Home buying questions I should know, but I don't
- Thread starter dmclone
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I mean without saying how much your house is valued at, these figures don't really say anything about the tax rates in a given location.. His $9,600 could be on a $2M house for all we know.
House I bought 4 years ago for $490 now assessed at $630 after CR re assessed everyone
Our house didn't go up too bad, but the business building did. From $1.5M to $2.35M. 60%!!
I wonder if rates will go down by the same amount??
If new home, know your materials!!! 2x6 walls vs 2x4. Plywood vs chipboard. Window brands and what level within that brand. Cabinets, hardware, it all adds up - you get what you pay for in most cases. Similar with A/C - Heat. Know your brands(who makes what - parts availability)
Warranty for appliances, most are made in China today - or at least major components.
You the buyer, insist seller provided one year house warranty - read fine print
Warranty for appliances, most are made in China today - or at least major components.
You the buyer, insist seller provided one year house warranty - read fine print
Pella is lifetime fwiw. Marvin takes a dump on both Anderson and Pella also fwiw.
have you thought about a bridge loan? I know many people that do that when they have enough equity in their current home. Find a home you like, buy it, take your time to move in and then sell your current home and pay off the bridge loan.
It's something we're thinking about. Just put our house on the market today, so we'll see how it goes.
we put Pella 350 series replacement windows in our house in 2019 when we moved in. They work great for us.
I have a friend that bought a new build a couple of years ago and it was an expensive house. I was shocked at how cheap all of the finishes were, how crappy the appliances are, and how it appears to be built not to last. It looks really nice, but I'll be interested to see how it looks in 5 years. It made me more interested in remodeling/upgrading my pretty solid 1980's build rather than buying a new house.
Our house is about 25 and we've been in it about 15 and we've done so much work.
It sounds wild but we try and tick off $10k chunks: windows, roof, doors, carpet, bathrooms, counter top, furnace, trim.
We have done that about every other year.
As long as you have a plan and can budget, nothing better than not moving IMO.
You all can just be glad you’re not in Dane County Wisconsin when it comes to property taxes. Not to mention by assessment went up 20% (along with the rest of the village) this year. That new tax bill sucks.
Assuming it is similar to Iowa, you haven’t even seen the bill for those new assessments. Those won’t come for another year.
But just as long as the entire tax base went up 20%, it doesn’t matter as much. If only yours went up 20%, that’s a problem.
Levy rate = City Budget / Tax Base. So if the denominator goes up 20%, the levy rate should drop accordingly. But, and here’s the kicker, the citizens need to hold the city or county accountable to that budget amount. Just because the tax base went up 20%, that doesn’t make it fair game to raise the budget by 20% and hold the levy rate steady.
Window are expensive as hell, but well worth it in the long run. The house we purchased, windows were one of those areas that they cut corners on. A lot of the people that own the homes around us work either at ISU or USDA, so they are here for 3 to 5 years and then transfer out, so they do not worry about quality on their windows.
Probably depends. Are we're talking Rosanne Barr or Mila Kunis?
SIAP. I am a lawyer and do real estate work.
Do NOT skip the title opinion. You’d rather know now that you have clear chain of title.
Odds are there are no issues, but if there are issues, it’s much easier to either make sure it’s fixed now (or you walk away).
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