Zambeezy

I have my 92 FSM, I'll look for the best way to PDF it efficiently and then will gladly share.

Sweet collection! Coffee table would be a neat idea

Who has returned to work yet? I've been working from home since about mid-March (and really enjoying it) but got informed yesterday that we're expected back on Monday barring extenuating circumstances. I'm a data analyst so my job 100% can be done remotely but I've never had the opportunity to try extended WFH. Now I'm addicted to all the freedom. Taking a walk down to the park in the mid-morning, taking time to make a nice, healthy lunch, stepping away from the computer to work on home projects for 10-15 minutes here and there...I feel like WFH is something I'm really going to seek out going forward. What's it like in your neck of the woods?

About 12v

Man I hear ya on that. I put an offer on a house listed for $550k, offered above asking and still didn't get it. Just found out it sold for $587k. $37k above asking. Jesus

Man...I'm not a violent person but this kind of stuff pushes my buttons in the wrong way

I just don't understand the sellers that refuse to have the issues addressed. Here's my logic: If I have an inspection done and I provide the report to you, any issues that you choose not to fix will have to be declared to every potential buyer going forward. Failure to declare opens you up to a lawsuit down the line, since you had knowledge of the issue (complete with a paper trail documenting this knowledge) and chose to hide the issue. It will be better for you in all respects to just fix the issue and complete the sale with me, instead of putting it back on the market and having to fix it later or run the risk of litigation. If you've priced in the damage, that's a vital detail that you need to mention. If the seller won't fix something as important as this, he/she's probably a pain in the @$$ to deal with. Sounds like you dodged a bullet!

Less than two weeks out now! Even though I'm not moving in right away, I'm getting pumped! I'll post some pictures of the garage once I move in, that's definitely what I'm looking forward to the most

I'm also a fan of the Juicy Bits and tried Rails End Blood Orange Double IPA this weekend. Outstanding beer with a good about of hoppiness while still being very drinkable.

Welcome, Manche’nopoulos! Glad to have you aboard!

Congrats, looks like a winner! We'll have to swap details once we both move to our new houses, always good to have Comanche Clubbers to work on our MJs with!

I'm glad there were a lot of houses to choose from but it was also overwhelming. Narrowing it down to a few neighborhoods that I liked the most helped me not get overwhelmed, and spending the time really looking through each house in the area and not being afraid to remove it from consideration was really useful as well. I heard from an agent that the last few years have followed a cycle, where new homes are posted on Thursday to allow people to schedule tours for Friday-Saturday-Sunday, and be ready to submit offers Sunday night. Not sure if it's following that trend again but that makes logical sense to me, so something you may keep in mind. Getting pre-approved and having all your tax and income documents organized before the search really helps manage the onslaught of to-do items that come up. Good luck with your search and remember to have fun with it!

Well now I'm paranoid about my MJ burning up since it's in a barn on the family hunting land

Been awhile since I updated, but thankfully not much has happened in the past week. Sent the inspection objection to the sellers and asked for a those items to be fixed. They agreed without complaint and will be using licensed tradesmen for the jobs, providing receipts at closing. Couldn't really ask for a smoother deal on that. Sewer scope was apparently the "most boring" the inspector had seen, which is great! It was perfectly clean, which I mostly expected from a 15-year-old house, but you never know with kids flushing who knows what down the toilet... HOA docs came in and although I generally dislike HOAs on principle, this one seems incredibly well-run and non-invasive. The only things that irked me were the rules around parking oversized vehicles in the driveway (boats, RVs, etc.) and needing to only work on vehicles in the garage (no maintenance on driveway). Shouldn't be an issue with the 3-car setup but still, it's my house and I want it now! (JG Wentworth is a genius for that bit). I read the minutes from the two previous annual meetings and they discussed lowering HOA fees...I've never heard of that happening! Typically I feel like it's increased fees and attempts to increase control but this HOA seems to be minimal and focused on solely preserving home value, not power grabs and flexing. Don't really expect it to be an issue, so we're moving forward! Appraisal should be coming back this week and I don't expect any issues there. After that, all that's left is to finish the underwriting process (should be no issues there; loan is significantly less than I was approved for) and get to closing! Pretty dang excited, although I'm still more than a month away. Need to figure out what I'm doing with moving out of my apartment and asking my landlord if he'll consider posting the unit for rent and if he gets a taker, cutting me loose early. He's been a great guy and very easy to work with so I wouldn't be surprised if he goes for it, but then again I did sign a contract saying I'd pay through June so I'll absolutely honor that without issue if he says no. Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Ready to get moved in and more importantly, get the MJ up here from Oklahoma!

Got the inspection report today. Overall didn't see anything that would make me want to nuke the deal but there are a few things I want to get addressed (cracked window in basement that I guess I didn't see during tour, slight leak in sink plumbing, slightly leaky dishwasher, things like that). I'm not going to be the annoying buyer that asked for a 4-page list of repairs but I am going to ask for several things while pointing out the many other items that I'm not asking to be repaired, as I can do those myself or I don't believe they are safety/longevity issues (failed hermetic seal on a few windows, for example). Should get the results of the sewer scope today, hoping that goes well for sure!

Absolutely will post as soon as I can get some. I'm so excited for it haha

Yeah Lender's Title Insurance is $550 and is shoppable. Owner's is also shoppable but I'm definitely leaning against getting it at this ten seconds

True for Lender's Title Insurance. I'm referring to Owner's Title Insurance, which is a separate product and 4x the cost of the Lender's policy

Inspection scheduled for this morning and sewer scope tomorrow morning. With it being built in 2004, I don't expect anything major to turn up on either report but you never know, especially since the sellers have several young children who might have flushed god knows what down the toilet! Will be happy to have this done and hopefully fairly issue-free so we can keep moving through the closing. The only thing I haven't quite decided on is Owner's Title Insurance. It'll be about $2k (so the unexpected mortgage lender credits would cover it) but being a 15-year-old house that's only exchanged hands once before, I have a hard time believing there are title issues that won't be found in the due diligence that is being performed pre-closing or that there are outstanding liens or claims that have been created in this brief 15 year period. $2k is not a lot compared to the purchase price of the house but I don't think that's the right way to look at it; $2k is a lot of money. I'll do some more research but I'd welcome any opinions on the topic!

Man, the wins just keep on coming! Talked to my mortgage adviser today and rates have improved since I got pre-approved so I'm eligible for the same rate (3.625%) on a 30 year fixed, but now will get just over $2,000 in lender credits! That'll cover the washer and dryer purchases and maybe have a little more for a nice celebration dinner with the girlfriend! I did the math on loan amortization over 30 years, comparing 3.5% (would have to pay points to get this, about $1,500) to 3.625% and it's less than $15,000 difference over the life of the mortgage. I'll definitely be paying it off early, so the difference will be even less in reality. I was expecting a greater distance for the principal but I guess it is only 1/8 of a percent. Gladly locked in my rate today

I'm think I'm going to use this guy. Read through his sample reports and he seems very thorough. Definitely don't want to go with the cheapest option here (although on a 2004 build, probably not going to find anything particularly nasty...but better safe than sorry with this cheap insurance). NACHI and infrared certified, seems to be a straight shooter.

I got the house! Had my offer accepted this evening. I was sitting there wondering if I should have offered more and thinking how mad I would be if someone outbid me by a mere 5k and I got the call saying they liked my offer the most! March 9 is the anticipated closing date (sellers wanted longer, which is fine because my apartment lease isn't up until the end of June anyway). Will call my preferred inspector tomorrow, send the earnest money in, and start rolling on homeowner's insurance quotes. I'm stoked!

Sounds like the HOA in my parents' neighborhood. President is a real POS and my parents are in a unique position where legally they aren't required to join the HOA but they still live in the neighborhood that the HOA covers (HOA was created post-execution and there is no documentation stating the house was subject to it, since it didn't exist when they began the process of buying it). The HOA prez hates this and tries to force them to comply with HOA rules, which they mostly do because they aren't jerks, but they won't pay dues or go to meetings or anything until the prez steps down. Hearing their stories has made me wary of buying a house with an HOA but like you said, I'm sure they aren't all bad. This one seems minimal in both fee and oversight. I see people parking RVs in their driveway, so it doesn't appear to be one of those "Thou shalt always park thine automobile in thine garage" HOAs. Hopefully they just keep the clutter down, keep the landscaping decent, and keep the streetlights operational. I'm pretty excited about this one. Really hope it works out!

Well...I didn't love the house. The basement has 7' ceilings, which I know aren't necessary abnormal but I felt cramped down there (even though I'm only 5'8"). Also, it didn't really have a "master bedroom". It was just a normal bedroom, with a normal closet, and no master bathroom (shared bathroom between the two bedrooms on the main floor). Lots of good things about it, especially the location, but overall I just don't think it's worth the price (it's my max budget). I looked at a house last week and it's been stuck in my mind since I toured it. It's a bit further West, so a longer ride to work and no restaurants/bars/shopping around that I would want to go to...but it's so nice! Three-car garage, great master bed/bath, nice living room and kitchen, nice deck out back. Small backyard, but apart from the deck I don't think I'll be using much of it on a regular basis, so that's not really an issue for me. It's across from an elementary school but there are buildings between the house and the playground, so I don't expect the noise to be bad. It's about 1/2 mile from the lightrail station too, so that's convenient for days I don't want to bike to work. I've decided to put an offer down on this house. I think it's fairly priced, apparently the owners are moving for work and not because they don't like the house, and it checks almost all the boxes for me. It does have an HOA (which I really don't like), but it's only $33/month and I think they take care of the grounds maintenance and the neighborhood looks like it's kept very nice, so hopefully it isn't too invasive. We'll see how it goes!

I've only been here for 2 years but I agree. I live in Uptown right now (so basically Five Points) and while Uptown is nice, Five Points is not. I'm not looking at any housing in that area whatsoever. Not looking at Globeville either, definitely not worth it with the noise, let alone the Purina plant. I'm looking at the Highlands/Berkeley/Sunnyside area although I'm aware it wasn't that long ago that those areas were undesirable. Being able to bike to work in a reasonable time (30-40 minutes tops) is important to me and I think the upside of the walkability will lend itself to keep my home value high. I'm fully aware you can get a "better" home further away from Downtown but I think I can find the right balance of location and home amenities within my price point. Thankfully, my apartment lease isn't up until July, so I don't need to rush into anything.