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House/Homeowner thread: HOW much money?
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I think in the setup you described it's going to have to be something that reduces the noise produced or some really comfy noise-cancelling headphones.
He swears there's a delay lol. He has a Pro Controller plugged in but never uses it.
My Backloggery
Most bathroom exhaust fans are literally just a metal box plugged into a two pronged outlet, no fancy wiring or nothing. The cover might be tricky to take off, it's usually held by some springy wires in tension. But generally speaking if it is the fan that needs replacing, you just unscrew the metal box, stick a new one in there, and plug it in like... like a desktop fan.
A gamepad? He'd be holding it so it should be quieter?
tell him to git gud
If you want to go down the road, you can get fans that have integrated humidistats and turn on/off of their own accord. They're the same price as traditional fans.
But, yes, bathroom fans are super easy.
You can also exhaust the fan just into your attic, or right at an eave vent.
Anything penetrating the roof should be done by a roofer so that it's properly sealed and warrantied.
I dunno maybe if you live in like Phoenix but otherwise uncontrolled venting of humid air into a space that is neither tempature controlled or regularly checked is a recipe for all kinds of disaster
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Yeah don't ever do this. Great way to add Mold to your attic.
I've wanted my own place for a while. However, the insane rising costs combined with my own depression and dealing with family stuff has caused me to put it off - to say nothing of the debt I've incurred by not actually saving so far in my life.
On Saturday, I got a letter informing me about my rental renewal.
For context:
My apartment is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath on the 3rd floor. I moved into this place in May 2014, paying $805/mo on a yearly contract. This rent remained unchanged until 2021. There were many periods when the other rentals were not occupied. But that has changed recently due to a major car manufacturer moving into town, on top of all the rest of the housing BS out there. I have only been late once on a payment, and that was due to a bank processing issue - and it was by 1 day.
In 2021, my rent went up to $815 a year.
In 2023, I got a letter saying my apartment was valued at $1,000/month. They expressed the need to keep rent in line with these rates, but as a "Thank you" they would give me two offers. I could sign a year contract for $865/mo, or I could switch to month to month for $915. I knew that I was unlikely to get a house last year as I was still dropping debt, so I went year to year.
Cue Saturday.. when I got nearly the exact same letter. This time, it says my apartment was valued at $1,200/month. They are offering me a yearly contract at $940/month ($75/mo more), or a monthly contract of $990 ($125 more).
I can see the writing on the wall... They are trying to use the boiling pot method to get me back up to where they think this apartment should go for. And I admit, I'm likely paying well below market value! But.. it's time to go.
The problem is that I've spent all this time paying down my CC debt, and don't have a down payment. Everyone says I can get first time homeowner's support, but.. well, I don't really want some ancient place. I also don't want a McMansion or the ugly stuff they are building out in the edges of town with no trees and massive buildings. I want to stay close to my family and my work, and the various places I hang out.
So I guess the question is... how should I go about starting to calculate things? I make $85k before tax. My big debts are $220 for student loans, $350 for my car (that will be paid off in about 6-8 months), and 9k in credit card debt (Christmas and Retail Therapy with my dad's passing saw me spend way more than I should).
I belong to a credit union, that should be a good starting place to look into pre-approval. I'm just super worried about the process. Oh, and I 100% must hire movers. I'm in no condition to move all my crap myself. In fact, I am debating getting a storage unit to temporarily move things out of my apartment and make it easier to clean up... but that's another $100 or so to get climate controlled storage.
Ath I know you and love you. Don't do the storage unit.
Go ahead and factor in like 3-5K to movers. I don't think you'll spend that much, but just knowing it's set aside as what you need for them is a lot of weight off your shoulders. I've hired movers as high as 2K and as low as 500 (professional) or I've accepted losses (friends or hiring randos)
Rates aren't great right now, so you've got to figure out your monthly payment you can safely handle, and then figure out what that would mean with an FHA loan.
That should give you your ballpark range for a home, and then you just have to find a realtor or use zillow or whatever to find stuff in that price range.
(this is my opinion, others are equally right/wrong)
Good news, everyone! The fan is actually fine. The circuit breaker it was on got tripped somehow. I only figured it out when I got home tonight and found the string lights we have in our front porch area were off despite being on a timer. Inspection of the timer revealed that it had lost power at the same time when the fan shut off. Anyway, everything works now, but I'm going to keep an eye on that breaker. It had been tripped when we did the home inspection a year and a half ago.
My Backloggery
None of this matters if you don't have a really solid understanding of what your monthly budget can afford but there's a bunch of detailed mortgage calculators that can give you a good ballpark, even Google offers a pretty full featured one, and are probably your best bet for developing a feel for what you can afford before you step down the path.
- Find a listing on redfin/zillow in an area of town that you like. Doesn't have to be a perfect listing, you're just looking to get a feel for the price in a given area. Write down the list price
- look up the 30 year mortgage rates at your bank, add like .15% to this and write it down
- look up property tax rate for your zip code, I can find this through my county website. Write it down
- plug these into a mortgage calculator
- compare against your budget
Mortgage rates are going to have a significant effect on your monthly and they will change up until a few days before you close
Brokers, agents, and the calculators are going to have a rule of thumb about estimating how much insurance will cost you but I found they were all inevitably low.
Think about what utilities you aren't currently paying but are still using. If you're in an apartment trash is probably included in your rent, maybe water as well. You'd be most likely be responsible for both of those.
If you're in an area that does HoAs or other special assessments (think Mello Roos in CA) that might not be apparent from the listing and both of those can add to your monthly.
A pre-approval letter is good but it's only telling you the maximum the bank will lend you. It's going to have very little to do with your monthly
If so he can straighten this out for us, otherwise he can get drunk with me on $2 beers in a better time
Oh sorry, I read this on being worried they'd lock you into an ancient place that you didn't want
It’s not fun, but it’s worth it.
It might have come across wrong. The most "affordable" places in my area are extremely small homes from the 1900s-1940s. Homes I would physically not be comfortable in due to their size. You could.. well, call that my privilege talking, but I specifically picked this 3rd story apartment because it had tall ceilings and a vaulted roof in the main room. I also want a basement for tornado preparedness, ideally a garage for car maintenance and storage, and a few other amenities.
I know I'm just on the beginning of this journey. Like tonight, I'm going to cancel my recurring subscriptions that I've built up and am not using. I am just afraid of what the market may look like out there. I'm 41. By this time, my parents had the house I was born in for like 10 years... and I don't think I'll ever afford something that nice.
Also, if you go with an FHA loan, plan to either refinance or upgrade once you can hit 20% loan-to-value; FHA loans do not let you cancel PMI which will add up over time. (Also by then hopefully rates are lower...).
I also did a little bit of spring cleaning and canceled pretty much all the subscriptions I'm not using, so that's another $50+ a month saved (and more if I wanted to push things). Mom has been making double payments on her house and has really knocked down the outstanding loan amount there, so if I can possibly do similar I will. Sorta like how I'm paying $1k+ on my credit cards each month when minimum is.. a bit less.
FHA - Federal Housing Administration. People use that as shorthand for loans to approve those who don't have a full or any down payment.
There's more paperwork and restrictions in an FHA, but offers first buyers opportunity to get a house.
PMI - Extra money you pay in addition to your mortgage to cover your - i.e., my - broke ass who couldn't make a down payment.
You can refinance down the line to either a non FHA loan or lower rates, but don't count on that.
This may have changed with the recent rate hikes or what your specific options are, but the interest rate on your credit cards is likely to be much higher than your mortgage rate. Paying extra into the mortgage will lower the total interest you pay over the life of the loan, but carrying balances will often eat up that amount and then some on a shorter time frame.
Yeah if your mortgage is 20%, you got a bad deal. Quick search showing around 6%.
Bathroom vents pointing at, but not directly connected to a roof vent, is the setup in every house I’ve ever lived in. It is extraordinarily common. If you get the vent pretty close to the roof vent it’s generally fine. At least 2 of the places I lived I had to get inspections done for other reasons and they didn’t find much.
But sure, it is definitely better to have it actually connected.
If you have credit card debt it’s going to be difficult to buy a home. Not impossible, but probably a lot harder. You’ll get higher interest rates and lower max amounts offers from banks or whoever you go to for a loan (or no loan at all if the credit card debt is high).
Owning a home also really, really benefits from having cash on hand above and beyond the mortgage payment. When shit breaks as a renter you call the landlord and they are usually legally required to fix things fast. As a homeowner you have to pay for those fixes. It’s hard enough finding someone to do the work, if you’re strapped for cash it’s near impossible to find a solution (a lot of places don’t take credit cards).
As someone who just went 6 weeks without central heating and then 3 weeks without a water heater, don’t let that be you. Living without amenities is miserable and potentially extremely bad for you or the house.
Edit - just some extra random thoughts I had.
Don’t wait for interest rates to drop. Timing the market is a fools errand anyway, but buying when interest rates are higher isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You’ll get a cheaper house price because there aren’t as many buyers, and if rates drop a ton in the next 5-10 years you can refinance without having lost all that much in interest. The lower initial cost could even end up making it a net benefit.
Pick like 1 or 2 things (besides max price) as must haves. There’s so many different types of houses it’s hard to try and balance everything. I found it easiest to just have a few things that I required from any house and then just approach every house like I was totally willing to buy it if I felt the price was fair. Much easier than wanting to see all your options first and then trying to figure out which one was the “best” one.
Something I'd recommend is converting that credit card debt into a personal line of credit or something. That can save you more than a few bucks on interest even if you plan to pay it off within a year. Head down to your credit union/bank and see what you can get.
As for your actual question, I think it's a bit early to think about buying a home. You really need some actual cash, both for downpayment purposes, as well as moving expenses and immediate repair work. (There are ways to pull from retirement savings for this, but that has more than a few caveats.) I'd pay off the credit card debt, then convert your card payment into a downpayment fund. Yeah, that leaves you paying more money in rent than you'll like, and that sucks, but you really need that cash. In the meantime, watching listings is a reasonable thing to do, not so you can buy something, but so you can learn how the local market works, and how to read listings.
I'll note that moving from an underpriced 2 bed apartment to an actual house, even if it's the same size, is going to be more expensive.
I probably will end up signing a new lease. I just wish the month to month wasn't so high. I would be fine with the 940 if that was the month to month raise.
Edit: Maybe I can negotiate with my rental place... I am still curious why the rental price jumped $200/mo.
Well
We have been having a Time of it here.
wanted to get our steel roof painted, to help elongate it's lifespan. Noticed that some of the gutters were a bit messed up. So we called a roofing guy. "yeah your gutters are fucked. can't do that. Oh and don't paint the roof, you have lead-head nails, they're going to rust through in 5 years and you'll need a new roof. See ya"
wellok. fuck. guess we'll start saving.
time passes, and gutters are *really fucked*. like, whole sections have rusted through. So we call another roofing guy and are like "hey, we need gutters and what's your opinion on the roof?"
This guy actually climbed up onto the roof and started taking photos. Sure enough, several of the lead head nails have rusted through and there's holes starting to grow. Well. Guess we're getting a new roof.
So we order a new roof. We're going with White instead of the old Dark Brown. Hoping that in summer it'll keep the house temps down. The roofers are doing really well and then one day their boss comes by and is like "hey, so the guys were up there and they found that one of your exterior walls is just crumbling"
oh, look at that. so it is.
SO
We have the roofer recommend a builder he works with. Builder comes by and gets pissed because whoever did the siding on the house used some form of particle board. WTF. So we get a quote to fix the damaged upper gable and then another exterior wall that I noticed had some damage to it. We get scaffolding cause we have.... really high steep roof. like old ski chalet looking roofs.
So the builders start work and oh hey, actually, only half of the wall is particle board, the rest is actually hardiboard siding, which is like, real god quality stuff. or at least, better quality.
So we don't have to reclad the entire house. But it looks like it's been done in stripes of hardiboard and particle board and again, WTF. But it's ok, cause I got rid of a window that was kinda useless to us, we never used it and always had the blinds down. So now we've got a new wall in the lounge.
only the folks that flipped the house before we bought it decided that instead of doing plaster and paint on the walls of the house, they would use boring beige coloured *textured* wallpaper. and the plaster isn't liking the wallpaper. and he wallpaper isn't liking the plaster.
So we've made a deal with the Builder to now remove the lower half of that one wall in the lounge's wallpaper, and then plaster it, and where we do the seam across the top, the builder is gonna build me a nice shelf all across, so I have place to store my pretty things and Lego and such.
It's been a very long long few weeks.
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How old is your house?
I hate everything about what you're having to deal with but at the same time in the US a lot of this would just fall under "bought a 50-80+ year old house" at which point it's still incredibly frustrating but also much more understandable.
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So built in the mid 80s-ish?
In that case I'm salty about so many of the things you're mentioning but at the same time I've learned over time that comparing construction here to other places isn't really fair.
yea i think 79 or 80
and yeah building codes down here are... still below what they are in the States. it was worse back then. Hell the 90s was when all the Leaky Homes were built (it's a whole thing. just... yeah )
it's even more frustrating cause like, some of the house has the good stuff! and some it particle board. and the particle board has just absorbed like, 40 years of moisture so now, with any impact, it's just giving up.
Luckily though! the framing is all still dry and there's no water damage past the siding. Thank fuck. so the only way that we had seen it was from the roofers going "oh hey, we touched your wall and it fell apart"
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