Quote :

"ahhh welcome to Richmond! Never really saw many stinkbugs in NC, but after moving up here, they're a goddamn biblical plague once a year."

We didn't see many, if any, when we were in the Museum District. Up here, though, way too many of them.

Quote :

"Man that sucks I sure hope that doesn't happen with mine! I am about 2.5 weeks out at this point and would be super pissed because all the fixes I am making are based on the amount they agreed to pay. If it came in any lower I would start going to sold as is territory. If they changed it up after I fixed the stuff I would be pissed."

Thankfully that didn't enter into ours because the inspection had only found one issue that needed fixing (a missing chimney cap). As the buyers, it was sort of good because the sale price came down, but we ended up having to bring more money to closing because the seller was no longer covering closing costs. I think ours was somewhat atypical though--it's a long story.

4/4/2016 8:43:03 PM

^they seem to be migrating south east over the past 10 years, my cousins in Maryland had a few years that they were terrible, they've since drastically dropped. After that my grandparents near Pulaski, VA had a few years of them before they dropped, then we had a few years in western NC where they were god awful but the last 2 years haven't been bad. I'm just now starting to see a few in Hoke county, I think they are about to boom though.

In other news, I [start to] close in 1 hour and 6 minutes! I'm so ready for this to be done.

[Edited on April 5, 2016 at 8:07 AM. Reason : or maybe they are just following me ]

4/5/2016 8:04:30 AM

We have them in Winston-Salem, but I also remember them being around when I lived in Lexington in the early 90s.

4/5/2016 12:02:50 PM

Started the closing at 9:10 AM. Done at 9:30. It's almost 3:30, all of my bedroom stuff and kitchen stuff is loaded on trailers and I still don't have the damn keys. Guess we're eating pizza and sleeping on the floor tonight at the old house.

4/5/2016 3:21:35 PM

why didn't you receive the keys at closing?

4/5/2016 3:31:51 PM

The sellers agency's policy is not to release keys until the deed is recorded. And now we just found out that the sellers JUST refinanced, while we were under contract and didn't tell anybody, so now its looking like it's not even going to close today. My agent is working on them to let us take possession "early" though.

4/5/2016 4:19:06 PM

Alright, just signed an early possession clause to cover us until it closes.

What would possibly possess someone to refinance while they are under contract? My best guess is they were really hard up for cash, but damn that's an expensive short term loan

4/5/2016 5:11:59 PM

Garbage disposal crapped out.
What should I replace it with and should I do it myself or is it going to require more than minimal effort?

4/5/2016 6:34:11 PM

Quote :

"What would possibly possess someone to refinance while they are under contract? My best guess is they were really hard up for cash, but damn that's an expensive short term loan"

I was wondering that myself. If it had gone badly, that could have drawn the closing out by who knows how long.

4/6/2016 12:07:28 AM

^^replace it with one of these:

Disposals are dumb

4/6/2016 8:07:19 AM

Quote :

"why didn't you receive the keys at closing?"

Yeah the place I am buying from warned me not to try to setup closing on and old house and new house like back to back days because you dont always get the keys on the close date. She said she doesnt know how many times people have assumed thats how it worked and had all their shit loaded up and movers hired and were told sorry the keys wont be available till tomorrow when the deed is signed off on or whatever and it turns into a nightmare. I guess if you are doing it yourself its no big deal but try explaining to a moving company who has all your stuff in their truck ready to unload that sorry come back tomorrow haha.

4/6/2016 9:10:24 AM

Well, I've got most everything moved now, we got in but now I'm slightly worried. Everything technically isn't done yet and we are already in, what's gonna happen if something falls through? My agent swears up and down that it'll be fine, so we'll see. We also got out just in time, apparently last night someone broke into over half the cars on my old street. I had all kinds of shit in trailers and my car and truck, that would have sucked

4/6/2016 9:54:55 AM

Quote :

"Garbage disposal crapped out. What should I replace it with and should I do it myself or is it going to require more than minimal effort?"

Just go to sears or whatever and buy one. If you had one installed it is VERY easy to replace. Unscrew 2 pipe connections, put in new one, screw back on.

4/6/2016 11:56:45 AM

I've installed 3 or 4 of them. I wouldn't call them super easy. They aren't especially difficult, but the space is right, and even with the wrench, it can be difficult to get the disposal tightened down well. Watch a video before you do it, and you'll be fine.

And if you are connecting it to a dish washer, make sure you take out the plug where the dishwasher connects.

4/6/2016 1:13:18 PM

I bought one of those fancy "silent" garbage disposals from lowes that have those large rubber gaskets to reduce/prevent vibrations and sound transmission for a house I sold a few years back. It worked great for a few months then began rusting and became just as loud and out of balance as an inexpensive badger disposal. So yeah just get whatever they have on the shelf at sears and install it. Keep plumber's putty handy so you can redo the seal between the drain and the sink. Oh and uh make sure the power is off prior to going after those wires with a screwdriver.

4/7/2016 12:02:03 AM

F that. I'm calling someone tomorrow.

4/7/2016 12:06:53 AM

It's like a 30 minute job but I can understand the hesitation to tackle something which could basically fuck up your ability to use your sink until you get a professional to do it.


Oh yeah...

I suppose I can post in this thread again since I've been living in the condo I'm going to buy for a few weeks now. It's an open urban loft in a renovated 1920 factory building and the previous owners did literally none of the easy simple maintenance you do to keep a place habitable, right down to letting half of the lightbulbs in the place blow out without replacing them. So far I've:

- Fixed two simple to fix but severe toilet tank leaks that must have wasted thousands of gallons of water in the past year or more than this place has been unoccupied (and occupied, they must have had it like this when they were living here for years).
- Made all the lightbulbs in this place LEDs instead of dim halogens (it was so fucking dark in here at night until I did).
- Leveled the washer and magically made the laundry-mechanical room almost silent.
- Put acoustic foam in the laundry-mechanical room to take the edge off of the machinery noise (it's an open loft and this made a nice difference).
- Jammed a towel around the drain pipe for the washer because holy shit the thwacking noise it would make during the spin cycle.

And other fun items remaining on the list that are still broken:
- Fixing a very large custom set of shades because you can't raise/lower them any more (part broke/fell out or something).
- Replace all the under-cabinet lights (broken/burned out halogens).
- Replace the two large fluorescent fixtures (the 2-bulb fixtures with long bulbs you see everywhere) since their ballasts are dying and they go BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
- Install a wall of storage cabinets because this place lacks adequate storage.
- Repaint the poop walls (my god who paints walls poop brown jesus christ).
- Redo the lacquer/polyurethane coating on all the wood trim along the bottom of all the windows and probably sand all of it too!
- Figure out why the fuck/how the massive window by the kitchen is letting in so much air while it's closed.
- Replace the dimmer switch for one of the lights as it periodically flakes out and makes the light flicker (not bulbs, they're replaced).
- Fix a crimped rigid water line on one of the toilets which makes this loud squealing noise when you flush.

Thankfully though that's pretty much it. Just a lot of dumb basic stuff that'll take time to fix. This condo is pretty cool though, it has a large old iron spiral staircase to nowhere which I'm going to use to serve as an overly-elaborate plant stand and maybe festivus pole.

4/7/2016 12:40:12 AM

Re: Disposal

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=waste+king+garbage+disposals&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=35039488044&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9341172509066570807&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5hwnnyp3oc_b

Got it. Love it. Less expensive than most.

4/8/2016 8:05:17 AM

Picking paint colors is making me crazy.

4/8/2016 9:51:01 AM

^this.

4/8/2016 10:38:23 AM

Quote :

"Re: Disposal http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=waste+king+garbage+disposals&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=35039488044&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9341172509066570807&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_5hwnnyp3oc_b Got it. Love it. Less expensive than most. "

thats good to hear i ordered one earlier this week.

4/8/2016 11:41:53 PM

Quote :

"Picking paint colors is making me crazy. "

Sounds like my wife. When we moved into this house last year, we thought there was only one room we'd have to repaint (a little girl's bedroom in two-tone pink). How foolish that thought was. Currently, we've repainted four rooms, in the process of painting a fifth, and my wife is having extended mental anguish over color choice for the two more rooms which will be repainted in the near future.

The main living areas haven't changed, but by the time this is done, we'll have repainted 3 of the 4 bedrooms, all three baths, the foyer, and the upstairs landing. Oh, and the ceiling of the screen porch.

4/10/2016 1:04:28 AM

Bought house in October. Finished demo in January.

Then the reality of Seattle hits. There's a 12 week backlog for building permits. Every decent contractor is booked for the next 4-6 months. Shitty contractors are booked 3-4 months. Architects and Structural Engineers are 30-60 days out slammed.

The housing boom here is fucking unreal.

4/10/2016 2:16:40 PM

One week to go until I move out and I can move onto the next nightmare haha. Got most of the handyman type stuff fixed this weekend other than apparently one of the toilet flanges was broken so waiting on a plumber for that. Still waiting on vinyl siding guys and window guys this week then just gotta finish up the rest of the packing.

4/11/2016 9:19:55 AM

I've started skim coating one of my bathrooms, for two reasons: 1) I replaced nearly every damn drywall screw/nail in the room, and 2) The drywall crew that worked on my house sucked. Any advice for this process? Do I need to get enough mud on there to really cover up the drywall screw repairs (I had previously filled holes with mud)? Meaning, I shouldn't be able to see them through the skim coat?

4/11/2016 2:25:21 PM

^mud and tape is one of the few jobs I will always and forever hire a contractor for. I swear to God it's magic to get it right.

4/11/2016 10:48:51 PM

I'm about to join this club.

I flew down to Miami this past weekend to look at five houses. Made an offer on one Saturday and was told yesterday the seller accepted!!!

Now the inspection/appraisal happen, then we'll see if it's a good house and the bank agrees with the price.

Pretty anxious about it.

We'll be closing in June.

4/12/2016 12:41:33 AM

4/12/2016 8:00:54 AM

^^^If it involved retaping, I'd hire it out. Luckily, this is just mudding a little, so it's not terribly hard. Still would rather not do it myself, but I'm cheap.

4/12/2016 9:30:37 AM

Anybody know a good termite inspector?

This isn't for a purchase, just wanna run a few things by one.

4/13/2016 8:21:25 PM

Good? I don't know, but I use Alexander Pest Control for my quarterly pest control treatments and annual termite inspection. The guy who normally comes to the house seems competent enough.

4/14/2016 11:49:16 AM

Good enough. Just didn't wanna call a rando

4/14/2016 2:01:17 PM

never ever have I paid for routine pest inspection (termites included). I realize in certain places, they are common place and it is a smart move. I know eventually I'll deal with termite damage somewhere, but it won't cost me the money I would have spent for decades on multiple homes.

I do, however, know what to look for and do my own inspections.

4/14/2016 4:27:13 PM

i've taken the same approach, and glad i'm not the only one.

I do pay for a company to come out and spray around the house for bugs in general because fuck spiders.. but that's like mental health maintenance.

4/15/2016 1:07:39 AM

I've been in the house for a week and a half now and already the ice maker broke. We've got a seller paid home warranty though, I guess now I'll find out how big a pain in the ass those things really are.

4/15/2016 7:41:19 AM

Quote :

"never ever have I paid for routine pest inspection (termites included). I realize in certain places, they are common place and it is a smart move. I know eventually I'll deal with termite damage somewhere, but it won't cost me the money I would have spent for decades on multiple homes. I do, however, know what to look for and do my own inspections."

Meh, routine pest control sprays are nice. And have been very helpful when plants have gotten infested and when something in the pantry was infested. But the best part is ^^. I see very few of those devils. A regular service helps to prevent me from burning down my house.

And as far as termite inspections, $100/ year is nothing compared to termite damages, unless you happen to catch it very early and possibly DIY repair. But let a year or so go buy, have some structural damage, and that $100/year warranty just paid for itself. Hell, a $10,000 structural repair isn't unheard of... that's 100 years worth of inspections.

4/15/2016 8:38:04 AM

^ i agree

There were termites in my first house, so I had it treated and yearly inspection. Last year I did inspections on two prospective houses I was going to buy, and one had termites. I didn't see them, but I sure as shit scanned the entire crawlspace looking for them. When the inspector showed it to me, it just looked like mulch against the screen of the crawlspace, but when we dug into it from the outside, it was definitely termites. Just saying, you may not know exactly what to look for, but the pros do, and $100 a year for an inspection and damage insurance is a good deal in my book.

The termite guy said that every yard in Raleigh has termites within 100 yards, and it is only a matter of time before they make their way towards your house. You have to make sure you keep the conditions for termites low and catch them early.

4/15/2016 10:56:58 AM

"The termite guy said that every yard in Raleigh has termites within 100 yards, and it is only a matter of time before they make their way towards your house. You have to make sure you keep the conditions for termites low and catch them early."

Bull shit. That is what they tell you to sell you the service.

In all honesty, I really misspoke earlier. The 'inspection' isn't that big of a deal. The bond associated with it is. And to get a house bonded that was previously not, is generally expensive.

[Edited on April 15, 2016 at 11:18 AM. Reason : .]

4/15/2016 11:15:22 AM

so I'm selling my house. I'm pretty picky with interior photographs and typically hate standard realtor photographs. Now understandably, all of my pictures were when the house was fully furnished as portfolio work for my design services. And they wanted to take some pictures with the house really 'stripped down' and 'de-cluttered' (even though we kept a pretty clean aesthetic). Anyway, I sent them all the portfolio pictures I had of the house so they could use some of those in conjunction with their photographers photos.

The house listed today and all but 1 or 2 of the photos are their 'photographer''s photos. The lighting is poor, the pictures aren't sharp, the color is washed out and not balanced and the angles are weird. Should I just talk to the realtor about mixing some of my photographs in or replacing some of theirs?

Granted, I don't claim to be a photographer. I also don't have a wide angle lens that I really need to capture some smaller rooms properly. I bought a DSLR and use the stock lens with a tripod just to be able to take pictures of projects without having to pay someone. But this is a small example of their shots vs the same area of the house I sent them pictures of (I sent them tons of shots I had taken over the past year that I kept around for my own use when practicing photography and staging). I don't even like some of my pictures, but theirs are worse:

4/15/2016 2:42:36 PM

My opinion is that you should never list a house without professional photographs. Realtors are photographers, even though the think they are.

It is your listing, and you have the right to demand whatever you like w/r to photographs. Last time I listed a house, I paid a professional photographer to photograph it. Super worth the money. They have all the lenses to show all the space and the lighting to access important things.

I wouldn't list with a realtor that was trying to cheap out over photography unless they were listing the house at a really low rate.

It should cost you about $300 to hire a photographer to do the correct job. Just pay the man

realtors are so fucking lazy

[Edited on April 15, 2016 at 3:41 PM. Reason : .]

4/15/2016 3:40:52 PM

that's the issue. We did technically pay to use their professional photographer. I'm already working in Dallas, so I'm dealing with it from afar. They hired a local 'pro' they use. After seeing the pictures, I would have done a much better job. IMO, my comparable pictures / similar shots have a lot better lighting and color rendition than their 'pro' that was included for $250. The fee part I'll worry about later. For now, I'm just worried about the listing.

Appreciate the feedback though.

4/15/2016 3:45:21 PM

yeah, those pictures could have been way better. our realtor's photographer did an awesome job on ours and didn't even take very many pics (I think she took just 1-2 per room)! I was all "did you get enough shots in?" and she was all "I got dis". sure as shit...she took some good ones. I'd get yours to re-take them or send someone else.

reference: http://www.zillow.com/homes/2917-mark-oak-court-raleigh-nc_rb/

4/15/2016 4:00:13 PM

Quote :

"The 'inspection' isn't that big of a deal. The bond associated with it is. And to get a house bonded that was previously not, is generally expensive."

True, the bond is expensive. Luckily, I'm in a new construction, so it was already part of the home cost.

Something to consider when purchasing, to see if a seller would ever get a bond if they let it lapse/don't have one.

4/15/2016 4:10:28 PM

Hey all, I just got the results of the home inspection and wanted to bounce some things off of you guys.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

1.3 EAVES, SOFFITS AND FASCIAS
Repair or Replace
NW corner to front bedroom soffit missing small strip of soffit board recommend repair to prevent pest intrusion.


1.4 PORCHES/PATIO
The patio screen is torn SE corner, recommend repairs.

The sliding door screen to the kitchen area is torn by the handle and the screen is not necessary patio enclosed with screen.

1.9 Electric (exterior)
Both rear light fixture cover are missing the bulbs are exposed to the weather recommend replacement. The rear outlet is GFCI protected and it's missing the waterproof cover, recommend replacement.

2.0 ROOF COVERINGS
Marginal
See attached roof report that was performed by South Florida construction which states the following, roof is from leaks at time of inspection. There are three cracked tiles in the field.


2.4 ROOF DRAINAGE SYSTEMS (gutters and downspouts)
Repair or Replace
The gutters need to be cleaned and sealed at the corners and elbows evidence of leaks

8.1 WALLS
Repair or Replace
There is a small wall opening behind the washer and dryer that appears to be created to make some kind of plumbing repairs. There is no visible signs of leaks, recommend repairs to the area to prevent energy loss to the open wall cavity.


8.15 CLOTHES DRYER & VENT PIPING
Repair or Replace
The dryer vent that is on the front wall is missing the flapper, will allow for pest intrusion recommend repairs.

9.8 TUB / SHOWER (tiles and surrounding)
Marginal
Item 1(Picture) missing stopper recommend replacement. The tub spout is separated from the wall tiles and was previously repaired recommend repairs.

13.3 DOORS
Repair or Replace
Item 1(Picture) Bedroom #2 door lock needs adjustment to prevent the lock from sticking shut. The bolt will not re-track into the door far enough.

13.4 WINDOWS (REPRESENTATIVE NUMBER)
Repair or Replace
Item 1(Picture) Item 2(Picture) Bedrooms #1 and #3 window springs pop out of frame and makes them hard to operate and may at time not stay open recommend repairs.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

The biggest thing I saw was the wall gap at the bottom of the laundry closet.

4/15/2016 4:42:31 PM

Your roads are fine.

4/16/2016 12:28:38 AM

Seems like some fairly routine stuff. What's being bounced? Nice borked images.

4/16/2016 9:04:21 AM

Quote :

"And as far as termite inspections, $100/ year is nothing compared to termite damages,"

That place you recommended only charged me $25. Don't know if that's normal or not...

4/16/2016 2:45:46 PM

Images directly from inspection report. Ah well.

4/16/2016 3:59:22 PM

Quote :

"Home Inspection Report Not Found Sorry but this report has been removed. "

4/16/2016 8:00:01 PM

[Edited on April 17, 2016 at 2:17 PM. Reason : 1]

4/17/2016 2:14:41 PM