h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Meaning if we did the work ourselves or went out on our own to buy the appliances, we would not be able to include those expenses in the supplemental loan. We'd have to pay cash.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting here getting mildly envious of how cheap housing has become in the US. There's been no downturn here, as far as housing goes; I can't find anything suitable/decent for less than $400k - which is about $320k in US dollars...

Honestly, everything we're finding in our price range is a short sale or foreclosure. The two bedroom house next door to the building I live in now is listed for $600K; the one two blocks away we wanted to buy was a short sale which originally sold for $440. Property values have fallen quite a bit, though, but then they seem to be overpriced the world over.

Not that I don't sympathize with you, Ivan. I just realized I sounded like I was making light of your plight. I know how frustrating it is- looking at mainly foreclosures means we look at a lot of photos of places that are either really trashed or really empty.

*nods*

Whereas I'm looking at ads for places that are billed as 'ideal for the first-time homebuyer at only $450k'. Relatively cheap places are snapped up, only to reappear on the rental market a week later. Come the revolution, I'll be advocating putting property speculators up against the wall...

Ye gawds but the cost of housing is steep there. Mind, most of our cities prices would be well beyond our means as well. I can appreciate the lenders being particular about who does the work as a lot of DIY folks will cut corners. "It looks just as good ..." I can only wish you a load of finding the place that suits your needs, some of your wants atleast, and well within your budget.

My parents bought this place really cheap, but it's out in the middle of nowhere (closest Autobahn is about 40km away!) and needs a lot of work, much of which I'm putting in now

So the compromise has to lie somewhere...

'Course...cheap is not so good for those who bought expensive. Been there, done that. It took a lot of worry, severel years and a small inheritance to get rid.

There was an amusing wee snippet on 'FOOC' about the travails of home purchase in the US (see 'Checking out of 'Hotel America')...although the segment as a whole morphed into a naive, right-wing paean to The American Way:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/default.stm

I feel for the people who are short selling the places we're looking at rather than waiting for their lenders to foreclose. It is awful to have to sell something for less than what you paid for it- so much worse to sell for less than what's owed. But if the bank agrees to accept a short sale, it stays on one's credit rating for a very short time, as opposed to a foreclosure which never goes away.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the kind of buildings that are operated by property management companies- although I work for a property management company, we only rent the land that the homes are on, the residents buy the homes themselves. We don't buy stuff up and then flip it. I prefer owner occupied places like where I am now- though I suppose having a landlord with more interest in maintaining the property doesn't do much good if the landlord can't afford routine maintenance and major repairs (my current situation, sort of).

Rental houses here are fairly unusual. Most rentals are at least two-flats. I'd actually thought for a while about looking for two-flats, thinking that the rent could pay a huge portion of the mortgage. But I'm a bit paranoid about having all kinds of repair type issues, or troublesome tenants, etc.

We're looking at another townhouse (semidetached- am I getting it right now?) on Tuesday. It looks nice and has a small back yard- but it's way up on the far north side and we need to investigate whether I'd need to walk through any dodgy patches to get to my train.

I'm guessing that a 'two-flat' is a property in which one person owns two apartments, lives in one and rents out the other.

Yep, that, or someone might own the property and rent out both flats, although that is less common. I live in a three-flat; owner lives on first floor (that would be the floor above basement level), another tenant in the middle, and K and I on the top.

townhouse - semi

I think it would depend. A building on its own would be 'detached'. A building divided into two vertically would be 'semi-detached'. If a house is joined on either side to two others, it would be 'terraced'.

(and in Northern mining and mill towns there are 'back to backs' - joined at the sides and the back)

Ah, OK. The first townhouse we looked at was semidetached, the second was what you would call terraced. The place we're looking at Tuesday is an end unit of what appears in the photo to be a row of terraced units.

So basically anything attached vertically is called a townhouse here, some are condos and some are not, but it seems most of them typically have a homeowner's association of some sort.

I'm spending my Saturday waiting for a tumble dryer repairman. . And cleaning up my HDD.

Well at least cleaning up the HDD sounds fun, potentially. We've started some tidying up, and I need to return some library books (around the corner). Thrilling!

Then this house is only semi-detached, because our main barn is built right onto the house

Ohhh...shut up.

And outside lavvies in terraced houses don't count as 'outbuildings', either.





'kinell! What a lot of bloatware I seem to have on my PC. I inherited it from my brother-in-law and it's stuffed to the gills with all sorts of bt scheisse.

They don't? Good thing we have a lovely two-storey brick stable that used to house pigs then - I'm sure that counts

Though it does need quite a bit of repair work

The former cow stable is going to be the living room someday. But it needs new windows, insulation (it was added on later, and unlike the rest of the house, it's brick) and a lot of finishing on the inside. It's a good thing we can do a lot of the work ourselves. And out here in the villages, it's surprisingly cheap to hire an electrician or plumber when you need one

I'd love to come help you, too, PC! Good practice for when I have my own place someday

OK, here's the skinny:

Right now, there's a house we've seen that so far, what we've seen of it, we like it. Wood frame and stucco, with detached 2-car garage. Back and front yards, walk-out basement. Three bedrooms, two bathrooms. Haven't seen much of the inside yet. It has an enclosed mud porch in front with tons of windows, then stained glass windows from the porch to the living area. Wood floors (that we've seen) and glass doorknobs, radiators for heating. Haven't got to the kitchen or the second level or the basement to see if any appliances are intact or what the cabinet situation is. We're having trouble getting the selling agent to call back to let us know where to find the rest of the keys.

From what we've seen, we want this one. We can afford to put neatly 30% down, but would rather put 10% down and use the rest for painting, etc.

Please- cross fingers, wish us luck, etc. I really, really want this one.

(And if it doesn't work out, we've seen a couple condos we like... but I'd prefer the house since it's double the space and half the price, this house is a steal at just $160K)