Your first house

[Captain_Nick]

I'm really wanting to buy a house sooner rather than later. I look at homes every day, and the thing that I keep getting surprised (and annoyed) by is that mortgage payments, even if I put zero money down, would be significantly less than the rent I'm paying.

Get on with it then lad. I bought my own first place a year ago. (quite a feat in a country where housing affordability is the lowest it has ever been in recorded history! But I am God and I moveth in mysterious ways)

It is not as hard as people imagine to buy a house, honestly I don't understand why people make such a big thing out of buying houses and cars, they're just like toasters and toilet paper only much bigger and more expensive. Yea.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

One thing I decided on from the get-go is that my house shall have no decorations of any kind. All walls are painted bare white; no posters, no furniture I don't need, no wallpaper, no fancy shit. (Except for the pool table downstairs, of course. I got standards. ) I have wholly embraced minimalism. I'd like to think that I've got this place pared down to where I could move completely out of here in an hour.

If HGTV has taught me anything, it's that you will never be able to sell in such a condition.

I'll take that chance. Besides, I think it would be better to have my house look as 'neutral' as possible. That way, anyone who buys it after me, can put whatever they want to on top of that.

You need warm colors...and accessories!

Those things are entirely the opposite of my personality.

 

[RoJoHen]

One thing I decided on from the get-go is that my house shall have no decorations of any kind. All walls are painted bare white; no posters, no furniture I don't need, no wallpaper, no fancy shit. (Except for the pool table downstairs, of course. I got standards. ) I have wholly embraced minimalism. I'd like to think that I've got this place pared down to where I could move completely out of here in an hour.

If HGTV has taught me anything, it's that you will never be able to sell in such a condition.

I'll take that chance. Besides, I think it would be better to have my house look as 'neutral' as possible. That way, anyone who buys it after me, can put whatever they want to on top of that.

You need warm colors...and accessories!

Those things are entirely the opposite of my personality.

White, surprisingly, isn't considered a neutral wall color. It's often quite off-putting.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Not to me it ain't.

In the end, I can't be constantly nagged by how my house might look to a potential buyer years down the road. At this point there ARE no such buyers. I am not selling this house, I'm LIVING in it. My sole motivation is how this house looks and feels TO ME. If, God help me, I ever have to sell, I'll deal with that when the time comes.

 

[RoJoHen]

I'm just sayin'. If and when it does come time to sell, you might need to give up your style a bit to make it more attractive to buyers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I will not give up my style. It will probably be decades before I have to sell; why worry about it until then?

If somebody buys this place, they can do what they want to it - AFTER I'm gone. And something as innocuous as wall color is probably not going to be a deal-breaker. The buyer can always have it repainted. Takes a couple hours at most. Big deal.

Hell, when I bought this house, the walls - those that weren't covered in wallpaper so ugly as to make Jackson Pollock retch - were a completely hideous shade of BLUE. (Yep, you read that right. BLUE.) Didn't worry me none. I always knew I'd have to repaint.

 

[RoJoHen]

If somebody buys this place, they can do what they want to it - AFTER I'm gone. And something as innocuous as wall color is probably not going to be a deal-breaker. The buyer can always have it repainted. Takes a couple hours at most. Big deal.

I base all of my knowledge from shows on HGTV. I'm hardly an expert.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I've never watched HGTV, so I wouldn't know. And even so, why should I care what they think? No one has ever told me my house looks ugly (not now, anyway ). I value other people's opinions much more than some TV network. HGTV is not going to be buying my house.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well, no, they're shows about people who have been unable to sell their homes, and then they have experts come in and spruce them up. The biggest turn-off for potential buyers is white walls!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Meh. I stand by my choices. If a buyer says they don't like the walls, THEN maybe I'll consider a new color. But like I said, that's decades away. By then they may have paint that can change color by the touch of a button.

 

[RoJoHen]

Well yeah, I'm not saying you need to do anything NOW. That would be silly.

 

[John Picard]

I will not give up my style. It will probably be decades before I have to sell; why worry about it until then?

If somebody buys this place, they can do what they want to it - AFTER I'm gone. And something as innocuous as wall color is probably not going to be a deal-breaker. The buyer can always have it repainted. Takes a couple hours at most. Big deal.

Hell, when I bought this house, the walls - those that weren't covered in wallpaper so ugly as to make Jackson Pollock retch - were a completely hideous shade of BLUE. (Yep, you read that right. BLUE.) Didn't worry me none. I always knew I'd have to repaint.

A while back, someone here took offense that I'd disconnected the telephone line from my house and dug it up since I no longer use a land line. The poster was shocked that I didn't take into consideration whomever buys my house if/when I sell it.

Are you effing kidding me???

I had a friend who tried the house flipping business in Missouri toward the end of the housing boom. He had a buyer agonize over the color of the front door -- it was literally becoming that much of a deal breaker.

I shake my head at how helpless and idiotic most people are these days. When I lost power for 2.5 days a couple of weeks back due to the tornadoes, one of my co-workers remarked, "We knew better than to wonder if you'd be OK."

 

[Guartho]

When I lost power for 2.5 days a couple of weeks back due to the tornadoes, one of my co-workers remarked, "We knew better than to wonder if you'd be OK."

John Picard, mother-fucking Grizzly Adams mother fucker.

 

[Hofner]

I'm living in my second house. Both my first and current homes were/are very nice for my purposes. I'm single so I don't need large houses although both homes are three bedroom ones. When it comes to myy finances I'm very conservative. In my own opinion people should never try to buy the nost house they can possibly afford without any leeway. Maybe unanticipated expenses will never come up but if they do it could kill you.

I got very lucky when I sold my first house and bought the second one. I lived in my first one for about 11 years. During the last six years or so I was going through a rough period of my life and didn't keep up the house. So I needed to move and the house wasn't in very good condition. I was thinking of selling as-is for a low price. But my brother made me get an appraiser look at the house and give a as-is estimate and a fixed-up estimate with a list of things to fix.

Of couse this depends on what the eventual sale price is but the convention is that for every dollar you spend fixing up the place, you 'should' increase the sale price by two dollars. It's kind of a risk but I decided to go for it.

Over the next nine months I spent $13,000 getting the house fixed up and put it on the market. I sold the house for a little more than the appraiser estimated for fixing the house up. . That is going by his as-is estime, I had increased the value by $26,500. So the appaiser was right, I got a little more than two dollars back for every dollar I spent. I had been studying the real estate market in my neighborhood for years and I sold my first house for a very good price, almost double what I paid 11 years earlier.

The real estate in the area I moved to was cheaper so I was able to buy a house very comparable to my old one for less. I had put down 15% on my first house and with the proceeds from its sale, I was able to put down more than 50% on my new house. I was LUCKY; I had made a killing due to fortunate circumstances and timing.

As I said, both houses weren't very large, just small three-bedroom houses but certainly enough for my needs. I've been very happy with both. I've lived in my current house for four years. People always compliment me on this house then they're floored when I tell them how low my mortgage payments are. A two-bedroom apartment around here about half the size of my house costs almost twice as much per month.

Robert

 

[propita]

Meh. I stand by my choices. If a buyer says they don't like the walls, THEN maybe I'll consider a new color. But like I said, that's decades away. By then they may have paint that can change color by the touch of a button.

By all means, have the walls any color you want. As you say, you're intending to live there for quite a while.

When you do decide to sell, you'll want to spiffy the place up anyway to maximize your price. That's when you'll paint the walls in the "appropriate" colors that buyers are looking for. Clean up the place, make sure the grass is green, fix the minor repairs (shelves, cabinet doors). Spend $1000 for the painting (whatever the amount is) and get a passle of buyers who are willing to spend $5000 more because it's in "move-in condition."

I swear, when we were looking, to see a place that the seller wanted top dollar for and the walls around every light switch was frakkin' FILTHY! Dirt everywhere! If they can't clean that, why would I think that the house itself was in acceptable shape--the electrical, plumbing, roof, etc. And they wouldn't budge on price?! Fine! They can keep their pig sty and wallow in it.

There's a big difference between living in filth and just wanting white walls in your house. Keep your walls white. When we bought our house, I didn't want white walls. I figured they'd show dust and dirt too easily and white was the color of every place we rented.

 

[HighteeHeller]

If HGTV has taught me anything, it's that you will never be able to sell in such a condition.

I'll take that chance. Besides, I think it would be better to have my house look as 'neutral' as possible. That way, anyone who buys it after me, can put whatever they want to on top of that.

You need warm colors...and accessories!

Those things are entirely the opposite of my personality.

White, surprisingly, isn't considered a neutral wall color. It's often quite off-putting.

I LOVE white!

I bought my first house a couple years ago. My ex bought me out of our last home and i put the money on a down payment on my own home. I debated holding onto the money and renting for a few years, but i knew if i didnt buy something asap i would have it all spent before i had the chance.

The house i bought was the first one i looked at. Made the mistake of bringing the kids with me. They fell in love with it and decided they wanted to live there. So i put in a rather low offer hoping to be turned down, and they came back with a low enough offer that i took it.

Back to the white...have i mentioned i love it!?

I took two weeks off when i moved in and painted absolutely every room white.

I love big art, big pottery, and bold colours. This works very well with a white backdrop. My livingroom is red, black/dark brown, and white. I have the coolest red leather italian chairs, and they pop out with the white. My bedroom is red and white. A lot of white on white with texture, and the red to accent.

Have i mentioned i love white?

My livingroom..