Buying your first home

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:18 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:We close tomorrow.

Congrats! When do you move into my neighbor's condo?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Apr 14, 2015 11:20 pm

Never. And I don't move anywhere until June.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 1:14 pm

Closing is complete. whee...

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Wed Apr 15, 2015 2:13 pm

Let me be the first to congratulate you on your new reason to keep working for the next paycheck.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 11:50 am

And the last, apparently.

On the insurance front, the lender wouldn't take anything over 1% for the wind/hail riders. The everything else bucket, we took at $1k for a slight increase in yearly cost, <$100 difference.

The weather here has been windy and rainy lately. I assume the roof hasn't blown off since my sellers/lessees haven't made some sort of effort to contact me.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:00 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:And the last, apparently.

Congratudolences?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:01 pm

You'll be over next week to help pack, right?

Enough · Post by **Enough** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:07 pm

Congrats!

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:07 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:And the last, apparently.

Everyone else wanted you to buy the condo in my house.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:10 pm

JSHAW wrote:Kinda awkward to see the woman from upstairs and know that you've "heard the lamentations of the women", as Conan the Barbarian would say.

"Lamentations"? Conan, you're doing something wrong!

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:23 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:You'll be over next week to help pack, right?

I haven't packed since 1997, not for myself or for anyone else. I pay people to do that.

No, I am not paying people to do it for you. You're on your own there.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:25 pm

Packing is on us. But I'm paying people to move it. No way I'm trying to move furniture down from my 3rd floor walkup.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:35 pm

If you can squeeze it into the budget, have them pack too. It is a world of difference and can greatly contribute to matrimonial harmony (and it helps when making claims for damage).

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Thu May 07, 2015 9:17 am

Wife and I just got our offer accepted yesterday on a house. No, it's not the condo above El Guapo, and yes, that's sad (for El Guapo). Now we go into the whole paperwork and money process. Then we get the keys, and go into the buying furniture, painting, having things installed, and money process.

Then I get to figure out how to work from a floating lounger in the pool.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:04 am

Congrats!

But why does no one on OO want to live in my building?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:17 am

El Guapo wrote:Congrats!

But why does no one on OO want to live in my building?

Has a "uriney" smell in the halls.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:23 am

Who would want to move into a place where there's no chance of being más guapo in their own building?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon May 11, 2015 11:29 am

Isgrimnur wrote:Who would want to move into a place where there's no chance of being más guapo in their own building?

That's a fair point - I could see how people would be intimidated.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed May 13, 2015 9:04 am

Home inspection was yesterday. House got two thumbs up from both the inspector and the septic guy.

Of course the thing I've been trying to figure out is the location of the cable modem. Right now, it's in the basement. That should give us good wifi coverage, but I'd really like to have at least my desktop hardwired. I'll probably try powerline first, since I've already got two boxes. I'm just worried because the room the desktop will be in was an addition, and they ran a second panel from the main panel to serve that. Hopefully it still works okay. Otherwise I'll have to have the cable guy run a line to where the desktop goes.

We were also sad to notice that Verizon's signal sucks in the house. I was only getting one bar of 3G service.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 13, 2015 9:13 am

Haven't you been trying to get your wife off of Verizon anyway? This is an opportunity for you, my friend.

I also like how the wifi network is your first thought post home inspection.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed May 13, 2015 9:16 am

The DSL modem (and my horrific speeds) was the first thing I noticed. Having to leave a cable modem for what has turned out to be essentially dial-up to own a home bothers me daily. But hey, now I have a house (that's falling apart). Setting up a WiFi network was also a pain in the ass, solved (thank God) by the power line adapter. Small victories...hooray.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed May 13, 2015 10:41 am

El Guapo wrote:Haven't you been trying to get your wife off of Verizon anyway? This is an opportunity for you, my friend.

I also like how the wifi network is your first thought post home inspection.

My first thought was for how big a TV I could fit, but that was an easy fix.

I have been trying to get off Verizon, but I want to figure out how good the coverage of the other options is there. If Verizon is the best option...

Z-Corn · Post by **Z-Corn** » Wed May 13, 2015 6:05 pm

We've been in our house almost 8 years and my home improvement project I am still most proud of was getting my carpenter brother-in-law to drill a hole in our living room floor so I could pass CAT6 cable up through to the entertainment system from the cable modem and router in my basement office. Gigabit to the upstairs switch and I could put in a WiFi repeater there if needed...

Drill Baby Drill!

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:01 pm

So we need homeowner's insurance. We've got one quote, but it seems high. Do we need to call a bunch of places and get quotes, or should we go to an insurance agent? If we just call places, how the heck do you know which places are decent and which ones are terrible?

You know, someone could make good money being basically a home buying planner. I thought your realtor was supposed to do that, but ours doesn't seem to. He might just not be very good.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:03 pm

I shopped around some myself but ended up using an agent in my town. I don't know if I'm getting the best deal but it's nice to stop in local to deal with problems.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:08 pm

I got a recommendation from my agent, but then, the agent is a family friend of the wife's. We also got a bundled discount for getting out auto consolidated and moved over to him as well.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed May 20, 2015 2:56 pm

Chaz wrote:So we need homeowner's insurance. We've got one quote, but it seems high. Do we need to call a bunch of places and get quotes, or should we go to an insurance agent? If we just call places, how the heck do you know which places are decent and which ones are terrible?

You know, someone could make good money being basically a home buying planner. I thought your realtor was supposed to do that, but ours doesn't seem to. He might just not be very good.

Calling around and getting quotes and then picking the one that is the cheapest reputable-seeming one is basically how it works. Though your agent should be able to recommend a company or two.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri May 29, 2015 3:07 pm

First mortgage payment has been made. Only another week until I can actually see the inside of it again.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Fri May 29, 2015 3:50 pm

Chaz wrote:So we need homeowner's insurance. We've got one quote, but it seems high. Do we need to call a bunch of places and get quotes, or should we go to an insurance agent? If we just call places, how the heck do you know which places are decent and which ones are terrible?

Where do you get your car insurance? Most companies give you discount rates if you carry multiple policies with them.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Jun 19, 2015 9:57 pm

One lawn mowed, one million to go.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Sat Jun 20, 2015 8:31 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:One lawn mowed, one million to go.

I didn't even mow my own lawn the first time it got mowed; we had a baby shower that weekend and some friends came up Friday while I was still working so my wife had her friend's husband mow the lawn.

The mower broke.

Three hours and two trips to Home Depot later, he fixed it.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 12:49 am

Wife wanted an electric mower, so we bought a 21" Kobalt 13 amp corded mower and a 50' extension cord. It got me to the end of the driveway and that was about it. I had to go to Lowe's to get a 100' one, and had to transition to the back plug to get the side easement done. The time it took for that means I get to mow the back yard tomorrow.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 5:47 am

Why did you go with the corded model? The battery version really works well.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 7:46 am

My wife's been pushing for us to get an electric mower too. Are they decent enough now to actually consider? I've got probably 3/4 of an acre of grass to mow.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:12 am

It was cheaper, and given that we had to buy a fridge as well, paying the extra for a battery mower wasn't worth it at the time.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:29 am

I was going to mow the back yard today. And now it's raining.

Fellstrike · Post by **Fellstrike** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 11:35 am

Grats on the house! And the wife! I just got a house as well. All of my stuff is in it as of yesterday. Once I get situated, you're welcome to come help me test out my wet bar and game room.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 12:10 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:I was going to [complete random house maintenance task] today. But [something else broke/random problem] stopped me.

Here, I've modified it for you so that you can use it over the next 30 years.

Default · Post by **Default** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 1:35 pm

After the first six months, you can shorten it to, "Honey, I'm going to Home Depot!"

No other explanation will be needed or wanted...

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:30 pm

We built our house last year and moved in over Labor Day weekend. I just mowed our lawn for the first time three weeks ago, and did it for the second time on Friday. The yard was just planted at the end of last summer and is fairly thin in spots, but it's enough that I'm now going to be mowing on a regular basis...for the rest of my life...