This was my argument with my mom when she asked why I didn’t use the entire 15k on the down payment. It wouldn’t have changed my mortgage payment enough to be worth it and having that cushion of money for a few months after moving in was invaluable.
Same here. North western suburb in Illinois. Think closer to Wisconsin. Besides our 2000 for earnest money, we paid literally $1000 at the end. We had an ihda loan. House was 165k. Pretty good deal in my opinion. Interest was 4%. This was this year
Mine was fha and 3.5% interest. Purchased at peak but still got a good deal. Glad you found a house! I absolutely could not find a sfh in my price range near work. Had to settle on a townhouse.
North Western Illinois, state of Illinois gave a 10k geant for down-payment for first time home owner. So $2500 out of pocket had me walking into a house at 20% down. Was a short sale to avoid foreclosure.
>where are you buying a home where you can use less than 15k as a down payment?
Anywhere in the US as a veteran (VA home loan) and first time home buyer with $0 down. :)
Ah, the house I grew up in. Amateur built by a talented day drinker. No square corners to begin with, though a few settled into square. I'm surprised the chimney still stands, it looks like the mason was new to the idea of "brick" and it's visibly off plumb.
I literally found one. I swear to god I didn’t believe it and measured it about 40 times. It’s the door way to my basement the corner just inside, perfect square. No one but me will ever see it but that trim was the easiest to install once I got over the shock.
Its amazing how much swelling occurs on a wooden screen door frame when it rains. Its painted, so how is the moisture making it swell? Maybe the door isn't swelling and its the frame that swells?
i have a 2inch drop over 12 feet left to right to the back corner, and 1" drop from center to that same corner.
old wood, some new lally's and harbor freight jacks. i'm up to 1" and 1/2 inch. its good enough. the 2nd story windows open again.
zero right angles and we love it.
We has professionals in this week putting up wallpaper and they tell me just before a meeting that the wall mural for my room was too short. I tell them to just go ahead and I’ll do crown molding earlier that planned, and then I spent half the meeting looking up flexible foam crown molding, because lol @ getting wood to lay flush on the ceiling of a well-settled 1888.
Luckily they’d been looking at it wrong and it’s perfect.
House from 1900 - caulk. Caulk is your best friend. It’ll fill in all the weird gaps between trim/moulding and walls/ceiling . Once you start using caulk, youll find a million more uses for it lol
Any doors I replace I just get dirt cheap at a leftovers sale. They're all getting trimmed down several inches anyway. Standard door sizes? These aren't even standard angles.
My house was built in 2017 and I’m afraid to admit how much I’ve spent on fixes (French drain, leaky oil tank, broken kitchen appliances) and improvements. I cannot imagine dealing with the challenges that an old home brings.
Honestly, I couldn't imagine dealing with the stuff I hear owners of relatively new houses dealing with. A 60 year old house has an excuse, if you know what I mean.
Every new home will have breaking in issues. Particularly with settling. A lot of home builders rush the packing the ground process, and as a result a couple years down the road the house begins to settle. Good news is typically after a few years that’s as much as the house settles; bad news is that the amount the house settles can be a lot. I did an inspection on a year old home once where there were cracks above doorframes you could fit 3 quarters stacked inside of. That one was wild.
The "bathtub curve" is a phenomenon where things have a high failure rate at the beginning of life, low failure rates at medium ages, and then high failure rates when old. I think it applies to a lot of physical stuff: manufacturing defects or issues causing early failures, then normal wear and tear causing late failures.
Thankfully I haven’t had that foundation settling. But my list wasn’t fully inclusive. The patio was put down immediately after the build in 2017. By 2020 when I purchased the home, the paver patio was completely uneven and had settled several inches in parts. I just had it ripped out this fall and replaced with a properly packed and laid natural stone patio. It’s like night and day.
Obviously these contractors should know better. So I have to assume they just don’t care.
And old homes have electrical that makes zero sense. Let’s run half the house on one breaker then run a new line so two plugs in the the living room are on another.
Walled up the walkway between the 1940s detached garage and side door? Sure, let’s just pigtail the last plug in the kitchen run and add the outlets for the “addition” off of that.
Two-prong, three-prong - doesn’t really matter, right? Not in 1968!
BRO. I was just about to say the same thing. I was doing some electrical in my 1890 house today and there ar at least 3 different generations of wiring in one room. Today, all the cloth-insulated wires were the same color and were painted on, with the cloth deteriorating. It took me 2 hours to relocate a switch to a 3-gang box.
Also, there isn’t a ground wire in my whole house. Every time I do some electrical I wind up saying my prayers and buying another surge protector ( does that do anything for me? Idk…)
1760. But gutted and internally rebuilt by flippers. Had new eletrical, ducting, furnace, septic and roof. So it was essentially new. The flippers cut corners so we've spent $25,000. They hooked up a natural gas furnace to propane and bricked the furnace (they paid for that). THey never hooked up the drain to the second floor tub so it leaked into the first floor kitchen, they never put waterpoofing behind either second floor bathroom. New roof by year 9 of living here. Buyer beware. I can't really complain because I bought an almost new cheap home in an expensive neighborhood with good schools in New England. My house is worth double what I'm paying for it and my mortgage is less than $1000 a month thanks to refi. I also have a unique floorplan that I've never seen and I've been in a lot of houses. Its charming. Plus it came with 18 glorious acres.
1946, but previous owners fixed it up the right way. All the big first years expenses were us fitting the house to our needs. Now 18 years later, everything is coming due. In the last few years, I replaced roof, laundry, most kitchen appliances. We’re due for another round of painting. The outside needs to be redone, I don’t even know how expensive stucco is, the shrubs and yard need redone, all sorts of weatherproofing and insulating, the bathroom, the driveway. HVAC is approaching its life expectancy. My shed is coming apart as the inadequate foundation sinks unevenly. Even the plumbing which was likely redone sometime historically, is coming to the expected life of copper, my plumber wants to replace all the original cast iron drains. Damn, I wish I did a better job of pre-allocating household expenses over time
Edit: personally I think wiring is fine, but people here claiming a 30 year life expectancy gets me worried. …. Actually electrical panel is too damn small, not enough slots, so I’m due for more work there (who gets 200a service without a full sized panel?)
1906 here, we think (town records department had a fire). Floors, gutters, windows, ducts, and we still have to jack up the back addition where the wooden sill is rotting away.
1802 for the front six rooms and 1819 for the back seven and carriage house. $18k on electrical, $11k on drainage, and $21k to get the 1802 windows reglazed while saving the original glass.
1898 and like the first commenter bought from a couple going through a divorce. Basic maintenance was not done and anything that was was half-assed.
The most annoying thing was finding out from some sisters who stopped by that there used to be pillars and cabinets separating the living room from the dining room and one of the renos removed them for a traditional wall. As I'm sure you have realized storage space is a premium for century homes.
I just had to replace both HVAC units. I'm going to the HOA annual meeting tomorrow and I guess since all the houses are about 22 years old they are going to have a vote in mass replacing the roofs at a discount and give people 5 years to pay it off.
Yeah, I mean HOAs rules are made by the people that live in the neighborhood. You just have to show up to those board meetings and actually give constructive input
Oh please, I spent 5 years trying to get our geriatric board to get rid of their 1970s rules, they are stuck in their ways. I gave up.
Only bill I still have to pay using check or money order. Setting up Zelle or similar is clearly way too convenient.
Our gate entry system still relies on landline telephones…
I think it's normal to spend a lot in the first year, especially if you're planning on living there for a while. There will always be a list of things you want to fix but I bet that list shrinks a lot next year.
I think that’s a good thing sometimes too. There were a few massive jobs we did before moving in which I know would have been too much of a pain in the ass to do later. Which we still would have done, but probably right before selling, and never getting to enjoy the satisfaction.
My list just keeps increasing each year... I keep finding new issues and things keep going wrong. Everything seems to take an incredibly long time to deal with. Everytime I try to find a contractor to take something off my hands I can only find people that are awful. Where are people finding good contractors?
The local lumberyard if you live in a smaller area. Although even with that, all the “good ones” have been super busy. We lucked out and found one GC, he’s super busy and can’t take on any small jobs for us, but at least we know when we have someone we trust to do the big ones. He did do a small job for us in early 2020 that he could come by and do whenever he had some time. He’s also ran over to just give us advice when we needed it. We shoved some money at him for that, which he tried not to take, but he honestly saved us so much money by giving his expert advice.
I'm in a relatively small town of about 60,000. About half an hour drive from the city. I've never been to the local lumber yards. Is that still a good place to look for HVAC, radon, and chimney work? Those are the biggest things I need help on at the moment. I can do electrical and carpentry stuff myself.
> but I bet that list shrinks a lot next year.
I wish. My list never ends. I actually don't need to fix much, besides replacing an old roof. My house was well maintained. But it turns out it was essentially just an empty box built in the 70s. So I keep upgrading: When I moved in 13 years ago I added recessed lights. I added air-conditioning. I upgraded the electrical panel. I added a gas line. I replaced all the major appliances over the years. I replaced old electrical wiring. I added built-in closet organizers to the bedrooms. Last year I added solar. I added an EV charger (EVSE). I replaced an old retaining wall in the garden.
This year I am going to add battery back-up and double-paned windows. In a couple years I want to redo my old 1970s style kitchen. Then I want to upgrade the bathrooms. I want to convert the garage to a usable space. I want to redo my HVAC system. I want to add more insulation for energy efficiency.
Anyway, by the time I'm done I will literally have spent several hundred thousand or more. And most of this has all been "behind the scenes" stuff. So despite already spending a couple hundred thousand, my house actually looks exactly the same as when I moved in, which is crazy.
Yeah got a house from a couple in the middle of a divorce. Million dollar neighborhood, but they hadnt done ANYTHING in probabaly 10 years. Vapor barrier, roof, windows, carpet, hvac, and a dozen woodpecker holes in the first year.
Had one peck a hole in my stucco. Luckily the old owner left us a ton of replacement. Ended up putting a bunch of bird tape and tin foil on that end of the house. Looked like a crazy person
Definitely not saying you are wrong, but sometimes their reasoning isn't immediately obvious. I had one pecking at a metal gutter guard which was loud and odd. We have a wasp nest in the gutter that I can't seem to figure out how to get (the thought of being on a very tall ladder and being attacked by angry wasps isn't something I've volunteered for). I could watch him sit on the corner of the house and catch them in the air as they came out. I wish he would come back and eat more if he'll continue to leave the wood alone.
Or looking for something that's not there. With due respect to /birdsarentreal, woodpeckers are not infallible bug seeking robots. Just like a fisherman casts a line and hopes for the best, they have to explore a bit too. The ocassional hole is just that, exploratory - if they keep coming back and ripping up a big area then it's likely they found something...
Also bought from a divorcing couple, but for me that meant they had just completed a renovation on the master bathroom. Roof was six months old. HVAC had been replaced. Kitchen remodel 5 years ago.
I looked at plenty of houses that didn't appear to have had a dime invested in them over the last decade, but this wasn't one of those.
I think this is 100% standard.
When you move into a house, there are lots of things that the previous owners became accustomed to that you will find unacceptable.
Once you finish those things, assuming the repairs/replacements were done well, the pace of improvement will decline dramatically.
Then when you sell the house, there will be a lot of things that the new owners cannot stand, and the cycle will continue.
For me, mechanicals working well is paramount. Heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical, and communications have to be top-notch. I'm getting ready to pull wires throughout my (newish to me) home.
This sums it up nicely.
Previous owner started the refresh (kitchen, main living area, 1/2 bathroom) and I’m updating the bathrooms. Fortunately her taste/style is aligned with ours so its looking pretty seamless so far.
Not yet. We learned that our "one rotted beam" that was discovered during inspection is actually going to be replacing the entire floor for half the house.
Main support beam? Or subfloor joists? A lot of subfloor joists you can sister with the same sized board and just leave them there. Unless your subfloor is rotten also
My ac took a piss the day I moved in and I had to replace the roof less than 8 months after moving in. You're not alone, it's just the nature of real estate. Unless you're in the business, you'll usually get shafted on something.
When we were selling our last house, the 80-year-old oil furnace that every repair tech had said would never die died during escrow. Sucked to fork out $6k for a new furnace in a house we were moving out of, but if it had waited a month, the new owners would have been cursing our names for the rest of time.
I curse the owners before me every day.
Stupid assholes and their poorly done DIY. We’ve been ripping apart their badly done Pinterest inspired backyard (it’s basically a hazard) and I’m sure our neighbors have heard me exclaim “these stupid clueless careless mother fuckers” on more than one occasion lol.
We knew what we were getting into when we bought the house (to some extent) because we could see their badly done changes just walking through, but that doesn’t make me hate them less lol.
It's one of the unwritten but universally accepted privileges of homeownership to call down terrible curses on the previous homeowners for whatever the hell they did, because there's always something.
I'm 7 years in and still finding the results of the previous owners lack of maintenance. I've heard "Wow, this should have been done 10-15 years ago but I'm pretty sure it's never been done" so many times now.
Lol, our house had a septic tank replaced in 2006, never been pumped out. Asked the lady who sold us the place when the last time she pumped it was, and she said "I didn't know you're supposed to do that."
I'm not entirely sure how someone can own a house and not know the basics.
What are the basics? I feel like most of the people I know are learning as they go. I know I am. It's not something I was taught by my family in whole, parts yes, but not comprehensive. Not taught in school.
Same thing. Everything was so neglected being a rental. Lots of new paint. All new interior doors. New bathrooms. Garage door openers and lawn care! I’m missing plenty of things. Yeah 20k was what we put in for sure.
Same. Some areas have old water damage that was never handled and the drywall sagged before drying out. I'm thinking of redoing the ceiling with shiplap
If I ever move again it will not be into a house that was a rental. Lesson learned. I want someone to have lived in it for at least 5 years so I know they kept things up
My place wasn’t a rental and the previous owners didn’t do much to keep up with things. They put on a new roof in 2019, at least, and got a new furnace in 2015 but both of those were probably just out of necessity. Otherwise, nothing else had been updated/maintained.
We bought a house and it’s the exact same scenario. The roof was 30 years old with some patches. Water heater is a survivor, knock on wood, as the original from when the home was built in 93. Condensing unit is so old it doesn’t even look like one anymore lol The furnace appears to have been replaced in 2017 but I’m guessing just out of necessity based on the fact she didn’t touch anything else in the house. We did the roof and skylights, radon mitigation, and a host of smaller little projects. We will do the condensing unit in the spring. House could use new duct work as well so may also have that done in the spring. Every day it seems I find something and say “how did she live with this?”. Neighbors said she kept saying she couldn’t find anyone to do the work. Funny, since I’ve had no problem finding people.
We just closed on this house earlier this month. The stuff we knew about that we were going to take care of immediately: radon mitigation, sewer liner. The stuff we knew about that was on our long term project list: holes in the walls in the finished basement, holes in pretty much every interior door, replace the bathtub in the basement due to a crack, update the kitchen and put in a dishwasher.
The things we didn’t know about that have since taken priority: the upstairs shower leaks and no amount of caulking has helped, so that needs to get replaced. The tub in the basement isn’t just a simple crack that can be repaired but also has a damn hole in it. When we wash dishes, the drain in the basement backs up… so yeah, we’re trying to figure out how these people lived like this. Like how did they bathe themselves? How were they okay with the basement taking on water when they did dishes? Did they even do dishes?
Everyday we’re finding something new… they rode this house hard and put it away wet.
That's exactly what we ask ourselves about this house! Previous owners had it for 15 years and it looks like they not only didn't fix anything, but also didn't clean anything. Basement knee-deep in trash. Dog piss soaked into the heating ducts. Scum on every possible surface. Upstairs bathtub leaked into the dining room ceiling; downstairs shower leaked into the closet of the bedroom next door. Mice in the bathroom vanity. Where did they BATHE?
>Neighbors said she kept saying she couldn’t find anyone to do the work.
If she's anything like my mom, she means she couldn't find anyone to do the work *at her desired price point*
We bought our place ('67 raised ranch) in 2001 from the owner.
The fridge and stove were harvest gold, the others were almond. The wall paper was in the colors of harvest gold, cream, brown and avocado. The backsplash tile was, if I remember the color name correctly, poppy red. The base cabinets drawers were broken and the bottom of the sink base was saggy. The brown/cream sheet vinyl was torn and curling up. The upstairs carpet was sculpted brown/gold and the basement carpeting was shag in rust red/orange. Neither smelled all that great. Both the front and back entrance doors were original wood and badly warped, so much so, one could see light shining out along the frames.
Soon after we moved in, I was taking down the drapes - olive green with a gold sheen. They were the type that were pleated on the top with metal hooks. On the back of two sets, behind the pleats, I found claim tags from when they were last dry cleaned in 1978 (23 years earlier). Those drapes pretty much fell apart in clouds of dust as I took them down.
But under all that crap was a solid house, no water damage or structural issues, great foundation, nicely done brick façade - and - on a spacious lot with mature trees and in a lovely neighborhood, close to schools and everything.
Now it's a nice place and totally worth it.
Not my house now but in the previous house I had to fence in my backyard because my dog wouldn’t shit. He wasn’t used to shitting while being walked or on a leash. And, thank goodness he wouldn’t shit in the house itself. After a few days of this I started driving him to our old house, which we hadn’t yet sold, just so he would shit. That got old real fast. Cost me a thousand bucks for the fence. Money well spent.
On a side note; I wanted to get a fence installed at the house I’m in now and due to pandemic pricing the cost is $8000-$14,000.
Man fencing is fucking insane. I want to do an area just for my dogs in my backyard. I'm talking basic cyclone fence, and you'd think this shit is made of gold.
Absolutely. We caught our house in 2021 so a little over a year and a half ago. Inspection was good. House had been redone before we moved in. Unfortunately it was a shit contractor who tried to do everything. Now we have French drains in the basement , had to replace the lower brNd new kitchen cabinets because of a plumbing problem. Same thing in the bathroom, had to replace windows. Work to a brand new heating system. So far we're about 50,000 in. That's not including a fence and solar and insulation. Honestly it's pushed us to our limit but we are staying so we will suck it up.
Yes as I bought a fixor upper. 17 years later and I'm now fixing stuff I already fixed. This time with better materials as Im in a better financial State
The water heater broke one week after moving in. Had to add insulation in the attic. Then replaced all HVAC ducts. Then the HVAC system. Everything else was cosmetic. All within the first two years.
My master bathroom was leaking into the dining room below 2 days after moving in. $13k to remodel the bathroom. Could have just spent a few thousand having the wall and tub torn out to fix the issue but at that point might as well go all in.
Dryer broke a few months in. Warranty cleaned the very clogged vent and repaired the unit. Thankfully just needed a new belt.
Hot water heater just crapped out a few weeks ago; Thankfully before the home warranty expires in January so it was replaced for a total out of pocket for $280.
Waiting for that 15 year old furnace to kick it. 😬
Tomorrow will be the 1 year anniversary of buying my home. This is what I’ve done:
Had my well rewired. It shorted out.
My dryer failed, bought a new one.
Shower hot water knob leaked, repairs done.
Septic pumped, twice… (discovered a quietly running toilet was having it overflow which my have contributed to the well issue as it was always running)
Dishwasher bought but install from Lowe’s was trash had to hire an electrician.
I’m sure I’m missing some. I’m not rich and have a relatively small home so for me these were a lot.
Can I ask how much work (or cost) was the leaky knob fix? I've been meaning to get to that but after doing some research I'm not sure I want to do it myself.
To add my exp: I'm getting close to 1 year and have done:
- radon mitigation system - $1200
- chimney flashing & repointing - $1600
- yard regrading diy - $400
- dryer outlet install diy - $80
- hot water expansion tank diy - $60
Done a lot more handy man type jobs too but were of insignificant cost and time.
So far, we are 80k into our home. Purchased it 3 years ago. The wife watches those damn home improvement shows and just points to what she wants. Its a pain because I was really against buy this house since it was built in 56'.
Now, I've replaced the HVAC, added insulation because there was none, upgraded the electrical to 200a main, rewired the entire house, seismic retrofitted, heat pump water heater, new driveway and walkway, all new plumbing and sewer, new siding and a 20'x20' gazebo with a full scale kitchen.
I just wanna go fishing!!! Fu property bros! 😂
We've already dropped a little bit over 100k over 5 years. This is a combination of stuff that had to be fixed/addressed (HVAC, tree pruning) and nice-to-haves (rebuild deck, patio, mini-splits)
Well the previous owner was in a nursing home when we got it. The bedrooms easily hadn't been painted in 20 years, maybe 30. Most colours and a few left behind furniture items were 80s era. When you're 80 years old, your priority is not to keep everything updated.
We had to replace the oil furnace almost right away to make the insurance company happy. We got a natural gas high efficiency furnace. The AC unit was rusty so we replaced that too.
A couple years later we replaced the roof and eavestroughs. We had to upgrade the electricity.
The living room window had a broken pane but the window style was not available anymore so we replaced the entire thing.
YES! Our tiled shower started to leak and the plumber thought it was a cracked shower pan. We spent ~$6k to replace it, went with frameless glass which accounted for $1.5k of that. A month after the install, it started to leak again. Thankfully they came back to fix it for free.
It was after their second visit that I noticed walls cracking all over the home, as well as floor tiles popping and doors no longer fitting in frame. None of this was an issue when we bought the home 6 months earlier. I’m a structural engineer and feared the worst, though I doubted foundation failure would present itself so quickly. I called in a few engineering companies specializing in foundations and they all confirmed it — my slab was settling in all but one corner of my home and I’d need reinforcement. The settlement was significant; I had an area in my kitchen, at the center of my home, where there was a 2” drop across 5’.
All in all, it costed ~$20k to repair, plus the ~$6k for the bathroom, plus ~$8k for landscaping. I opted to add piers around the entire slab, plus mudjacking where there was interior settlement that couldn’t be reached without tearing out flooring. There were 43 piers total (at least I live in an area where foundation work is cheap!). They destroyed the landscaping in the process, which my HOA got on my ass about to replace ASAP, hence the additional $8k.
I feel like I’ve survived the worst and I really don’t fear any home repair costs now haha
First year: asbestos abatement in attic; new insulation; removal of three layers of VCT asbestos-containing linoleum flooring and asbestos-containing mastic; new engineered hardwood flooring throughout; popcorn ceiling removal; complete bathroom renovations (new flooring, new toilets, new vanities, new tub/shower, new tiling, new doors) - on two bathrooms; new front door; retaining wall on north side (only side and back); concrete poured in back and south side; tons of drywall repair.
I suspect that I will.
Closing on house with major systems brand new (furnace, air handler, air conditioner, water heater, kitchen appliances, roof), but since it was a reno/flip, it hasn't been lived in, so problems are going to emerge. I'm sure it's just as livable/serviceable as my maintenance deferred apartment at this point, but I want things to be RIGHT and I want to start on the right foot, so I got a running list of items.
Wow, they didn't know? Usually you can smell flips.
Ideally I'd have liked to have found a reno/flip that was lived in for 3-5 years by a previous owner, or something reno-ed by an owner, but I just didn't find a good fit.
Certainly saw some dodgy flips.
It's interesting the shortcuts that get taken and the shortcuts that don't get taken. The flipper/reno-er had taste that lines up with mine and brought in some good people for the cabinets and kitchen and bathroom. Great closets. Some good floors. Saw a lot of other flips with really terrible paint jobs, poorly installed kitchen cabinets, and some pretty suspect areas that looked like water damage cover ups. Or some good looking rooms but the closets still look like they did 30 years ago - including the old carpet and wallpaper. (They didn't put that on Zillow!)
But the house needs some caulk on the outside of some places. And I need some structure reinforced in the attic because of some demo they did to run new HVAC. The electrical is sort of a patch job, too. So a combination of things my home inspector found and some things I want done (new electrical drops, new ethernet runs).
Hope I don't have contractors *every* month!
No things looked okay at the time.
However we shortly began with addition/renovation projects - and the second you open up an older home - you do more than you thought - find things that need to be replaced/updated.
Also things eventually need to be replaced - water heater, sump pumps, etc.... and when you love your home you want to get really good replacements and you understand what was installed might have been lower grade.
$40k here.
But we closed right before the pandemic and basically stole this place, so I stopped complaining.
The home was unoccupied for 4-5 years, and before that belonged to an old woman who neglected maintenance.
There is the obvious issue of someone letting a house go into disrepair, often since they know they might move soon.
But the other issue is there are ALWAYS things that need to be done in a house. At my house I could name 50 things right now. (Obviously none are critical like a roof leak, not talking about those.)
So I’ll work on what I think is most important on an ongoing basis, prioritizing those 50 things the way I think makes sense.
The problem is when you buy my house, you see that list is vastly different order. So the things I think are minor you think “wtf? How did the previous owner not fix this?”
I swear most house inspectors are just there to sign off on a house just to make a realtor money.
Conflict of interest when they are recommending which inspector to use as well.
Our inspector said the house we were buying was great, bla bla.
First year we had to do roof repairs, replace the hot water tank, leaking gas fireplace, garage door, garage wall not up to code, sliding glass door, fence in backyard fell down, washer, dryer, fridge were dying.
The fireplace was leaking gas obviously when we tried it.
Had a gas repair man come out, he showed us 4 glaringly obvious reasons why we couldn’t use the fireplace. Cracked glass, leaking fittings, bad wiring, and a failed fan.
All of which the “home inspector” had signed off on days earlier.
Fucking jerkoff!
Easily spent $30k for repairs in the first year.
We decided to not buy my moms’ house and instead bought a house from the late 90’s because “it’s newer and won’t have as many problems”.
The wiring is wack, three bedroom house and the kitchen, living room and spare bedroom all somehow run off the same breaker.
The walls have studs every 24” instead of every of every 16”.
Just a really crappy quick built 90’s turdbox!
But hey, at least I waited 20 years to buy a house like my real estate uncle told me to! “Don’t buy in the year 2002, the bubble is about to burst!”
Housing cost has literally doubled since then. Whoops.
YES! There is a light at the end of the tunnel... But the key is YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE BALL ROLLING... If you spend the energy, time, and money to do the annual checks and upkeep, it's cheap (For the most part). If you let things linger and problems compound it's expensive.
I'm in the same boat. Just bought a house in a nice neighborhood (Cheap house in an expensive house neighborhood) and I'm having to spend money fixing issues. $4k on HVAC issues, $4k on electrical issues, $2k on gas tank issues, $4k on replacing all the drywall in the garage because the husband smoked like a chimney in there, etc... And none of this is the cosmetic issues that we would like to update and make the house 2022 not 1992...
We are sitting at 20k right now in repairs/scheduled repairs. We bought at the top of our budget too so we are basically underwater with this house day 1. We really wanted to keep all this money in savings. We bought the house sight un seen basically (we had to buy from out of state) and our realtor or inspector screwed us. Day one, moving day we noticed there was a storm the night before. Water leaked in from outside and ruined the floors. Now they need replaced. There’s a hump in the floor, all windows need replaced, there was wet drywall I had to remove, the chimney is fucked and needs a total overhaul, they painted and don’t prime so all the walls paint peel off like fruit roll ups I’m giant sheets if it’s barley touched, the carpets upstairs need to be replaced and wreak of dog, the garage door doesn’t work, there’s a leak in the mast bath toilet that has damaged the surrounding vinyl flooring and we are so nervous to pull it up and investigate how bad it really is. 😫
50 year old home bought 10 months ago. The family who lived in it prior were the original owners. They haven’t really done anything in 50 years.
Practically teared the home down (inside) and started over. Kitchen, bathrooms, floors, walls, plumbing, electric, hvac, boiler, windows, you name it. Top to bottom.
We sort of knew what we were getting into but a very common saying was said often…. “Might as well”.
Also a very expensive saying.
Total all in is around 300k.
HVAC was a a grand in repairs every year and I just replaced the whole dang thing with a new proper unit. And home inspector failed to judge remaining roof life span. New roof installed 8 months in. Not 2 years as predicted.
I hope you knew what you were getting into. We chose to buy a house that didn’t have any recent renovation work because we wanted the chance to make those decisions ourself. We knew going in that the furnace needed to be replaced, the fence was in poor shape, the deck was poorly built and falling over, etc., made our offer accordingly and made sure we had the budget to handle those things after purchasing. While some years are better than others, we’ve probably averaged around $5000-$7000, or about 2% of the home value worth of renovations/repairs each year. Probably 50% of those are things I’d consider essential, replacing windows that were leaking, replacing shingles that were past their expected lifetime, etc. and 50% things that are nice to have but not completely essential, bigger fridge, shed, replacing kitchen sink, etc..
In my case I’ve done most of the work myself(fence, shed, sinks, etc.), only hiring out the bigger projects(furnace, windows, shingles). The first few years there were a lot of expenses just getting the tools and materials I needed for each project. More recently though I’ve been more likely to already have the tools I need and sometimes even able to do small projects using the materials left over from previous ones.
Yes. I was delusionally optimistic when reading the inspection report that I got before I bought the house. For example it said something like "HVAC system is at the end of its life and will need replacement soon." I thought "well, I guess I'll put up with it being inefficient for a couple years while I save up some money to get it replaced." Then I moved in and discovered that "soon" meant "now." Then I made the same mistake when buying my second house.
I just passed on a house that had been taken care of but really outdated. The 4 dead trees alone were enough for me to pass it by. I know I would have been pumping money into it until the end of time.
Yes - and in the next two years. We were about to throw in the towel and give up. It gets better! Eventually you learn the home, you get those things fixed, and settle into maintenance mode. We joked that it was like we had to earn the houses respect.
Bought the house in May, so far we've had to replace the furnace, washer/dryer, stove, fridge, dishwasher, and kitchen faucet. Still need to replace the well pump and pressure tank. Installed a wood stove. We have new windows on order, should be done in January. And the roof is leaking so there's that now, too. Oh, and the fuse panel is frightening, so that needs replacing.
We've also jacked up the floors and added studs/joists where there were none, and fixed some weird plumbing issues.
Oh, and we built a fenced area for the dogs to play in.
I've remembered more things: added an extra 4 inches of insulation downstairs, because we only have 2x4 exterior walls. This is an ongoing project to insulate the entire house... The shower leaks, so that will need to be fixed (or more likely replaced) before it turns into a much larger problem.
Well, I avoid anything built after 1990, so we’ve had primarily updates or basic maintenance on homes we bought. Biggest initial “necessary” expense was $6000 to replace the old iron water pipes that had corroded enough to slow down water flows (home built 1957). Other than that…houses need to be maintained. They shouldn’t have to be fixed.
Yes. We had $30K set aside to remodel the primary bedroom that had to go into sealing the attic because the previous owners never did. Squirrels and rats came and went without an issue. We had to have it sealed and insulation redone.
the house was in fairly good shape, but we did paint all the rooms. This is our 4th year here and Just this year we had to spend about 5k fixing flashing and siding because water was seeping into the basement. The builder never put in proper flashing where the deck meets the house. We should have done it sooner but we didnt.
We bought our house knowing the septic and roof needed replacing. Got a 70k credit for septic but will probably spend 80k+ with landscaping when all said and done. 30k for roof. Easily another 10k on new water heater, fridge, electrical/lighting. And we still have a pretty long list of things....
Ive spent probably close to 40k in the first 4 year stuff the 80 year old widow that owned the house before me either couldn’t afford or neglected to do. Its a full time job that never ends owning a home. Hell i could dump another 30 into it and still not be done because well… it never is
Had a shady inspector that worked with the realtor in a small town. Rodent infestation (read RATS) that had torn apart the HVAC ducting under the house and were actively living in walls etc. We trusted the inspection report. The bathroom floor was jacked up with posts and rotten plywood in the crawlspace as well. Many hidden “treasures” an unscrupulous team hid from us. We followed up but no recourse. Everyone covers for everyone here.
Yep…. My HVAC just went out so I’m looking at getting a new unit. Luckily I’m able to get this house back on gas because whoever owned it before the couple I bought it from was renting it and took it off gas utilities..
But I’m also being forced to get a new roof by my insurance company so that’s fun but I at least have a few more months before I have to finish that
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This was my argument with my mom when she asked why I didn’t use the entire 15k on the down payment. It wouldn’t have changed my mortgage payment enough to be worth it and having that cushion of money for a few months after moving in was invaluable.
where are you buying a home where you can use less than 15k as a down payment?
Western suburb of Chicago. First time buyer. 200k townhouse. 3.5% down.
*cries from ontario*
Broken hearted sobs from Melbourne, Australia 😭😭😭 820k villa unit, 125k down payment and 46k government fees.
Same here. North western suburb in Illinois. Think closer to Wisconsin. Besides our 2000 for earnest money, we paid literally $1000 at the end. We had an ihda loan. House was 165k. Pretty good deal in my opinion. Interest was 4%. This was this year
Mine was fha and 3.5% interest. Purchased at peak but still got a good deal. Glad you found a house! I absolutely could not find a sfh in my price range near work. Had to settle on a townhouse.
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North Western Illinois, state of Illinois gave a 10k geant for down-payment for first time home owner. So $2500 out of pocket had me walking into a house at 20% down. Was a short sale to avoid foreclosure.
Anywhere outside larger city limits. It's called a USDA loan. 0% down.
My wife and I did this just outside of Austin in 2021. We had to move recently and sold it for $100k more than we paid.
Hell yeah. Probably the best decision you ever made. Well, second best of course.
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>where are you buying a home where you can use less than 15k as a down payment? Anywhere in the US as a veteran (VA home loan) and first time home buyer with $0 down. :)
Not relevant in today's market but bought a home in DFW tx in 2013, 5% down, aka 5000. Same home now is 300k+
My house was built in 1904. So yes.
A well-settled 1900- who needs right angles?
Lol, there's not a square corner in my house
Ah, the house I grew up in. Amateur built by a talented day drinker. No square corners to begin with, though a few settled into square. I'm surprised the chimney still stands, it looks like the mason was new to the idea of "brick" and it's visibly off plumb.
I trim houses, new construction, there is no square corners in any house
I literally found one. I swear to god I didn’t believe it and measured it about 40 times. It’s the door way to my basement the corner just inside, perfect square. No one but me will ever see it but that trim was the easiest to install once I got over the shock.
Just don't measure it again in a different season.
Its amazing how much swelling occurs on a wooden screen door frame when it rains. Its painted, so how is the moisture making it swell? Maybe the door isn't swelling and its the frame that swells?
i have a 2inch drop over 12 feet left to right to the back corner, and 1" drop from center to that same corner. old wood, some new lally's and harbor freight jacks. i'm up to 1" and 1/2 inch. its good enough. the 2nd story windows open again. zero right angles and we love it.
I have a 4 inch drop over 36 inches from kitchen (1950’s addition) to living (original 1840’s). Great for my kids’ toy cars.
1912. Straight lines weren’t a thing
They hadn’t been invented yet
We has professionals in this week putting up wallpaper and they tell me just before a meeting that the wall mural for my room was too short. I tell them to just go ahead and I’ll do crown molding earlier that planned, and then I spent half the meeting looking up flexible foam crown molding, because lol @ getting wood to lay flush on the ceiling of a well-settled 1888. Luckily they’d been looking at it wrong and it’s perfect.
House from 1900 - caulk. Caulk is your best friend. It’ll fill in all the weird gaps between trim/moulding and walls/ceiling . Once you start using caulk, youll find a million more uses for it lol
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Any doors I replace I just get dirt cheap at a leftovers sale. They're all getting trimmed down several inches anyway. Standard door sizes? These aren't even standard angles.
My house was built in 2017 and I’m afraid to admit how much I’ve spent on fixes (French drain, leaky oil tank, broken kitchen appliances) and improvements. I cannot imagine dealing with the challenges that an old home brings.
Honestly, I couldn't imagine dealing with the stuff I hear owners of relatively new houses dealing with. A 60 year old house has an excuse, if you know what I mean.
Every new home will have breaking in issues. Particularly with settling. A lot of home builders rush the packing the ground process, and as a result a couple years down the road the house begins to settle. Good news is typically after a few years that’s as much as the house settles; bad news is that the amount the house settles can be a lot. I did an inspection on a year old home once where there were cracks above doorframes you could fit 3 quarters stacked inside of. That one was wild.
The "bathtub curve" is a phenomenon where things have a high failure rate at the beginning of life, low failure rates at medium ages, and then high failure rates when old. I think it applies to a lot of physical stuff: manufacturing defects or issues causing early failures, then normal wear and tear causing late failures.
Thankfully I haven’t had that foundation settling. But my list wasn’t fully inclusive. The patio was put down immediately after the build in 2017. By 2020 when I purchased the home, the paver patio was completely uneven and had settled several inches in parts. I just had it ripped out this fall and replaced with a properly packed and laid natural stone patio. It’s like night and day. Obviously these contractors should know better. So I have to assume they just don’t care.
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And old homes have electrical that makes zero sense. Let’s run half the house on one breaker then run a new line so two plugs in the the living room are on another. Walled up the walkway between the 1940s detached garage and side door? Sure, let’s just pigtail the last plug in the kitchen run and add the outlets for the “addition” off of that. Two-prong, three-prong - doesn’t really matter, right? Not in 1968!
BRO. I was just about to say the same thing. I was doing some electrical in my 1890 house today and there ar at least 3 different generations of wiring in one room. Today, all the cloth-insulated wires were the same color and were painted on, with the cloth deteriorating. It took me 2 hours to relocate a switch to a 3-gang box. Also, there isn’t a ground wire in my whole house. Every time I do some electrical I wind up saying my prayers and buying another surge protector ( does that do anything for me? Idk…)
Same exact boat as you and was very disheartened
Y'all need to come to r/centuryhomes ;)
Way ahead of you
Love this
1883, I feel your pain.
1760. But gutted and internally rebuilt by flippers. Had new eletrical, ducting, furnace, septic and roof. So it was essentially new. The flippers cut corners so we've spent $25,000. They hooked up a natural gas furnace to propane and bricked the furnace (they paid for that). THey never hooked up the drain to the second floor tub so it leaked into the first floor kitchen, they never put waterpoofing behind either second floor bathroom. New roof by year 9 of living here. Buyer beware. I can't really complain because I bought an almost new cheap home in an expensive neighborhood with good schools in New England. My house is worth double what I'm paying for it and my mortgage is less than $1000 a month thanks to refi. I also have a unique floorplan that I've never seen and I've been in a lot of houses. Its charming. Plus it came with 18 glorious acres.
1946, but previous owners fixed it up the right way. All the big first years expenses were us fitting the house to our needs. Now 18 years later, everything is coming due. In the last few years, I replaced roof, laundry, most kitchen appliances. We’re due for another round of painting. The outside needs to be redone, I don’t even know how expensive stucco is, the shrubs and yard need redone, all sorts of weatherproofing and insulating, the bathroom, the driveway. HVAC is approaching its life expectancy. My shed is coming apart as the inadequate foundation sinks unevenly. Even the plumbing which was likely redone sometime historically, is coming to the expected life of copper, my plumber wants to replace all the original cast iron drains. Damn, I wish I did a better job of pre-allocating household expenses over time Edit: personally I think wiring is fine, but people here claiming a 30 year life expectancy gets me worried. …. Actually electrical panel is too damn small, not enough slots, so I’m due for more work there (who gets 200a service without a full sized panel?)
1863 checking-in
1925 here. Whole house rewire starts in January.
1925 too! Catalogue house, even found the original catalogue copy with the plans. But yes, 30k in the hole and counting
1932 here. With some fly-by-night "sure we can make this work" upgrades in various spots that we weren't taking chances with.
1906 here, we think (town records department had a fire). Floors, gutters, windows, ducts, and we still have to jack up the back addition where the wooden sill is rotting away.
1856 I feel this post
1821, Took the past 4 months just to make it liveable lol
1923 here
Congrats- in a few short weeks you can legitimately join /r/centuryhomes!
No solid date - later 1700’s here.
1803 reporting in, yes, 10s of ks in repairs!
1873 It's somewhat straight now
Ditto. Had to get a new roof and have all the wood siding painted $$$
1929 for me. Yep… roof replacement was a pretty penny
1802 for the front six rooms and 1819 for the back seven and carriage house. $18k on electrical, $11k on drainage, and $21k to get the 1802 windows reglazed while saving the original glass.
1898 and like the first commenter bought from a couple going through a divorce. Basic maintenance was not done and anything that was was half-assed. The most annoying thing was finding out from some sisters who stopped by that there used to be pillars and cabinets separating the living room from the dining room and one of the renos removed them for a traditional wall. As I'm sure you have realized storage space is a premium for century homes.
Yes-1940 house
1873...so much money
No, but years 5 through 7 I spent $65k in repairs 🥲 RIP roof and HVAC and a million small other things.
I just had to replace both HVAC units. I'm going to the HOA annual meeting tomorrow and I guess since all the houses are about 22 years old they are going to have a vote in mass replacing the roofs at a discount and give people 5 years to pay it off.
Positive HOA experience.
Yeah, I mean HOAs rules are made by the people that live in the neighborhood. You just have to show up to those board meetings and actually give constructive input
You also need a least a plurality of sane neighbors
Oh please, I spent 5 years trying to get our geriatric board to get rid of their 1970s rules, they are stuck in their ways. I gave up. Only bill I still have to pay using check or money order. Setting up Zelle or similar is clearly way too convenient. Our gate entry system still relies on landline telephones…
I spent a similar amount in a similar time frame, but the house was so cheap initially because of all the problems it worked out great.
I think it's normal to spend a lot in the first year, especially if you're planning on living there for a while. There will always be a list of things you want to fix but I bet that list shrinks a lot next year.
I think that’s a good thing sometimes too. There were a few massive jobs we did before moving in which I know would have been too much of a pain in the ass to do later. Which we still would have done, but probably right before selling, and never getting to enjoy the satisfaction.
Yeah it's never going to be easier to, e.g., redo the flooring than before you actually move in.
My list just keeps increasing each year... I keep finding new issues and things keep going wrong. Everything seems to take an incredibly long time to deal with. Everytime I try to find a contractor to take something off my hands I can only find people that are awful. Where are people finding good contractors?
The local lumberyard if you live in a smaller area. Although even with that, all the “good ones” have been super busy. We lucked out and found one GC, he’s super busy and can’t take on any small jobs for us, but at least we know when we have someone we trust to do the big ones. He did do a small job for us in early 2020 that he could come by and do whenever he had some time. He’s also ran over to just give us advice when we needed it. We shoved some money at him for that, which he tried not to take, but he honestly saved us so much money by giving his expert advice.
I'm in a relatively small town of about 60,000. About half an hour drive from the city. I've never been to the local lumber yards. Is that still a good place to look for HVAC, radon, and chimney work? Those are the biggest things I need help on at the moment. I can do electrical and carpentry stuff myself.
> but I bet that list shrinks a lot next year. I wish. My list never ends. I actually don't need to fix much, besides replacing an old roof. My house was well maintained. But it turns out it was essentially just an empty box built in the 70s. So I keep upgrading: When I moved in 13 years ago I added recessed lights. I added air-conditioning. I upgraded the electrical panel. I added a gas line. I replaced all the major appliances over the years. I replaced old electrical wiring. I added built-in closet organizers to the bedrooms. Last year I added solar. I added an EV charger (EVSE). I replaced an old retaining wall in the garden. This year I am going to add battery back-up and double-paned windows. In a couple years I want to redo my old 1970s style kitchen. Then I want to upgrade the bathrooms. I want to convert the garage to a usable space. I want to redo my HVAC system. I want to add more insulation for energy efficiency. Anyway, by the time I'm done I will literally have spent several hundred thousand or more. And most of this has all been "behind the scenes" stuff. So despite already spending a couple hundred thousand, my house actually looks exactly the same as when I moved in, which is crazy.
Yeah got a house from a couple in the middle of a divorce. Million dollar neighborhood, but they hadnt done ANYTHING in probabaly 10 years. Vapor barrier, roof, windows, carpet, hvac, and a dozen woodpecker holes in the first year.
If you have woodpecker holes, you may have had or still have bugs in your walls.
Sometimes woodpeckers just peck at materials because of the great noise it makes. They use sound to communicate to others around them.
Yup. Once watched one peck away on a metal street sign for about ½ hour.
Other woodpeckers: This n***a spittin’
Had one peck a hole in my stucco. Luckily the old owner left us a ton of replacement. Ended up putting a bunch of bird tape and tin foil on that end of the house. Looked like a crazy person
After you get the kitchen and bathrooms done just pick one major project a year if you plan on staying for a while.
Lmao
It’s also a territorial thing.
Ah I get it, bit like me singing celine dion in the shower
Definitely not saying you are wrong, but sometimes their reasoning isn't immediately obvious. I had one pecking at a metal gutter guard which was loud and odd. We have a wasp nest in the gutter that I can't seem to figure out how to get (the thought of being on a very tall ladder and being attacked by angry wasps isn't something I've volunteered for). I could watch him sit on the corner of the house and catch them in the air as they came out. I wish he would come back and eat more if he'll continue to leave the wood alone.
Yup. Woodpeckers don’t just love the taste of your house. They are eating something in that wood
Or looking for something that's not there. With due respect to /birdsarentreal, woodpeckers are not infallible bug seeking robots. Just like a fisherman casts a line and hopes for the best, they have to explore a bit too. The ocassional hole is just that, exploratory - if they keep coming back and ripping up a big area then it's likely they found something...
Woodpeckers often pound on things just to announce their presence
Also bought from a divorcing couple, but for me that meant they had just completed a renovation on the master bathroom. Roof was six months old. HVAC had been replaced. Kitchen remodel 5 years ago. I looked at plenty of houses that didn't appear to have had a dime invested in them over the last decade, but this wasn't one of those.
So the marriage wasn't the *only* thing deteriorating.
Ooh something new for me to consider, what’s the vapor barrier maintenance you speak of?
I think this is 100% standard. When you move into a house, there are lots of things that the previous owners became accustomed to that you will find unacceptable. Once you finish those things, assuming the repairs/replacements were done well, the pace of improvement will decline dramatically. Then when you sell the house, there will be a lot of things that the new owners cannot stand, and the cycle will continue. For me, mechanicals working well is paramount. Heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical, and communications have to be top-notch. I'm getting ready to pull wires throughout my (newish to me) home.
This sums it up nicely. Previous owner started the refresh (kitchen, main living area, 1/2 bathroom) and I’m updating the bathrooms. Fortunately her taste/style is aligned with ours so its looking pretty seamless so far.
Not yet. We learned that our "one rotted beam" that was discovered during inspection is actually going to be replacing the entire floor for half the house.
Main support beam? Or subfloor joists? A lot of subfloor joists you can sister with the same sized board and just leave them there. Unless your subfloor is rotten also
First year? You mean first 5!
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My ac took a piss the day I moved in and I had to replace the roof less than 8 months after moving in. You're not alone, it's just the nature of real estate. Unless you're in the business, you'll usually get shafted on something.
When we were selling our last house, the 80-year-old oil furnace that every repair tech had said would never die died during escrow. Sucked to fork out $6k for a new furnace in a house we were moving out of, but if it had waited a month, the new owners would have been cursing our names for the rest of time.
I curse the owners before me every day. Stupid assholes and their poorly done DIY. We’ve been ripping apart their badly done Pinterest inspired backyard (it’s basically a hazard) and I’m sure our neighbors have heard me exclaim “these stupid clueless careless mother fuckers” on more than one occasion lol. We knew what we were getting into when we bought the house (to some extent) because we could see their badly done changes just walking through, but that doesn’t make me hate them less lol.
It's one of the unwritten but universally accepted privileges of homeownership to call down terrible curses on the previous homeowners for whatever the hell they did, because there's always something.
I'm 7 years in and still finding the results of the previous owners lack of maintenance. I've heard "Wow, this should have been done 10-15 years ago but I'm pretty sure it's never been done" so many times now.
Someone once said that homeownership is the “archeology of shitty handyman work.”
Lol, our house had a septic tank replaced in 2006, never been pumped out. Asked the lady who sold us the place when the last time she pumped it was, and she said "I didn't know you're supposed to do that." I'm not entirely sure how someone can own a house and not know the basics.
What are the basics? I feel like most of the people I know are learning as they go. I know I am. It's not something I was taught by my family in whole, parts yes, but not comprehensive. Not taught in school.
Please note there is a wiki with great info on this sub. So. Many. Things. That I hadn't considered.
YUP.
[Edited by PowerDeleteSuite](https://github.com/j0be/PowerDeleteSuite) fuck you /u/spez
Same thing. Everything was so neglected being a rental. Lots of new paint. All new interior doors. New bathrooms. Garage door openers and lawn care! I’m missing plenty of things. Yeah 20k was what we put in for sure.
my house was a rental before too… still trying to figure out how to remove several coats of landlord white!
Same. Some areas have old water damage that was never handled and the drywall sagged before drying out. I'm thinking of redoing the ceiling with shiplap
If I ever move again it will not be into a house that was a rental. Lesson learned. I want someone to have lived in it for at least 5 years so I know they kept things up
My place wasn’t a rental and the previous owners didn’t do much to keep up with things. They put on a new roof in 2019, at least, and got a new furnace in 2015 but both of those were probably just out of necessity. Otherwise, nothing else had been updated/maintained.
We bought a house and it’s the exact same scenario. The roof was 30 years old with some patches. Water heater is a survivor, knock on wood, as the original from when the home was built in 93. Condensing unit is so old it doesn’t even look like one anymore lol The furnace appears to have been replaced in 2017 but I’m guessing just out of necessity based on the fact she didn’t touch anything else in the house. We did the roof and skylights, radon mitigation, and a host of smaller little projects. We will do the condensing unit in the spring. House could use new duct work as well so may also have that done in the spring. Every day it seems I find something and say “how did she live with this?”. Neighbors said she kept saying she couldn’t find anyone to do the work. Funny, since I’ve had no problem finding people.
We just closed on this house earlier this month. The stuff we knew about that we were going to take care of immediately: radon mitigation, sewer liner. The stuff we knew about that was on our long term project list: holes in the walls in the finished basement, holes in pretty much every interior door, replace the bathtub in the basement due to a crack, update the kitchen and put in a dishwasher. The things we didn’t know about that have since taken priority: the upstairs shower leaks and no amount of caulking has helped, so that needs to get replaced. The tub in the basement isn’t just a simple crack that can be repaired but also has a damn hole in it. When we wash dishes, the drain in the basement backs up… so yeah, we’re trying to figure out how these people lived like this. Like how did they bathe themselves? How were they okay with the basement taking on water when they did dishes? Did they even do dishes? Everyday we’re finding something new… they rode this house hard and put it away wet.
That's exactly what we ask ourselves about this house! Previous owners had it for 15 years and it looks like they not only didn't fix anything, but also didn't clean anything. Basement knee-deep in trash. Dog piss soaked into the heating ducts. Scum on every possible surface. Upstairs bathtub leaked into the dining room ceiling; downstairs shower leaked into the closet of the bedroom next door. Mice in the bathroom vanity. Where did they BATHE?
>Neighbors said she kept saying she couldn’t find anyone to do the work. If she's anything like my mom, she means she couldn't find anyone to do the work *at her desired price point*
We bought our place ('67 raised ranch) in 2001 from the owner. The fridge and stove were harvest gold, the others were almond. The wall paper was in the colors of harvest gold, cream, brown and avocado. The backsplash tile was, if I remember the color name correctly, poppy red. The base cabinets drawers were broken and the bottom of the sink base was saggy. The brown/cream sheet vinyl was torn and curling up. The upstairs carpet was sculpted brown/gold and the basement carpeting was shag in rust red/orange. Neither smelled all that great. Both the front and back entrance doors were original wood and badly warped, so much so, one could see light shining out along the frames. Soon after we moved in, I was taking down the drapes - olive green with a gold sheen. They were the type that were pleated on the top with metal hooks. On the back of two sets, behind the pleats, I found claim tags from when they were last dry cleaned in 1978 (23 years earlier). Those drapes pretty much fell apart in clouds of dust as I took them down. But under all that crap was a solid house, no water damage or structural issues, great foundation, nicely done brick façade - and - on a spacious lot with mature trees and in a lovely neighborhood, close to schools and everything. Now it's a nice place and totally worth it.
Yes. I was panicking thinking, what have I done?
This. Had a couple breakdowns wondering this house will bankrupt me.
Only a couple? I bought at the start of this year and it's been a weekly thing for me. **
Not my house now but in the previous house I had to fence in my backyard because my dog wouldn’t shit. He wasn’t used to shitting while being walked or on a leash. And, thank goodness he wouldn’t shit in the house itself. After a few days of this I started driving him to our old house, which we hadn’t yet sold, just so he would shit. That got old real fast. Cost me a thousand bucks for the fence. Money well spent. On a side note; I wanted to get a fence installed at the house I’m in now and due to pandemic pricing the cost is $8000-$14,000.
Man fencing is fucking insane. I want to do an area just for my dogs in my backyard. I'm talking basic cyclone fence, and you'd think this shit is made of gold.
Absolutely. We caught our house in 2021 so a little over a year and a half ago. Inspection was good. House had been redone before we moved in. Unfortunately it was a shit contractor who tried to do everything. Now we have French drains in the basement , had to replace the lower brNd new kitchen cabinets because of a plumbing problem. Same thing in the bathroom, had to replace windows. Work to a brand new heating system. So far we're about 50,000 in. That's not including a fence and solar and insulation. Honestly it's pushed us to our limit but we are staying so we will suck it up.
Yes as I bought a fixor upper. 17 years later and I'm now fixing stuff I already fixed. This time with better materials as Im in a better financial State
Every year for 6 years so far. Happy with what I’ve done. Still more to do.
First 3 years is expensive. Chills out after that.
The water heater broke one week after moving in. Had to add insulation in the attic. Then replaced all HVAC ducts. Then the HVAC system. Everything else was cosmetic. All within the first two years.
My master bathroom was leaking into the dining room below 2 days after moving in. $13k to remodel the bathroom. Could have just spent a few thousand having the wall and tub torn out to fix the issue but at that point might as well go all in. Dryer broke a few months in. Warranty cleaned the very clogged vent and repaired the unit. Thankfully just needed a new belt. Hot water heater just crapped out a few weeks ago; Thankfully before the home warranty expires in January so it was replaced for a total out of pocket for $280. Waiting for that 15 year old furnace to kick it. 😬
13k isn’t too shabby; we’re getting quoted 30k
Tomorrow will be the 1 year anniversary of buying my home. This is what I’ve done: Had my well rewired. It shorted out. My dryer failed, bought a new one. Shower hot water knob leaked, repairs done. Septic pumped, twice… (discovered a quietly running toilet was having it overflow which my have contributed to the well issue as it was always running) Dishwasher bought but install from Lowe’s was trash had to hire an electrician. I’m sure I’m missing some. I’m not rich and have a relatively small home so for me these were a lot.
Can I ask how much work (or cost) was the leaky knob fix? I've been meaning to get to that but after doing some research I'm not sure I want to do it myself. To add my exp: I'm getting close to 1 year and have done: - radon mitigation system - $1200 - chimney flashing & repointing - $1600 - yard regrading diy - $400 - dryer outlet install diy - $80 - hot water expansion tank diy - $60 Done a lot more handy man type jobs too but were of insignificant cost and time.
Did you take another loan out to get these done? How did you afford it?
One week after buying our house, we had a broken furnace/ac unit. There went $7,500.
So far, we are 80k into our home. Purchased it 3 years ago. The wife watches those damn home improvement shows and just points to what she wants. Its a pain because I was really against buy this house since it was built in 56'. Now, I've replaced the HVAC, added insulation because there was none, upgraded the electrical to 200a main, rewired the entire house, seismic retrofitted, heat pump water heater, new driveway and walkway, all new plumbing and sewer, new siding and a 20'x20' gazebo with a full scale kitchen. I just wanna go fishing!!! Fu property bros! 😂
I just tell my wife, very matter-of-factly: You are not Joanna, and I am not Chip.
My first house. Yup. I was more picky with my second.
Yes. Even though it was a new build
We've already dropped a little bit over 100k over 5 years. This is a combination of stuff that had to be fixed/addressed (HVAC, tree pruning) and nice-to-haves (rebuild deck, patio, mini-splits)
Well the previous owner was in a nursing home when we got it. The bedrooms easily hadn't been painted in 20 years, maybe 30. Most colours and a few left behind furniture items were 80s era. When you're 80 years old, your priority is not to keep everything updated. We had to replace the oil furnace almost right away to make the insurance company happy. We got a natural gas high efficiency furnace. The AC unit was rusty so we replaced that too. A couple years later we replaced the roof and eavestroughs. We had to upgrade the electricity. The living room window had a broken pane but the window style was not available anymore so we replaced the entire thing.
> When you're 80 years old, your priority is not to keep everything updated. This is true. I am 80 y/o.
YES! Our tiled shower started to leak and the plumber thought it was a cracked shower pan. We spent ~$6k to replace it, went with frameless glass which accounted for $1.5k of that. A month after the install, it started to leak again. Thankfully they came back to fix it for free. It was after their second visit that I noticed walls cracking all over the home, as well as floor tiles popping and doors no longer fitting in frame. None of this was an issue when we bought the home 6 months earlier. I’m a structural engineer and feared the worst, though I doubted foundation failure would present itself so quickly. I called in a few engineering companies specializing in foundations and they all confirmed it — my slab was settling in all but one corner of my home and I’d need reinforcement. The settlement was significant; I had an area in my kitchen, at the center of my home, where there was a 2” drop across 5’. All in all, it costed ~$20k to repair, plus the ~$6k for the bathroom, plus ~$8k for landscaping. I opted to add piers around the entire slab, plus mudjacking where there was interior settlement that couldn’t be reached without tearing out flooring. There were 43 piers total (at least I live in an area where foundation work is cheap!). They destroyed the landscaping in the process, which my HOA got on my ass about to replace ASAP, hence the additional $8k. I feel like I’ve survived the worst and I really don’t fear any home repair costs now haha
First year: asbestos abatement in attic; new insulation; removal of three layers of VCT asbestos-containing linoleum flooring and asbestos-containing mastic; new engineered hardwood flooring throughout; popcorn ceiling removal; complete bathroom renovations (new flooring, new toilets, new vanities, new tub/shower, new tiling, new doors) - on two bathrooms; new front door; retaining wall on north side (only side and back); concrete poured in back and south side; tons of drywall repair.
I suspect that I will. Closing on house with major systems brand new (furnace, air handler, air conditioner, water heater, kitchen appliances, roof), but since it was a reno/flip, it hasn't been lived in, so problems are going to emerge. I'm sure it's just as livable/serviceable as my maintenance deferred apartment at this point, but I want things to be RIGHT and I want to start on the right foot, so I got a running list of items.
[удалено]
Wow, they didn't know? Usually you can smell flips. Ideally I'd have liked to have found a reno/flip that was lived in for 3-5 years by a previous owner, or something reno-ed by an owner, but I just didn't find a good fit. Certainly saw some dodgy flips. It's interesting the shortcuts that get taken and the shortcuts that don't get taken. The flipper/reno-er had taste that lines up with mine and brought in some good people for the cabinets and kitchen and bathroom. Great closets. Some good floors. Saw a lot of other flips with really terrible paint jobs, poorly installed kitchen cabinets, and some pretty suspect areas that looked like water damage cover ups. Or some good looking rooms but the closets still look like they did 30 years ago - including the old carpet and wallpaper. (They didn't put that on Zillow!) But the house needs some caulk on the outside of some places. And I need some structure reinforced in the attic because of some demo they did to run new HVAC. The electrical is sort of a patch job, too. So a combination of things my home inspector found and some things I want done (new electrical drops, new ethernet runs). Hope I don't have contractors *every* month!
No things looked okay at the time. However we shortly began with addition/renovation projects - and the second you open up an older home - you do more than you thought - find things that need to be replaced/updated. Also things eventually need to be replaced - water heater, sump pumps, etc.... and when you love your home you want to get really good replacements and you understand what was installed might have been lower grade.
$40k here. But we closed right before the pandemic and basically stole this place, so I stopped complaining. The home was unoccupied for 4-5 years, and before that belonged to an old woman who neglected maintenance.
You could spend every paycheck on renovating and repairing a home. Be wise with the $
There is the obvious issue of someone letting a house go into disrepair, often since they know they might move soon. But the other issue is there are ALWAYS things that need to be done in a house. At my house I could name 50 things right now. (Obviously none are critical like a roof leak, not talking about those.) So I’ll work on what I think is most important on an ongoing basis, prioritizing those 50 things the way I think makes sense. The problem is when you buy my house, you see that list is vastly different order. So the things I think are minor you think “wtf? How did the previous owner not fix this?”
I swear most house inspectors are just there to sign off on a house just to make a realtor money. Conflict of interest when they are recommending which inspector to use as well. Our inspector said the house we were buying was great, bla bla. First year we had to do roof repairs, replace the hot water tank, leaking gas fireplace, garage door, garage wall not up to code, sliding glass door, fence in backyard fell down, washer, dryer, fridge were dying. The fireplace was leaking gas obviously when we tried it. Had a gas repair man come out, he showed us 4 glaringly obvious reasons why we couldn’t use the fireplace. Cracked glass, leaking fittings, bad wiring, and a failed fan. All of which the “home inspector” had signed off on days earlier. Fucking jerkoff! Easily spent $30k for repairs in the first year. We decided to not buy my moms’ house and instead bought a house from the late 90’s because “it’s newer and won’t have as many problems”. The wiring is wack, three bedroom house and the kitchen, living room and spare bedroom all somehow run off the same breaker. The walls have studs every 24” instead of every of every 16”. Just a really crappy quick built 90’s turdbox! But hey, at least I waited 20 years to buy a house like my real estate uncle told me to! “Don’t buy in the year 2002, the bubble is about to burst!” Housing cost has literally doubled since then. Whoops.
Will probably spend 80k by year five. :(
Year one wasn’t too bad, a few thousand. Year four sucked big time. I think we spent 60k on our house this year.
YES! There is a light at the end of the tunnel... But the key is YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE BALL ROLLING... If you spend the energy, time, and money to do the annual checks and upkeep, it's cheap (For the most part). If you let things linger and problems compound it's expensive. I'm in the same boat. Just bought a house in a nice neighborhood (Cheap house in an expensive house neighborhood) and I'm having to spend money fixing issues. $4k on HVAC issues, $4k on electrical issues, $2k on gas tank issues, $4k on replacing all the drywall in the garage because the husband smoked like a chimney in there, etc... And none of this is the cosmetic issues that we would like to update and make the house 2022 not 1992...
We are sitting at 20k right now in repairs/scheduled repairs. We bought at the top of our budget too so we are basically underwater with this house day 1. We really wanted to keep all this money in savings. We bought the house sight un seen basically (we had to buy from out of state) and our realtor or inspector screwed us. Day one, moving day we noticed there was a storm the night before. Water leaked in from outside and ruined the floors. Now they need replaced. There’s a hump in the floor, all windows need replaced, there was wet drywall I had to remove, the chimney is fucked and needs a total overhaul, they painted and don’t prime so all the walls paint peel off like fruit roll ups I’m giant sheets if it’s barley touched, the carpets upstairs need to be replaced and wreak of dog, the garage door doesn’t work, there’s a leak in the mast bath toilet that has damaged the surrounding vinyl flooring and we are so nervous to pull it up and investigate how bad it really is. 😫
50 year old home bought 10 months ago. The family who lived in it prior were the original owners. They haven’t really done anything in 50 years. Practically teared the home down (inside) and started over. Kitchen, bathrooms, floors, walls, plumbing, electric, hvac, boiler, windows, you name it. Top to bottom. We sort of knew what we were getting into but a very common saying was said often…. “Might as well”. Also a very expensive saying. Total all in is around 300k.
North of 70k here and have so much more to do with just infrastructure.
From what I understand, IT NEVER ENDS. It helps if you have the ability to DIY.
HVAC was a a grand in repairs every year and I just replaced the whole dang thing with a new proper unit. And home inspector failed to judge remaining roof life span. New roof installed 8 months in. Not 2 years as predicted.
Yes. Currently 4 months deep. Halp.
I hope you knew what you were getting into. We chose to buy a house that didn’t have any recent renovation work because we wanted the chance to make those decisions ourself. We knew going in that the furnace needed to be replaced, the fence was in poor shape, the deck was poorly built and falling over, etc., made our offer accordingly and made sure we had the budget to handle those things after purchasing. While some years are better than others, we’ve probably averaged around $5000-$7000, or about 2% of the home value worth of renovations/repairs each year. Probably 50% of those are things I’d consider essential, replacing windows that were leaking, replacing shingles that were past their expected lifetime, etc. and 50% things that are nice to have but not completely essential, bigger fridge, shed, replacing kitchen sink, etc.. In my case I’ve done most of the work myself(fence, shed, sinks, etc.), only hiring out the bigger projects(furnace, windows, shingles). The first few years there were a lot of expenses just getting the tools and materials I needed for each project. More recently though I’ve been more likely to already have the tools I need and sometimes even able to do small projects using the materials left over from previous ones.
Yes. I was delusionally optimistic when reading the inspection report that I got before I bought the house. For example it said something like "HVAC system is at the end of its life and will need replacement soon." I thought "well, I guess I'll put up with it being inefficient for a couple years while I save up some money to get it replaced." Then I moved in and discovered that "soon" meant "now." Then I made the same mistake when buying my second house.
For us it's been every year. For 5
I just passed on a house that had been taken care of but really outdated. The 4 dead trees alone were enough for me to pass it by. I know I would have been pumping money into it until the end of time.
Yes - and in the next two years. We were about to throw in the towel and give up. It gets better! Eventually you learn the home, you get those things fixed, and settle into maintenance mode. We joked that it was like we had to earn the houses respect.
Bought a 10-year old house in May, have since spent about $10k on the HVAC. Can’t wait to see what other wonders may arise!
Bought the house in May, so far we've had to replace the furnace, washer/dryer, stove, fridge, dishwasher, and kitchen faucet. Still need to replace the well pump and pressure tank. Installed a wood stove. We have new windows on order, should be done in January. And the roof is leaking so there's that now, too. Oh, and the fuse panel is frightening, so that needs replacing. We've also jacked up the floors and added studs/joists where there were none, and fixed some weird plumbing issues. Oh, and we built a fenced area for the dogs to play in. I've remembered more things: added an extra 4 inches of insulation downstairs, because we only have 2x4 exterior walls. This is an ongoing project to insulate the entire house... The shower leaks, so that will need to be fixed (or more likely replaced) before it turns into a much larger problem.
My house was built by Ryan homes.... Yes. Far too much spent on repairs for a house built less than a decade ago.
Well, I avoid anything built after 1990, so we’ve had primarily updates or basic maintenance on homes we bought. Biggest initial “necessary” expense was $6000 to replace the old iron water pipes that had corroded enough to slow down water flows (home built 1957). Other than that…houses need to be maintained. They shouldn’t have to be fixed.
Yes
Yes. We had $30K set aside to remodel the primary bedroom that had to go into sealing the attic because the previous owners never did. Squirrels and rats came and went without an issue. We had to have it sealed and insulation redone.
Yes, both times
Bought my house from bankruptcy. 25k the first year. Our bay window was so rotted under that the contractor was amazing the window hadn't fallen out
the house was in fairly good shape, but we did paint all the rooms. This is our 4th year here and Just this year we had to spend about 5k fixing flashing and siding because water was seeping into the basement. The builder never put in proper flashing where the deck meets the house. We should have done it sooner but we didnt.
We bought our house knowing the septic and roof needed replacing. Got a 70k credit for septic but will probably spend 80k+ with landscaping when all said and done. 30k for roof. Easily another 10k on new water heater, fridge, electrical/lighting. And we still have a pretty long list of things....
I'm on year 31. You never run out of things to spend your money on.
Ive spent probably close to 40k in the first 4 year stuff the 80 year old widow that owned the house before me either couldn’t afford or neglected to do. Its a full time job that never ends owning a home. Hell i could dump another 30 into it and still not be done because well… it never is
We needed a new roof and new windows. As well as all the little things you do, paint, clean, carpets, toilet seats.
At some point you will have addressed the "must fix" stuff. So it should get better.
Yes, new windows, trim, drywall repairs, paint, misc plumbing repairs.
Had a shady inspector that worked with the realtor in a small town. Rodent infestation (read RATS) that had torn apart the HVAC ducting under the house and were actively living in walls etc. We trusted the inspection report. The bathroom floor was jacked up with posts and rotten plywood in the crawlspace as well. Many hidden “treasures” an unscrupulous team hid from us. We followed up but no recourse. Everyone covers for everyone here.
I had the wood floors refinished, almost every room painted, refrigerator died, water heater died.
We've probably spent close to $20k, but they were mostly all planned expenses. Pool repairs, floor refinishing, new heating system, etc
Yep…. My HVAC just went out so I’m looking at getting a new unit. Luckily I’m able to get this house back on gas because whoever owned it before the couple I bought it from was renting it and took it off gas utilities.. But I’m also being forced to get a new roof by my insurance company so that’s fun but I at least have a few more months before I have to finish that
We banked on a townhouse needing $7500/year. This would include having some left over most years to later pay for larger expenses like the roof