Buying A Home
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Things I wish I had known when buying a "used" home
Feel free to add to this. If I can help one person, that's more than worth it! All these things could have reduced what we paid for the house, but we did not think too much of them before...perhaps they are obvious to some, but even we, who are very picky, overlooked these.
1) If you are looking at a house with a dead yard, get quotes on cost to replace is before you buy. I thought ours would be 2-3k, turns out it's over 9k just for sod.
2)If there's a deck that is showing any sign of wear, get a quote on care/replacement for/of it.
Re: Things I wish I had known when buying a "used" home
How big is your yard and what kind of sod are you buying? $9K is WAY more than we were quoted for ours INCLUDING a sprinkler system for just under 1/2 acre. We are deciding between Bermuda (which is what the neighbors have) or Zoysia (granted--different areas of the country/conditions require different grass).
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I would love to know what they are charging you per pallet to buy and lay them. Are they prepping the ground beforehand? Something is not making sense in your quote because we have 1/3 acre and even the cheapest person (my mom's yard guy) charges 325/pallet to lay and buy it, that includes soil.
Sprinkler systems for a typical yard are $2500 or so.
What exactly is the breakdown for your yard?
We are paying $225/pallet total, 16,000 sq feet tilled, raked and laid Bermuda.
That's the cheapest among many companies I have gotten quotes from around here.
1) Look closely at the walls for food stains. We found a spaghetti sauce stain behind where the previous owners had their couch. What kind of people get spaghetti sauce behind their couch? People who have an ant infestation that we're now paying to get rid of, that's who!
2) Familiarize yourself with the types of trees in the yard and look up how much maintenance they require.
3) If you've never painted before, it's harder than it looks/sounds. Sure it's easy to change, but if you're not paying someone else to do it you'll be in pain afterwards. I'm getting painter muscles.
I don't have the breakdown in front of me, but I do remember that the sprinkler system is $1500 (including electrical timers, various zones for grass vs. beds, drip system for flower pots, etc.).
We got three quotes and this ended up being the middle one (but they were all within $500 of each other). I guess different areas have different "going rates."
ETA: I asked DH. For Bermuda,it comes out to $175 per pallet which includes ground preparation, dirt to level, and installation. Bermuda is widely grown in our area, so it is cheaper than the zoysia (and is what we are leaning towards for continuity with the neighboring yards).
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
I wish I had known to check under the bathmat. Our inspector and realtor didn't either and the fiberglass tub has been "repaired" which means it depresses when we stand on it and there is a small leak so now we have to replace the whole damn thing
I also wish I knew how dirty the beautiful willow tree is. It is constantly throwing sticks in my otherwise beautiful yard and while it is very pretty and romantic I am growing to hate it.
This is the type of tree I was thinking of when I said to figure out what species there are! We have the same problem. My compost pile is getting nice and full from it.
lol at the idea of a "used home."
We just spent 3 days painting 7 rooms. I almost couldn't get out of bed this morning. Painting is not fun, I have a new found respect for painters.
1) Check all of the outlets and see if they all work
2) Get everything in writing, including having the sellers clean up all the junk in the yard. We had no idea they were there until the snow melted.
3) Figure out how everything works in the house before actually trying to use them. Have somebody come over (or even an inspector) to show you everything.
4) Have the septic tank pumped before moving in. Shampoo the carpets beforehand too.
ETA: 5) check the carpet under furniture. My friend's mom bought a house years ago and never checked under the carpets and she realized that the sellers cut out pieces of carpet under the furniture! Why? I have no idea.
1) If there is bamboo, learn how to wrangle it beforehand!! Running bamboo is ridiculous and WILL take over your yard if you do nothing.
2) Learn about the plants and trees in the yard and how to care for them.
3) Get the previous owners' new address because you will keep getting their mail and packages even 8 months later.
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We have that bamboo junk too, it take so much maintenance to keep it out! And we did get the previous owners address, and it helped a ton, and I know they appreciated it too!
I am really more of a lurker, but I do have a suggestion:
Open the windows and make sure they work, even if you are buying in the winter or have your inspection in the winter. Two of our windows won't stay open, we have to put piece of wood there to hold them open. If I had known this when we were buying, we would have asked for them to be fixed or some money off.
Ditto ... except insert wisteria vines for running bamboo in #1.
Some of the items mentioned by others seem to be things that should have been caught during a home inspection. Our inspector did things like test all the outlets, open/close all windows, check showers/tubs for leaks, etc.
Mr. Sammy Dog
I agree with this one. When we did our final walk thru the day before there was still a ton of crap in the garage. We verbally confirmed it would be removed prior to closing. Well it wasnt and we had a dumpster worth of crap to remove ourselves.
>Check out closet space and try to imagine if there is enough. Our house doesn't have nearly enough storage, no storage room or extra closets at all and had I realized that I would not have chosen this house. I have nowhere convenient to store all my holiday decorations, coats, vacuum, etc.
>I regret not noticing there wasnt any built in lighting, such as can lights and we needed lamps in every room but the kitchen and baths. We've added this to most the rooms now but its been costly.
>Look for poison ivy. We are having a horrific time dealing with quite a bit of it!