Buying a fixer upper. - Page 2

JavaBrewer · JavaBrewer's Garage

Looking at your current home and the one you are buying it's mainly style and flooring. I would pay to rip out the purchase home flooring and get what you want installed. After that you can move in an update at your leisure. Lots of kitchen cabinets to deal with, counter tops, appliances. As long as your floors are in place, living there during the remodel is a POC. Well, take that back, drywall work is messy, get that done immediately. Been there done that, we walked on bare concrete floors for 6 months on our last move...don't want to do that again. Rip out all the window coverings, get some plantation shutters. You should be able to do the kitchen cabinets and have the counters replaced by pro. Love the new location...the dock would be my last priority...but then I'm not a boat fan unless its taking us for a dive! Good luck.

dafischer · 02-16-2020, 05:52 PM

Great looking place in the Isles. Good luck with it, but fixer-upper my ass.

dmcummins · 02-18-2020, 06:44 PM

We got a offer on our house today, we countered, but we are close. So hopefully tomorrow we will have a contract on ours. We can buy the other house, but fixing it up much would require ours selling.

I’m meeting with a plumber tommorow, during the home inspection it was noted that there may be a leak somewhere. Evidently copper water lines are run under the slab floors and over time they may leak. They can be found and repaired, but the best fix is running new water Lines in the ceiling.

Since we are redoing the kitchen and baths it would probably make sense to go ahead and run new water lines.

Sooner or later · 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmcummins

We got a offer on our house today, we countered, but we are close. So hopefully tomorrow we will have a contract on ours. We can buy the other house, but fixing it up much would require ours selling.

I’m meeting with a plumber tommorow, during the home inspection it was noted that there may be a leak somewhere. Evidently copper water lines are run under the slab floors and over time they may leak. They can be found and repaired, but the best fix is running new water Lines in the ceiling.

Since we are redoing the kitchen and baths it would probably make sense to go ahead and run new water lines.

The house I am in had the same problem. Lines were run up to the attic. It takes forever (and I mean FOREVER) to get hot water to my back bathroom.

aigel · aigel's Garage

+1 on that not being a fixer upper. You are nuts. You'll update and in 10 years it will be "old" again. Is your wife watching the home remodeling shows? That has cost a lot of my buddies a lot of unnecessary money.

Don't get me wrong, if something is getting old and dilapidated, I remodel it, but if it is still clean and functional it only gets cosmetic refresh with new fixtures, paint etc. All the latest trends will look old again and the more "modern" the look the faster it will happen.

Coming from CA I have to ask, why are there so many homes for sale? It looks like half the town is for sale, 2600+ homes for sale in a town with a population of 20k!? Seems like a tough market to sell and even buy, because the selection is so large.

Good Luck with the "project"!

G

Kraftwerk · 02-18-2020, 08:05 PM

" Fixer-upper " ...pshaw., just needs a re-decoration or an undecoration here and there & you're good.

dmcummins · 02-19-2020, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aigel

+1 on that not being a fixer upper. You are nuts. You'll update and in 10 years it will be "old" again. Is your wife watching the home remodeling shows? That has cost a lot of my buddies a lot of unnecessary money.

Don't get me wrong, if something is getting old and dilapidated, I remodel it, but if it is still clean and functional it only gets cosmetic refresh with new fixtures, paint etc. All the latest trends will look old again and the more "modern" the look the faster it will happen.

Coming from CA I have to ask, why are there so many homes for sale? It looks like half the town is for sale, 2600+ homes for sale in a town with a population of 20k!? Seems like a tough market to sell and even buy, because the selection is so large.

Good Luck with the "project"!

G

Lots of old folks here. I’m not sure the average age here, but its up there. Also lots of snowbirds. Our house has been on the market for about 3 weeks now and it’s a bit different layout than what is popular. There were a couple of houses that we tried to buy that sold in the first week.

When it came to choosing homes that met our criteria, there really wasn’t that many to chose from. We wanted at least 2200’, and min 50’ of sea wall. Also had to be less than 30 minutes to the harbor. And of coarse had a max price we could pay. We did look at quite a few, but it really only came down to a couple that my wife liked.

As far as updating in 10 years, I can only hope. Previously to moving down to Florida we always had new homes built. But the wife was always making changes in a couple of years. My father was a home builder and that made things a little easier. And I also had many friends in the business, or could do much of the work myself.

I’ll be 63 in a couple of months and I plan on hireing out much of the work now, I don’t even mow the yard anymore.

dmcummins · 02-19-2020, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sooner or later

The house I am in had the same problem. Lines were run up to the attack. It takes forever (and I mean FOREVER) to get hot water to my back bathroom.

I did notice a house we looked at that had two water heaters, a smaller one in a closet close to the master bath.

I’ll have to look into that.

dmcummins · 02-19-2020, 12:38 AM

I guess the home could be moved into with little more than paint and wall paper removal and a few small repairs. But the house is close to 30 years old and nothing has been done. It did have a new roof after Hurricane Charlie hit the area in 2004.

The dock and lift are shot, pilings rotted out, lift rusty, concrete piers have rebar showing. Pool heater is shot, solar panels leaking. Plumbing is questionable, electric box will probably need to be changed out. bathroom cabinets are cheap, kitchen counter tops at min need to be replaced. Pool deck needs minimum to be repainted or whatever they do, we are going to look into pavers. Outside fans are rusty, inside lights and fans are just all 30 years old and out of date even for me. We really don’t like carpet, the wife has allergies and feels that carpet is a problem.

So I call it a fixer upper because it is not what we would consider move in ready, and we priced it that way. We adjusted it to homes that were, and evidently so did others that looked at the house because it hadn’t sold in two months.

Sarc · 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmcummins

Our house has been on the market for about 3 weeks now and it’s a bit different layout than what is popular. There were a couple of houses that we tried to buy that sold in the first week.

Congrats on your offer. My father's house in Deep Creek has been on the market since Halloween. We had an offer within two days of listing, but then it was rescinded the following week. Since then it has been crickets. Layout and dated bathrooms have been the culprit apparently...along with the ask. What a frustration it is settling an estate from afar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmcummins

We are getting to the point that many of the Older canal homes are becoming tear downs, so generally you are just buying the lot. The older homes were built in the 70’s, and of coarse they are on some of the better lots.

My uncle had one of these older gems (circa 1963) over on Marion just after the yacht club in PG. Beautiful (but tired) house on a canal that was a 5 minute hop into the bay. It was marketed as a teardown in 2018 after he passed and was scooped up by a NYC couple who are doing a period restoration.

MBAtarga · 02-19-2020, 04:51 AM

My sister and BIL had water leaks in the home near Orlando. They had already had 1 or 2 fixed by tearing up the foundation. When they kept occurring, they gave up and had lines run over into the attic as a "permanent" fix.

Our new home in Chandler AZ was plumbed (when built) with lines in the attic. In the summer, the problem was getting cold water to the kitchen. They water would come out VERY HOT, you'd have to run it for a minute or two for it to cool off.

You can check into a water recirculator pump as part of the re-plumb if you are concerned about delays in getting hot water to distant fixtures from the heater. Our house has one and we have zero issues with almost instant hot water to any fixture - and our house is 2 story (and basement) with >6500 sq ft. Our water heaters are in the basement - two plumbed in series with recirculator pump on the output of the 2nd.

dad911 · 02-19-2020, 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmcummins

I did notice a house we looked at that had two water heaters, a smaller one in a closet close to the master bath.

I’ll have to look into that.

I have tankless in the keys, love it. Can relocate near the bathrooms, takes up less space.

Sooner or later · 02-19-2020, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dad911

I have tankless in the keys, love it. Can relocate near the bathrooms, takes up less space.

If you retrofit with a gas system it can be really costly. New construction is the time to put in a multiple tankless system. I looked into it when I did my renovation but the cost to install was prohibitive.

dmcummins · 02-19-2020, 01:45 PM

What the home inspector though might be a leak was due to some kind of reverse osmosis system. At least that’s what the leak guys claimed. They did give me a quote to run new water lines, and of coarse recommended it due to the age of the house. And since we would be opening things up.

We are suppose to close on the house we are buying around 4/10, and we are closing on our current house around 4/20. The current plan is to move much of our stuff into the back bedrooms and garage. Due to being the end of the tourist season we can rent weekly for cheap.

Hopefully everything will go somewhat as planned.

dafischer · 02-19-2020, 05:59 PM

Are you going to get dinged on your homeowners insurance for lack of wind mitigation with the multiple gable ends?

dmcummins · 02-19-2020, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dafischer

Are you going to get dinged on your homeowners insurance for lack of wind mitigation with the multiple gable ends?

It effects it, it sure how much.

dafischer · 02-19-2020, 06:08 PM

I forget the numbers, but it was a significant savings for our place in Burnt Store Lakes.

dmcummins · 02-20-2020, 02:34 AM

The home inspector did take pictures of the rafter and wall attachments. Something about the way it was attached met the current standards. The roof was replaced after Hurricane Charlie, so maybe they addressed at least that. I have a friend with a similar styled roof and his insurance isnt much different than mine, so I’m hopeing it doesn’t cost me to much more.

The house does have hurricane shutters at least. I need to talk with my insurance agent, but Hopefully it won’t be to bad. You still see many houses with similar roofs. I don’t know why anyone would chose it though, knowing it isn’t prefered.

Steve Viegas · 02-20-2020, 04:59 AM

Congratulations on the new digs. Both houses look very nice, much nicer than where I live. Pricing didn't seem too different from golf course setting to canal setting.

How does the work get financed? Is it a construction loan for the remodel? $150K seems low, but I am in CA. Anyway, in CA that is a 5 year loan, about $3K/month. Does one do a re-fi and wrap that into the mortgage when they are done?

I always wondered about this when I watch the home shows on TV. Their budget is 300K, we are going to spend 190 on the house, and 110 on the remodel...those numbers don't seem to be the same to me when you take financing into account.

I don't think everyone is just paying cash...

dmcummins · 02-20-2020, 01:28 PM

canal lots generally run $100k-$200k more than golf coarse lots. Depending on how much frontage on the canal and how close to the harbor. Our current house is much newer, and much nicer than the one we are buying. But when we are done the home we are buying will be just as nice and be on the water.

We have gotten a few prices for some work and so far our estimates are in line.

We are just paying cash for the remodeling, but we are getting a loan for the new house, I was surprised that at 63 I can get a 30 year loan at 3.5%.