So.... big purchase

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Danoff

Danoff

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Mile High City
I bought a house, it's my first.

I think I'm now officially the poorest person on the planet - as I owe the bank an incredible amount of money. But I do have a little bit of land, and a small home in southern California.

So far the whole thing has been completely overwhelming. I had no idea how much stuff I didn't have. Walking through home depot is at once exciting and depressing. On the one hand, all of that stuff suddenly applies to me, which is pretty nifty. On the other hand, I need all of it - and I no longer have the money to buy it (how ironic).

I absolutely love having a back yard, and a driveway, and a garage... it's fantastic. But at least in the initial stages here it's like a death by a thousand paper cuts.

What? We need a ladder? I've never needed a ladder before. Oh and we need a weed eater... and weed killer... and bug spray, and a washing machine, and a hose, and a rug, and new wall socket plates, and a flange for the plumbing, and I need a table, and another table, and another table, and tools, screws, lawn mower, pvc pipe, desk, new couch, lamps, towel rings, chairs, extension cords, nightstands...

That's not to mention the big stuff - like that I need to redo beams in the garage, under the foor, and in the attic, oh and a new water heater, and siding... I could go on.

Anyway I'm seriously happy with it. It seems like forever that I've been saving and planning for this, and it's finally here. But I'm suddenly amazed at how different it is to have a house instead of an apartment.
 
Well I'm 13 so I don't know about having a house or apartment, but what I DO know is that living in a house with a big lawn from the '70s is a PAIN IN THE BUTT because your parents make you do so many chores on it! But when I hear about a nice, quaint apartment or college dorm without a lawn and much less floor space to clean, it's music to my ears. Just 5 more years!!!

:-)
 
I would say it is a step in the right direction, owning your own bank means no landlord 👍 , on the downside it means the bank will be after your mortgauge money 👎 but at least you are more free to do want you want, (providing enough money) and the advantages of your own lawn and garden are huge :dopey: .

So here is to the new house! :cheers:

Quite a purchase and something I plan to do myself when I am older, how old are you now, if you don't mind me asking?
 
righto, with house prices over here in England, I may have to wait till I am 50 before I can afford my own property. :scared:

What part of southern cali is it?
 
Congratulations! I think we might move in a couple years or so but I won't be doing the buying. Got any pictures of the new purchase? :)
 
u could hav bought a ferrari insted. y do u old peoplz spend $$$ on houzez? i would hav got the ferrari LOLZ!!!

Actually, for what you probably paid, you could have bought a house up here and a Ferrari :D.
 
Kylehnat
u could hav bought a ferrari insted. y do u old peoplz spend $$$ on houzez? i would hav got the ferrari LOLZ!!!

Actually, for what you probably paid, you could have bought a house up here and a Ferrari :D.
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That's more true than I'd like to consider. But I doubt I'd have been able to borrow the cash for a Ferrari, so it probably wasn't an option anyway.

Besides, one needs a garage in which to put one's Ferrari. :)
 
Funny story... I bought a house as well. Matter of fact, I'm in the process of gettign my mortgage approved... how long will you be paying for the house?

I'll be sure to post pics as well :D
 
Congrats on the purchase. I'm only 16 but I'm looking forward to owning my own home one day. Specifically a house. No apartments or condo's here :)
 
-Diego-
Funny story... I bought a house as well. Matter of fact, I'm in the process of gettign my mortgage approved... how long will you be paying for the house?

I'll be sure to post pics as well :D
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The mortgage is 30 years with a fixed interest rate. I imagine I'll take my sweet time paying it off too. Congrats on yours. Where is it? Is it your first? What was the market like?
 
Danoff
The mortgage is 30 years with a fixed interest rate. I imagine I'll take my sweet time paying it off too. Congrats on yours. Where is it? Is it your first? What was the market like?
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That's cool. Here you get it for 40 years, but the rate varies. You can have them for as long as 100 years, but I really wouldn't want my grandchildren to be stuck up with my debts.

The apartment is two floors, which counts as a house here, called a duplex. It's in a town with 8,000 people, about 25 minutes from the city, which in island terms is pretty far, apparently. Still, the are is very nice, and very quiet, which is something we need, having lived in the city for the last three years and in other ajor cities around the US. The are is about 800 mts. above sea level, and it's the type of place that's very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter... but it's dry, so there shouldn't be much of a problem.

It's out first house... my wife and I are paying for it. The market is currently horrible, and the experts have been predicting a fall for thelast two years, but we just couldn't wait any longer. We'd much rather pay for something of ours than pay rent every month.

Being used to American-like dimensions, it's pretty hard to cope with Euro sizes, especially when you compare prices. To think that I have to walk sideways through most hallways! What I don't like is that it's not ready yet. We're moving in July 2008, so for about a year we'll be paying rent + mortgage.

How's yours?
 
I'm not sure I believe you.... :p

As usual, pics with a hand written note saying "Hello GTPlanet, I'm Danoff and I'm broke as a joke now!" stuck on the mailbox.
 
This thread is hilarious. :lol:

Congrats to both you guys! 👍 Owning and living in your own house must be really cool, but one thing about being a home owner, every weekend, they seem to be fixing, or making some improvements to their home. Good luck guys. :p
 
Here you go.

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I stuck my RSX out front to help prove that it's me.

The backyard is decent... that picture shows most of it. You can see the brown patches of grass that I need to attend to. The interior is entirely wood flooring - which makes rugs a must (by the way, those are not our curtains, that picture was from the day we moved in). I've been working hard so far to preserve the floors. We're thinking of doing stucco on the front of the house to match the back. You can also see the cracked driveway.

All-in-all though, much better than I thought I could swing.
 

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holy crap... that must be a pretty penny. So are you in the ghetto to offset the price of the actual house? lol j/k ;p Seriously, though it's rediculous what your money gets you here in CA vs say... Wyoming. :dopey:

Anyway, congrats. As for me I've lived in a house my whole life. The only way I've experienced apartment living is though friends. I'd like to get the apartment experience and when I decide to get my own place I'm not gonna need anything big. I really don't believe in the American dream with these big ass houses.
 
Wow, congratulations Dan. You’ve done something a lot of people may never have the opportunity to do, so I really hope you enjoy it. :)

Does it feel like home, yet?
 
I like the paved front yard. For some reason, ever since I was a kid, I liked a lot of concrete in the front yard. I also like the look of the house, nice color too.

P.S. In my mind, you had white RSX! If you put yourself in the photo, I might be going, "is that Dan's real estate dude?".
 
Nice stuff! I love the big deep overhangs.
 
DWA
holy crap... that must be a pretty penny. So are you in the ghetto to offset the price of the actual house? lol j/k ;p Seriously, though it's rediculous what your money gets you here in CA vs say... Wyoming. :dopey:
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No joke. Sticker shock out here is enormous. But I'm a little surprised at my own ability to get used to it. At this point I can drive past a place that needs to be condemned and still think it's worth a ton of money. The bright side of that is that if my house burned to the ground today I wouldn't even have lost half of the value.

Blake
Wow, congratulations Dan. You’ve done something a lot of people may never have the opportunity to do, so I really hope you enjoy it. :)

Does it feel like home, yet?
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Not really, but we haven't been in it long.

PLmatt91
Awesome floors 👍
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The floor has about 12 inches of crawl space beneath because the house is on a raised foundation. But the wood is 2 inches thick! No creaking, no bending. The floor isn't perfect, it's cupped a little in the living room - but for the most part it's in great shape.

Duke
Nice stuff! I love the big deep overhangs.
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I'll try to appreciate them more :) For the most part I've been cursing them because they're full of spiderwebs and bugs. I spent a long time spraying them down - I guess that's all part of getting used to living in a house rather than an apartment.

Architecturally speaking the house is pretty boring. 1 story, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, attached garage without direct entry (doh!), raised foundation as mentioned before, and some attic space that needs more insulation. Coming from a small apartment I feel like I'm swimming in space. We have entire rooms that are completely empty still.
 
Yes, that certainly doesn't look cheap. I've always liked the look of a California-style home by comparison to what we have here in Michigan, so it looks like quite the place. My guess is that you paid probably two to three times as much as we would in Grand Rapids for the same size house and land. But then again, the weather probably makes it all equal...

Apparently I'm due to inherit property, that is, if I've understood my Grandparents correctly... And its not just their house either. There was talk that I'd get my Aunt's beach home as well in New Buffalo, Michigan... Probably the best-looking town in the state.

Me? I'd just be happy with an acre and a fairly modest Cape Cod for right around $200K. Achievable here in Grand Rapids without a problem...

Oh, and Congrats!
 
Holy crap, Danoff. Buying a house around here in these years is definitely not an easy thing to do. A huge congratulations. :cheers:

The house looks pretty great. If you don't mind me asking, where in northern L.A. is it?

Either way, no more sitting around on your arse waiting for the apartment to fix everything. :D
 

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