Home Purchasing Tips.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu May 15, 2003 6:47 am

So Meri and I are thinking of purchasing a home. I am prequalified for about 120K, give or take five grand.

Meris parents have offered us a life long lease on a piece of land, and being as the location is kind of cool-we could have all of Bulldrek over for a camp out and bonfire and no one would care I think-we have been looking into reposessed double wides. And double wides and modulars in general.

What I am looking for:

Lease tips-A life long lease is cool, but they owe tax money on the land, so if they were to for some insane or disasterous reason to not pay taxes, how would be affected? Any things to look out for? Its not that I don't trust them, its just I have no experience in this arena at all.

Site prep? How much does it cost for a slab to be poured, power lines to be run, septic and a well to be dropped in, phone, utilities, et...?

Double Wides/Modulars? Any one ever bought one? Any thing to look for?

Any help would be appreciated, any thing at all.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:39 am

If you can get US$120,000 and you buy a fucking /trailer/ with it, I'll kill you, with a cheese grater. Why not, you know, have a /house/ built?

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu May 15, 2003 8:46 am

Well I should have mentioned we are keeping all our options open, right now we are looking at a lot of stuff, mainly houses in Greenville, this was however an option. It was the only option I had questions about.

Technically I am not prequalified until about 14 to 21 days from now. At that point I plan on contacting a realtor, by then though I want to be prepared.

Put your cheese grater up for now. Heh. I really want to buy a house on Marvel street....I am such a geek. Actually 32 most of the homes we are seriously considering are with in a block or two of Baldwin Elementary School.

With my legal proceedings underway, well if that should prove successful, I am going to buy a house in Grand Valley Estates.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:04 am

You could probably build my parents' house for for US$120,000, if you cut down on some of the extraneous decorative bullshit [pretty bullshit, but bullshit] and didn't have to pay for property. And were willing to do some work yourself, of course. But you know, you, me, Meri's family, your dad, all our friends, we could build you a house in a week or so, if we had Jeriomy - you know, the ex-professional home builder - to tell our fathers to shut up and do what he tells them.

I'll do some poking around and see what I can turn up locally, if only to make certain you have some option better than a double-wide for my babies. I mean, your babies. Children. Yours.*

*That's not meant to imply that I'm nervous you might realize that your children are actually mine. They're definitely yours; mine wouldn't smell so funny. It was, instead, meant to imply a pleasant paternal expression of affection for your children. But, you know, everything I say comes out creepy somehow.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:08 am

For the Record Meris Dad is a Civil Engineer, and a former home builder in his own right, he also did surveying work. He has mentioned that if we win the lawsuit, he'll build us a nice house for 30K, after we donate to the farm....

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:20 am

Tell him if he's lucky, you won't sue /him/ for letting you guys live in that first house, with the eight foot fieldstone porch I pushed over accidentally one day and the second floor even the squirrels wouldn't live in. Then steal his house and kick his butt. But keep the dog. And the cats. Kick out the little brother. Keep the girls. Except the mom; she fights with me and seems to disapprove when her daughters flirt with me. And she set me on fire once, with gasoline.

3278 · Post by **3278** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:28 am

Oh, <a href="http://www.greenridge.com/property/prop ... ">or...</a>

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Thu May 15, 2003 9:34 am

Dude you rock, I plan on showing that to Meri as soon as she wakes up.

DV8 · Post by **DV8** » Thu May 15, 2003 10:05 am

3278 wrote:Oh, <a href="http://www.greenridge.com/property/prop ... ">or...</a>

What's a half bath?

And Paul, I don't know shit about homebuilding, and I think I hammered a nail into a block of wood once, so I am not qualified to make the following statement, but I can only imagine it must be _incredibly_ satisfying to live in a house you built yourself.

Tyler: "If you were to die and you had one more thing you could do, what would it be?"
Space Monkey 1: "Build a house."
Space Monkey 2: "Paint a picture."

Heavy Metal · Post by **Heavy Metal** » Thu May 15, 2003 10:12 am

A half bath usually means toilet, sink and a prayer. Small room usually. 3/4 implies shoer in addittion to the previous.

I agree Deev, but building a home can be insanely exspensive. And there are some legal things involved-ave to own the land, taxes, permits, etc...

It is an option we are still keeping open.

DV8 · Post by **DV8** » Thu May 15, 2003 10:54 am

"Where are you from, boy? What? Texas? I didn't know they stacked shit that high in Texas! Only two things come out of Texas; steers and queers, and you ain't got no horns!"

Wildfire · Post by **Wildfire** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:08 pm

Pre-qualifying good. Never ever go home shopping without pre-qualifying.

Home building is a bit iffy but if you have an ex-professional developer as a resource, its much better

Just make sure to get the bottom line on permits etc , some are different between companies and individuals. If you do intend to build one, research the living hell out of every design option and every possibility. Learn to like This Old House. Get a contrator/discount card at Lowe's/Home Depot/your local hardware type store, you'll need it.

If you buy and don't have cash for a down payment, look into Neimaiah. Sellers who accept Neimaiah let you roll the down payment and closing costs into your mortgage so you don't need cash up front. Considering where you guys are, 120k should get you a good chunk of house. 3BR/2BA here and with the 3k down payment rolled in, it was only 106k and this is technically still Atlanta suburb area.

Daki · Post by **Daki** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:26 pm

Depending on where you are and the contractors in the area, you can have a house built for a set amount per square foot. Usually you have to pay for all fixtures yourself, but it can still work out to a low price especially if you already have the land.

DrunkenMaster · Post by **DrunkenMaster** » Mon May 19, 2003 4:15 am

More advice on the loan than the actual house. I've not ever purchased a home, but I've moved around alot and have grilled my parents on the ins and outs of the experience.

I'm certain these details are specific to your area and bank, but when applying for a loan, make certain to get an explanation for every charge they try and stick you with. On one occasion, the bank tried to charge us a 100 dollar fee for notifying the builders that the loan was approved. We called them on it, then dropped the approval off at the builders after making a copy. There are a lot of fees which are only there to get a little more jingle out of an exhausted and worried customer and many of them can be lessened or avoided if you are on your toes. It might not make you any friends, but fuck 'em, it is your money.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Mon May 19, 2003 11:35 am

Thanks for the tips all. An update:

Despite 3278's well intended threats the thought of purchasing a ouble wide or modular is increasingly attractive. With site improvements and the actual home I would get 3 full bathrooms, 3 finished bedrooms with possiblity of two plus more. The basement doubles my square footage to just about 3500 square feet, maybe as mucha s 4000+ depending on what we get. Thats pretty damn tempting.

Serious Paul · Post by **Serious Paul** » Mon May 19, 2003 2:35 pm

And looks like the down size is:

Higher finance rates, lower resale value, stricter credit requirements and apparently few people like to loan money for Modulars or Manufactured homes.

Ugh it gets so complicated.