Thread: Buying a house...

Originally Posted by pixelfixed

Any man who divorces a wife who is a Millionare,Is Wack

LOL - you wouldn't say that if you knew her like I knew her lol.

Meh! A millionaire is so '80s. I don't get out of bed for anything less than billionaire nowadays.

James.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

OK, we were selling our house. Got an offer, signed the contracts - fell through on the finance clause.

Got another offer, signed contract. Fell through on finance clause.

Happened again 2 more times, different buyers each time.

Finally, got an offer from a female couple. They had to sell their house, but were in love with ours. So we gave them a 90 day clause. Of course, it fell through.

We gave up on selling at that point. About 4 months later, ran into the old real estate guy, says the ladies were still trying to sell their house, were wondering if we were still interested in selling ours? We said yes, for the same price as previously agreed. They were going to get bridging finance this time, so we signed a contract. Fell through when the ladies discovered how high bridging finance interests rates were.

We just gave up at that point.

2 years later. Selling again, different real estate agent. Similar rigmarole, but finally get a serious offer. Guess who? Yes! The Ladies! They bailed on a contract on a house up the road to get ours, then put us through the ringer trying to beat down the price. But we knew they wanted it so we held firm. Besides which they'd pissed me off by pulling out of two previous contracts on us 2 years earlier.

The moral to the story? No idea, I'm still counting the cash!

James.

That's hilarious!! And the moral to many a story .

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Meh! A millionaire is so '80s. I don't get out of bed for anything less than billionaire nowadays.

James.

Maybe so - but the moral to that story is - the little guy does win sometimes !!

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Meh! A millionaire is so '80s. I don't get out of bed for anything less than billionaire nowadays.

James.

You meant into bed didn't you?

Keep 'em coming guys... Great so far!

I'll say this- I'm glad I did remodeling work for the six years that I did. The guy who taught me the ropes had been in the construction business for 35 years or so and was not only talented and knowledgeable, but patient and an excellent teacher to boot.

My Realtor did a double take when we were looking at the first house and I reached into my pocket, pulled out a flashlight and said "I'll be right back" as I opened the crawlspace door. He was even more surprised when I came out and said "I can already tell you this isn't the one, since the mudsill is rotted along the left side of the house, and all I see is a mix of aluminum wiring and knob and tube wiring."

I don't claim to know it all, but I'm certainly glad that I know something.

Oh, and good call on the ball bearing, Pixel!

Well, another adventure in home ownership.

This current house we bought through a private sale (a friend of a friend knew this guy, ....). So no real estate agents.

Anyway, the seller was an old guy downsizing and moving on from a bad marriage breakdown. Had done a lot of the renovations on the house himself. Promised that he'd get us the plans for everything, maps of the plumbing and electricity, bore pipes etc. asap.

He dropped dead 2 months after the sale went through unfortunately, the poor bugger. So we had no plans.

Right. No problem. First task, make a retaining wall out the back with bush rock. First day on site, the guy with the digger cuts through the major bore pipe, the septic tank line and the electricity line to both the bore pump and the septic pumps. Everything went quite well after that.

Second task. Put veranda posts up into metal stirrups (termite thing). Cut through phone and internet line while hammer drilling out the concrete around one of the posts.

Third task. Concrete the back part of the house. Broke through downstairs plumbing. Happily, was not a toilet we use, but...

Fourth task. Termite barrier around house. Drilling little holes through concrete every 200mm and injecting with termite poison. Phone call at 12pm from the dude - had drilled through the main water pipe to the house from the tank.

Seriously, by the time we finish the remaining 15 tasks I'll have a perfect picture of where all the bits are around my house.

The moral to this story? Get plans, and choose tradesmen with full insurance.

James.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

pixelfixed, what are cripple walls?

Mud sill on a concrete footing (the foundation) 2x6s nailed to the mudsill,most two ft tall,than six x sixs nailed to the 2x6s,the rest of the house is than built upon that.old time construction.

I am always amazed at what some people get away with and what people will buy. I live in an old house in the bad part of our town. We have no real crime and people leave us well enough alone, but we are treated like second place citizens. Our house is solid, and I am sure it will still be standing after WWIII do to the amount of asbestos, and lead paint. recently my oldest son's in-laws were having a new house custom built. Since I have worked construction my whole life, I was asked to check the work out. Now, I work heavy construction, and there is a world of difference between building a house and say a bridge or building, but I could tell these fools were screwing my son's in-laws. after voicing my opinion about the shoddy work that was being done, the contractor ask these fine people not to let me back on the site until they were done. Needless to say, in the nine months since the completion of the house, plumbers have been there twice, electricians, 3 times and their heat still doesn't work. the paint is pealing off the outside., and walls are moving out of Plumb... On the plus side.. the contractor has blamed me for interfering, so he doesn't have to pay for anything

Anyone who owns their own house deserves it!
Same pad since 1984. I bought it from a dude named Travis and sent payments to his ex-wife Joy.
His work is still being uncovered. I call them 'travesties'. She was a pain to deal with til the thing was paid off, not such a joy!