What are your next major purchases?

[coopasonic]

A big house out past the suburbs with a good chunk of land is the wife's dream and my nightmare. What happens when we become empty nesters is likely to be the biggest strain on our relationship ever. She is thinking of a big house with a big lot and lots of travel and I am thinking how we can exist in the cheapest possible way and still be comfortable.

[em2nought]

As far as all the upkeep goes, it's going to depend on how much of it I can hire out. Which means I need to investigate availability and price of yard work and snow removal, basically.

Just got my proposal for condo maintenance fees here for 2024, every service across the board prices are going up. So whatever you find price wise in services expect it to increase. Just getting someone "out" further is probably more money too.

I was watching a video of a guy with a nice little farm in Thailand the other day. He can have a farm because it's in his Thai wife's name. Somebody needs to come up with the "farm" condo. Foreigners can only own condos in Thailand. There's a work around, but it is more complicated than I'd want I think.

[LordMortis]

A big house out past the suburbs with a good chunk of land is the wife's dream and my nightmare. What happens when we become empty nesters is likely to be the biggest strain on our relationship ever. She is thinking of a big house with a big lot and lots of travel and I am thinking how we can exist in the cheapest possible way and still be comfortable.

I'd love more space between me and my neighbors. Aside from that, I like suburb services and proximity to vendors of all sorts... But damn, I'd like more space between me and my neighbors. Literally, the entire reason to move out of an apartments was to have space between me and them but now that driveway that separates us is not nearly enough.

[Exodor]

I'd love more space between me and my neighbors. Aside from that, I like suburb services and proximity to vendors of all sorts... But damn, I'd like more space between me and my neighbors. Literally, the entire reason to move out of an apartments was to have space between me and them but now that driveway that separates us is not nearly enough.

Yeah I actually hate home ownership but it's the only way to get away from shared walls and I hate sharing walls with randos. Both houses have been in older neighborhoods so the houses have a nice distance between them. When house shopping we'd occasionally wander into newer neighborhoods where every house is the same design, set back the same distance from the street and 6' from the neighbor. Driving down the street was like driving down a treeless tunnel lined with mcmansions. *shudder*

[LordMortis]

I should note that I did not care about the proximity to my neighbors until the market crash and a slum lord bought the house next door to rent out. He doesn't have to deal with the people he rents to and he just rents to one rotten asshole after another. All I can do is hope they all trash the place enough after they leave so as to make it so he makes as little as possible.

[Carpet_pissr]

The house we're considering initially went on the market at the top of our price range, then quickly got raised $75k higher. It's been at the too-high price for 2+ months now. I think they realized they had underpriced it at first, and now it's overpriced. Even if we do make our best possible offer, it might not be enough.

As far as all the upkeep goes, it's going to depend on how much of it I can hire out. Which means I need to investigate availability and price of yard work and snow removal, basically. I do like the nice big yard where I can have my garden and a view. I just don't want to be a slave to it.

Respectfully, have you ever lived in the boonies with a large property like that? (I'm assuming boonies, please correct if that's not accurate). That could be a huge culture shock if one has never done it, or didn't grow up in that atmosphere. If you haven't, there are probably lots of things to consider (security, for one, distance from police or fire or ambulance response, etc) that you may have not dwelled much on before (because you likely didn't need to). Also you mentioned a garden....guess who else likes gardens in isolated woods?

I'm definitely not trying to talk you out of it, but there may be things that you might be missing, blinded (rightfully so IMO) by the lure of nature, and peace. I would TOTALLY do that, but my wife would never go for it. She's already sacrificed by living where we do now, so "country" would be RIGHT out. Sadly.

[Smoove_B]

I can only say that as someone that was living on a rural property for ~12 years, when we downsized and moved back into civilization in 2019, I'm still not completely used to having neighbors and generally seeing/being around more people in my neighborhood. We really enjoy the convenience of things that are so much closer, but I do miss the quiet.

But yes, you going to ideally want to figure out how you're going deal with pretty much everything - snow removal, yard maintenance, house mechanical stuff, etc... When we sold our last house we left the new owners a "manual" - a list of all the contractors and services we used. I'm sure they tossed it, but they can't say they weren't warned.

[Blackhawk]

...and find out which hospital you'd be going to, then take the time to look into their reputation.

[disarm]

I picked up my new truck last weekend... little bit of an adjustment getting used to the size, but I love it so far...

[Kraken]

It's rural, but not boondocks rural. More genteel rural. There's a lot of money in the Berkshires and a thriving art and culture scene with tons of hiking and outdoor sports and tourism in the summer. Our next-door neighbor runs a farm stand during harvest season and there are orchards and a winery nearby. This house is on a 2-lane state highway about five miles south of Pittsfield (biggest city in the Berks), six miles north of West Stockbridge (little burg with some basic shops), maybe 10 miles to Lenox (richest town out there) and Tanglewood. I wanted to live closer to Great Barrington, and that's a good half-hour down the same highway.

Winters are harder than they are here so we'd need a 4WD or AWD vehicle; our Fit is coming up on 14 years old and won't cut it as a winter car, whereas I don't even drive my Miata in the winter here, much less out there. So very soon after spending all our money on a new house, we'll need a new (possibly used) car -- especially if we end up moving out there before spring.

It works financially when we use the proceeds from our Braintree house to pay off most of the new mortgage and refinance the difference. We'll be taking on a huge mortgage payment -- I'll only put 10% down -- but it's probably just for a few months. We have enough retirement savings and a financial adviser who'll make sure we can't outlive our money.

The population out there skews older, so there are adequate medical and elder services. We'd be close enough to Pittsfield for emergency service and Albany NY is less than an hour away for major medical. Nothing like the medical mecca we're in now, living 12 miles south of Boston, but adequate.

In short, it will be a big lifestyle change, but we aren't moving to Deliverance country. It's a change I'll probably come to like, once I adapt. Quiet and privacy suit me and I'm tired of having neither. I just really, really hate change in general. I'd be fine with all of this if someone else were in charge of it and all I had to do was go along.

Here's the realtor.com listing if you want to see why I'm considering putting all my marbles there. Wife is already 100% sure this is The One. We can't pay the list price so it might be moot anyway, but she wants to make our maximum possible offer and do it this week.

Spoiler:

realtor.com listing. Check out the Google Map inset.

[ImLawBoy]

That's a beautiful house.

[em2nought]

It is beautiful. Reminds me layout wise and size wise of the house my folks bought in Ocala in 1978 for $53,000 on 2.5 not as rural acres. I loved that house, especially the pool with a diving board, the huge screened porch in back, and my huge bedroom with attached bath. The finishes on this house are to a much higher standard, but the age of the houses is very similar. 1960s. Sometimes I think if I won the lottery I'd buy that house back. I wonder what that house looks like inside now, I bet it's been beautifully remodeled too. I was NOT happy when my folks sold that house and moved to Homosassa.

[Kraken]

The house is pretty nearly ideal. The property is very pleasant and well-tended. The location isn't my first choice, but it's certainly not bad. The price and logistics are where I falter; we can't pay the list price, and moving to the mountains in the winter would be less than ideal, and we aren't even remotely ready to move out of our current house. I need to dive deeper into the numbers to decide if we can really make our highest possible offer. I'm leaning toward yes.

[stessier]

I grew up in the Springfield area - my parents still live there. I'd probably choose that over Albany if a medical situation arose.

Edit: Nevermind - I just looked at the map. Albany is probably easier to get to. I just don't like Albany.

[Kraken]

I lived in Albany circa 1983-86. It was alright, but I was glad to leave NY.

[Daehawk]

My next major purchase will be a mechanic to finally fix my car. Its gone on long enough. I want my car back.

[Punisher]

. Yesterday me and the current owner took a walk through the woods that made me fall in love. With the land, not him, although maybe there was a spark.

Maybe you should see if he had a spark as well. Then have a torrid affair, then have your wife take compromising pictures of the two of you, then threaten to shiw his wife unless he cuts the price in half.
OR if they are actually into it, convince them to let you and your wife move in rent free. Looks like there should be enough room.
Problem solved! I'm a problem solver!

[Punisher]

Also you mentioned a garden....guess who else likes gardens in isolated woods?

Jason? The answers Jason isnt it? Althoygh he never mentioned a lake I still think it's Jason.

I'm definitely not trying to talk you out of it, but there may be things that you might be missing, blinded (rightfully so IMO) by the lure of nature, and peace. I would TOTALLY do that, but my wife would never go for it. She's already sacrificed by living where we do now, so "country" would be RIGHT out.

We r the opposite. My wife wants to live somewhere that you cant see the meighbors. I prefer being able to reach out my window and knock on the neghbors window.
Although, with my current issue, I MIGHT be a little easier to convince. Must have HIGH speed broadband thogh and no fake bathrooms. I cant remember what they ate called. Sump pump bathrooms maybe? The ones that are basically a hole in the ground and nit connected to the tiwns sewer lines but not an outhouse. We actually had it at one of my previoys towns. It was in a large city but the side of the highway we were on had no sewer access at all.
There werebalways problems with it..

[Punisher]

I was watching a video of a guy with a nice little farm in Thailand the other day. He can have a farm because it's in his Thai wife's name. Somebody needs to come up with the "farm" condo. Foreigners can only own condos in Thailand. There's a work around, but it is more complicated than I'd want I think.

The solution actually sounds pretty easy. Just marry a local.

[Punisher]

My next major purchase will be a mechanic to finally fix my car. Its gone on long enough. I want my car back.

Why biy a whole mechanic? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just pay him to fix the car instead of biying him outrite? Or are you just thinking ahead that havinf him long term will be cheaper?

[em2nought]

I was watching a video of a guy with a nice little farm in Thailand the other day. He can have a farm because it's in his Thai wife's name. Somebody needs to come up with the "farm" condo. Foreigners can only own condos in Thailand. There's a work around, but it is more complicated than I'd want I think.

The solution actually sounds pretty easy. Just marry a local.

After 58 years single I don't think I'm marriage material. Plus my trust in other people has eroded over the last few decades. You'd have to trust somebody quite a bit to put it all in their name. My trust in my being able to read people has eroded as well.

[Kraken]

. Yesterday me and the current owner took a walk through the woods that made me fall in love. With the land, not him, although maybe there was a spark.

Maybe you should see if he had a spark as well. Then have a torrid affair, then have your wife take compromising pictures of the two of you, then threaten to shiw his wife unless he cuts the price in half.
OR if they are actually into it, convince them to let you and your wife move in rent free. Looks like there should be enough room.
Problem solved! I'm a problem solver!

Funny complication: the owner's wife is also the realtor. Technically, she was the one showing the house, although I probably didn't exchange 10 words with her. Please submit a revision involving a torrid affair with her. Her name is Cindy Milf.

[Kraken]

My next major purchase will be a mechanic to finally fix my car. Its gone on long enough. I want my car back.

Or maybe a new car, depending on what fixing the 'stang will cost.

[Punisher]

. Yesterday me and the current owner took a walk through the woods that made me fall in love. With the land, not him, although maybe there was a spark.

Maybe you should see if he had a spark as well. Then have a torrid affair, then have your wife take compromising pictures of the two of you, then threaten to shiw his wife unless he cuts the price in half.
OR if they are actually into it, convince them to let you and your wife move in rent free. Looks like there should be enough room.
Problem solved! I'm a problem solver!

Funny complication: the owner's wife is also the realtor. Technically, she was the one showing the house, although I probably didn't exchange 10 words with her. Please submit a revision involving a torrid affair with her. Her name is Cindy Milf.

Hmm. I'm leaning more towards my 2nd scenario now.
She wasn't showing you the house
To buy, she was showung off all the available orgy room while slyly shoeing you iff to your husband.
I did some digging and apparently Cindy and her husband are dwingers but are looking for more voncy and are looking ti bring another couple into their hone.
The high price is just a red herring to keep looky loos away. They are looking for a couple with no commitment issues.

[Carpet_pissr]

Please submit a revision involving a torrid affair with her. Her name is Cindy Milf.

Literally LOL'd at that, thanks! And after reading the Israel/Hamas thread, and the the speakership battle thread, I needed it, Jesus.

[em2nought]

I'm guessing this house is going to have a septic tank and septic field? Find out how long it's been since that went in, and how much it cost to get it pumped way out there, and if they've had any problems recently. Maybe these folks have a list of local fairies they use and can provide you for all their problems with anything and everything. Probably has a well too?

[Kraken]

We talked septic. It gets pumped every four years, on average, and was done two years ago. Septic inspection is a required part of the sale process. Water pressure is good and there's a softener on the line. I'm satisfied that those systems are both good.

[em2nought]

Wow, the front yard looks different, it was pretty plain jane back when, no fancy brick columns to denote the driveway or plants lining the useless circular drive for that matter. I'm surprised the value is as low as it is. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4720 ... 4693_zpid/ It was a great house for a kid. Adults not so much, I think my dad used at least ten gallons of paint just on the inside. I wouldn't want to pay the AC bill in this day and age.

[em2nought]

The house is pretty nearly ideal. The property is very pleasant and well-tended.

Thinking about having to do all those jobs that require fairies sent me down a rabbit hole. I thought I'd come up with a new idea, but apparently the idea of a community built around a farm instead of a golf course has been around long enough for there to be 150 "agrihoods" in the USA. I'd just never heard of them before. My idea was for it to be condos instead of single family houses that way a single guy could do it in Thailand. https://www.55places.com/blog/3-active- ... able-trend I wouldn't mind growing some onions, garlic, and peppers if they're going to be over $1 each in the store from now on.

[Kraken]

Our realtor has been gently pressuring us to make our best offer on the Richmond house, since it's the first place we've both agreed that we'd like to buy. (We have toured 13 houses since last spring and ruled out a lot more than that with drive-bys.) The seller *probably* wouldn't accept it, but they *might.* So today I went over the numbers once again, and we simply can't realistically afford the maximum amount that we pre-qualified for. The amount of cash needed at closing is short by five figures. Even if I raided our retirement savings to close that gap, there's nothing left to pay a lawyer or movers, or any of the other services we're going to run into, much less to buy furniture. And then the new mortgage comes in about $2,500 a month more than our income can cover, so we'd have to rely on retirement money again to cover that gap until we sell our old house. That shouldn''t be more than a few months, but we'd be cash-poor for that duration.

So we could just about get into that house by our fingernails with no margin for error. If I were to make my best offer today, I would be terrified that they might accept it.

Have you heard that this is the worst housing market in a generation? Sounds right to me.

If by some fluke that house is still on the market in March, I will have closed the cash gap thanks to the social security checks that will start arriving next month. And in the spring we should start seeing some new listings that are priced closer to my comfort zone (which I also calculated today). The Richmond house is nicer than anyplace I've ever lived, and I'm sorry to say that it's too nice for me. At least, right now.

Wife is crushed.

[em2nought]

I think now is the time to sell, actually past the time for me some comps have dropped their prices recently but mine is a pretty desirable ground floor unit with most equipment almost new in this senior citizen state. I'll probably price aggressively a bit below the comps. I really wouldn't want to extend myself at this point in time if it was me.

I'm only buying an efficiency or one bedroom condo in Thailand if there's a shaded pool, an additional storage room that doesn't have to be big, a divider between the shower and the rest of the bathroom floor(only a recent development in Thailand), room for my knees to go wide when on the john, a mini-split AC, some kind of transportation without needing a car, management that could rent my unit out for me while I'm not there, easy access to cheap priced food, easy access to good hospitals, and a location that I think wouldn't be too effected by a big recession or depression. Want to stay under two million baht. I don't ask for much.

[Zaxxon]

That’s a bummer, Kraken. Here’s hoping it’s still there in the spring, maybe even at a lower asking price.

[Kraken]

That’s a bummer, Kraken. Here’s hoping it’s still there in the spring, maybe even at a lower asking price.

It first went on the market 3 months ago at our top limit. They got three offers at their first open house, so they decided it was underpriced, de-listed, and relisted it $50,000 higher. IDK if they've had any offers since then. It could fall back to the original price that they think was too low, but if it does it will probably get snapped up fast. Who knows? The housing market is whacked everywhere.

[em2nought]

Not to self: The word I was looking for was "splay". legs splayed.

[Kraken]

That’s a bummer, Kraken. Here’s hoping it’s still there in the spring, maybe even at a lower asking price.

It first went on the market 3 months ago at our top limit. They got three offers at their first open house, so they decided it was underpriced, de-listed, and relisted it $50,000 higher. IDK if they've had any offers since then. It could fall back to the original price that they think was too low, but if it does it will probably get snapped up fast. Who knows? The housing market is whacked everywhere.

Just to follow up: In the week after we toured that house, our realtor asked a couple of times what we thought of it. I finally gave her an honest answer -- the house itself is pretty ideal...I'm not thrilled with the location but could overcome that reservation...but we just couldn't really afford to make the highest offer that our bank says we can make. We should be better off by spring and would be interested at that time if the house is still available.

The next day, the house went off the market.

I'm not quite sure how to read that, but I strongly suspect the timing wasn't coincidental.

The housing market seems to be frozen up for the winter now, so I don't expect that we'll be doing any real shopping until spring anyway.

[Zenn7]

Turns out our next major expense is a new car.

2008 Odyssey w/ 200k miles on it was what we had. Went to WI, had a bad tire (bad belt?). Stupidly got 4 tires instead of just the given when they told us about the tire, we also knew (and they confirmed), need front/back brakes, rotors, and they said calipers (and a brake flush w/ all the brake work), right front control arm (has a lot of play), and for some reason they seemed to think the battery needed replaced though we just replaced it last Thanksgiving (granted with a cheapish 2 year battery from Walmart, but it hasn't been 2 years). They wanted 3k more. We brought it home w/ just new tires and plan to talk to our mechanic about it and verify everything that needed to be done and if it was time maybe to replace it.

We decided it's time. Ended up with at 2019 CR-V w/ 32k miles on it. For a mere $7,500 (probably more like $5,000 given we bought the extended warranty), we could have gotten a brand new one. But the payment is already going to be rough, another $100 a month was out of the question. Had to buy it fast though cause Honda had 3.99% financing offer for October, and we saw the car on Monday, had our mechanic check it out and bought it on Tuesday.

They offered $1500 trade in for our van. Our mechanic bought it for $2k (private payment plan, but given all the money we've given him and his brother for work on our vehicles and our house, we aren't worried about that in the slightest).

[em2nought]

but given all the money we've given him and his brother for work on our vehicles and our house, we aren't worried about that in the slightest).

That wouldn't make me rest any easier, but hopefully the idea that they want your business in the future will be foremost in his mind. I've not had great success with people owing me money.

[Zenn7]

but given all the money we've given him and his brother for work on our vehicles and our house, we aren't worried about that in the slightest).

That wouldn't make me rest any easier, but hopefully the idea that they want your business in the future will be foremost in his mind. I've not had great success with people owing me money.

By itself, I might be concerned, but we did sign a contract for it.

Though given that we've spent more than 10 times that amount over the last few years with them, I suspect they would consider future business.

[ImLawBoy]

My home office chair was destroying my back, so I splurged and bought a Herman Miller Aeron. It's pricey, but I'm counting on quality for longevity and they have options that suit my 6'4" frame better than some of the knock-offs. Since I've been using it my back has been much better, and I don't have to move slowly for the first 20' or so after getting out of my chair until my back loosens up.

[em2nought]

Qunol turmeric seems to work wonders for me.