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fintail
> Eric @ opposite-lock.com
03/11/2018 at 12:03 |
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I’d want to do 20% - PMI can’t be getting cheaper, and it is just a profit center for the already omnipotent FIRE cabal. I also want a mortgage no more than 3.5x or so income. Property taxes here are something most don’t want to get into - but with inflating values comes similar taxes. It’ll be interesting to me if federal deductions last forever, or if the bankers and developers can keep up the lobby for a deduction that exists nowhere else in the world.
New furniture is as sketchy of an investment as a fairytale wedding. I don’t know how most people do it. I am single with a fair income and am not rolling in spare cash, you’d need at least two to have all that here.
CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
> Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
03/11/2018 at 13:14 |
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We had an open house yesterday just across from me. We live in what I would call lower middle class, but all of a sudden there seems to be a lot of Audi’s around...
Also, seems that English loses it’s place as the predominant language in my area temporarily.
I’m sure everything is ok and on the level though.
Brickman
> benjrblant
03/11/2018 at 16:24 |
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Use leather siding!
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Eric @ opposite-lock.com
> Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
03/11/2018 at 18:34 |
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Aluminum dents. Vinyl is trashy. Wood, hardboard, stucco, and brick, from worst to best, are the only things that should be used to cover houses (unless they’re built like commercial grade buildings).
Mid Engine
> Dogsatemypants
03/12/2018 at 19:55 |
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Pretty much every house that comes up for sale around me is a foreign investor who buys it and rents it out, that usually means six adults living in a 2200 sq ft house and all have their own car.