Things you wish you'd known before buying a house

amother

Rose

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 6:19 am

DVOM wrote:

Hey all, OP here. Thanks for all these replies- this is so helpful! I have a bunch of comments/questions:

What is considered an "old" house and what is considered a "newer" house? In the neighborhood we're looking at in our price range it seems like there are houses built in the 90's, the 70's, and a handful from the 1920's. Just from the pictures, I've liked the look of the older houses better. Is this a bad way to go? I've heard for years here in Lakewood that the new construction is so shoddily built. I was under the impression that as a general rule, older homes were built more solidly.

#3 is so important for me to hear! I can be assertive, but in situations where I'm unsure of myself (like buying a house!) I can go totally docile. I need to go into these house viewings with a very assertive attitude!

I know the old houses have a certain charm in their look and layout, but be very wary of a 1920's house. I'm not so familiar but my DH was knowledgeable about it. There are certain things that are now law and weren't then, wiring, heating, plumbing, beams... These things are done better more recently. Between the 70s and the 90s is not such a difference. (As long as it was well-maintained.)

amother

Rose

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 6:24 am

DVOM wrote:

This post and others like it worry me the most. We've very carefully calculated down payment, mortgage, taxes, closing costs and had those numbers looked over. We can afford a small home (2-3 bedrooms, 1 bath), but just. Of course, it makes sense to have some more money put aside for incidental costs, but I don't think we're going to have that unless we chose a smaller down payment. All our savings would be going to buying the house. Those of you who bought houses, how much money did you put aside for other house related expenses?

We didn't. We wiped ourselves clean and even borrowed from relatives. But our income covered more than our expenses. So we were paid back within two years.

It's definitely worth having a larger down payment and owe less on your home. If your income will allow for saving (which ours does), you'll be paid back in no time. If you'll need to at some point take out a HELOC, it'll make sense because you own more asset.

amother

Cerise

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 6:34 am

Definitely make sure you have $ in you budget for home repairs, maintenance & upgrades. I set aside a certain amount of $ each month for unplanned home repairs & these expenses.

Here's a list of planned and unplanned expenses I have dealt with since buying my own home.

-A few months ago my dishwasher broke. There was a $200 repair.
- Every year or two I get the AC or heater inspected and whatever maintenance take care of. The air filter has to be replaced periodically.
- I have a garden and need to pay a gardener now. Originally my husband & I took care of the garden ourselves. But due to schedules and health issues that's not feasible anymore and now we have the added expense of a gardener.
- After we bought our house, partially for safety reasons, we replaced all the door locks, another unplanned expense.
- the previous owners of my house did not have any energy efficient light bulbs in the house & their monthly energy bill was very high. We ended up replacing all the light bulbs and reducing the monthly bill by more than half. But it was an extra initial expense replacing all the lightbulbs we didn't plan on.
- the weekend we moved into my house, all the hinges in my kitchen cabinets broke!! We literally had to replace very one!!
- two years ago my kitchen counter broke. It had a 1.5 foot crack in it! It would cost $1000 to fix. Instead I decided to spend extra $ & completely replace the countertop with granite because the old countertop was 12+ years old and not kasherable.
- I've had to pay for an animal removal service twice. I live in an area that has a lot of skunks. Well, on two occasions skunks have tried to move underneath my house. I had to get an animal removal service to capture & remove the skunks. Talk about a $$$ service!
- Plummer- at least 3-4 occasions so far I've needed a Plummer for a leaky shower faucet, broken toilet or clogged kitchen sink.
- garage door maintenance - the springs eventually break & have to be replaced.
- gutters fixed. One of the gutters was incorrectly installed and causing water to pool in a bad area. Had to get that fixed and redone.
- upgrade electrical outlets. Several of our electrical outlets were not grounded or wired correctly, had to get those fixed
- I have AC, but it's very expensive to run. Instead we decided to install ceiling fans in all the bedrooms. This helps keep the electric bill down because we run the fans in the summer and only the AC when absolutely needed on hot days.
- ceiling insulation - the ceiling insulation in my attire must have been 30-40 years old. Finally upgraded and replaced it last year.

amother

Fuchsia

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 6:43 am

Homes on busy streets sell for cheaper but don't increase in value. We bought on a busy street because that was what we could afford but I regret it now.
Homes from the 1920s unless upgraded will have old wiring, old piping and poor insulation that will have to be replaced. They may also have older windows. If those items have been addressed before you buy then great - the house is probably solid - but if not it will be expensive to upgrade.
In Lakewood there is a great inspector and another from Cherry Hill that is also an engineer inspector - forgot their names but ask around for references.
Hatzlacha on your search.

To address some points above:
- If your DH is handy you can replace your locks for cheap, my DH did that when we moved in.
- We were told we could kasher everything in the kitche, including the microwave and formica counters. Only the dishwasher we didn't. So please ask your rav.
If you DH is handy you will save on lots of expenses - when we moved in we also replaced all light bulbs and DH installed lots of cieling fans. We bought them very cheap at walmart and b'h 12 years later they are still running.

amother

Rose

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 6:59 am

amother wrote:

There are also additional costs to factor in when moving, like paying a mover, window shades, Mezuzos, closing costs, etc.
LRRC has a first time home buyer class that I found to be very helpful as well as representatives that are very knowledgeable and helpful regarding the financial aspect of home buying.
Also keep in mind zoning laws, you may not be able to extend a small house out of lakewood like in Jackson.

We still don't have window shades. We got those temporary ones for $4 each and they're fine enough.
Our mezuzos, we sold those from our apt to the next tenant, so we used that money to buy new ones for our house. It ended up not costing much out of pocket.

Closing costs are always calculated with the mortgage broker. It's not like someone's gonna forget that! We did a sellers concession and made it part of our mortgage loan. In the end our estimated closing cost was more than our actual closing cost, so we were left with a few thousand in the pack to tide us over the first few months.

amother

Rose

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 7:00 am

amother wrote:

Great points here, but as MY said, a lot of this can be avoided if you or DH are handy.

Also, look into government subsidies for making a home more energy efficient. We had our attic insulated by JSynergy Green. Cut our heating costs in half!!!

SixOfWands

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 7:46 am

amother wrote:

And virtually every kid who isn't put into a car seat will be fine. That doesn't make it a good idea.

A friend of mine bought a home, older construction. She had it inspected, great shape. Lived there about 10 months when there was a sewer line failure. The repair cost more than $10,000. Things happen. You need a cushion. Ideally, you should have 20% down, plus anticipated expenses, plus a cushion.

Squishy mentioned home inspections. Insist that your inspector go up on the roof. Where I currently live, most don't, but where I'm from, they do. We insisted when we were looking at houses, and discovered that a roof that looked fine from the ground was days from failure.

gp2.0

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 8:03 am

Never put all your savings into a house. That's a terrible idea that will make you very stressed for money all the time. House repair and maintenance are expensive. Make sure youre very clear on how much the mortgage+taxes+insurance will cost. I would leave a 10k cushion at the very minimum for unexpected expenses. 3 months in savings for total living expenses is even better. You have no idea what could happen. A tree can fall halfway down in a storm and it will cost $1500 to remove. The central air conditioning can die and need to be fixed for thousands of dollars. Stuff like this comes up every few months in a house and you need to be prepared to deal with it without stressing about where the extra money is coming from. Driveways and sidewalks need fixing, rain leaks in from doors, windows, garage, roof...mold, termites, appliance repair, deck collapses, you need to be prepared for things going wrong.

Btw a mortgage broker is not a reliable indicator if you can afford a house. They usually overestimate how much you can afford. Most people can comfortably afford 1/4 to 1/3 of their income toward housing, and mortgage brokers calculate almost 1/2 of your income going toward housing.

amother

Fuchsia

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 8:13 am

I second calling LRRC - or whatever they are called - they can help you find resources to get on first time home buyer programs that can save you tons on your mortgage in the future. They would also know about any special incentives NJ may have.

If you do by a house that is being flipped go in asking lots of questions.

We Were were shown a house that was flipped. House was pretty decent. It was freshly painted, floors done. The guy had put in really fancy light fixtures in every room and it made the house look amazing, but if you took that aways it was a different situation. The light fixtures were just there for staging until the home sold.
Another house had a gorgeous modern kitchen and we were told it was bottom of the barrel, cheapest possible and would fall apart soon.
So if new stuff was put in just to sell it probably isn't quality.

DVOM

Fri, Mar 31 2017, 10:04 am

Thank you everyone! This is all such valuable information. We had already planned to go the LRRC class, we've heard great things about it.

Squishy wrote:

An engineer is a much higher level than contractors and knows all the trades. Personally, I would pay an engineer, and if he spots an issue, then I would call in a contractor.

You also can consider a home warranty. You can make this part of your deal. You can negotiate the seller party for this.

Squishy, do you live in NJ? Would you have an engineer that you could recommend? How much does such an inspection cost?

MagentaYenta

Sat, Apr 01 2017, 10:16 pm

amother wrote:

Replacing outlets, or even changing out toilets aren't very complicated tasks. YouTube has some great DIY videos. They also have some good standard maintenance videos to help you on cleaning the exhaust fans in your bath and kitchen or replacing garage door springs.

I think it's important that when you consider buying a home you recognize the cost of hiring out labor to do tasks like cleaning the gutters or installing ceiling fans and those small pieces of home repairs. A few hundred spent on tools (a good cordless driver/drill, plumbing snake, voltage tester, step and extension ladders and stud finder) can save you thousands.

And if anyone is changing out lightbulbs please please check with your power companies or state departments of energy. With state rebates and the discount coupons you receive in your USPS address change package can make the cost of LED lighting no more expensive than CFLs.