Rantingjay

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

18 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

Oh Jesus Christ on a stick, that's a lot of money!

but that adds up to the total value of the house, right? 

 

Well, with maintenance costs, you are simply paying to maintain the value of the home, so no.  Like painting, having trees removed, new flooring, replacing old water heaters, etc.  You never see that back.  Then, structural improvements you see part of, like that 90% of our plumbing is new, we partially replaced our electrical, did big structural repairs, added a room (that could be used as a bedroom or office), etc...

 

Between that and the fact that housing values have gone up in general, maybe our house is worth about $110k now.

Edited December 8, 2017 by N-o-l-a

[Dianalorena 1,153]

Just now, N-o-l-a said:

 

Well, with maintenance costs, you are simply paying to maintain the value of the home, so no.  Like painting, having trees removed, new flooring, replacing old water heaters, etc.  You never see that back.  Then, structural improvements you see part of, like that 90% of our plumbing is new, we partially replaced our electrical, did big structural repairs...

 

Between that and the fact that housing values have gone up in general, maybe our house is worth about $110k now.

oh wow. still, it's better than renting, right? when you rent the money goes to someone else's pockets. Houses tend to go up in value, usually. 

Although my parents spent so much in our house and they keep paying for it and it's a big struggle. They moved to an apartment and they're renting the house but they haven't been able to sell it for the amount they're asking for so they would most definitely lose money. 

I know very little about owning a house, sorry for the questions  

[TBoneTX 45,260]

18 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

I've been busy. Making sure the chickens are all good for the cold we got coming. 

Fotos of knitted chicken-sweaters now, D ma'am!

18 hours ago, cdneh said:

Moving. We close on Tuesday.

Congrats on your moving experience, si Eh ma'am.

18 hours ago, cdneh said:

Less than two weeks is pretty good [...] we are doing it all with such a rush.

Congrats on your fast-moving experience, si Eh ma'am.

17 hours ago, Darnell said:

No one is fast when it's this cold.

Especially not the drivers in the left lane, but that's year-round, Bro D man.

17 hours ago, SAT said:

Any hunting implement, you numb nut...

Any hunting implement, you numb nut...

Any hunting implement, you numb nut...

Self-plagiarism and repetitive redundancy, see see see man!  Reported!!!

[TBoneTX 45,260]

17 hours ago, SAT said:

it was FREE! 

[sound of Tarklar's ears perking up like Mount Everest]

[TBoneTX 45,260]

12 hours ago, Ontarkie said:

I think I need a bigger dog bed. 

WE think that you need to concentrate more on selling pre-owned toilet seats, rather than knit chicken-sweaters or upgrade dog-beds, D ma'am.  Bad D ma'am!  Bad, BAD D ma'am!

[TBoneTX 45,260]

44 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

I am becoming [...] impatient, bossy and dominant

Just wait until naturalization, D2 ma'am:

Ciudada-NA America-NA (uff uff uff uff)

Ya puede esposo joder...

[Dianalorena 1,153]

Just now, TBoneTX said:

Just wait until naturalization, D2 ma'am:

Ciudada-NA America-NA (uff uff uff uff)

Ya puede esposo joder...

Ciudada-na na na na *canta*

at this point I would be grateful for the conditional 2 year green card. Screw it, I would be okay with a damn RFE.

We just want to hear something soon, anything! 

 

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

6 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

oh wow. still, it's better than renting, right? when you rent the money goes to someone else's pockets. Houses tend to go up in value, usually. 

Although my parents spent so much in our house and they keep paying for it and it's a big struggle. They moved to an apartment and they're renting the house but they haven't been able to sell it for the amount they're asking for so they would most definitely lose money. 

I know very little about owning a house, sorry for the questions  

 

Depends.  I think homeowners spend more money on improvements they don't get a return for over landlords.  I think there is also sort of the question of whether you are the type who like to do maintenance or not.  A lot of people don't mind that a landlord is responsible for fixing things.  Then, you have to make sure you always have enough in reserves for a new furnace or a roof or whatever random repair comes up.  The majority of Americans don't have enough in their savings to cover a house emergency repair.  For example, we had an unexpected repair of about $12k when we just moved into the house.  Stuff like that can kill your budget.

 

Some improvements that you make to a house are just for your enjoyment, so you eat the cost, kwim?  

[TBoneTX 45,260]

Thursday news, see man:

 

Mama T-B.'s casa-closing went through, casa-less senior she man.

Her part took a smooth half-hour, reportedly man.

Buyers' part went uneventfully, reportedly man.

Best part is that Mama T-B. is free of the terroristic HOA forever, biggest reason to celebrate man.

Little do the poor buyers know,  and  clueless they man.

[Dianalorena 1,153]

4 minutes ago, N-o-l-a said:

 

Depends.  I think homeowners spend more money on improvements they don't get a return for over landlords.  I think there is also sort of the question of whether you are the type who like to do maintenance or not.  A lot of people don't mind that a landlord is responsible for fixing things.  Then, you have to make sure you always have enough in reserves for a new furnace or a roof or whatever random repair comes up.  The majority of Americans don't have enough in their savings to cover a house emergency repair.  For example, we had an unexpected repair of about $12k when we just moved into the house.  Stuff like that can kill your budget.

 

Some improvements that you make to a house are just for your enjoyment, so you eat the cost, kwim?  

That makes sense. Some improvements are necessary and people don't prepare for them like you mentioned. A lot of people don't save up overall. What do you do when you don't have that money then? boy. Does having a home insurance works in this case, or makes sense? I've only rented my whole life, and some places have been great (the owner invests in maintenance and we have a good relationship) and not so great (owner doesn't invest at all, and the house is falling apart and they still refuse to pay or want me to pay out of my own pocket) Mexico isn't too strict when it comes to leases, my husband tells me how they have contracts and it sounds more serious in the U.S, we do have to pay deposits and then they decide not to pay them back and it's a struggle. I feel like there's not a perfect solution, both renting and buying have advantages and disadvantages for sure. 

 

[TBoneTX 45,260]

Starting at an hour pre-midnight, we contacted our e-mail provider, tedious at best man.

Upon desktop download, incoming stuff was all pouring into our Trash folder, independent of filters man.

 

We spent Many (2+2) -- yes, MANY (2+2) hours with Many (2+1) Indian IT sorts, do the needful man.

Around Many (2+1) a.m., we got fed up and diagnosed the problem ourself, impatient we man.

Mrs. T-B. had programmed our cellphone e-mail to use the same incoming host as our desktop, unknowing she man.

 

Not recently have we gotten as upset with IT sorts as with those, don't do the needful man.

They wouldn't listen to us and were slower than molasses, sloths man.

And we hope that they didn't wipe out our existing spam-filters, months to construct man.

 

[TBoneTX 45,260]

10 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

Some improvements are necessary and people don't prepare for them like you mentioned. A lot of people don't save up overall. What do you do when you don't have that money then?

Some people buy "casa warranties," see D2 ma'am -- a flat fee/year + something like a flat $Many (such as $2x2x2x2x2x2-2-2) per service call for repairs, etc.  Say that one's stove quits working; call the warranty co., find out which repair outfit will be coming out (and approx. when), have the repairman diagnose the problem, he fixes the issue, pay him the $Many for the service call, see man.

 

If the appliance is beyond repair, the repairman will report it to the warranty co., which will fund all or (more typically) part of a replacement, see man.  This happened to us when our warshdishing machine croaked, see man; the co. wanted to replace it with a builder-grade basic model, and we had to argue to get them to fund more of the price of a decent machine, fight we with they man.

 

Fighting for replacement is one drawback; another is that the repairmen will almost always try to up-sell one for another service, grrr but can't blame them man.  For example, they come to fix a faulty water-heater valve, then try to sell a flush of the tank, see man.  Agreeing to this would be cost atop the $Many for the service call, see man.

 

We have talked to a couple of real estate agents who've said that they always recommend that casas over a certain age have a casa warranty, si man.  This bit us on the culo 2 years ago when the rental casa's A/C system croaked, all out-of-pocket uffffffffffffff man.  A warranty would have funded a lot/most/perhaps all of this, sigh man.

 

Edited to add, add we man:  But upgrades like new flooring, paint, etc. aren't covered under casa warranties, no man.

Edited December 8, 2017 by TBoneTX

[TBoneTX 45,260]

We are out of junk-food here at the POTS office, looming crisis man.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

17 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

That makes sense. Some improvements are necessary and people don't prepare for them like you mentioned. A lot of people don't save up overall. What do you do when you don't have that money then? boy. Does having a home insurance works in this case, or makes sense? I've only rented my whole life, and some places have been great (the owner invests in maintenance and we have a good relationship) and not so great (owner doesn't invest at all, and the house is falling apart and they still refuse to pay or want me to pay out of my own pocket) Mexico isn't too strict when it comes to leases, my husband tells me how they have contracts and it sounds more serious in the U.S, we do have to pay deposits and then they decide not to pay them back and it's a struggle. I feel like there's not a perfect solution, both renting and buying have advantages and disadvantages for sure. 

 

Depending on who you rent from in the US there can be a lot of money for a deposit, money you might never see back.  I remember in my much younger years losing all that money and then being sued on top of it for new carpets, etc.  The rental/RE company I worked for was less strict about things like that, but you never know.

 

House insurance (depending on policy) covers basically accidental damage from storms like hail, trees, wind, but not flooding - which is a separate policy.  It also usually covers burglary, fire, and injuries others may sustain on your property and then sue you for.  Ours also has optional coverage for sewage backup and tornado damage.

 

It is sort of like what happens when you don't have the money for a car repair - it doesn't get fixed.  You can maybe get a loan or put the money on a credit card, but if it isn't there...it just isn't.  Usually the answer is that you do the work yourself, hope the inspector doesn't catch you without a building permit, and find some way to pay for the supplies.  Once you get the building inspector involved, it can all go to hell.  In MN, for example, if you open up a wall anywhere in the house - you have to hardwire all the smoke detectors in the house (buh-bye 1-2k for the electrician to do that for you).  If you replace some segments of pipe, you must replace all the remaining old pipe, and so on.  Texas might be more flexible, I don't know.  One of the things I do know about Texas is that the waste pipes are often buried under concrete in slab on grade houses.  That can be expensive to repair if you aren't handy with a jack hammer.  

[Dianalorena 1,153]

8 minutes ago, N-o-l-a said:

Depending on who you rent from in the US there can be a lot of money for a deposit, money you might never see back.  I remember in my much younger years losing all that money and then being sued on top of it for new carpets, etc.  The rental/RE company I worked for was less strict about things like that, but you never know.

 

House insurance (depending on policy) covers basically accidental damage from storms like hail, trees, wind, but not flooding - which is a separate policy.  It also usually covers burglary, fire, and injuries others may sustain on your property and then sue you for.  Ours also has optional coverage for sewage backup and tornado damage.

 

It is sort of like what happens when you don't have the money for a car repair - it doesn't get fixed.  You can maybe get a loan or put the money on a credit card, but if it isn't there...it just isn't.  Usually the answer is that you do the work yourself, hope the inspector doesn't catch you without a building permit, and find some way to pay for the supplies.  Once you get the building inspector involved, it can all go to hell.  In MN, for example, if you open up a wall anywhere in the house - you have to hardwire all the smoke detectors in the house (buh-bye 1-2k for the electrician to do that for you).  If you replace some segments of pipe, you must replace all the remaining old pipe, and so on.  Texas might be more flexible, I don't know.  One of the things I do know about Texas is that the waste pipes are often buried under concrete in slab on grade houses.  That can be expensive to repair if you aren't handy with a jack hammer.  

thank you so much for your time and knowledge  it's super helpful, I'm clueless. 

Once we finally start looking for a place I want to do things right, and save up as much as we can. That's why we're not going to buy right away but stay in his small apartment first (great area, and the money isn't too bad) so we can make a good, educated decision. I definitely didn't know that you need a work permit to do things yourself! in Mexico you can pretty much do whatever you want to a house without getting in trouble, except if there are laws regarding height (for instance in Cozumel, you can't build up to a certain level to preserve the aesthetic) every city and country has different regulations. It's scary how in Mexico City they basically don't adhere to earthquake regulations (which can be expensive of course, buildings require special hydraulic systems, for instance, to absorb shock) and that has proven to be fatal. 

 

The U.S I know it's overall more expensive than Mexico, but I'm hoping it compensates with higher pays? I know it's not guaranteed, but with one people usually make here there's no way we could afford those prices. Rents are going way up though, and buying is almost out of the question at least in desirable areas (I mean of course) the cheap places are outside the metropolitan area, the Mexico City state (Estado de México) which has the highest femicide rate in the country,  even more than Juarez. So yeah I'm paying more for now, that's fine!