Category: Home Improvement & Remodeling

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My New House

Wow, things happen quickly. I didn’t write about this last week because I really didn’t expect it to go through. I made an offer on a house, about $10K under listed price. This house was a repo and needs some work (not as bad as the others I’ve seen thought). It was a multiple offer situation and I though for sure I wouldn’t come close since people have been paying list price.

I was surprised when I was informed early this week that I had the high offer, but they wanted to get another $5k out of me. No way was I giving them any more, I though my current offer was generous. To make a long story short, I signed the contracts yesterday. It’s mine!

Front of houseThis house is located in the same neighborhood that the other house I made an offer was on. It’s on a 1/2 acre, a nice rectangular 1/2 acre with easy access to be the back yard on both side. The interior needs carpet, paint and is a little dated (was built in the late 70s as far as I can tell), but other than that it’s not in that bad of shape. It also has city water and sewer. Many of the house in this area of Rio Rancho were built before there were hooks and have septic systems or wells. I lucked out there as well.

Over all I’m happy with this purchase so far, I got a deal and it has the basic configuration I was looking for. I have some big plans to add on and will be writing about them here.

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House Hunting Week… Whatever

Have I told you how much I hate living in an apartment? What, no? Well I cannot believe that because I really hate it and I usually tell everyone how much I hate it. From the lack of water pressure to the crappy dishwasher and walking up three flights of stairs. I will really be happy to be out of this apartment.

The housing market, she no good for me. She real good for seller. A while back I wrote about a house I wanted to buy only to find out there was a contract signed the day I looked at it. This was the house on a 1/2 acre with a giant antenna in the back yard. It was listed at about $135,000. One might get $130,000 for a house in this neighborhood for that much if it is in absolute pristine condition, this house was/is not.

This house has a flat roof and it had a leak at one point. I would say half the walls and ceilings in the house will need to be replaced. Not to mention pain, carpe, wood root along the outside and kitchen needing remodeled to name a few. Were talking a easy $30 to $40K in work is needed and I think I’m underestimating that number. Yet the house sold for $130,000! Some person, who must be on crack, has more money than sense actually bought that house for near the asking price. I’m guessing that that they would need to sell the house near the $200,000 mark to get their money back.

This hasn’t just happened once, this has happened twice. Another house on the same street in a similar situation. Not nearly as ba, they were asking about $120,00. A little lower but still needed lots of work. I offered $105,000 would go up to $110,00. Someone came in and offered the asking price. It’s insane I tell you. INSANE!

The popular thought is that people from California are selling their homes for a half million dollars. FInding that the Phoenix market is turning into California’s market, they come here where’s it’s cheaper. Thus people have plenty of money to spend more on our cheap houses, even if they need work. What’s $30K when you just made $200,000 on your last house?

As for me, my lease is up 31 October. Seems like a long ways away, but I’m getting worried.

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House Hunting Week 5

Houses seemed to dry up this week, as I only had one prospect

This house was overpriced by about $20K. It had been bought by an investor and fixed up, but it was done somewhat half-assed. Its land was too small anyways.

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House Hunting Week 4

The trend continues, I either like the house and not the land or I like the land and not the house.

This house kind of had a weird lay out.

  • I’m not so much in love with the sunken living room, especially since it was sunken about 6 inches or less it seemed.
  • The kitchen was small and it didn’t seem to have much room to expand
  • No back yard access with a vehicle

This was a Amrep house built in the early 1970s. I’m not a huge fan of Amrep homes (more on that some other time) but this one had a very nice layout. THe kitchen was very well done. The owners had already done most of the renovation work I would have with wood floors and painting and so-forth.

Unfortunately the yard was really that big (.25 acres or maybe smaller). And I wouldn’t be able to talk them down much considering the work that was done.

This house has a nice large back yard with block walls. It’s also a Amrep house and lives up the the “werid” design that some Amrep houses have. I don’t mind a 2 story house but this one was just not right.

Finally the last house of the week. Another Amrep house that has a interesting design. I liked it actually. They had put tile on the kitchen counters, it looked nice but was the kind of adobe tile that wasn’t uniform. Thus the counters are uneven. And of course the plot of land was too small/had no vehicle access.

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House Hunting Week 3

After having two houses last week, this week turned out to have quite a few prospects, a good half dozen I would say. Many I rejected on paper, a few I rejected at the drive by. I almost had a winner, but it only upped my expectations.

Initially I didn’t give this house a second thought, but I looked at the MLS a day later and decided to do a drive by. The remarks said:

Great custom floorplan with a very large lot. Home features backyard access, great garden area, covered patio, storage shed, and a large inground hot tub. In need of some handyman work. Roof replaced in 2004. Some interior work still needed. Great investment opportunity. Look past what it is and dream about what it could be! Being Sold AS IS with no warranties expressed or implied. Hot tub room 187 sq ft. not included in home square footage.

The house was built in the early/mid 1980’s. The bathrooms looked like they were from the 1970’s. None the less it had some great character and layout out. The previous owner had added on a built in hot tub.

Being a flat roof house, it had seen some leaking problems. THe roof was replaced a few years ago but many rooms still showed damage. Drywall would likely need replaced along with new floors. The kitchen and bathrooms would need remodeled as well. The house is part of an estate sale, the owner had never seen it. THere is a room added on at the back porch with shelving and there’s a giant antenna in the back yard. I assume that a old ham radio operator lived here, died, and the daughter got the house.

Did I mention the antenna? Yeah, there is a giant telescoping antenna in the back yard. If anyone should own a house with a giant antenna in it, I should! The back yard is listed at .55 acres, with most of it in the back yard. There was also some huge trees back there.

I spent several hours there finally deciding that It had everything I was looking for. They had is listed for $134,000, but another house in the neighborhood went for $131,000. Considering the work that was need to fix the interior I could probably get it for much less. I had made the proper financial arrangements and was ready to get the inspection report so I could make an offer.

Sigh… The house had been on the marked for 50+ days, the day I find it and want to buy it, someone else signs a contract. Same thing happened on the first house I looked at. It will be difficult to find another house like this.

I actually like this house, the interior layout was pretty nice. It was built in the late 80s, so not quite as “antique” as some of the others.

It is listed as being on .5 acres, and yes it is on a large lot. But the whole area is very hilly, and half the back yard is sloping downwards. Most of the block fence is below grade, I would have to build fencing for most of it. One side of the house has neighbors higher than it and they can easily look right now on it.

The house does have a above ground pool with a deck. Although it would have made me pretty popular with my friends, I’m not very interested in maintaining a pool.

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Live Pigeon Cam

Unfortunately, I have some pigeons living on my patio. That’s unfortunate because 1) They crap all over the place, 2) They have a nest with a egg in it. I cannot bring myself to get rid of them with the egg there, actually it’s their second one. Had I know about it before they laid it I would have done something about it.

To get something useful out of of the situation I have set up the pigeon cam. Running off my 500mhz first gen iBook, a iSight and EvoCam you can watch as the butt ugly baby is born (and believe me, they are ugly). Click on the image to see a 640×480 image. I will be adding it to the side bar as well. I’m also working on a time-lapse.

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=gregssite-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0976141604&fc1=000000&=1&lc1=0000ff&bc1=ffffff&lt1=_top&IS2=1&f=ifr&bg1=ffffff&f=ifrI’ve seem the mom and dad birds do some weird things so I will try to point them out when I see them. Also check out this MetaFilter post, who knew people ate them?

Update 06/01/05 3:44 PM: I wanted to mention that the picture updates only when there is movement, But EvoCam still seems to struggle to upload to my iDisk. I’ve also put in the link to the timelapse movie but doesn’t seem to be accepted by QuickTime in the browser, it works fine when I view it from the finder.

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House Hunting Week 2

I’m being very careful this time around, not jumping into anything unless I’m very sure it’s what I want. I looked at two house this week.

This house, being a HUD home, was foreclosed on.

  • The interior was pretty dated, probably was built in the 70s.
  • For a HUD home, it isn’t in bad shape but does need work.
  • The house is good size at ~1500 square feet, but the kitchen is smaller than my apartments!
  • The yard is probably a 1/4 acre, but oddly shaped.
  • The landscaping isn’t too bad. Mostly dead grass and no rocks.
  • Asking price is $85,000

Although it seems cheap, it gets bid on. Bids are due on this house by the end of next week. My concern is that I could get outbid by a contractor who can do the fix up work cheap that I can (which is apparently happening with the HUD homes around here). Even though it’s the fixer upper that I’m looking for the kitchen needs more work than I think I’m prepared (or know how to) do. Not to mention the yard is oddly shaped.

This house didn’t have any lot size info on the MLS, only saying it was on a culdesack. To make a long story short, the house was pretty nice inside but the lot was very small.

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Housing Bubble Or Not?

The Montly Fool has a article about the housing bubble that I found interesting.

In our neck of the woods, things look pretty unhealthy. I recently came across an OK-looking three-bedroom, maybe 1,000 square feet. 1950s vintage. Needs a new roof and windows and updating throughout. Price: $500,000. If you’re screaming, you don’t live in the D.C. area. The showing agent expected prospective buyers to make an offer within two days, and, as is now usual here, to waive all reasonable protections like inspection clauses. To me, that screams, “Bubble!”

Thankfully I don’t have to deal with housing prices like that here in New Mexico, but we are dealing with the same sort of house buying frenzy that the rest of the country is. The 30 years house I looked at for $113,000 is a good example, cheap but still a lot for such a old house (that needed work!).

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House Hunting Week 1

I started house hunting this week. No winners yet, my apartment lease is up in about 5 months so I have plenty of time. Here’s what I found so far.

In perspective, this house was just about perfect.

  • It is on a rectangular 1/2 acre lot.
  • It in the city of Rio Rancho but just on the edge so has a septic and propane tank but has city water running to it.
  • It’s on a dirt road and has a bunch of trailers in the neighbor hood, neither of which concern me.
  • The house itself is on ~1200 square feet, not huge but big enough for me. Newer construction (last few years).
  • The best part, it has a solid 8 foot fence all away around the property. Made of welded tubular steel with metal paneling. The fence goes all the way around the front to make a gate in the front.
  • It was well in my price range at $113000.

Unfortunately the house had an offer on it when we went to look at it, so I never saw the inside.

No house yet, its being built and will be done in about 3 months. But I did look at an identical house nearby that was almost done.

  • This house is in a flood plane. Yeah it will probably never flood, unless I buy this house then we will have the rain storm that only comes around every 1000 years.
  • The property, although a full acre, was all over the place. I don’t think I could put it to use the way I would want.
  • Its outside the city of Rio Rancho. Septic, propane and well water. None of which bothers me except the well is shared by two other houses. I don’t want to have to deal with neighbors at all.

Considering it’s on a flood plane they still wanted ~$130000 for it. I’m afraid this isn’t the house I’m looking for.

No photo for the next house.

  • On the edge of the city and has city water and sewer.
  • On dirt roads, lots of desert around.
  • 1/2 acre lot, most of it not cleared. I like the natural desert look.

It’s a new house, they want ~$130000 for it and it just doesn’t seem that special for the price. There were no windows in the back of the house, just weird.

Were getting close with this house.

  • It’s old. Exact age or builder isn’t known but was estimated to be 20 to 30 years old. It certainly had that 70s look to the interior.
  • Speaking of the interior, it needed work. I would want to redo much of the kitchen and living room. A fixer up for sure.
  • The lot is 1/4 acre. Unfortunately it seems most of the property is in the front, since it’s a corner lot. I would prefer it be in the back. I’m sure some creative fencing could move some to the back but it’s not ideal.

Like I said, it’s close. I going to keep looking, but I may come back to this one in a few months if I don’t find anything else (if it’s still available).

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Evaporative Cooler Thermostat Fail

I woke up early this morning mainly because the swamp cooler had been running an extra long time (it blows right on me). I knew something was wrong because it felt cold yet I knew I set the super fancy digital thermostat to 78 degrees before I went to bed. The house temp was 68 degrees and the darn thermostat wouldn’t turn off. Even setting it to “off” wouldn’t turn it off.

I sent a email off to Dial Manufacturing of Phoenix, Az but I suspect it’s going to be easier to just replace the darned thing.