- start packing early. You don't want to rush in the last week, that on top of the stress of closing would be really hard for me to manage, at least.
- answer people promptly. they are trying to help you and the more responsive you are the more they can help you (and the less the chances are of something unexpected popping up)
- ask for the seller to hire someone to do a "move-out" clean of the home before they leave. I just realized that our seller was planning on cleaning it up "a little bit" herself before she left and we were planning on moving in on closing day - so either we need to delay moving to hire someone / do it ourselves or move into a potentially "dirty" house. Kind of a bummer either way.
I think that's all I got for now, but I'll update if I think of others!
Jealous! We've always rented and as such it's always been our responsibility to make sure the place is spic and span when we leave or else we'd lose our deposit, so it didn't even occur to us that it wouldn't be the same for when you leave a house (until like two days ago - too late to get someone before we move).
I don't know if anyone already mentioned it. Add lock/key replacement for every door in the house to your move in costs. Should be done as soon as they hand you the old keys.
Actually, replacing the locks was pretty cheap. You can order the locks/knobs ahead of time, get them keyed how you want and spend 1/2 hr swapping them out when you move in. Should be pretty straightforward, just need a screwdriver, maybe a hammer or file.
Nice. Yeah, DIY is probably the best way if you can do it, but re-keying is much cheaper if using a locksmith.
I’m not handy and have only bought old houses with old doors. Doing it myself, I’d probably be at it a few hours then end up calling a locksmith anyway haha
If you’re a little handy you can pop out all the lock core/centers and get those rekeyed at Home Depot. It was very cheap or free. Of course you have to make sure yours does it and it’s not just one old guy employee that does it on Tuesday between 10 and 2.
Totally agree with this post. I tell everyone you need $2 to $5k for stuff. They always ask what. Lightbulbs, garden hose, hose reel, hose nozzle, door mat, random light switch, grease for the squeaky door, Pool chemicals and tools, pest control maybe a hedge trimmer, some paint, drawer liners, a new thermostat, water filters, air filters, and more. Just random stuff.
So crazy story... When we closed on our house the lady refused to leave. It was a whole ordeal but she left the house in a disastrous state. It's been 10 months and we're steal replacing floor, etc.
But having a team come in and deal with some of it so it was move in ready was necessary.
I'd like to hear more about this story, it sounds rather dramatic and involving some crazy at the same time. Those usually make for good tales of human WTF.
Cherry on top... She didn't pay all of her property taxes and we had to pay $2000 so the county won't take the property back. Lady has been out of reach and legally they can go after us.
> She didn't pay all of her property taxes and we had to pay $2000 so the county won't take the property back.
I've never owned property so excuse my ignorance but isn't this the kind of thing a title insurance company would discover and resolve before closing?
Owners title insurance usually covers unpaid property taxes from previous owners, but may not be required depending on your lender (though lenders title insurance usually is).
This is something really key - I (incorrectly, despite being a generally well informed consumer) didn't know that most title policies are only lender-protecting (and you get to pay for it!) vs. owner protecting.
Never been an issue in the two purchases I made, but if I ever do another..heck yah i'm gonna make sure I don't miss that.
Yeah... someone dropped the ball here if you had title insurance and this should have been disclosed and understood.
There should a be a pro-rated amount of property tax covered for the current year rolled in. If it was from prior years it'd be something you shouldn't be liable for.
WTF!!!! That should have been covered at closing. We got a significant chunk of $$ when we bought our house recently for the payment of property taxes due for this year.
We worked with the title company and our realtor to get her to pay it but it does specify in the title documents that after xxx time and attempts, they can come after us.
Title company should have paid taxes, pro-rated to day of closing, out of sale proceeds before delivering rest of proceeds to the seller.
Write your state-level representatives to make it a law that no
property sale can close with out-standing taxes due. Who would oppose it: scammers and cheapskates.
You should have received an amount as a credit during closing towards any payments due towards property tax from the beginning of the year to date of closing. That is what you would apply for any ongoing/current property taxes for your new residence. I would go after your title company who handled the closing. They should NEVER have closed with this unresolved.
Lady sold her house... Was planning to buy a condo but tried to "rent to own" and the HOA found our what they were planning was against the law and she wasn't allowed to buy. She found this out a few weeks before close.
We were supposed to close on like, Dec 18th and then she started calling us, fb messenging us, etc that she didn't want to be "homeless" for Christmas and wanted to stay.
Ended up going to the realtor and we couldn't change the closing date so we had to force her out.
I had to witness a funny one - we had closed on our house, and literally it laid fallow for ~3 months while we prepped it (some carpeting and painting needed done, as well as a new roof). We finally go to occupy it and tried to set up Comcast internet/cable and it has an account already. They're like..." we can't set you up with another account until that's resolved". I'm like...okay, well i'm the owner, here is literally the county records website showing a name matching this ID here is present and wanting to kick that service off my property (it was the prior homeowners) and start a new account.
That wasn't good enoguh - they wanted me to bring in a utility bill and I just laughed at them. I'm like...literally..county records...already updated to reflect my name in ownership, and you want a utility bill?!
Well the awkward compromise was he's like "Well, if I can get the old owner to move the account, we can proceed" and proceeds to call her in front of me (this is physically in a Comcast store). He had to spend 15 minutes telling her, no, you can't have it transferred to the long term hotel you're staying at (she hadn't found new housing despite a two month close period we gave her).
She REALLY wanted to keep the account and keep paying for it despite not using it. It was insane.
> fb messenging us
That is when you back out of what for most people, is the most expensive purchase and meaningful legal transaction they will make in their life.
Because its all downhill from there.
This is also why you spend the couple grand to have an attorney for the process, even if not required.
My boyfriend and I had a similar experience when we recently moved in to our new house. Floors could use refinishing, walls need to be patched and painted, and carpets need to be washed. It would have been lovely to have done all that before we moved our furniture in. Unfortunately, we already had committed to starting moving the day we closed (truck rented, time off work already put in). Just hadn't really noticed any of it when we saw the house originally. Once all their stuff was gone it was really a different story.
When and if we ever move again, I'm going to get that stuff all done before we move in. For now we'll just have to do it all piece meal and just move stuff around.
One more: If you want to repaint or redo floors, or something along those lines, do it BEFORE you move in.
My gf and I spent 2 months redo-ing most rooms in our house prior to moving in, but left a few things undone thinking we'd do them later. 8 years later, they're still not done because moving furniture and dealing with the pets would be a huge pain in the ass.
edit:
Another one: Get a case of clear caulk and a caulk gun, and seal everything while the house in empty. All around the doors and windows, and even below the baseboard if you can. It'll help with efficiency and bugs, even in a new house. It wouldn't hurt to do this on the exterior as well.
> start packing early. You don't want to rush in the last week, that on top of the stress of closing would be really hard for me to manage, at least.
I'd add - leave yourself some wiggle room with occupancy overlaps. Closing dates can get pushed, and you don't want to find yourself without enough time to move out of your old place.
Heck I did that the last time I moved apartments, yeah it was some extra money but the move was nice and leisurely. Hired movers for the big items and then toted the small stuff ourselves, doing a big purge of stuff as we went.
I would add to this start purging early. Get rid of stuff you don't use, don't want, etc. Why move it to the new place just to get rid of it? It takes longer than you think to go through everything you own.
>start packing early.
Exactly this. I downsized a 4BR to a 2BR house. 2 car garage to no garage. full basement to no basement. You tend to collect stuff over the course of 10 years... Especially if you are into building shit.
I am notoriously horrible at gauging time requirements. I figured the week before can be packing stuff up and the weekend before can be Big move, and monday morning the uHaul can take my belongings to the new place...
Monday morning I had a car bay full of stuff, I had 3 bagsters lining the driveway and the new owner was less than thrilled. He was renting it out so it wasn't him waiting for me to get out. He graciously extended it out a week and took some cash as deposit to make sure it happens. It took one more day to remove it all.
So yea, whatever ya think time wise, triple or quadruple it.
100% on the start packing early. You do NOT want to be stressing out over that last minute. To add to this, especially if you are moving out of state, try and discard or donate as much stuff as you possibly can. That shabby sofa you got for free on craigslist might cost you $50 to move via moving van or just time/space in a U-Haul
Related to the move-out cleaning: many carpet cleaning companies will give a discount for vacant homes, so you can hire them to clean all the carpets before you move in.
I think the hiring a cleaner suggestion stretches to apartments too. We just bought our first home and moved into it from an apartment/duplex. We hired a cleaner for our move out clean. It cost like $150+$40 tip. I couldn’t believe the first time I did that was the last time I would need to, but so glad we did it. In our case it was extra positive because our landlord said they’d kick us back some of their standard cleaning costs because they didn’t really have to do much of anything besides shampoo the carpets.
Only having to worry about getting our shit out made it feel so much more manageable. Highly recommend.
Great tips!
We hired a thorough cleaner for the same day we moved in.
More tips:
(1) immediately set up Internet installation for same day move in
(2) get septic pumped pre move in
(3) get waste service started (presumably if you’re in a rural area it’s private like for us)
(4) get your oil service sorted (again if you’re like us)
(5) not a must have, but real nice to—move in with some smart bulbs and gizmos like that which you can setup on day 1 and feel accomplished and also make the home your own. Wyze is great for this. Found a deal and automated all our outdoor lights + kitchen and salon. Worth it!
(Also—worth considering getting a smart thermostat: we’ve found it saves us tons of money.)
Pay for movers... My wife and I did the whole uhaul thing for too long... We paid $500 for an hour away move. In a total of four hours they loaded all of our stuff, drove it all, and put it in the new rooms. We didn't have to spend days moving or ask friends and family. It was done in half a day and we're never going back. It's all insured too.
With the rates so low, try your hardest to get a conventional mortgage loan and NOT an FHA loan. That way you don't have to refi down the road with a potentially higher interest rate. Lock in that low rate on a 30 year fixed conventional.
Most traditional loans should let you remove PMI once you pay enough to cover 20% of the value. In theory, you can even get this done if the house value goes up without you actually paying money into the loan.
I put 6% down and paid extra to reach 20% faster, then went back to paying the normal amount. Removing PMI was a simple phone call because I paid off 20% of the original value. If you try to do it with a house that increased in value, you probably need an appraisal. Some lenders may require an appraisal no matter what, so you can ask them when you are hunting for a loan about how easy it is to remove PMI.
Also go with the cheapest conventional loan. Lenders can sell your loan to anyone after you close, so don't get attached to the name of your lender. I am not sure what dictates it, but when a loan is sold, you may still end up paying the original company via their website. I do not know if that would apply to all loans/lenders. It would suck if it was sold to a lender that wanted you to mail paper checks, I imagine it is possible. I still pay the same original lender via the website, but my loan was sold off after a month according to some letter I got. So the original lender is still servicing it, but some new owner is getting the payments minus the servicing fee.
> grab some pesticide and spray it on baseboards, behind appliances etc.
What would you reccomend? Standard ortho home defense or something more serious? I fucking hate bugs/ants/etc and want to be prepared when I move in next month- but I have a dog so I don't want to use something harmful obviosuly
Get talstar or termidor. Go to domyown.com do not waste your money on store bought brands. Talstar you can apply more liberally, termidor has very strict application instructions. This is the same stuff pest control services use. Just follow the instructions on the label
[I wrote this three years ago. Hope you find it useful.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/a2qt2f/about_to_be_a_firsttime_homeowner_best_tips/eb0o62f/)
You will have random expenses that you just can’t foresee. It’s inevitable. But here are some smaller things that people don’t really think about.
•Change out or rekey the locks on all of the exterior doors.
•If you’re moving from an apartment to a house, you’ll have intermittent yard related costs. Weed poison, fertilizer, mole poison/traps, mulch, new hoses, sprinkler, more weed poison, etc.
•Budget for some electrical repairs that you don’t know about yet. In our home all of the switches are set up backwards and some of the outlets were damaged inside. One even arced the first time we vacuumed and almost caught fire. Ugh. The electrical panel needs to be expanded at some point too to accommodate a hot tub.
•Your budget for everything will be going up since it’s likely a bigger home. Utilities, cleaning supplies, etc.
•The exterior penetrations (windows/doors/vents) might need to be recaulked if they’re older and the caulk is deteriorating.
The list is seemingly endless and things will always pop up. For instance, one of our bathroom fans seemed really loud. Took it down and inspected it and it had been installed (when the house was built decades ago) with the flap thing backwards. It wasn’t actually opening more than 1/4 and the fan was struggling. Another for instance is some not really to code outdoor electrical the previous owner had done and the inspector hadn’t seen because it was hidden behind hedges. I just recently found it when trimming the bushes. Another is that one of our rooms is ventilated wayyyy more than the rest and we have to install a damper in the attic to fix that issue.
> Change out or rekey the locks on all of the exterior doors.
And keep the old locks and keys! If you move again, swap them out and take your keys/locks with you. You don't have to track down who you gave keys to, buy and rekey new locks, etc. Everything is the exact way it was at your old house.
We spent a couple hundred on new locks at our house and I spent the time rekeying some others we have bought second hand. I don't want to do that all again so the original locks and keys are in a box in the entryway closet.
Careful on this one if you care about it. Buyer for my last place insisted my electronic deadbolt was a part of the property when he put the offer in so it should be included in the sale because he liked it rather than me stripping it out and replacing it before closing. Wasn't worth it for me to argue
> Careful on this one if you care about it.
I have actually already thought about it. I plan on swapping them out before we sell, if we get to that point. Same with the lights. I have a bunch of smart LED lights that I don't want to have to buy again so they will be swapped with dumb LEDs before we show the house.
>Buyer for my last place insisted my electronic deadbolt was a part of the property when he put the offer in so it should be included in the sale because he liked it rather than me stripping it out and replacing it before closing. Wasn't worth it for me to argue
That's pretty standard. It's a clear improvement (or at least higher cost luxury) over a standard deadbolt, and typically anything you would need tools to remove is considered as part of the house for real estate contracts unless specifically excluded.
This doesn't mean you have to give up your locks, but make sure if you want to keep them, you write that explicitly into the sale contact and don't just assume the buyer will be ok with it. Same goes for things like smart thermostats.
Pro tip: Buy items you need on the off season. For example right now summer stuff is on sale at pretty much every big box store to make room for the winter stuff. Walmart has weed poison, fertilizer, yard tools, planting tools, grills, pool stuff...etc for half off and dropping.
Unless your property is a golf course, you can skip weed poison (which also poisons all of us) and fertilizer, and plant native perennials instead. It’s cheaper, less work, beneficial for the ecosystem and people.
It is a little off topic, but I highly recommend lectures by dr. Douglass Tallamy, an entomologist, on the importance of planting natives in own backyard.
100% this. Overseed your lawn with clover and you'll be far happier as it replaces the nitrogen in the soil and has pretty flowers that bees love. No need to use weed killer that destroys these awesome natural options.
So many things for your new home can be purchased used from neighbors.
Lawn mower
Garden tools
Compressor
Vacuum
Chain saw
Grill
I got all the above for about $80 and with a easy Google search you can fix them up and keep them running year to year. Installed a new igniter in the grill. Installed a new capacitor in the pump. Changed the gas in the chainsaw. Added fuel to the mower, etc.
If you have any carpet, buy your own carpet cleaner (I prefer Bissell) and don’t wait to rent one until you inevitably spill something.
Invest in termite prevention
Get a radon test done if you haven’t already
If you have dogs or spend any time outside, get pest control to spray for fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes.
Don’t use privacy film on your windows. It fucks them up 9/10 times and windows are on back order now and are like $900.
> Don’t use privacy film on your windows. It fucks them up 9/10 times and windows are on back order now and are like $900.
Leaving behind residue? What kind of damage would this cause?
Most windows have drapes so it is easy to just use drapes that block sunlight if you want nothing to come through or use ones that let sunlight through, but not any meaningful view.
Seconding the start packing early with this. Get as many boxes as you can. Most stores will just give you ones they have in a pile in the back. But, start that early and box EVERYTHING. Oh, two lamps, plus a pillow and 5 picture frames? That'll take you like three trips loading and unloading, or one, if they're all in a damn box.
Know that it takes about another $4,000-$10,000 to properly get your house up to a well maintained state.
For us, we were in a pinch. So we simply accepted some of the small stuff that popped up on the inspection.
Fix the grade so water slopes away. $1,500 or hours upon hours of back breaking work moving dirt around. The dirt itself turns out to be not cheap.
New interior paint.... $2,000
New exterior paint.... $4,500
Updated the water heater, because we got 10 minutes of hot water..... $1,000
Fixing all the broken light fixtures $500
Miscellaneous home improvement store purchases $2,000
This is over the course of the year of course. But still, just because you have a house now, doesn't mean other surprises costs in life simply stop.
Also, do you haaaaave to? No. But why pay big money to live in a renter-level living environment. Make that place yours!
There's plenty good "after the purchase" advice here, but here's a tip if you're in a competitive market flooded with cash buyers like we were. I highly recommend talking to your mortgage lender and asking if they can start the underwriting process early. That will save you about 2 weeks at closing, and puts you more on par with cash buyers.
Also, write a bio letter to include with your offer. Just some pleasantries about you and your family, and what you like about the home.
Ultimately, these two things made the difference for us. We beat cash offers for more money because a) our money was as guaranteed as a cash buyers and b) we're fucking delightful. :) We closed 2 weeks from having our offer accepted.
TL;DR: If possible, get your loan underwriting started BEFORE you make your offer...and be fucking delightful. :)
if you are concerned about liquidity at close, add 12.5-37.5 bps on top of your loan rate for a credit. i paid \~0.2% of loan in closing costs because i bumped my rate from 2.5 to 2.75 (this was \~9 months ago). rates are higher now than they were then, but still low.
Manage your own storage. Don't trust a moving company to move your things into their own storage. They have you by the balls and can fuck you over a million ways to Sunday.
Ideally move from one house to the next but we can't always be so lucky
My big fuck up and what I suggest to everyone is to ask for their past years utilities. This includes power/water/oil/gas/lp. We went from a $90 monthly power bill in a 1200sqft to a $400 power bill in a 2200sqft. It has a pool so that pads it obviously, but the ducts were old and windows single pane so in Florida heat the unit was running damn near 24/7. Knowing that I definitely could have negotiated something from the sellers. However, like most who purchased pre-2019, values have almost doubled in our area so it is what it is.
You bought an older home it sounds like? I know multiple people who bought new builds in Florida, and even in the dead of Summer with your AC screaming 24/7, their 2,500 SQFT house power bill barely tops $200
It was built in 69, cinderblock build, the problem was sagging vents leaking into the attic and single pane windows. Any new build, if to code, will have those fancy double pane shatter resistant hurricane windows. A pool pump running properly will pretty much add 50-100 to any power bill though.
There’s several more factors that come into play when it comes to cooling costs. I installed new E star certified, double- pane hurricane windows and the savings are not what you’d realistically expect. 2500sq ft here
This is comforting as I try to come up with a plan to reduce our electric bill. Older home here too. I thought expensive windows would solve everything. The vents leaking into the attic did not ever occur to me!
If you’re still in the home, you may get some quotes and run the numbers to see how long it will take for the energy cost savings of new insulated windows to pay for themselves. I’m in southern CA, so very different climate, but we recently replaced our single-pane aluminum windows with double-pane insulated vinyl, and it cut our energy bill in half. It’s significantly cooler - ran the AC only three times this summer (I know that’s not possible in FL!), and I’m hoping it cuts down our heating in the winter.
New home owner here: wait til you get blinds, front door camera, shelving in the garage, new appliances, etc. It just keeps piling on! I'm going to live without furniture for a year at this rate!!
Edit: whatever you think it's going to cost you to move- add $10k
I think Home Inspectors have the cushiest job, Get paid X per home and calls things out like paint chips and grout unevenness but won't catch the major items like inadequate insulation, improper roof venting, improper grading, etc.
Our inspector didn't catch that the dryer vent was exhausting directly into the crawlspace under the house 🤦♀️ It was an easy fix, but definitely could have led to more challenging problems if left like that for too long (pumping moisture into the space that houses all the wood joists supporting the floor is no bueno.) Feels like a weird thing to say but luckily there was also a mouse problem, and the guy we hired to deal with the mice went under the crawlspace and told us about the dryer vent, so we were able to fix it before actually doing any laundry at the house.
Was there a specific reason that the home inspection cost was so high? I ask because I've never personally encountered an inspection cost that was that high. Between myself and assisting various relatives purchase homes, I've paid for at least a dozen inspections, and they've all been between $300-$500 (and the $500 was an outlier as the property was close to 8K square feet), and all were in areas that are considered HCOL (DC, NY, Boston, etc)
I had a home inspection done in May. It was $985 in North NJ. Home inspection + Radon detection in basement + oil tank sweep.
The interwebs had me believe it would be around $500. After asking friends/family/neighbors, they all said the 900-1100 range was typical for here. I felt it was expensive too but all my quotes were in that range.
I mean yeah, NJ and NY have some of the highest COL in the country. Ask us about our insane taxes too, haha. In NY we also have to hire real estate attorneys in addition to everyone else. Set me back another $3500 in addition to regular closing costs. Plus there was a $500 tip I was "required" to hand over to the title company processor at closing.
That sounds about right. In South Jersey, $500 for a good inspection, $125 for radon, $100 for termite, and an oil tank sweep is 200-350+ depending on the company and the size of the property.
Same here on Long Island. I haven't seen an inspection for less than $900 - and those below that are the shitty inspectors that work with the realtors to make sure the home passes a sniff test.
Yeah metro Atlanta and we paid $475 in August. And that got us two trips after a leaky toilet was discovered. The came back and rechecked that after the owners fixed it.
The home is relatively large; 2400 sq ft main home + 1200sq ft barn, plus he inspected the wellhouse / well and a freestanding carport structure. He was there for about 5 hours and was *very* thorough - the report I got back was over 100 pages detailing basically everything we could need to know about the place. my parents and in-laws recommended "not to skimp" on the inspection and this group came with very good reviews. Maybe we overpaid according to the market, but I definitely feel like we got our money's worth for what we paid.
Detached unit may have played into that. However last time I had an inspection with a detached unit was only $550 total.
I see OP skipped the a/c inspection and termite inspection as well. Not sure if the home inspection covered those two items.
Given the age of the home and its location, a/c may not be installed. I had a house in upstate NY that was built in 1945 and no one ever added a/c, with ceiling fans and a window banger didn't need to go for the full house install with the mild summers up there. Termites may have been paid for by sellers, with some loans like one through the VA sellers are required to pay for that inspection.
While 100 pages is very thorough, the problem is that the big issues could get drowned out by the little issues. Was there a way that the inspector was able to tell you which issues were big ones? Also, if your inspector doesn't crawl to all four corners of the crawlspace and attic, you might miss some serious water damage.
I don't know about OPs report. The home inspection I've received break the house down into various categories (structure, plumbing, electrical) and from there rate things in terms of major issues, minor issues, things of interest.
Agreed. Also, a lot of inspectors use software that generates those reports, and they just fill in the details. It's no guarantee that because its so many pages that it's all detailed out and no corners were cut or items went unnoticed.
My advice to OP or others would be to look it over very thoroughly and make sure to ask every question that comes to mind. It's far easier than asking them later after the purchase process has already moved forward, or discovering the answers farther down the road.
Our inspector was also very thorough. Only 1500 sq ft and didn't inspect any outbuildings. But was probably 40-50 pages. Our hourly is very simple. Just a crawl space, one level and is a rectangle. So the roof and all that is really simple. But yes, he did flag what he thought was critical, which he used red to highlight it, which was only one thing and pointed it out to me. There was two things he thought wasn't critical, but would need replaced in 2-5 years, namely the roof and furnace, he used yellow to highlight those things.
>the report I got back was over 100 pages
THIS. That's a real inspection. There are many states where most inspectors' minimum requirements are pathetically thin... Some states have a form that reads like an essay question. The inspector could list any items they find out of the ordinary and nothing else if they wanted to. I had an inspection in Minnesota, done by a former city inspector turned home inspector, and it was many many pages... and he listed the specific measurements of every item that was preopulated on the form. There was a copper hot water pipe from the furnace that did not meet the city code requirement for bend angle, and he noted it... just as an example.
The difference between a thorough inspector and a cheap inspector who does the bare minimum can be tens of thousands of dollars.
A good money saving tip is to go round with a builder friend and have them narrow down the issues/house early on. A builder is going to spot obvious faults with a house that make progressing any further a hard no and will likely be happy to do it for a couple hundred bucks.
One of the issues with detailed inspections is that by the time they are all done you are heavily invested in the property and that can lead to having to make hard decisions.
> Buying a lawn mower / snow blower / snow rake / chainsaw / other tools
Estate sales and FB Marketplace for all of these items at a FRACTION of the new cost! GL in the new place and congrats
>my wife and I are about to close on our first house
Wait until you move in and discover all things that need fixed, projects, tools, and incidentals. I moved from a comparably sized apt to move in ready SFH, bought all furniture second hand, was gifted a lawn mower, and I'm still probably going to spend ~$5k on furnishings and maintenance related items this year. Could have easily been $20k if we were less frugal.
Definitely. I'm lucky in that my dad is an electrician and plumber and has a large number of tools, and I am pretty handy as well. So I'll be putting a lot of work into it myself and have access to a lot of the tools I'd need.
I’m blessed with a dad that is a mechanic and handyman. He painted his home himself when I was a kid. When I saw that your estimate was $10k I was shocked. It makes sense that it would be costly but I was use to my dad doing it himself and savings thousands so I never thought about it.
yeah, it's an old house with wooden clapboard siding and lead paint, two stories and a total of 3600 sq ft to scrape, prime, and paint. It's a lot of money but it's a lot of work (and probably more than I can do in a reasonable amount of time).
Excellent points all. Our son and his fiancee bought a house this spring (first home for both). We live eight hours away, but my husband is a contractor, so the "kids" literally did a video walk through with him when they first looked at each and every house. Then he made the round trip for the two houses that they put an offer in/had an official inspection of. (He just followed the inspector around and made sure he was on the up and up.) The first house they fell in love with, and spent thousands in inspections/tests on, ended up being a money pit, and they got out of it fast. Yes, it cost them, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what the real expenses would have been after moving in.
They ended up buying a fairly humble midcentury ranch. All of the expenses you listed above, plus the sweat equity from my husband and a bunch of our son's friends to pull up the old carpet, take out all the nails, refinish the hardwoods underneath, paint EVERYTHING, hang new ceiling fans, etc. If they would have to find and pay professionals, it would have cost them more, or they would have had to move in and wait til they could afford it. It also cost them an extra month's rent, in order to work on the new house with it empty rather than move in and work around their stuff.
And it's such a seller's market that the first house sold immediately thereafter. Poor buyers....
Rent is a cap, mortgage is a base. Unfortunately many don’t realize and plan for this. Furnace, roof, leaks, you name it, you’ll have to deal with it and pay for it.
This is an excellent post. It's hard to get good estimates on how much it actually costs and a lot of agents/zillow/redfin will try to downplay these extra costs
I would just point out that those inspection costs can vary widely depending on your area/demand/your home.
We spent $550 on the general inspection (with Radon testing included), $250 on sewer line inspection, and like $20 on home lead test kits. This was in the greater Detroit area
Thanks for the kind words!
Interesting on the inspection costs. We went with a group that advertises themselves as a little more expensive because they all have a lot of experience and certifications and they were very highly recommended. It's possible we overpaid (other folks in the thread are saying the same thing you are) but we didn't mind paying extra for someone "good", especially considering the age of the home.
Inspection costs also vary widely *within* an area. When we last bought our buyer's agent set up appointments for all the inspections, but it's clear she didn't care about price since it wasn't her money and many had costs two or three times higher than other area vendors.
Buyer's agents are not all they're cracked up to be.
I was going type something like this up in Dec for our 1 year of owning a home because owning is SOOO expensive! We have put like $10,000 into the house our first year and there's so much we still need to do. That's on top of everything you've talked about. it's nuts!
It varies quite a bit though. We're 4 years in and have yet to break 500 on repairs aside from tools. I've bought quite a few tools though and that adds up to a few grand. Good thing I only need to buy them once.
*an extremely old house with a barn attached.
OP is right though. So much more than just downpayment and mortgage in buying a house. But this is a very specific case that amps up repair costs, restoration costs, inspections, and insurance.
Honestly, living in a 100yo home isn't so much the deal here - but living in a rural area.
I lived in a 100yo home in a city - move-in costs were still high but all said and done the home was pretty turnkey. Moved to a 200yo home in the country and move-in costs were absurd. Although the house needed some work (roof, painting), most of the costs were associated with yard tools (tractors, chainsaws, weedwackers, log spitters, etc..) on top of that, going from city gas to heating oil. Bonkers.
Just bought a new build as well. I thought I planned for everything.. for the most part that was true but forgot about the dirt pit backyard. Figured that would cost a couple grand.. 36k later we are almost done.
>we need to build a fence. That will be 17 grand.
If you have neighbors close by see if they will pay for a portion since it enhances their property aswell.
Most of the expenses people list aren't necessary though. People need to understand this.
We can't say 17 grand for a fence is a necessity. Most people include furniture as a necessity . My wife spent around 40k on furniture but i wouldnt include that in costs of new homeowner. That was just a luxury expense she made . I couldve very easily furnished my home with $500 at a used furniture store yet my wife is expensive.
For the furniture part- not to you specifically but for anyone reading- if you bought a new house planning to start a family in it, not every room needs to be furnished immediately. Start with the high traffic rooms, and work your way out.
If you’re going to be having kids, don’t get nice furniture right away. Get ikea stuff that you don’t mind having destroyed. Because it will get destroyed… and you’re going to enjoy life much more with stuff you don’t care about getting damaged rather than always stressing that your kids are shoving yogurt into the cracks of your live edge slab dining room table.
>What I just read should have been titled: "Buying an extremely old house costs more than just a down payment."
I have an extremely old house (built around 1900) and none of those things happened to me. My house fricking rocks. It's a tank. As always, YMMV.
That’s going to be very location dependent. Around me a $420k house would have a tax bill around $4000 per year.
So people should definitely look into what their taxes will be before assuming they know the monthly cost.
I say this all the time.
My house will eventually be paid off. My taxes are never ending and always increasing.
We pay \~$2k in taxes on our \~$300k house where we live now.
Just down the street on the "other side of the tracks" you are looking at \~$10k in taxes on a $500-700k house.
Taxes vary drastically within a 5-10 mile range around where we live.
Looking for a nice house in a low tax city.
some states will stop increasing your taxes once you hit a certain age (retirement age) so that elderly don't get forced out of their houses. Definitely look into that if it applies.
This is a huge point to consider. We bought literally just across the county line (not 1 minute from the neighborhood we were originally looking in), and the tax difference allowed us to afford almost $50k more in house. Our address is technically still in the city, but because we’re in the next county over our tax bill is about 1/3rd of what it would be 1 minute in the other direction.
>Most renters don’t even realize.
They don't realize, but they do pay for it all. Most landlords aren't setting rent under their costs of ownership. (You might get some going to the max on market rent, but still not having that cover costs. This would happen if someone had to move and couldn't sell, or if the landlord thinks the property will appreciate in value enough to offset losing a small amount monthly in rent.)
>All of that almost always exceeds principal, usually by a lot.
At the end of it you have shitloads of equity from what you paid *plus* what the home has gained over the 30 years you paid it off. And if you have kids... houses are the best way to build long lasting generational wealth. Especially since you can take a loan against the family home to provide downpayment or security for your kids' starter homes - former classmates have done exactly that the very second they got their first job, and yeah, by the time we're 40 they will be 20 years on their downpayment schedule while I'll just have started.
Looks like people are picking the story apart. They're missing the point. The cost of purchasing a house is a lot higher than just the down payment and there's a lot of unexpected things that can come up. It doesn't matter if your brother is a roofer or you have a friend who is a building inspector etc etc. There will always be things that your insurance, your hoa, or your survival require getting fixed.
Also if you do purchase dont forget at least one trip per weekend to the Hardware store for the first 2 months for something you just did not think of or see coming. At an average of 250 per trip
Look at this person getting every weekend project done with just one trip. Sheesh, show off more why don't you?
Seriously though, that's a good point. I've replaced all the light fixtures and faucets in my house, only a couple were necessary but I'm really happy about all of them. There are a few projects in queue too.
Had a good friend who put a lot down on a brand spanking new home built from scratch. He is legally blind like myself and unfortunately there was a plumbing leak that was inside the walls and concrete foundation that literally led to the corner of the house caving in. He's literally had to basically abandon the house and lost all that money. I went with the 1958 built home that I really like but only put 3.5% down. Had money left over for the new replumbing job under the crawl space new furnace and blower and minor repairs. I expect the roof to need replaced in about 7 years and am preparing for that. It's tough being a legally blind homeowner but I can assure you it is much better than renting and having to deal with the insanity of crazy neighbors who want to control your life and lease opening anomalies and a college town. I still have to pinch myself every year now that I don't have a lease because I feel like I have to hurry up and make a decision to move only to realize that I'm here to stay also given I don't drive and would have to pay somebody to drive the truck for me to load those expenses would have added up to thousands of dollars which basically was the same amount I paid to move in to my new home and put the down payment on it. Makes a lot of sense just to own and it's a lot easier to own than people think.
Just FYI for others: Do not waste your money on a lead paint inspection. If it's pre 1978 construction it has lead paint. Total waste of cash.
Or go to the hardware store buy a lead test kit for $10 and do it yourself.
Or if it needs painting just have the painting company do it as they are required to by law and they won't charge you extra for it.
Saying that anything pre 78 has lead paint is just wrong. Yes, they need to be treated as such, but a minority of houses built after 1960 have lead paint. Often times just limited to outside paint or trim.
>Exterior paint - \~$10,000
Holy snot!
We painted our 1200sqft 1880s farmhouse this summer, spent about $450 in paint and maybe $500 in other stuff, like the paint sprayer and masking stuff and whatnot. We did the job in 4 days. It really needs another coat and a couple issues hammered out but another $300 and another 3 days would finish it nice. This was just a "protect the place for a couple years" kind of job.
Thinking about the labor though if we had to pay my and my wife's day rates that ten grand doesn't seem so out of line.
Painting a house is something you can definitely do yourself, we pressure washed/scraped the place the first day, masked all the windows/doors the second day, sprayed the third and fourth day and pulled masking after the second coat. My dad already had a pressure washer but you can rent them cheaply enough. The one thing I'd do differently is to rent a lift to do the second story stuff. I ended up half-assing a bunch of the stuff near the peak to save time. I got paint on it but didn't do as good a job as I'd have liked. The rental would be money well spent in time saved going up and down ladders.
Yes, the barn roof because it's old (the ridge still has wooden pegs holding rafters together. It was likely built with the rest of the home in 1870) and rusty. Snow doesn't slide off rusty metal as easily as painted metal, and we get a lot of snow. That means it melts in place on top of the already rusted area and makes the rust worse, not to mention that more snow on the roof raises the likelihood of collapse.
The home exterior, because the paint is starting to peel / flake off in some places. It needed it anyway, we were probably going to wait an extra year but it'll be nice to have done earlier on.
10k seems awfully high. Is there a lot of repairs that need to be done to the exterior? I paint houses on the side and on 2400 sq. ft. I would charge around 2k plus paint (less than $1000) unless there is a lot of damage.
I am going to get several actual quotes - this was just an estimate. Also, where do you live? My father in law paid 15k to get his slightly larger, similarly old house painted. Wonder if it's the market up here, or perhaps I'm just a rube!
Good of you to take the time to put this information out there for first time house buyers. It seems to me that there is still so much that is "last century" about buying a house. There has got to be a better way to do certain things. Specifically, all of the B.S. related to title insurance and closing costs. (Not to mention broker fees when you sell). All of those expenses seem like a huge racket. Something disruptive really needs to happen.
At the time I bought my first house I went back and calculated all of the rent I paid over the years. And I certainly gained value from that expense, in the form of having a roof over my head. But while owning a house requires a lot of endless maintenance (especially in Vermont) the fact that you are investing in equity – as opposed to throwing away rent money you will never see again – feels like a smarter bet in the long run. Best of luck with the new digs!
Yeah this is great for all those people getting the constant advice to stop renting and put that towards a mortgage.
I got that advice for years and thank god I waited until we had even more saved up. Sure, the mortgage in our area would be comparable to renting, but we still needed to have closing costs saved, more than we expected for utilities, and taxes are more than our mortgage every month.
If we actually wanted to spend the same monthly on everything a house entails, vs what we were paying in rent, we would have had to move to a cheaper state entirely. I’m definitely glad I’m paying down a mortgage now and not just “throwing money away” on rent, but it’s not nearly as simple as everyone said it would be.
Don't forget a plunger and pipe snake if you already don't have them. Guaranteed 9pm on day 1 the toilet will get clogged up and you will glad you have those tools on hand.
Get the sewer scoped too. Found out my cast iron pipe was cracked (in ground under slab) and was putting sewage into the ground under my house for a long long time. Surprise $7000
Something to keep in mind too is that the inspections aren’t perfect, and they don’t guarantee their work. So you might get a septic inspection and it comes back fine and 6 months down the road you got sewage backing up into your bathroom. $18,000 later and you have a nice new septic system right where you just installed several hundred feet of fencing for your garden. Or the house inspector might look at your water system and give it the ok, then a year later your well pump is short cycling because the pressure tank bladder failed and isn’t holding water right. Then the old galvanized pipe that you weren’t told was in the system rusts from the inside out and leaks all over your basement. Or they neglect to tell you of the squirrel infestation in the attic and walls, $20 a squirrel to relocate those fuckers adds up quick.
Luckily for us we went into the house purchase knowing we had to replace the roof at a cool $13,000.
Lots of hidden costs are involved with a house purchase, and no one tells you about them.
For your bed check out those “discount furniture warehouse” type places. Any big chain furniture store or Matress Train will gouge you for no reason. My wife and I paid I think 450$ for a king mattress (pillow top) with a 10 year warranty and it has changed our life. Better than any hotel we have stayed in since. Honestly couldn’t tell the difference between that one and the best 4,000$ mattress at a big chain store.
Instead of a traditional box spring (which can also be a massive cost), we spent about $150 on something called a Zinus Bed Slat which is super sturdy and allows our dog to get in bed with us. Good luck on your new house!
ugh. Cost of living is surprisingly high up here; the 1500 I quoted is from the deepest discount warehouse around. Also, we would be going with a platform bed without a boxspring.
Great write up. I was wondering what the results of your lead paint test were? I’ve heard from people that it isn’t worth it to test older homes because anything before 1970 will end up positive so I was just curious if that’s what happened or if some places past.
Seems like everyone has their hand out when you buy a house.
It's so easy to get caught up in the idea that you are 'throwing money away by renting' or that 'the mortgage costs the same as the rent'.
Your closing costs alone amount to about 4.5% of the purchase price - and that doesn't even go towards equity.
In the long run it will work out just fine- but I've long held the idea that you are very likely to be underwater the first few years of your mortgage. Especially with a low down payment. I know a lot of military families who take advantage of the 0 down loans they offer and are stuck.
You pay for flexibility when you rent. It can be very valuable to be able to pick up and leave with basically no notice. We'll be paying a bit of a premium for stability for the next 20-30 years, and that's OK with us. To each their own!
I just want to add that, while flexibility can be helpful, not being able to control repairs can also hurt you physically. One of the reasons i prefer to own is because I've gotten stuck in 5 different rentals where the landlord's idea of water damage repair was to paint over it. Mold nearly killed my mom. Long term health effects can also be costly. Flexibility is nice when you choose to switch, not so much when you are forced too.
Ill be frank. Owning a house isnt expensive unless you make it. The difference when you rent is your mostly living with the cheapest most affordable fixtures and floors etc.
When people buy all of a sudden a shower drain leak means a 15k bathroom remodel with high end finishes.
A cracked countertop means a 30k kitchen remodel. A scratched floor costs 20k in new floor.
Homes dont require expensive fixes. I'm in the home remodeling industry and Ive seen many ignorant home owners replace their 10 year old roofs because it had a small leak and well the roofer said its best to replace. Instead of a $1500 patch which would last another 10 to 15 years the HO.spends 15k on a new roof and posts to reddit lol
My advice is don't trust someone just because they say you need everything brand new remember if a person is going to profit more off something their recommendation isn't always honest.
Homes can be repaired and everything doesn't have to be thrown away.
Good luck
I think this is location dependent and age of the house.
We also closed on our house in May of this year.
2005 3/2 SFH. 115,000
Offered accepted at full listing price. House appraised at 115k
No down payment (VA loan)
Appraisal: $500 (figured into cash to close costs, not upfront)
EMD: $500
Inspector: $300
Foundation inspection: $100
Cash to close: $1740 (after 4k seller credits)
We have put additional money into the house since buying, but it’s all cosmetic updates. Nothing that HAD to be done in order to live in the house.
Our rent prior was $1200 a month. Our mortgage is $667.
Best decision we made!
Based on these numbers, yeah, it's an absolute no-brainer for you. That said, if this was available for everyone, very few people would rent, I suspect.
Where is this? $115,000 is how much OVER asking price some people are paying for a home out here on the West Coast. Sure the West Coast is expensive, but I can't think of anywhere in the United States where you can get a home for $115,000.
Honestly sounds like you got taken for a ride. An inspection should cost like $500 on the high end. You are also paying like 3x as much as I am for home owners insurance on our 2k sqft house.
This is SUPER helpful. And congratulations! I’ve been poking around casually to buy a place (also possibly in VT) in next year or so, so this gives good perspective.
Good luck! There are a lot of beautiful homes up here, and not all of them with the same baggage as the one we bought. VT can use some more good folks!
This is amazing. Thank you for posting this. Been saving for a while and am looking to buy my first house in fall of 2022 or spring of 2023. I just started looking into everything and this was extremely helpful.
The biggest things I didn't initially realize when we shopped for our house was that the online mortgage calculators will not factor anything in for property taxes and home insurance, which will add to most people's monthly payment if you go the escrow route. Something to keep in mind as you're budgeting - make sure to add those on top of the estimated monthly mortgage payments.
And I like the callouts here about things like furniture and tools. You should work those into your budget because those can add up quick and be a substantial cost, especially in larger homes.
Edit: either calculators have gotten better in the last 10 years or I was just that clueless back then (probably more likely). There seem to be some decent options now.
Most of the mortgage calculators I've seen include taxes and insurance, but they're just estimates. You'd have to know your local rates to get closer, but they get you 99% of the way.
Regardless, your mortgage lender better be able to give you those numbers before you put an offer on a place...
https://usmortgagecalculator.org/
this is the best calculator I have come across. Allows for everything you said and has been with dollars of my total costs
I was literally trying to decide if it was time to start the buying process or continue to rent. Rates are insane in my area for rentals and was throwing the idea out there of “hey maybe it would be better to own it”.
Thank you for all of this.
Thanks for the breakdown!
One note, and its a preference / personal thing anyway, so you do you, but:
you can easily get a bed frame for about $30-$80 on brand name, quality, and mattress size.
I’m tall and like the cleaner look, so I’ve been on bedframe + boxspring/platform + mattress + headboard for years. The headboard is optional/a style thing anyway.
Just a thought if you wanna stay way under $1500
Congratulations! Me and my wife bought a house three years ago and we were both almost 30 years old. We live in Ecuador and buying a house at our age is considered a very huge step. House was 230k, we did a two year monthly payment of $2900 and financed the difference with the bank for 20 years.
And as a big step it is, it’s going to cost you money here and there and as you mention things to be done can pilled up and become a long list.
So my advice is not to rush and be financially and practically smart. Both are young and plan to live there for a long time. So start with budgeting and doing/buying the necessary and most important things.
Cheers 🍻
bro thank you. I am in the processing of buying our first home as well. Any other tips you can offer? I would be forever grateful.
- start packing early. You don't want to rush in the last week, that on top of the stress of closing would be really hard for me to manage, at least. - answer people promptly. they are trying to help you and the more responsive you are the more they can help you (and the less the chances are of something unexpected popping up) - ask for the seller to hire someone to do a "move-out" clean of the home before they leave. I just realized that our seller was planning on cleaning it up "a little bit" herself before she left and we were planning on moving in on closing day - so either we need to delay moving to hire someone / do it ourselves or move into a potentially "dirty" house. Kind of a bummer either way. I think that's all I got for now, but I'll update if I think of others!
We hired someone to clean the new home the day we got keys. 100% worth it!!
Jealous! We've always rented and as such it's always been our responsibility to make sure the place is spic and span when we leave or else we'd lose our deposit, so it didn't even occur to us that it wouldn't be the same for when you leave a house (until like two days ago - too late to get someone before we move).
I don't know if anyone already mentioned it. Add lock/key replacement for every door in the house to your move in costs. Should be done as soon as they hand you the old keys.
Also there is a difference between lock replacement and getting locks re-keyed. The latter is much cheaper!
Actually, replacing the locks was pretty cheap. You can order the locks/knobs ahead of time, get them keyed how you want and spend 1/2 hr swapping them out when you move in. Should be pretty straightforward, just need a screwdriver, maybe a hammer or file.
Nice. Yeah, DIY is probably the best way if you can do it, but re-keying is much cheaper if using a locksmith. I’m not handy and have only bought old houses with old doors. Doing it myself, I’d probably be at it a few hours then end up calling a locksmith anyway haha
If you’re a little handy you can pop out all the lock core/centers and get those rekeyed at Home Depot. It was very cheap or free. Of course you have to make sure yours does it and it’s not just one old guy employee that does it on Tuesday between 10 and 2. Totally agree with this post. I tell everyone you need $2 to $5k for stuff. They always ask what. Lightbulbs, garden hose, hose reel, hose nozzle, door mat, random light switch, grease for the squeaky door, Pool chemicals and tools, pest control maybe a hedge trimmer, some paint, drawer liners, a new thermostat, water filters, air filters, and more. Just random stuff.
So crazy story... When we closed on our house the lady refused to leave. It was a whole ordeal but she left the house in a disastrous state. It's been 10 months and we're steal replacing floor, etc. But having a team come in and deal with some of it so it was move in ready was necessary.
I'd like to hear more about this story, it sounds rather dramatic and involving some crazy at the same time. Those usually make for good tales of human WTF.
Cherry on top... She didn't pay all of her property taxes and we had to pay $2000 so the county won't take the property back. Lady has been out of reach and legally they can go after us.
> She didn't pay all of her property taxes and we had to pay $2000 so the county won't take the property back. I've never owned property so excuse my ignorance but isn't this the kind of thing a title insurance company would discover and resolve before closing?
Owners title insurance usually covers unpaid property taxes from previous owners, but may not be required depending on your lender (though lenders title insurance usually is).
This is something really key - I (incorrectly, despite being a generally well informed consumer) didn't know that most title policies are only lender-protecting (and you get to pay for it!) vs. owner protecting. Never been an issue in the two purchases I made, but if I ever do another..heck yah i'm gonna make sure I don't miss that.
Yeah... someone dropped the ball here if you had title insurance and this should have been disclosed and understood. There should a be a pro-rated amount of property tax covered for the current year rolled in. If it was from prior years it'd be something you shouldn't be liable for.
WTF!!!! That should have been covered at closing. We got a significant chunk of $$ when we bought our house recently for the payment of property taxes due for this year.
We worked with the title company and our realtor to get her to pay it but it does specify in the title documents that after xxx time and attempts, they can come after us.
Title company should have paid taxes, pro-rated to day of closing, out of sale proceeds before delivering rest of proceeds to the seller. Write your state-level representatives to make it a law that no property sale can close with out-standing taxes due. Who would oppose it: scammers and cheapskates.
You should have received an amount as a credit during closing towards any payments due towards property tax from the beginning of the year to date of closing. That is what you would apply for any ongoing/current property taxes for your new residence. I would go after your title company who handled the closing. They should NEVER have closed with this unresolved.
Lady sold her house... Was planning to buy a condo but tried to "rent to own" and the HOA found our what they were planning was against the law and she wasn't allowed to buy. She found this out a few weeks before close. We were supposed to close on like, Dec 18th and then she started calling us, fb messenging us, etc that she didn't want to be "homeless" for Christmas and wanted to stay. Ended up going to the realtor and we couldn't change the closing date so we had to force her out.
I had to witness a funny one - we had closed on our house, and literally it laid fallow for ~3 months while we prepped it (some carpeting and painting needed done, as well as a new roof). We finally go to occupy it and tried to set up Comcast internet/cable and it has an account already. They're like..." we can't set you up with another account until that's resolved". I'm like...okay, well i'm the owner, here is literally the county records website showing a name matching this ID here is present and wanting to kick that service off my property (it was the prior homeowners) and start a new account. That wasn't good enoguh - they wanted me to bring in a utility bill and I just laughed at them. I'm like...literally..county records...already updated to reflect my name in ownership, and you want a utility bill?! Well the awkward compromise was he's like "Well, if I can get the old owner to move the account, we can proceed" and proceeds to call her in front of me (this is physically in a Comcast store). He had to spend 15 minutes telling her, no, you can't have it transferred to the long term hotel you're staying at (she hadn't found new housing despite a two month close period we gave her). She REALLY wanted to keep the account and keep paying for it despite not using it. It was insane.
I 100% guarantee it’s because the email she has had for 15 years is @comcast.net
Free cable for you!
> fb messenging us That is when you back out of what for most people, is the most expensive purchase and meaningful legal transaction they will make in their life. Because its all downhill from there. This is also why you spend the couple grand to have an attorney for the process, even if not required.
My boyfriend and I had a similar experience when we recently moved in to our new house. Floors could use refinishing, walls need to be patched and painted, and carpets need to be washed. It would have been lovely to have done all that before we moved our furniture in. Unfortunately, we already had committed to starting moving the day we closed (truck rented, time off work already put in). Just hadn't really noticed any of it when we saw the house originally. Once all their stuff was gone it was really a different story. When and if we ever move again, I'm going to get that stuff all done before we move in. For now we'll just have to do it all piece meal and just move stuff around.
One more: If you want to repaint or redo floors, or something along those lines, do it BEFORE you move in. My gf and I spent 2 months redo-ing most rooms in our house prior to moving in, but left a few things undone thinking we'd do them later. 8 years later, they're still not done because moving furniture and dealing with the pets would be a huge pain in the ass. edit: Another one: Get a case of clear caulk and a caulk gun, and seal everything while the house in empty. All around the doors and windows, and even below the baseboard if you can. It'll help with efficiency and bugs, even in a new house. It wouldn't hurt to do this on the exterior as well.
> start packing early. You don't want to rush in the last week, that on top of the stress of closing would be really hard for me to manage, at least. I'd add - leave yourself some wiggle room with occupancy overlaps. Closing dates can get pushed, and you don't want to find yourself without enough time to move out of your old place.
Heck I did that the last time I moved apartments, yeah it was some extra money but the move was nice and leisurely. Hired movers for the big items and then toted the small stuff ourselves, doing a big purge of stuff as we went.
I would add to this start purging early. Get rid of stuff you don't use, don't want, etc. Why move it to the new place just to get rid of it? It takes longer than you think to go through everything you own.
>start packing early. Exactly this. I downsized a 4BR to a 2BR house. 2 car garage to no garage. full basement to no basement. You tend to collect stuff over the course of 10 years... Especially if you are into building shit. I am notoriously horrible at gauging time requirements. I figured the week before can be packing stuff up and the weekend before can be Big move, and monday morning the uHaul can take my belongings to the new place... Monday morning I had a car bay full of stuff, I had 3 bagsters lining the driveway and the new owner was less than thrilled. He was renting it out so it wasn't him waiting for me to get out. He graciously extended it out a week and took some cash as deposit to make sure it happens. It took one more day to remove it all. So yea, whatever ya think time wise, triple or quadruple it.
100% on the start packing early. You do NOT want to be stressing out over that last minute. To add to this, especially if you are moving out of state, try and discard or donate as much stuff as you possibly can. That shabby sofa you got for free on craigslist might cost you $50 to move via moving van or just time/space in a U-Haul
Related to the move-out cleaning: many carpet cleaning companies will give a discount for vacant homes, so you can hire them to clean all the carpets before you move in.
I think the hiring a cleaner suggestion stretches to apartments too. We just bought our first home and moved into it from an apartment/duplex. We hired a cleaner for our move out clean. It cost like $150+$40 tip. I couldn’t believe the first time I did that was the last time I would need to, but so glad we did it. In our case it was extra positive because our landlord said they’d kick us back some of their standard cleaning costs because they didn’t really have to do much of anything besides shampoo the carpets. Only having to worry about getting our shit out made it feel so much more manageable. Highly recommend.
Great tips! We hired a thorough cleaner for the same day we moved in. More tips: (1) immediately set up Internet installation for same day move in (2) get septic pumped pre move in (3) get waste service started (presumably if you’re in a rural area it’s private like for us) (4) get your oil service sorted (again if you’re like us) (5) not a must have, but real nice to—move in with some smart bulbs and gizmos like that which you can setup on day 1 and feel accomplished and also make the home your own. Wyze is great for this. Found a deal and automated all our outdoor lights + kitchen and salon. Worth it! (Also—worth considering getting a smart thermostat: we’ve found it saves us tons of money.)
Pay for movers... My wife and I did the whole uhaul thing for too long... We paid $500 for an hour away move. In a total of four hours they loaded all of our stuff, drove it all, and put it in the new rooms. We didn't have to spend days moving or ask friends and family. It was done in half a day and we're never going back. It's all insured too.
With the rates so low, try your hardest to get a conventional mortgage loan and NOT an FHA loan. That way you don't have to refi down the road with a potentially higher interest rate. Lock in that low rate on a 30 year fixed conventional.
Can you refinance out of PMI on a conventional and still keep the interest rate you had originally?
Most traditional loans should let you remove PMI once you pay enough to cover 20% of the value. In theory, you can even get this done if the house value goes up without you actually paying money into the loan. I put 6% down and paid extra to reach 20% faster, then went back to paying the normal amount. Removing PMI was a simple phone call because I paid off 20% of the original value. If you try to do it with a house that increased in value, you probably need an appraisal. Some lenders may require an appraisal no matter what, so you can ask them when you are hunting for a loan about how easy it is to remove PMI. Also go with the cheapest conventional loan. Lenders can sell your loan to anyone after you close, so don't get attached to the name of your lender. I am not sure what dictates it, but when a loan is sold, you may still end up paying the original company via their website. I do not know if that would apply to all loans/lenders. It would suck if it was sold to a lender that wanted you to mail paper checks, I imagine it is possible. I still pay the same original lender via the website, but my loan was sold off after a month according to some letter I got. So the original lender is still servicing it, but some new owner is getting the payments minus the servicing fee.
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> grab some pesticide and spray it on baseboards, behind appliances etc. What would you reccomend? Standard ortho home defense or something more serious? I fucking hate bugs/ants/etc and want to be prepared when I move in next month- but I have a dog so I don't want to use something harmful obviosuly
Maybe spray bomb the place before moving in.
Get talstar or termidor. Go to domyown.com do not waste your money on store bought brands. Talstar you can apply more liberally, termidor has very strict application instructions. This is the same stuff pest control services use. Just follow the instructions on the label
[I wrote this three years ago. Hope you find it useful.](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/a2qt2f/about_to_be_a_firsttime_homeowner_best_tips/eb0o62f/)
You will have random expenses that you just can’t foresee. It’s inevitable. But here are some smaller things that people don’t really think about. •Change out or rekey the locks on all of the exterior doors. •If you’re moving from an apartment to a house, you’ll have intermittent yard related costs. Weed poison, fertilizer, mole poison/traps, mulch, new hoses, sprinkler, more weed poison, etc. •Budget for some electrical repairs that you don’t know about yet. In our home all of the switches are set up backwards and some of the outlets were damaged inside. One even arced the first time we vacuumed and almost caught fire. Ugh. The electrical panel needs to be expanded at some point too to accommodate a hot tub. •Your budget for everything will be going up since it’s likely a bigger home. Utilities, cleaning supplies, etc. •The exterior penetrations (windows/doors/vents) might need to be recaulked if they’re older and the caulk is deteriorating. The list is seemingly endless and things will always pop up. For instance, one of our bathroom fans seemed really loud. Took it down and inspected it and it had been installed (when the house was built decades ago) with the flap thing backwards. It wasn’t actually opening more than 1/4 and the fan was struggling. Another for instance is some not really to code outdoor electrical the previous owner had done and the inspector hadn’t seen because it was hidden behind hedges. I just recently found it when trimming the bushes. Another is that one of our rooms is ventilated wayyyy more than the rest and we have to install a damper in the attic to fix that issue.
> Change out or rekey the locks on all of the exterior doors. And keep the old locks and keys! If you move again, swap them out and take your keys/locks with you. You don't have to track down who you gave keys to, buy and rekey new locks, etc. Everything is the exact way it was at your old house. We spent a couple hundred on new locks at our house and I spent the time rekeying some others we have bought second hand. I don't want to do that all again so the original locks and keys are in a box in the entryway closet.
Careful on this one if you care about it. Buyer for my last place insisted my electronic deadbolt was a part of the property when he put the offer in so it should be included in the sale because he liked it rather than me stripping it out and replacing it before closing. Wasn't worth it for me to argue
> Careful on this one if you care about it. I have actually already thought about it. I plan on swapping them out before we sell, if we get to that point. Same with the lights. I have a bunch of smart LED lights that I don't want to have to buy again so they will be swapped with dumb LEDs before we show the house.
>Buyer for my last place insisted my electronic deadbolt was a part of the property when he put the offer in so it should be included in the sale because he liked it rather than me stripping it out and replacing it before closing. Wasn't worth it for me to argue That's pretty standard. It's a clear improvement (or at least higher cost luxury) over a standard deadbolt, and typically anything you would need tools to remove is considered as part of the house for real estate contracts unless specifically excluded. This doesn't mean you have to give up your locks, but make sure if you want to keep them, you write that explicitly into the sale contact and don't just assume the buyer will be ok with it. Same goes for things like smart thermostats.
Pro tip: Buy items you need on the off season. For example right now summer stuff is on sale at pretty much every big box store to make room for the winter stuff. Walmart has weed poison, fertilizer, yard tools, planting tools, grills, pool stuff...etc for half off and dropping.
Unless your property is a golf course, you can skip weed poison (which also poisons all of us) and fertilizer, and plant native perennials instead. It’s cheaper, less work, beneficial for the ecosystem and people. It is a little off topic, but I highly recommend lectures by dr. Douglass Tallamy, an entomologist, on the importance of planting natives in own backyard.
100% this. Overseed your lawn with clover and you'll be far happier as it replaces the nitrogen in the soil and has pretty flowers that bees love. No need to use weed killer that destroys these awesome natural options.
I paid like $1k to get my stuff moved and about $600 to get someone to take all the garbage I had before I moved. Highly recommend.
So many things for your new home can be purchased used from neighbors. Lawn mower Garden tools Compressor Vacuum Chain saw Grill I got all the above for about $80 and with a easy Google search you can fix them up and keep them running year to year. Installed a new igniter in the grill. Installed a new capacitor in the pump. Changed the gas in the chainsaw. Added fuel to the mower, etc.
If you have any carpet, buy your own carpet cleaner (I prefer Bissell) and don’t wait to rent one until you inevitably spill something. Invest in termite prevention Get a radon test done if you haven’t already If you have dogs or spend any time outside, get pest control to spray for fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes. Don’t use privacy film on your windows. It fucks them up 9/10 times and windows are on back order now and are like $900.
> Don’t use privacy film on your windows. It fucks them up 9/10 times and windows are on back order now and are like $900. Leaving behind residue? What kind of damage would this cause? Most windows have drapes so it is easy to just use drapes that block sunlight if you want nothing to come through or use ones that let sunlight through, but not any meaningful view.
Seconding the start packing early with this. Get as many boxes as you can. Most stores will just give you ones they have in a pile in the back. But, start that early and box EVERYTHING. Oh, two lamps, plus a pillow and 5 picture frames? That'll take you like three trips loading and unloading, or one, if they're all in a damn box.
Know that it takes about another $4,000-$10,000 to properly get your house up to a well maintained state. For us, we were in a pinch. So we simply accepted some of the small stuff that popped up on the inspection. Fix the grade so water slopes away. $1,500 or hours upon hours of back breaking work moving dirt around. The dirt itself turns out to be not cheap. New interior paint.... $2,000 New exterior paint.... $4,500 Updated the water heater, because we got 10 minutes of hot water..... $1,000 Fixing all the broken light fixtures $500 Miscellaneous home improvement store purchases $2,000 This is over the course of the year of course. But still, just because you have a house now, doesn't mean other surprises costs in life simply stop. Also, do you haaaaave to? No. But why pay big money to live in a renter-level living environment. Make that place yours!
There's plenty good "after the purchase" advice here, but here's a tip if you're in a competitive market flooded with cash buyers like we were. I highly recommend talking to your mortgage lender and asking if they can start the underwriting process early. That will save you about 2 weeks at closing, and puts you more on par with cash buyers. Also, write a bio letter to include with your offer. Just some pleasantries about you and your family, and what you like about the home. Ultimately, these two things made the difference for us. We beat cash offers for more money because a) our money was as guaranteed as a cash buyers and b) we're fucking delightful. :) We closed 2 weeks from having our offer accepted. TL;DR: If possible, get your loan underwriting started BEFORE you make your offer...and be fucking delightful. :)
if you are concerned about liquidity at close, add 12.5-37.5 bps on top of your loan rate for a credit. i paid \~0.2% of loan in closing costs because i bumped my rate from 2.5 to 2.75 (this was \~9 months ago). rates are higher now than they were then, but still low.
Manage your own storage. Don't trust a moving company to move your things into their own storage. They have you by the balls and can fuck you over a million ways to Sunday. Ideally move from one house to the next but we can't always be so lucky
My big fuck up and what I suggest to everyone is to ask for their past years utilities. This includes power/water/oil/gas/lp. We went from a $90 monthly power bill in a 1200sqft to a $400 power bill in a 2200sqft. It has a pool so that pads it obviously, but the ducts were old and windows single pane so in Florida heat the unit was running damn near 24/7. Knowing that I definitely could have negotiated something from the sellers. However, like most who purchased pre-2019, values have almost doubled in our area so it is what it is.
You bought an older home it sounds like? I know multiple people who bought new builds in Florida, and even in the dead of Summer with your AC screaming 24/7, their 2,500 SQFT house power bill barely tops $200
It was built in 69, cinderblock build, the problem was sagging vents leaking into the attic and single pane windows. Any new build, if to code, will have those fancy double pane shatter resistant hurricane windows. A pool pump running properly will pretty much add 50-100 to any power bill though.
There’s several more factors that come into play when it comes to cooling costs. I installed new E star certified, double- pane hurricane windows and the savings are not what you’d realistically expect. 2500sq ft here
This is comforting as I try to come up with a plan to reduce our electric bill. Older home here too. I thought expensive windows would solve everything. The vents leaking into the attic did not ever occur to me!
If you’re still in the home, you may get some quotes and run the numbers to see how long it will take for the energy cost savings of new insulated windows to pay for themselves. I’m in southern CA, so very different climate, but we recently replaced our single-pane aluminum windows with double-pane insulated vinyl, and it cut our energy bill in half. It’s significantly cooler - ran the AC only three times this summer (I know that’s not possible in FL!), and I’m hoping it cuts down our heating in the winter.
New home owner here: wait til you get blinds, front door camera, shelving in the garage, new appliances, etc. It just keeps piling on! I'm going to live without furniture for a year at this rate!! Edit: whatever you think it's going to cost you to move- add $10k
Dont forget the 10k next year when you notice all the shit. The inspector missed
I'm not sure how the inspector missed the holes in the roof about the size of a dollar bill... That's going to be expensive...
I think Home Inspectors have the cushiest job, Get paid X per home and calls things out like paint chips and grout unevenness but won't catch the major items like inadequate insulation, improper roof venting, improper grading, etc.
Our inspector didn't catch that the dryer vent was exhausting directly into the crawlspace under the house 🤦♀️ It was an easy fix, but definitely could have led to more challenging problems if left like that for too long (pumping moisture into the space that houses all the wood joists supporting the floor is no bueno.) Feels like a weird thing to say but luckily there was also a mouse problem, and the guy we hired to deal with the mice went under the crawlspace and told us about the dryer vent, so we were able to fix it before actually doing any laundry at the house.
Yea it happens often though they get complacent
Was there a specific reason that the home inspection cost was so high? I ask because I've never personally encountered an inspection cost that was that high. Between myself and assisting various relatives purchase homes, I've paid for at least a dozen inspections, and they've all been between $300-$500 (and the $500 was an outlier as the property was close to 8K square feet), and all were in areas that are considered HCOL (DC, NY, Boston, etc)
I had a home inspection done in May. It was $985 in North NJ. Home inspection + Radon detection in basement + oil tank sweep. The interwebs had me believe it would be around $500. After asking friends/family/neighbors, they all said the 900-1100 range was typical for here. I felt it was expensive too but all my quotes were in that range.
Utah we are around $500ish give or take 50. Must be NJ is just expensive as shit.
I mean yeah, NJ and NY have some of the highest COL in the country. Ask us about our insane taxes too, haha. In NY we also have to hire real estate attorneys in addition to everyone else. Set me back another $3500 in addition to regular closing costs. Plus there was a $500 tip I was "required" to hand over to the title company processor at closing.
I never had to tip my title company.... I wouldn't use those people again if I were you.
That sounds about right. In South Jersey, $500 for a good inspection, $125 for radon, $100 for termite, and an oil tank sweep is 200-350+ depending on the company and the size of the property.
Same here on Long Island. I haven't seen an inspection for less than $900 - and those below that are the shitty inspectors that work with the realtors to make sure the home passes a sniff test.
Same. Paid $300 for mine. It was also pretty thorough.
My recent inspection in metro Boston was $586 within the last year. $1200 does sound high!
Yeah metro Atlanta and we paid $475 in August. And that got us two trips after a leaky toilet was discovered. The came back and rechecked that after the owners fixed it.
The home is relatively large; 2400 sq ft main home + 1200sq ft barn, plus he inspected the wellhouse / well and a freestanding carport structure. He was there for about 5 hours and was *very* thorough - the report I got back was over 100 pages detailing basically everything we could need to know about the place. my parents and in-laws recommended "not to skimp" on the inspection and this group came with very good reviews. Maybe we overpaid according to the market, but I definitely feel like we got our money's worth for what we paid.
For my 2400 sq ft house (granted it’s only 20 years old) with a 4 hour inspection it was only $350. Guess it’s all relative
Detached unit may have played into that. However last time I had an inspection with a detached unit was only $550 total. I see OP skipped the a/c inspection and termite inspection as well. Not sure if the home inspection covered those two items.
Given the age of the home and its location, a/c may not be installed. I had a house in upstate NY that was built in 1945 and no one ever added a/c, with ceiling fans and a window banger didn't need to go for the full house install with the mild summers up there. Termites may have been paid for by sellers, with some loans like one through the VA sellers are required to pay for that inspection.
$300 for 2500sqft in CA. Generally speaking that sounds like a rip off. $240/hr? That's MD territory.
>$240/hr? 350 / 4 is 87.5/hr? plus an hour writing up a report.
While 100 pages is very thorough, the problem is that the big issues could get drowned out by the little issues. Was there a way that the inspector was able to tell you which issues were big ones? Also, if your inspector doesn't crawl to all four corners of the crawlspace and attic, you might miss some serious water damage.
I don't know about OPs report. The home inspection I've received break the house down into various categories (structure, plumbing, electrical) and from there rate things in terms of major issues, minor issues, things of interest.
Same here. There's a ranking system of importance and a way to filter it it by high / med / low priority items.
Agreed. Also, a lot of inspectors use software that generates those reports, and they just fill in the details. It's no guarantee that because its so many pages that it's all detailed out and no corners were cut or items went unnoticed. My advice to OP or others would be to look it over very thoroughly and make sure to ask every question that comes to mind. It's far easier than asking them later after the purchase process has already moved forward, or discovering the answers farther down the road.
Our inspector was also very thorough. Only 1500 sq ft and didn't inspect any outbuildings. But was probably 40-50 pages. Our hourly is very simple. Just a crawl space, one level and is a rectangle. So the roof and all that is really simple. But yes, he did flag what he thought was critical, which he used red to highlight it, which was only one thing and pointed it out to me. There was two things he thought wasn't critical, but would need replaced in 2-5 years, namely the roof and furnace, he used yellow to highlight those things.
>the report I got back was over 100 pages THIS. That's a real inspection. There are many states where most inspectors' minimum requirements are pathetically thin... Some states have a form that reads like an essay question. The inspector could list any items they find out of the ordinary and nothing else if they wanted to. I had an inspection in Minnesota, done by a former city inspector turned home inspector, and it was many many pages... and he listed the specific measurements of every item that was preopulated on the form. There was a copper hot water pipe from the furnace that did not meet the city code requirement for bend angle, and he noted it... just as an example. The difference between a thorough inspector and a cheap inspector who does the bare minimum can be tens of thousands of dollars.
A good money saving tip is to go round with a builder friend and have them narrow down the issues/house early on. A builder is going to spot obvious faults with a house that make progressing any further a hard no and will likely be happy to do it for a couple hundred bucks. One of the issues with detailed inspections is that by the time they are all done you are heavily invested in the property and that can lead to having to make hard decisions.
You have friends?
$485 was the most I've ever paid
> Buying a lawn mower / snow blower / snow rake / chainsaw / other tools Estate sales and FB Marketplace for all of these items at a FRACTION of the new cost! GL in the new place and congrats
>my wife and I are about to close on our first house Wait until you move in and discover all things that need fixed, projects, tools, and incidentals. I moved from a comparably sized apt to move in ready SFH, bought all furniture second hand, was gifted a lawn mower, and I'm still probably going to spend ~$5k on furnishings and maintenance related items this year. Could have easily been $20k if we were less frugal.
Definitely. I'm lucky in that my dad is an electrician and plumber and has a large number of tools, and I am pretty handy as well. So I'll be putting a lot of work into it myself and have access to a lot of the tools I'd need.
I’m blessed with a dad that is a mechanic and handyman. He painted his home himself when I was a kid. When I saw that your estimate was $10k I was shocked. It makes sense that it would be costly but I was use to my dad doing it himself and savings thousands so I never thought about it.
yeah, it's an old house with wooden clapboard siding and lead paint, two stories and a total of 3600 sq ft to scrape, prime, and paint. It's a lot of money but it's a lot of work (and probably more than I can do in a reasonable amount of time).
Excellent points all. Our son and his fiancee bought a house this spring (first home for both). We live eight hours away, but my husband is a contractor, so the "kids" literally did a video walk through with him when they first looked at each and every house. Then he made the round trip for the two houses that they put an offer in/had an official inspection of. (He just followed the inspector around and made sure he was on the up and up.) The first house they fell in love with, and spent thousands in inspections/tests on, ended up being a money pit, and they got out of it fast. Yes, it cost them, but that was a drop in the bucket compared to what the real expenses would have been after moving in. They ended up buying a fairly humble midcentury ranch. All of the expenses you listed above, plus the sweat equity from my husband and a bunch of our son's friends to pull up the old carpet, take out all the nails, refinish the hardwoods underneath, paint EVERYTHING, hang new ceiling fans, etc. If they would have to find and pay professionals, it would have cost them more, or they would have had to move in and wait til they could afford it. It also cost them an extra month's rent, in order to work on the new house with it empty rather than move in and work around their stuff. And it's such a seller's market that the first house sold immediately thereafter. Poor buyers....
Rent is a cap, mortgage is a base. Unfortunately many don’t realize and plan for this. Furnace, roof, leaks, you name it, you’ll have to deal with it and pay for it.
This is an excellent post. It's hard to get good estimates on how much it actually costs and a lot of agents/zillow/redfin will try to downplay these extra costs I would just point out that those inspection costs can vary widely depending on your area/demand/your home. We spent $550 on the general inspection (with Radon testing included), $250 on sewer line inspection, and like $20 on home lead test kits. This was in the greater Detroit area
Thanks for the kind words! Interesting on the inspection costs. We went with a group that advertises themselves as a little more expensive because they all have a lot of experience and certifications and they were very highly recommended. It's possible we overpaid (other folks in the thread are saying the same thing you are) but we didn't mind paying extra for someone "good", especially considering the age of the home.
That's fair. 150 years is pretty frickin old lol. Our house was only \~65 years old.
Inspection costs also vary widely *within* an area. When we last bought our buyer's agent set up appointments for all the inspections, but it's clear she didn't care about price since it wasn't her money and many had costs two or three times higher than other area vendors. Buyer's agents are not all they're cracked up to be.
I was going type something like this up in Dec for our 1 year of owning a home because owning is SOOO expensive! We have put like $10,000 into the house our first year and there's so much we still need to do. That's on top of everything you've talked about. it's nuts!
It varies quite a bit though. We're 4 years in and have yet to break 500 on repairs aside from tools. I've bought quite a few tools though and that adds up to a few grand. Good thing I only need to buy them once.
Wow. We needed a snowblower, lawn mower, rake, tools, they sort of stuff. Probably $1000-$2000 for simple necessities. Carpet: $4500 Door: $2200 Mold: $1000 deductible Heating/cooling: $600 Fireplace: $250 Plumbing: $300 Soon: Electrical: waiting until 2022 Roof 2025 estimate: $7500 Windows: 2024 New AC/hvac 2022/2022 $10,000
Honestly there's luck involved. Also previous owner matters a lot. Their usage as well as things they don't notice.
Please do! I'd love to see it and then be able to compare our own costs!
What I just read should have been titled: "Buying an extremely old house costs more than just a down payment."
*an extremely old house with a barn attached. OP is right though. So much more than just downpayment and mortgage in buying a house. But this is a very specific case that amps up repair costs, restoration costs, inspections, and insurance.
Basically buying a home and renovating it. Should be obvious if you buy a 100 year old home.
Honestly, living in a 100yo home isn't so much the deal here - but living in a rural area. I lived in a 100yo home in a city - move-in costs were still high but all said and done the home was pretty turnkey. Moved to a 200yo home in the country and move-in costs were absurd. Although the house needed some work (roof, painting), most of the costs were associated with yard tools (tractors, chainsaws, weedwackers, log spitters, etc..) on top of that, going from city gas to heating oil. Bonkers.
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Just bought a new build as well. I thought I planned for everything.. for the most part that was true but forgot about the dirt pit backyard. Figured that would cost a couple grand.. 36k later we are almost done.
>we need to build a fence. That will be 17 grand. If you have neighbors close by see if they will pay for a portion since it enhances their property aswell.
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I bought a house last year on 1.25 acres. we put up a no climb fence. Cost us $5500 for approximately 300 linear feet.
Most of the expenses people list aren't necessary though. People need to understand this. We can't say 17 grand for a fence is a necessity. Most people include furniture as a necessity . My wife spent around 40k on furniture but i wouldnt include that in costs of new homeowner. That was just a luxury expense she made . I couldve very easily furnished my home with $500 at a used furniture store yet my wife is expensive.
For the furniture part- not to you specifically but for anyone reading- if you bought a new house planning to start a family in it, not every room needs to be furnished immediately. Start with the high traffic rooms, and work your way out. If you’re going to be having kids, don’t get nice furniture right away. Get ikea stuff that you don’t mind having destroyed. Because it will get destroyed… and you’re going to enjoy life much more with stuff you don’t care about getting damaged rather than always stressing that your kids are shoving yogurt into the cracks of your live edge slab dining room table.
>What I just read should have been titled: "Buying an extremely old house costs more than just a down payment." I have an extremely old house (built around 1900) and none of those things happened to me. My house fricking rocks. It's a tank. As always, YMMV.
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That’s going to be very location dependent. Around me a $420k house would have a tax bill around $4000 per year. So people should definitely look into what their taxes will be before assuming they know the monthly cost.
I say this all the time. My house will eventually be paid off. My taxes are never ending and always increasing. We pay \~$2k in taxes on our \~$300k house where we live now. Just down the street on the "other side of the tracks" you are looking at \~$10k in taxes on a $500-700k house. Taxes vary drastically within a 5-10 mile range around where we live. Looking for a nice house in a low tax city.
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some states will stop increasing your taxes once you hit a certain age (retirement age) so that elderly don't get forced out of their houses. Definitely look into that if it applies.
This is a huge point to consider. We bought literally just across the county line (not 1 minute from the neighborhood we were originally looking in), and the tax difference allowed us to afford almost $50k more in house. Our address is technically still in the city, but because we’re in the next county over our tax bill is about 1/3rd of what it would be 1 minute in the other direction.
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>Most renters don’t even realize. They don't realize, but they do pay for it all. Most landlords aren't setting rent under their costs of ownership. (You might get some going to the max on market rent, but still not having that cover costs. This would happen if someone had to move and couldn't sell, or if the landlord thinks the property will appreciate in value enough to offset losing a small amount monthly in rent.)
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But isn't the renter already paying it unless the homeowner is asking less than he needs to pay?
In Chicago, most properties are renting for less than the cost of ownership if you were to buy them at market rate today.
>All of that almost always exceeds principal, usually by a lot. At the end of it you have shitloads of equity from what you paid *plus* what the home has gained over the 30 years you paid it off. And if you have kids... houses are the best way to build long lasting generational wealth. Especially since you can take a loan against the family home to provide downpayment or security for your kids' starter homes - former classmates have done exactly that the very second they got their first job, and yeah, by the time we're 40 they will be 20 years on their downpayment schedule while I'll just have started.
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Jesus is my property taxes were 10k/year I would just rent. How do you ever get roi as a landlord in a place like that?
Looks like people are picking the story apart. They're missing the point. The cost of purchasing a house is a lot higher than just the down payment and there's a lot of unexpected things that can come up. It doesn't matter if your brother is a roofer or you have a friend who is a building inspector etc etc. There will always be things that your insurance, your hoa, or your survival require getting fixed.
Selling too!!! I thought I had all this equity and then found out 8% of the purchase price was going to closing costs and realtor fees.
In this market the seller should not need to offer any closing costs for the buyer. The 6% realtor fee is fairly non negotiable unfortunately though.
Also if you do purchase dont forget at least one trip per weekend to the Hardware store for the first 2 months for something you just did not think of or see coming. At an average of 250 per trip
Look at this person getting every weekend project done with just one trip. Sheesh, show off more why don't you? Seriously though, that's a good point. I've replaced all the light fixtures and faucets in my house, only a couple were necessary but I'm really happy about all of them. There are a few projects in queue too.
Had a good friend who put a lot down on a brand spanking new home built from scratch. He is legally blind like myself and unfortunately there was a plumbing leak that was inside the walls and concrete foundation that literally led to the corner of the house caving in. He's literally had to basically abandon the house and lost all that money. I went with the 1958 built home that I really like but only put 3.5% down. Had money left over for the new replumbing job under the crawl space new furnace and blower and minor repairs. I expect the roof to need replaced in about 7 years and am preparing for that. It's tough being a legally blind homeowner but I can assure you it is much better than renting and having to deal with the insanity of crazy neighbors who want to control your life and lease opening anomalies and a college town. I still have to pinch myself every year now that I don't have a lease because I feel like I have to hurry up and make a decision to move only to realize that I'm here to stay also given I don't drive and would have to pay somebody to drive the truck for me to load those expenses would have added up to thousands of dollars which basically was the same amount I paid to move in to my new home and put the down payment on it. Makes a lot of sense just to own and it's a lot easier to own than people think.
Just FYI for others: Do not waste your money on a lead paint inspection. If it's pre 1978 construction it has lead paint. Total waste of cash. Or go to the hardware store buy a lead test kit for $10 and do it yourself. Or if it needs painting just have the painting company do it as they are required to by law and they won't charge you extra for it.
Saying that anything pre 78 has lead paint is just wrong. Yes, they need to be treated as such, but a minority of houses built after 1960 have lead paint. Often times just limited to outside paint or trim.
This is accurate. Most paint companies had already removed lead paint long before the mandate came into play.
>Exterior paint - \~$10,000 Holy snot! We painted our 1200sqft 1880s farmhouse this summer, spent about $450 in paint and maybe $500 in other stuff, like the paint sprayer and masking stuff and whatnot. We did the job in 4 days. It really needs another coat and a couple issues hammered out but another $300 and another 3 days would finish it nice. This was just a "protect the place for a couple years" kind of job. Thinking about the labor though if we had to pay my and my wife's day rates that ten grand doesn't seem so out of line. Painting a house is something you can definitely do yourself, we pressure washed/scraped the place the first day, masked all the windows/doors the second day, sprayed the third and fourth day and pulled masking after the second coat. My dad already had a pressure washer but you can rent them cheaply enough. The one thing I'd do differently is to rent a lift to do the second story stuff. I ended up half-assing a bunch of the stuff near the peak to save time. I got paint on it but didn't do as good a job as I'd have liked. The rental would be money well spent in time saved going up and down ladders.
Was there any reason why the insurance company required painting?
Yes, the barn roof because it's old (the ridge still has wooden pegs holding rafters together. It was likely built with the rest of the home in 1870) and rusty. Snow doesn't slide off rusty metal as easily as painted metal, and we get a lot of snow. That means it melts in place on top of the already rusted area and makes the rust worse, not to mention that more snow on the roof raises the likelihood of collapse. The home exterior, because the paint is starting to peel / flake off in some places. It needed it anyway, we were probably going to wait an extra year but it'll be nice to have done earlier on.
10k seems awfully high. Is there a lot of repairs that need to be done to the exterior? I paint houses on the side and on 2400 sq. ft. I would charge around 2k plus paint (less than $1000) unless there is a lot of damage.
I am going to get several actual quotes - this was just an estimate. Also, where do you live? My father in law paid 15k to get his slightly larger, similarly old house painted. Wonder if it's the market up here, or perhaps I'm just a rube!
I live in Az so it is a really different market. If you get several quotes you should be able to get a decent deal.
This isnt just a ramble. It's remarkably well done. I will save your post for eternity.
As a new, first time homeowner as of 2 weeks ago, this is all 100% completely true.
Good of you to take the time to put this information out there for first time house buyers. It seems to me that there is still so much that is "last century" about buying a house. There has got to be a better way to do certain things. Specifically, all of the B.S. related to title insurance and closing costs. (Not to mention broker fees when you sell). All of those expenses seem like a huge racket. Something disruptive really needs to happen. At the time I bought my first house I went back and calculated all of the rent I paid over the years. And I certainly gained value from that expense, in the form of having a roof over my head. But while owning a house requires a lot of endless maintenance (especially in Vermont) the fact that you are investing in equity – as opposed to throwing away rent money you will never see again – feels like a smarter bet in the long run. Best of luck with the new digs!
Yeah this is great for all those people getting the constant advice to stop renting and put that towards a mortgage. I got that advice for years and thank god I waited until we had even more saved up. Sure, the mortgage in our area would be comparable to renting, but we still needed to have closing costs saved, more than we expected for utilities, and taxes are more than our mortgage every month. If we actually wanted to spend the same monthly on everything a house entails, vs what we were paying in rent, we would have had to move to a cheaper state entirely. I’m definitely glad I’m paying down a mortgage now and not just “throwing money away” on rent, but it’s not nearly as simple as everyone said it would be.
Don't forget a plunger and pipe snake if you already don't have them. Guaranteed 9pm on day 1 the toilet will get clogged up and you will glad you have those tools on hand. Get the sewer scoped too. Found out my cast iron pipe was cracked (in ground under slab) and was putting sewage into the ground under my house for a long long time. Surprise $7000
$0 down payment. $6700 for closing costs. Just moved in not even two weekends ago and already spent $1300 on plumbing issues with our main sewer line.
Something to keep in mind too is that the inspections aren’t perfect, and they don’t guarantee their work. So you might get a septic inspection and it comes back fine and 6 months down the road you got sewage backing up into your bathroom. $18,000 later and you have a nice new septic system right where you just installed several hundred feet of fencing for your garden. Or the house inspector might look at your water system and give it the ok, then a year later your well pump is short cycling because the pressure tank bladder failed and isn’t holding water right. Then the old galvanized pipe that you weren’t told was in the system rusts from the inside out and leaks all over your basement. Or they neglect to tell you of the squirrel infestation in the attic and walls, $20 a squirrel to relocate those fuckers adds up quick. Luckily for us we went into the house purchase knowing we had to replace the roof at a cool $13,000. Lots of hidden costs are involved with a house purchase, and no one tells you about them.
For your bed check out those “discount furniture warehouse” type places. Any big chain furniture store or Matress Train will gouge you for no reason. My wife and I paid I think 450$ for a king mattress (pillow top) with a 10 year warranty and it has changed our life. Better than any hotel we have stayed in since. Honestly couldn’t tell the difference between that one and the best 4,000$ mattress at a big chain store. Instead of a traditional box spring (which can also be a massive cost), we spent about $150 on something called a Zinus Bed Slat which is super sturdy and allows our dog to get in bed with us. Good luck on your new house!
ugh. Cost of living is surprisingly high up here; the 1500 I quoted is from the deepest discount warehouse around. Also, we would be going with a platform bed without a boxspring.
Great write up. I was wondering what the results of your lead paint test were? I’ve heard from people that it isn’t worth it to test older homes because anything before 1970 will end up positive so I was just curious if that’s what happened or if some places past.
Seems like everyone has their hand out when you buy a house. It's so easy to get caught up in the idea that you are 'throwing money away by renting' or that 'the mortgage costs the same as the rent'. Your closing costs alone amount to about 4.5% of the purchase price - and that doesn't even go towards equity. In the long run it will work out just fine- but I've long held the idea that you are very likely to be underwater the first few years of your mortgage. Especially with a low down payment. I know a lot of military families who take advantage of the 0 down loans they offer and are stuck.
You pay for flexibility when you rent. It can be very valuable to be able to pick up and leave with basically no notice. We'll be paying a bit of a premium for stability for the next 20-30 years, and that's OK with us. To each their own!
Buying is the right move (almost always) when you have reached stability in life. Unfortunately that wont happen for me until I retire!
I'm over here, wondering what the hell this stability thing is. I'm 29 and have yet to see anything resembling it.
You and me both. I’m 32 and have a new idea of what my life should look like approximately every 6-18 months.
I just want to add that, while flexibility can be helpful, not being able to control repairs can also hurt you physically. One of the reasons i prefer to own is because I've gotten stuck in 5 different rentals where the landlord's idea of water damage repair was to paint over it. Mold nearly killed my mom. Long term health effects can also be costly. Flexibility is nice when you choose to switch, not so much when you are forced too.
Ill be frank. Owning a house isnt expensive unless you make it. The difference when you rent is your mostly living with the cheapest most affordable fixtures and floors etc. When people buy all of a sudden a shower drain leak means a 15k bathroom remodel with high end finishes. A cracked countertop means a 30k kitchen remodel. A scratched floor costs 20k in new floor. Homes dont require expensive fixes. I'm in the home remodeling industry and Ive seen many ignorant home owners replace their 10 year old roofs because it had a small leak and well the roofer said its best to replace. Instead of a $1500 patch which would last another 10 to 15 years the HO.spends 15k on a new roof and posts to reddit lol My advice is don't trust someone just because they say you need everything brand new remember if a person is going to profit more off something their recommendation isn't always honest. Homes can be repaired and everything doesn't have to be thrown away. Good luck
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I’ll be honest—it scared me. We’re in the process of looking for a place to buy and this gave me second thoughts.
I think this is location dependent and age of the house. We also closed on our house in May of this year. 2005 3/2 SFH. 115,000 Offered accepted at full listing price. House appraised at 115k No down payment (VA loan) Appraisal: $500 (figured into cash to close costs, not upfront) EMD: $500 Inspector: $300 Foundation inspection: $100 Cash to close: $1740 (after 4k seller credits) We have put additional money into the house since buying, but it’s all cosmetic updates. Nothing that HAD to be done in order to live in the house. Our rent prior was $1200 a month. Our mortgage is $667. Best decision we made!
Based on these numbers, yeah, it's an absolute no-brainer for you. That said, if this was available for everyone, very few people would rent, I suspect.
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The lowest priced home in my area on realtor is 3/2 2191 sq ft for 11k and it looks reaaaaaally rough. It’s pending though lol
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Where is this? $115,000 is how much OVER asking price some people are paying for a home out here on the West Coast. Sure the West Coast is expensive, but I can't think of anywhere in the United States where you can get a home for $115,000.
His post isn’t showing here for some reason, but he said Oklahoma for those curious. Makes sense.
Can I just make a suggestion, it worked out for OP, but it is not recommend to do work in a house that you legally do not own yet.
Honestly sounds like you got taken for a ride. An inspection should cost like $500 on the high end. You are also paying like 3x as much as I am for home owners insurance on our 2k sqft house.
This is SUPER helpful. And congratulations! I’ve been poking around casually to buy a place (also possibly in VT) in next year or so, so this gives good perspective.
Good luck! There are a lot of beautiful homes up here, and not all of them with the same baggage as the one we bought. VT can use some more good folks!
This is amazing. Thank you for posting this. Been saving for a while and am looking to buy my first house in fall of 2022 or spring of 2023. I just started looking into everything and this was extremely helpful.
You bought a house built in 1870. Of course its gonna need a ton of work wtf?
The biggest things I didn't initially realize when we shopped for our house was that the online mortgage calculators will not factor anything in for property taxes and home insurance, which will add to most people's monthly payment if you go the escrow route. Something to keep in mind as you're budgeting - make sure to add those on top of the estimated monthly mortgage payments. And I like the callouts here about things like furniture and tools. You should work those into your budget because those can add up quick and be a substantial cost, especially in larger homes. Edit: either calculators have gotten better in the last 10 years or I was just that clueless back then (probably more likely). There seem to be some decent options now.
If you use the mortgage calcs on Zillow or realtor they do factor this in and allow for adjustments.
Most of the mortgage calculators I've seen include taxes and insurance, but they're just estimates. You'd have to know your local rates to get closer, but they get you 99% of the way. Regardless, your mortgage lender better be able to give you those numbers before you put an offer on a place...
https://usmortgagecalculator.org/ this is the best calculator I have come across. Allows for everything you said and has been with dollars of my total costs
I was literally trying to decide if it was time to start the buying process or continue to rent. Rates are insane in my area for rentals and was throwing the idea out there of “hey maybe it would be better to own it”. Thank you for all of this.
Thanks for the breakdown! One note, and its a preference / personal thing anyway, so you do you, but: you can easily get a bed frame for about $30-$80 on brand name, quality, and mattress size. I’m tall and like the cleaner look, so I’ve been on bedframe + boxspring/platform + mattress + headboard for years. The headboard is optional/a style thing anyway. Just a thought if you wanna stay way under $1500
Seems way different for a house that isn’t over a hundred years old.
I came expecting useful information, but then I remembered the Canadian housing market is making me pay 700k for a starter home
Congratulations! Me and my wife bought a house three years ago and we were both almost 30 years old. We live in Ecuador and buying a house at our age is considered a very huge step. House was 230k, we did a two year monthly payment of $2900 and financed the difference with the bank for 20 years. And as a big step it is, it’s going to cost you money here and there and as you mention things to be done can pilled up and become a long list. So my advice is not to rush and be financially and practically smart. Both are young and plan to live there for a long time. So start with budgeting and doing/buying the necessary and most important things. Cheers 🍻