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Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Old Oct 31st 2019, 1:18 am
  #16  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by excpomea
Dogs can 'disappear' Had a friend in Plymouth, Devon with the same issue.
He was moved to a night shift, dog was relocated to the middle of Dartmore.
I hope that was a joke
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Old Oct 31st 2019, 11:35 am
  #17  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

We will be having a couple of walk throughs prior to closing, so hopefully we can see and have fixed any of the issues such as snagging prior to closing - but yes, the 1 year 'top to bottom' warranty will cover anything that comes up afterwards.

Luckily we have had several very heavy rains in the last week, and my walk rounds while construction is ongoing have identified where the runoffs are - luckily they are all away from the house and it's on a rise.

middle of Dartmore.
That's not even how you spell Dartmoor.
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Old Nov 6th 2019, 4:05 pm
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Property taxes....
fighting property tax increases here drives me nuts. Gave in last year and use a company to protest for me and they only charge me 40% of anything they save. But the amount goes up every.single.year.
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Old Nov 6th 2019, 6:47 pm
  #19  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Congrats on the upcoming new house.

From my perspective the biggest upside to owning seems to be stability in housing costs, mortgage payments seem more stable and allow you to plan further into the future vs renting.
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Old Nov 7th 2019, 2:50 am
  #20  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by civilservant
It's a subdivision, the plat shows the partitions and the other houses are also under construction...... '
.... always get an ILC or something equivalent - i.e. PHYSICALLY verify the boundaries and ensure that there are no encroachments upon the land; or something like a Well or Septic is actually ON the land. Lenders and/or Title Companies may or may not order one so just because they don't get one doesn't mean you shouldn't. After you close, it becomes your problem and expense to correct any issues.

Originally Posted by civilservant
We will be having a couple of walk throughs prior to closing, so hopefully we can see and have fixed any of the issues such as snagging prior to closing - but yes, the 1 year 'top to bottom' warranty will cover anything that comes up afterwards...
Don't solely rely on that, getting inspections beforehand (if builder allows) is best and ensure things are correct BEFORE closing .... once its closed, its closed, stall tactics occur and repairs may drag on a) you are low priority. b) it costs them money for their contractor to do repair work c) possible limited times a re-occuring item can be repaired.
Get the sewer line scoped - basically ensuring the house was actually hooked up to the main. Prior to closing run all the taps (stress test the plumbing) to see if there is an obvious leak. Make sure the hot water and furnace are this year and not an installed surplus which has been in a warehouse for a year or two.

Originally Posted by Sugarmooma
Check for flood zones! Although with it being new I'm sure that was checked beforehand.
Never assumed its checked beforehand!! Flood insurance is a FEMA thing, not the state farms of the world .... know what is/is not covered; e.g. if window well window breaks and basement floods - are you covered? Also, if heavy rains causes floods, are you covered?!
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Old Nov 7th 2019, 1:00 pm
  #21  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by spouse of scouse
I hope that was a joke
Unfortunately not.

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Old Nov 7th 2019, 1:00 pm
  #22  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by civilservant
We will be having a couple of walk throughs prior to closing, so hopefully we can see and have fixed any of the issues such as snagging prior to closing - but yes, the 1 year 'top to bottom' warranty will cover anything that comes up afterwards.

Luckily we have had several very heavy rains in the last week, and my walk rounds while construction is ongoing have identified where the runoffs are - luckily they are all away from the house and it's on a rise.



That's not even how you spell Dartmoor.
Cheers for that.
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Old Nov 7th 2019, 2:10 pm
  #23  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by excpomea
Unfortunately not.
What a cruel bastard (not you, your friend). What sort of person thinks 'that dog's barking is bothering me, so I'll dump it in a place where it'll be frightened and lonely before dying in agony'. If I knew him, I'd spit in his psycho face.
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 4:42 pm
  #24  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by Jamackabi
What do I wish I knew? I wish I knew that the next door neighbors didn't have several small, yappy dogs that find absolutely any and all reason to bark as loud as they can 24 hours a day. It's ridiculous. I work from home full time now and all I hear is those bloody dogs all day. The owners have a dog flap, so they go in and out of the house all day and bark anytime if even a leaf blows past their house. If you hadn't guessed it already, I am not a dog person.
Have you tried to reason with the neighbors? What is their position?

I f**king hate barking dogs and this would drive me nuts. Do you have an HOA? Many HOAs have noise rules, and some have specific mention of dogs. Many cities / counties also have some legal recourse for noise. Maybe a chat with the local police might be in order?

I once had a neighbor who's dogs barked incessantly from the minute they left the house for work until the moment they returned in the evening. When I spoke to them, they said their dogs never barked (and they didn't, when they were home!). Luckily, back then, I was a workaholic myself so was out almost all the time the neighbor was out; if I were working from home, I'd have been driven insane. Luckily they moved out not long after.

Last edited by Steerpike; Nov 26th 2019 at 4:45 pm.
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 7:13 pm
  #25  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

The only things I would be concerned about with a new build is a HOA, which you already it doesn’t have (that would be a deal breaker for me, even if it was my dream house) and the plot size. We have a load of new builds going up. The houses are twice the size of ours, with half the plot of land. You can literally reach out and touch the neighbors house. That being said, if my house is anything to go by, houses out here aren’t built to last like back home.
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 7:57 pm
  #26  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by petitefrancaise
Property taxes....
fighting property tax increases here drives me nuts. Gave in last year and use a company to protest for me and they only charge me 40% of anything they save. But the amount goes up every.single.year.
Further to this, make sure you apply for homestead exemption. This will save a bunch of money with property taxes. I don't know what county you live in, but also apply for the valuation freeze exemption if you can.

https://dor.georgia.gov/property-tax...ead-exemptions
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 8:39 pm
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

HOA would drive me crazy, living in a condo building there is a strata (similiar to an HOA) and it just ends up being nit picky rules and a few people on power trips who seem to thrive on making sure every nit picky rule is enforced. I once left a plant in the window and it was visible from the street, that is the against the rules, nothing is allowed to be on the window sill and visible from the street and the limitations on how many plants, and chairs can be on the patio, some rules makes sense, but they just end up being so petty, but the arguments on the facebook group between residents and the nit picky ones is entertaining.


Originally Posted by markonline1
The only things I would be concerned about with a new build is a HOA, which you already it doesn’t have (that would be a deal breaker for me, even if it was my dream house) and the plot size. We have a load of new builds going up. The houses are twice the size of ours, with half the plot of land. You can literally reach out and touch the neighbors house. That being said, if my house is anything to go by, houses out here aren’t built to last like back home.
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 8:51 pm
  #28  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by Jsmth321
I once left a plant in the window and it was visible from the street, that is the against the rules, nothing is allowed to be on the window sill and visible from the street
That is absolutely pathetic!!!! My wife’s boss got into trouble for leaving a bin on the drive of his house. I’m sorry, but if I’m paying big money for my house, I’ll do WTF I like!
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 9:36 pm
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by markonline1
That is absolutely pathetic!!!! My wife’s boss got into trouble for leaving a bin on the drive of his house. I’m sorry, but if I’m paying big money for my house, I’ll do WTF I like!
My sister got a warning for trashcan issue as a welcome to the neighborhood. Trashcan can't be out before 6am on trash day, they leave for work at 5:30am so they put it out 1/2 hour early, the busy body in the neighborhood didn't like that.
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Old Nov 26th 2019, 10:55 pm
  #30  
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Default Re: Home Ownership Is Mayhem

Originally Posted by markonline1


That is absolutely pathetic!!!! My wife’s boss got into trouble for leaving a bin on the drive of his house. I’m sorry, but if I’m paying big money for my house, I’ll do WTF I like!

.... then you are not the kind of person to buy into a community that has an HOA. Get tired of folks who move into our development (because as they say it looks so lovely and well cared for) and then get upset when they are asked to move their dilapidated trucks off the driveway or take in their trashcans after they have been out for days after the trash has been collected - and let us not forget the kids toys scattered around the cul de sacs so other folks are complaining about the place being used as a playground !!
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