New House?

[Jeff 232]

This is the basic plan for my new house, if the bank says OK. We aare addin a little more sq ft to living rm & kitchen, about a foot wider on the master bedroom and a little longer , the sitting area will be walled off for my office. The bonus room instead of 2 skinny window dormers its going to be one wide dormer

adding to the back left side of house 900sq ft full in law suite, for my Mother. I have the lot 2/3 acre on cul de sac. Working with a great builder and hope to sign before the new year to have him start building early 2006. Abit pricey, but i guess a lot less than up north. Everything is going up in price around here . In my new neighborhood the lots sold for 60K all are reselling now for over 100K, 10 months later, I wish I bought a few. OH well

About 3250 sq ft plus garage. Going to have to PW alot of driveways to pay for this, lol

Wish me luck! We're getting excited

JL

[tropical wave 22]

Jeff, that house here would be between 700K and 1 M....... hope it all works out for you, that would be awesome!!! good luck

[tropical wave 22]

just as an example, I typed in our zipcode for the heck of it, this is a small single family house, 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, no driveway with a garage in the alley behind the street....... this is in a very good neighborhood in the city of Chicago, can you believe this is selling for $380,000.......!!! over a third of a million for a teeny-tiny house here....unreal

Jeff, Im glad you started this thread, as I just learned something....see, we are now trying to re-fi our house and we'll be needing a new appraisal for our house, and while I was searching for an average house in the neighborhood, I found this one (the second picture) which is 2 doors down from me on the other side of the street..... cant believe this house is up for sale for $389,800.00....... you cant tell in the small pic, but the house is just the dark brown triangle, the lighter colored part is the neighbors house....what makes me happy is ours is bigger, driveway, taller, all brick etc etc..... we may have appreciated 100K in 2 years.....maybe our loan to value will dig us out of the hole... :cool:

[GymRat 14]

Nice looking house Jeff, and I agree with you Michael on how crazy the housing industry has gone.

We just bought this house in June and we got it for a steal at a little over 200,000 in the Virginia area. It is over 3500 square foot with an attached garage, 4 bedrooms, 2 full kitchens and 4 full baths.

I would rather take multilple beatings instead of moving again!!!

[Jeff 232]

I know its crazy everywhere now, I dont know how most people afford homes now. the one I want to build is about 30K more than I thought it would be. But if I wait a few years, like I was going to it will be how much to build?

Example of houses, My parents old house 15 minutes outside of Boston Ma they sold in 98 for the highest on the street at the time for 160K in 2000 iy resold for 269k, in 2002 it went for 301K now nothing on the street is going for less than 360K - 425K Thats crazy. My parents bought it for 16K in 1961 and they were worried how they were going to pay for it

Down here in Myrtle Beach its nowhere near that but getting there. We have all the retiries from upnorth coming here. They sell up north for 500K to a million and buy a house the same size or bigger for 200K - 400K and use the rest of the $$$ for retirement

My house here I bought for $138K 3+ years ago, its going to sell for $180K - 200K. Like I said the lot I bought for 60K I could sell easy for 40+K ore and probably 50K plus

They have some luxury ocean front condos last year preconstruction they were selling for 369K, the day construction ended they were reselling for 600K-800K and now a couple fpr over 1million.

Im telling you its great if you own a home, but for the 1st time home buyer just trying to get by, it must be scary

I am looking forward to having this built, it will be a pretty home, I have a guy I do alot of work for going to do the flooring and he's going to save me a few grand and the tile will be upgraded to what I want and he gives me all flooring at cost. It will be plenty of room in back & front yard for my boy , plus the wifey & I are working on having another baby. I like that I'll have my own office instead of using one of the bedrooms. The bonus room will be great for a kids play room. I dont think I'll have problem with bank. We are putting down some good $$$. My mom with the sale of her home will be buying here side 900sq ft for cash money & I owe less than 97K on my house so I'll put at least 50K down and taxes & insurance is still fairly low and my biz is going & growing real well. I just worry if I ever got hurt and couldnt work, but other than that, Im good to go and want to build today. plus the school district is real good too.

Tropical good luck with your house! sell it and come to Myrtle Beach, you can be the pressure washing Prince of Myrtle Beach, Im going to take the King position in the next few years:lgbow:

[PatrickM 14]

I asked a friend who works for a bank how people can pay these prices for homes. He told me that 70% of the mortgages his bank processes are interest only loans. Those people are going to be in trouble if the housing bubble breaks!

Patrick

[Jeff 232]

I asked a friend who works for a bank how people can pay these prices for homes. He told me that 70% of the mortgages his bank processes are interest only loans. Those people are going to be in trouble if the housing bubble breaks!

Patrick

Thats horrible 70% I bet many will end up losing it all. I'm doing construction perm 30 year fixed, as of yesterday its 6.65%. banks shouldnt even offer Intrest only loans, because they know people are going to fail

I did a intrest only on my lot for 18 months, because it was short term and i was either going to build or sell it if I couldnt afford to build

[K.J. Pressure Washing 14]

Here's what I lived in while I was born in Chicago and lived there for 25 years. My parents only paid $21,500 for it. It is only around 900 s.f..

[smokey51 14]

"This is the basic plan for my new house, if the bank says OK. We aare addin a little more sq ft to living rm & kitchen, about a foot wider on the master bedroom and a little longer , the sitting area will be walled off for my office. The bonus room instead of 2 skinny window dormers its going to be one wide dormer"

Jeff, make sure you talk to your builder about this. Making "small" changes can cost a lot of money because the changes you make on the 1st floor must be duplicated on the second floor to protect the structural integrity of the house.

Wish you luck in all the decisions you have to make about the house, ie colors, carpet, tile, bathroom fixtures, lighting, etc. But what a great investment in the area your are in. The house will be worth more the day you move in than what you are going to pay for it!!!

Smokey51

[Jeff 232]

"This is the basic plan for my new house, if the bank says OK. We aare addin a little more sq ft to living rm & kitchen, about a foot wider on the master bedroom and a little longer , the sitting area will be walled off for my office. The bonus room instead of 2 skinny window dormers its going to be one wide dormer"

Jeff, make sure you talk to your builder about this. Making "small" changes can cost a lot of money because the changes you make on the 1st floor must be duplicated on the second floor to protect the structural integrity of the hous

Wish you luck in all the decisions you have to make about the house, ie colors, carpet, tile, bathroom fixtures, lighting, etc. But what a great investment in the area your are in. The house will be worth more the day you move in than what you are going to pay for it!!!

Smokey51

Thanks for the advice Smokey, but all the changes we have gone over with builder already and have been added into his price. Decisions, Decisions there willbe alot of them, it ought to be real interesting and I hope more fun than not, We are looking forward to it, I can tell you Ive worked on this plan for some time

Thanks JL

[CCPC 26]

Im telling you its great if you own a home, but for the 1st time home buyer just trying to get by, it must be scary

Scary indead. My fiance and I have been looking for our first house for a couple of months and it's nothing short of depressing. Everything is either out our price range or a total dump, and then the rare occasion that we come across a really good deal, it's sold before you can even pick up the phone.

The problem is, there's so many folks around here buying up investment properties that all the folks like my self, looking to buy my first home to live in, are getting railed. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for anyone trying to better their finacial situation by making an investment, but we can't help to get a little bitter at these baby boomers living in their cushy $500,000 homes, and buying up all of the $200,000 homes to make a little extra money, meanwhile creating a generation of young people with no other option but to rent. Oh, did I mention I'm just a little bitter?

Anyways, I guess, looking at the bright side, it keeps us pushing foward with more determination than ever. We've actually decided to stay put in the house we're currently renting for another year. Our landlord loves us to death and offered a reduction in rent for us to stay on another year so now we will be paying $720 a month. Not bad considering I can make my rent in a days work. We decided that it's just to good of a deal to pass up on, and with business going as good as it's been going I can save a tremendous amount of money in the upcoming year and allow for a downpayment of at least 20% when we start looking again. Sorry for life's story, just had to get it off my chest.

[tropical wave 22]

Hang in the Lance, it'll all work out..... the market for real estate is in the sellers hands now, its not a buyers market with the sky high prices, it'll level off and you'll be just fine...... everything in life is "peaks and valleys", same with real estate and business.....

I bought a house for my dad to live at in Florida last year, and your right about the good ones not lasting, If one is located, there really isnt any time to think about it, if you wait more than a couple hours, it'll be gone....It took me 3 trips down there to hunt, if I found a good one on the internet, it was gone in a day or 2....was really stressful because I sold the property in VA and the old man had to get out.....but it worked out even though I had to spend more than I really wanted to. I bought in a new development from an "investor" that lives in GA, he bought it during construction, sat on it for a few months and sold it to me for a nice little profit......I figure about a third to half of all the homes being built there are being bought by people doing the same thing.....

[Jon 533]

Jeff a word of advice, have your attorney either read over the builders contract or draw one up that clearly states a start and FINISH date.

If the builder goes past the finish date he should be fined or his price lowered for failure to complete in the time frame.

Not sure if you can specify the quailty of materials such as dry or green (wet) lumber etc. but I am sure you checked this builder out with the BBB, state conctractors lic. board etc.

Good luck and GOOD LUCK with the mother-out-law living with you, ops, sorry Mother In Law staying there:)

[RyanH 14]

Congrats and good luck. We built our house the first part of this year. The next one I build however will have 6" studs on all outer walls to accomodate more insulation. Some other things you may want to either contract or specify is airflow to your rooms. We've noticed that it is common practice here to allow as much as a 20 degree temperature difference in rooms in houses with central air conditioning. See if you can talk to the contractor for that and work something out to get balanced air flow into your rooms. Learn from our mistakes......

[steve r 14]

This is the basic plan for my new house, if the bank says OK. We aare addin a little more sq ft to living rm & kitchen, about a foot wider on the master bedroom and a little longer , the sitting area will be walled off for my office. The bonus room instead of 2 skinny window dormers its going to be one wide dormer

adding to the back left side of house 900sq ft full in law suite, for my Mother. I have the lot 2/3 acre on cul de sac. Working with a great builder and hope to sign before the new year to have him start building early 2006. Abit pricey, but i guess a lot less than up north. Everything is going up in price around here . In my new neighborhood the lots sold for 60K all are reselling now for over 100K, 10 months later, I wish I bought a few. OH well

About 3250 sq ft plus garage. Going to have to PW alot of driveways to pay for this, lol

Wish me luck! We're getting excited

JL

I KNOW WHAT YA GOING THROUGH .I MYSELF HAVE 6300 SQ HEATED AND AC.NOT INCLUDING BASEMENT .ITS A LOT OF UP KEEP AND MONEYS.ALTHOUGH I BUILT MY OWN IT TOOK 1 YR AS I HAD THE MONEYS

[Jeff 232]

Congrats and good luck. We built our house the first part of this year. The next one I build however will have 6" studs on all outer walls to accomodate more insulation. Some other things you may want to either contract or specify is airflow to your rooms. We've noticed that it is common practice here to allow as much as a 20 degree temperature difference in rooms in houses with central air conditioning. See if you can talk to the contractor for that and work something out to get balanced air flow into your rooms. Learn from our mistakes......

I will be talking to builder more about airflow, we are having 3 HVAC units one for 1st floor, 1 for second and 1 for in law. Plus 2 80 gallon hot water heaters for main house and 1 50 gallon for in law. I want to make sure I have plenty of heat, air and hot water, which I lack in my present house, these heat pumps never produce what I like, so Im making sure I have enough, that was the 1st thing I talked to builder about

As for builder he is highly rated and well known for excellent work and follow up if there is a problem

Thanks everyone for some great advice

[JFife 14]

Ryan H,

...similar problem here. Luckily my cousin has an hvac biz, and solved it. He says the MAJORITY of homes have very inefficient ductwork, etc. He says the key is BALANCE, having the right sized duct for the house/units, multiple returns in correct places, sheet metal duct rather than flex, etc. He commonly goes into homes where the system is literally strangling itself, he's taken peoples energy bills from $600 a month down to $150 just by tweaking things, i.e. add a return, larger duct,.

Point is, I'd say your "hot room" situation could be easily fixed by an expert hvac guy that is a good troubleshooter and understands how to properly calculate the numbers that determine the system layout.

[PressurePros 249]

Steve nailed it when he talked about the recurring cost of large home ownership. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, I'm just speaking from experience. A large mortgage + ridiculous heating/ a/c bills, and taxes + lean times equal Chapter 11. I bought my house on the cusp of a boom like you are doing now and ten years later when I sold it, it had appreciated $15,000. That's after I put $40,000 in renovations and repairs plus $145,000 into the mortgage.

Spending $185,000 to get back roughly $40k is not my idea of a good investment. This was because I was ready to buy my first home at the end of a real estate boom when interest rates were already on the rise.

My feeling is this.. and it was mentioned above in part. There is going to be a secondary boom when every over extended family feels the crunch of above average inflation over the next couple of years and has to downsize to make ends meet. The market is going to get flooded with mid price ($500-800k) houses and since supply and demand is still king, the larger house market is going to have some nice deals.

I am on the decks of some of these multi million dollar properties and the ones that have newer owners have next to nothing in the way of furniture. Most people live beyond their means and pay the price for it. There is a huge difference between being 'income' rich and being 'balance sheet' rich. I lived and learned that one unfortunately.

Jeff, I love that design. I wish you the best with it.

[Jeff 232]

The market is going to get flooded with mid price ($500-800k) houses and since supply and demand is still king, the larger house market is going to have some nice deals.

I am on the decks of some of these multi million dollar properties and the ones that have newer owners have next to nothing in the way of furniture. Most people live beyond their means and pay the price for it. There is a huge difference between being 'income' rich and being 'balance sheet' rich. I lived and learned that one unfortunately.

Jeff, I love that design. I wish you the best with it.

Its sad when a mid price house is considered $500-$800K thats just crazy, Mine is coming in at $360+K. Which we can afford, just 5 years ago that would of been around 60K-90K less around here in Myrtle Beach, but like I said the prices here are nothing like up north.

One thing I never want to be is "house poor"

The design we like also , thank you. Its all going to work out great, Im very happy with builder, happy with whats going into house, not everything top dollar extras , but things we need and want, There are other things, Id like to add but will add later as I can afford them, For example, the original plan called for 2 foot brick border around the entire house, but with the in law addition to the plan it was an extra 6K plus so I wrote that out of plan. Instead of that brick I can plant some shrubs andd you'll never know the difference. Theres some Oak railings at the over look areas that I changed to half walls and saved thousands, oak railing and stairs will have to wait and can be done later.

If all goes well I'll be taking some work in progress pics

[Jeff 232]

We got the house loan. I did a lot of shopping around and got a real good rate. Its amazing to me how the rates vary from lender to lender.

We are siked, its going to be a great home and I have room to add a large garage on the side for my trailers and a shop, when I can afford it. Now the PITA stuff getting the 2 homes ready for sale.

We meet with the builder and start hashing out specifics, its all alot for my little brain, Busy business, building house, moving, another baby on the way and just everyday life. Life is GOOD

Yay a new castle for the Pressure Washing King lol

JL

[Jon 533]

We just moved into our large home, 2376 sq ft plus 3 car garage, wanted the 2423 home but was not going to be ready for a few month.

Heating bill, hush, electric bill, hush again. Taxes are more then in CA but cost of new house was less then half and size twice as big.

Not counting the fact the whole house has upgrades from 2 to 5 levels up.

Don't even think of asking me the cost unless you want to make a payment for us.

We are changing our names from Jon and Remy to Bonnie and Clyde :)

[Jeff 232]

We just moved into our large home, 2376 sq ft plus 3 car garage, wanted the 2423 home but was not going to be ready for a few month.

Heating bill, hush, electric bill, hush again. Taxes are more then in CA but cost of new house was less then half and size twice as big.

Not counting the fact the whole house has upgrades from 2 to 5 levels up.

Don't even think of asking me the cost unless you want to make a payment for us.

We are changing our names from Jon and Remy to Bonnie and Clyde :)

Hey Jon congrats on your new home, sounds like a good deal, Our Taxes & Insurance arent to bad around here at all, plus with the sale of the 2 homes we will be putting down around 40%+ with alittle emergency money left over, which helps. so our 400K+ home & land will be less than 250K, home prices around here are better than most of the country we're lucky

Now we just have to pick out all the fixtures, appliances, tile, carpet, etc etc etc what a project this is going to be. I'll tell you Im getting excited now that the loan is approved

[John T 744]

I need to get out of NY everything is so damn expensive. My house was just assessed at $600,000 and in Carolina it would be at most $300,000 with probably the tax rate of 1/4 that of NY. I just came back from Florida and I would love to live down there with my family. I have plenty of relatives down there so I would fit right in. The fact that I would have absolutely no mortgage down there and I take my NY pension there I would never have to work again if I didn't want to(Not my nature because I'm a work-a-holic). I could start a nice size powerwashing company down there and I could take alot of gambles because I wouldn't need that money to survive down there unlike here in NY.

SO since my wife refuses to budge except to say that maybe in 15 yrs when the kids are done with school I will still have to hustle hustle hustle.

As for now I'm getting ready to do and extension on my house because its just not worth it to sell and by another one. Not here in Long Island NY.

I'm not complaining and don't get me wrong. I have to jobs that I like I just don't like to be forced to keep doing them both year in and year out..Maybe I am complaining :)

[Jeff 232]

Inflamatory Quote removed.....

Hey John Browne,

This thread is about my house and others talking about their homes and buying experiences. If you have a problem with someone take it to a different thread.

I hope this helps now that you know what this thread is about :lgwave:

JL

[JMBrowne 14]

I understand the thread & I am trying to help Lance understand the basic idea of homeownership as well.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

JM Browne - you have been warned before. :lgangry: