Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

Derek69SS · Founding Member

House hunting... must resist.

John D · 2K+ Club

WOW! That looks really nice!!

You could get all your toys back under one (or two) roofs in the same place!!
With interest rates still in the 4's it may be the time... You could always rent storage space to help out with the monthly's.

SShink · 3K+ Club

I'm in love with the 'outbuilding'!

And it even comes with a bedroom so you can spend every waking hour in the shop!

bowtie · Secretary

A house for both of you. Since video conferencing is popular now, you can still keep in touch with the family too.

Tony Hoffer · Moderator

bowtie wrote:

Since video conferencing is popular now, you can still keep in touch with the family too.

You mean from the shop to the house?

Lost in the 60s · President

DUDE........this is A NO BRAINER...........the pole buildings are worth 100k !!!

Do the calculator....20% down, 20 yr mortgage at 4% is 1,200 BUCKS. Add in another 300 for tax and insurance escrow and you're at $1500 a month. If I was surfing the web for a house in that area, it would say SOLD right now. The huge plus is your wife LOVES it.

I looked at and had to pass up several houses over a 12 month period when we were looking because my wife didn't like them. We paid the same for this place 11 years ago and then dumped another 50k into my shop. We just payed that off last month and are finally back to the base mortgage

Derek69SS · Founding Member

If we got that place, you guys are all invited for a party. :)

John, it's only about 1.5 miles south east of your in-laws' old place. (1/2-mile east, 1 mile south on the blacktop)

We missed out on a foreclosure about equal to this one for $175k, so we're not going to jump into anything real soon unless it's a hell of a deal.

Lost in the 60s · President

From the "big city" perspective, it's already a hell of a deal. You can always make a lower offer and see what they say....

Chris R · 2K+ Club

Damn. Thats about all I can say about that.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

Yeah, if ours was sold already, I'd be making a low offer right now, but making payments on 2 houses, especially after using all our savings for that 20% downpayment, isn't something I want to try.

Even if ours was sold, we'd still have to use all our savings for the downpayment, plus use up all the money from (what's left of) the equity of our house to become "equipped" for country-living (tractor, lawnmower, snow plow, etc...) With a $1500/mo payment, higher utilities, extra gas (10-miles farther to work x2 ways x2 drivers) and everything else, we'd be just barely getting by... so I'd have a cool shop, but no money for the toys.

-- Edited by Derek69SS on Saturday 14th of May 2011 12:12:40 PM

John D · 2K+ Club

John, it's only about 1.5 miles south east of your in-laws' old place. (1/2-mile east, 1 mile south on the blacktop)

My wife knows the place well. She was the previous owner's babysitter, and babysat the current owner!

Tanaman · Member

I would probably never even step foot in the house. I would be just fine in the shop.

SteveS · Super Poster

I love that shop, let me know when I can start hauling some of my stuff over . Good luck, I hope you can get it.

Dave Seitz · Mega Poster

Best thing about that house is it is out in the country. If it was closer to the city and closer to more club members they would be over to drink your beer and sleep it off in the shed. Think about it you know I'm right about that.

Yes it is scary these days to pull the trigger on that much debt and if you do lose the job you lose it all.

bowtie · Secretary

Like you said, they can drop their price, and/or there will be more.

I lost my job about 2 years after moving into this house, but there's still jobs out there for skilled people who are willing to work.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Good luck, you'll be set for life. Offer 209K, be willing to go to $239.

You can rent out your old house if it doesn't sell, You can rent out winter storage. If you have any money left over, you can always buy more cars.

-- Edited by jim larson on Monday 16th of May 2011 07:47:00 AM

Derek69SS · Founding Member

Dave Seitz wrote:
Yes it is scary these days to pull the trigger on that much debt and if you do lose the job you lose it all.

Exactly... our savings right now could nearly pay off our current house.

We're selling ours at a pretty big loss in this market, knowing that we can make up our losses on whatever we buy since prices are way down.

If we over-extend ourselves on debt and things go south, we lose everything, including the sizeable down-payment... in that case, we'd be far better off just paying ours off and staying here.

At $250k, it's still a bigger risk than I'm willing to gamble... that's why the tread title says "must resist".

Darn fiscal responsibility!

-- Edited by Derek69SS on Monday 16th of May 2011 10:18:41 AM

bowtie · Secretary

I hear ya Derek. I just got back from closing on some land I had for sale in WI straight East of Hinkley about 30-40 minutes. I have a good sized check in my bank now and need to be responsible vs blowing it.

jim larson · 2K+ Club

Derek69SS wrote:
Dave Seitz wrote:
Yes it is scary these days to pull the trigger on that much debt and if you do lose the job you lose it all.
Exactly... our savings right now could nearly pay off our current house.
We're selling ours at a pretty big loss in this market, knowing that we can make up our losses on whatever we buy since prices are way down.
If we over-extend ourselves on debt and things go south, we lose everything, including the sizeable down-payment... in that case, we'd be far better off just paying ours off and staying here.
At $250k, it's still a bigger risk than I'm willing to gamble... that's why the tread title says "must resist".
Darn fiscal responsibility!

-- Edited by Derek69SS on Monday 16th of May 2011 10:18:41 AM

That land cost and the cost to build the house and sheds new today would be well over $400K. The reason it will sell @ less than $250K is because of reasons you state. My brothers 75 ac, 3,400 sq foot house and large barn that was valued at close to 1 mill 3 yrs ago looks like it will sell at $400K.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

FWIW. The building market these days is down just as bad as the housing market or close to it. You can actually build something like that currently for far cheaper then you used to be able to just because of the way things are in the housing market currently. Obviously its still cheaper to buy today then build. Its a lot cheaper to build now days then it was before we got into this housing mess.

Scott Parkhurst · Super Poster

Dude!

I'm a gambler. I'd take a chance on that place. It's all you, man. You could retire there....happily.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

We just got back from looking at the place today... house needs some work, but is liveable as-is. Bedrooms are small, and it needs some updates and maintenance. The house seems a lot smaller than it looks from the outside too. The shop I would have to rearrange a few things to make it more useable for working on cars. It has a lot of wasted space as it is right now. The old unheated shed is in pretty rough shape... leaky roof and some old workshop area that would have to be torn out to make room for more storage.

We still might make an offer, but it'll be low enough that they'd have to be pretty desperate to take it. Going to talk to the bank this week to see what they have to say... if we do make any offers, we'll also be refinancing our current house to get the payment as low as possible, then rent it out.

Dave Seitz · Mega Poster

If you do rent look at one of those services that screen and assure quality tennants. My wife and her family did the rental on a home they all owned together. At the end of 6 months, on a house that was paid for they lost money due to repairs and such. Lets just say when they were late on their rent payment the second month they lived there I had a bad feeling about them.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

I would definitely do both a criminal background and credit-check on any renters... There's a lot of good people renting these days because they either can't get financing to buy, or they're just unsure of their careers and want to be able to move to where the jobs are if necessary.

Lost in the 60s · President

Derek69SS wrote:
We just got back from looking at the place today... house needs some work, but is liveable as-is. Bedrooms are small, and it needs some updates and maintenance. The house seems a lot smaller than it looks from the outside too. The shop I would have to rearrange a few things to make it more useable for working on cars. It has a lot of wasted space as it is right now. The old unheated shed is in pretty rough shape... leaky roof and some old workshop area that would have to be torn out to make room for more storage.

We still might make an offer, but it'll be low enough that they'd have to be pretty desperate to take it. Going to talk to the bank this week to see what they have to say... if we do make any offers, we'll also be refinancing our current house to get the payment as low as possible, then rent it out.
Anything ever come of this ? You make an offer ?
Pictures always make things look amazing. I've been dupped too many times buying on pics alone.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

No offer yet... we're just not ready to make a move yet. With 2 kids in daycare, 2 house payments could break us pretty quickly. I really don't want to deal with renting ours out, and we're strongly considering just paying ours off and staying here for a while. We could be debt-free by the end of summer if we decide to go that route... even sooner if we sell some toys. (not selling the '69s!)

We're going to keep looking for a bit though, hoping to find something in the $180k range, as those payments we could handle a little easier.

Lost in the 60s · President

Staying put and paying off the mortgage could build a nice down payment pretty quickly in a few years. I don't see the housing market rebounding quickly enough to have prices soar anytime soon. We recently paid off the second mortgage on my shop, putting $550/month towards other things. I'd LOVE to be able to pay off the house but that's not going to happen soon.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

Lost in the 60s wrote:
Staying put and paying off the mortgage could build a nice down payment pretty quickly in a few years. I don't see the housing market rebounding quickly enough to have prices soar anytime soon.

That's the idea... $1500/mo x5 years = $90k. Sell our house then, and have a total of $180k to put down.... or rent our paid-off house and let someone else pay $800 of our mortgage every month.

If a crazy good deal comes up in the mean time, with our good credit and a house that's paid for, we shouldn't have any trouble getting a loan even w/o a downpayment.

We might stick a little into finishing our basement off, simply because the family is outgrowing the 1000sf main level, but we can do that pretty cheap and probably get most of it back at the time of sale. The garage is too small, but I can suffer for a few more years to give the family a better/safer financial future. My brother and my Dad both have nice heated shops within 15-minutes if I really need to get something in for maintenance or repairs.

-- Edited by Derek69SS on Tuesday 14th of June 2011 08:15:42 AM

more ambition than brains · 1K+ Club

As usual Derek, you are dialed in on making good decisions!

Karl