So I decided about a month and a half ago to stop dicking around and buy a house. I had been looking online (www.homesdatabase.com) for years and contacted a realestate agent in November. I looked a few houses and put an offer in on one but did not get it (it was 225,000, a little higher then I wanted to go, so that was fine w/ me). Then I took it slow for a few weeks and looked at a bunch of houses. .... well to be honest I was looking for an investment I could live in more then a house.... I'm easy going and could live anywhere in any conditions.... and I like money.

I considered location.... I was looknig for locations I knew were in nice areas that were "under-rated".... I like the burbs, but I like being close to everything too. My girl likes the city and likes to be close to public transportation so I considered that too. I found a neighborhood just over the AA county line and just outside B-More city in B-more county, the neighborhood is not a cookie cutter neighborhood, a few hundred houses and all of them are different, some real big, some real small, some being built now, some built in the early 1900's, Light-rail at the bottom of the neighborhood, busses at the top. .... ok, so I found the neighborhood I was looking for..... way undervalued IMO (There's no ****ing way I'm going to lose money).

Now I just needeed to find a house there, looked at 4-5 houses in the neighborhood and finaly found a "weird" one (I like "weird"), it's a 3br/2ba home w/ an inlaw suite that has another br/ba (and full kitchen) .... the two are connected through interior doors and it's got two front doors and two rear doors (and seperate power meters), currently the inlaw suite is rented out to renters (they're moving out w/ the owners move out).

I like the house alot, big partial finished basement, has a clubroom, an office, another 14x15 room, laundery room and an unfinished 20x14 room (perfect for my reloading / storage room) also, a finished attic, big kitchen, Hardwood floors throughout the entire main level, wood trim in all the rooms. (I like wood) the house was built in '56, it's solid as hell. ...2700+ sqft of living space total. It sits on a level .22 acre lot with 4-5 big (real big) oak trees (I love big oak trees), and as a two unit place it's got pleanty of parking for my 3 cars and camper :nice: .... they were asking less then 200,000.... the house listed 12/21 I put an offer in 12/24 and it was accepted and signed by the owners 12/25 (I think they needed a quick sale, younger (upper 30ish) couple that allready had a new home, probably a bit strapped for cash).

so anyways..... I was preapproved for 250,000 (the absolute max I would go) before putting the offer in.... kids, when you get a job that offers a 401k, max it out.... no doubt, the big wad I had in there makes me appealing to sellers in this sellers market, and it does not hurt to have a wad of liquid funds sitting around (us Bonds, etc)... anyways since they accepted the offer I had to contact a lender (I checked w/ three.... two credit unitons and one my realestate agent recomended), I'm going to use one of my two credit unions (that's another thing kids, join a credit union or two.... put the $500 bucks or whatever in the account and let it sit, it's good to have credit unions), their 80/10/10 plan will let me avoid PMI (saving me about 200-300 per month over other options). Today was the home inspection, you have to write that guy a check on the spot (he was $145), the agent lined him up for me.... he was good (if he was not I would have got another inspector to come take a look in addition to him). So my next step to to call my lender back and take the process further (so far I applied online and paid the $50 fee and got approved for the loan), I have to pay them $300 bucks now to move on (I believe they will be sending out an appraiser to look at the house and some other crap)..... maybe I'll call them today when I'm done procrastinating .... actually, i should stop ****ing around right now and call them..... to be continued.

Can I come live at your house when you move in? :)

congrats! I'm in escrow right now. I'm slightly anxious about it, but pretty happy and excited over all.

Can I come live at your house when you move in? :)

Sure! But, You'll have to get in line :) My sister allready wants to.


congrats! I'm in escrow right now. I'm slightly anxious about it, but pretty happy and excited over all.

I'm sure I learn all about what being "in escrow" means soon. :) ... I'm going to try to document everything here.

So I worked some of the issues w/ the bank. Looks like I'm going to go w/ the 80/10/10 fix 30/yr (30yr on the 80, 20yr on the 10)..... I will borrow 20k from my 401k to cover my 10 (and keep the cash I was going to use for it for furniture and stuff), I'll have 15 years to pay it back, I'll be paying myself 5.75% interest. I had to fax in copies of 30day worth of pay stubs and my w2's from the last two years and sign a bunch of crap to get the rate locked in

I have a friend that works at a title agency, she's going to save my some money, I had to write a letter to the bank and let my real estate agent know my intent to use that particular title company.

Now I'm waiting for the next step; maybe I'll call my agent to find out what that is..... I'm guessing it's the bank appraiser comming out to look at the house to make sure its worth what their lending me.

The house is Oil heat and oil hot water, during the inspection I saw a service tag from a local oil company.... did some research, I can get a service contract w/ them to service/warenty the stuff and deliver oil, I'll probably give them a call too to get lined up for oil (the tank is full now, but I want to make sure I do not run out). I'm getting boxes and starting to pack up now, I think I'll rent a big uhaul (hmmmm should probably call around about that too). I'm not worried about mail delivery, all my mail is going to my legal address in MD right now, 5 miles from where the new house is.... I'll switch it over after I move in and continue to pick my mail up until that all gets squared away.

You guys are in it too I see. We're closing on 1/28 and the loan officer is driving me nuts. Rates dipped an 1/8th yesterday on the unemployment report but we held back from locking. The house we're getting into just had the hardwood floors finished. I drive out to it every few days and see the progress. Our realtor saved us 20% on his commission, but when you're looking at an inch and a half of paper it seems such a small amount. LOL. Ours will be natural gas heat/water. The next few month should be interesting. Best of luck to you.

You guys are in it too I see. We're closing on 1/28 and the loan officer is driving me nuts. Rates dipped an 1/8th yesterday on the unemployment report but we held back from locking. The house we're getting into just had the hardwood floors finished. I drive out to it every few days and see the progress. Our realtor saved us 20% on his commission, but when you're looking at an inch and a half of paper it seems such a small amount. LOL. Ours will be natural gas heat/water. The next few month should be interesting. Best of luck to you.

Good luck to you too! and congradulations! ..... I went ahead and just locked mine, I'll drive myself crazy if I keep looking at the rates and stuff :)

yeah it dropped there on friday - they said the jobs report did it. i'm holding on until thursday to see if rates drop any.

.... so, the people in the house now had some contractors come over to fix some stuff. They unplugged the sump pump and we got some of rain last week or something. The house has a drainage system that takes the water on the outside of the cement and puts it in the sump pump hole to get pumped out away from the house ..... anyways, the contractors left it unplugged and the basement flooded. So it looks like I'll get some new carpet on them too :) (I did not really like the carpet in the basement, it was dark blue.... I'd prefer off white or white berber w/ blue in it)

Today I went through the crap the title company and bank sent me .... signed a bunch of ****, and provided info on my money stuff... mailed it away today. (Along w/ another $300 to the bank .... that'll make 650 allready I think .... I think the last 300 goes towards closing or some ****, I don't really care)

I also had to call the insurance company (same one I insure my cars through), they're going to call the bank and figure out what I need then call me and work something out, that seems easy. The bank will call my agent or the sellers agent to schedule the apraisal and get that taken care of.

so that's where its at now.... everything cool so far.

The biggest pain in the ass is the appartment, don't really want the GF to say we're moving out until after the appraisal... in a nut shell we'll probably end up paying for Feb. even though we may not be here .... oh well, **** happens, I guess .... better then the risk of being homeless. :)

I'll officially own my place on tuesday. I signed all the escrow docs today.

cool beans man. im closing next friday. doing our final walk through tommorrow morning.

home ownership rocks Jed! :nice:

looks like I'm all set for 1/31 (monday) ..... not sure how much I'm going to need at the table ("they" have not told me) so ..... I'm getting a cashiers check for my 10%, I'll have the $3k I deposited with the realtor there too, in addition I'm going to get (3) cashiers checks for $2k a piece ..... that should cover the closing costs I hope.

I talked to my insurance company and paid for home owners insurance .... its insured for the appraisal value (which is more then the asking price of the house so that's cool). I had to write a letter to the lender saying I have not rented before (nothing has ben in my name, I have not rented ever) .... and that's that so far. we'll see on monday! :)

Congrats, dude! I got mine this week on tuesday, I'm moving in officially tomorrow!

Congrats, dude! I got mine this week on tuesday, I'm moving in officially tomorrow!


Sweet! ..... congradulations!

I signed off and got my keys today. There's a little guy in a Bobcat doing the final grading and the fencing should be in soon weather permitting.

Notch - The title company should give you that final figure at least 48 hours prior to closing. Give em a call.

Congrats both you guys. :)

Post some pics

Yay! I'm a home owner now! Everything went well! I went there right after settlement (MD is a table-settle state..... there is no "in escrow" like in CA) to shovel the snow off the driveway to make moving day easier; I'll be moving on Saturday!

I got the survey stuff, the lot is a perfect rectangle 75x125 feet (with a 10’ alley in the back where the utility poles are), the house is a 45’1” x 31’1” rancher with a finished basement and a finished attic situated on the left side of the lot. I got $3500 from the owner to pick my own carpet out for the basement, since the old carpet got ruined from the contractor pulling the plug on the sump pump, so that’s cool! (I’m going to get a light colored berber carpet, I’ll probably hold off until president’s day….. “they” run some crack-head specials on carpet then :) )

after settlement, the only think I had to do was call BGE and get the utils (electric) switched over to my name.... the water goes automatically with the property taxes that were switched to my name at settlement.... so everything is taken care of now! ..... Well except for the oil..... I'm going to call Carroll fuels and get set up w/ them, get them to be my oil delivery folks and get a service contract in place for the furnace.

:w00t:

*packs bags*

:D :D

:w00t:

*packs bags*

:D :D

:nice: I am considering renting out the appt. / in-law side of the house for 6 or 700 /mo :D .... that won't be for a while though.... still getting situated and all.

So I just got done replacing 28 old two prong polarized electrical sockets w/ 3 prong grounded sockets.... I ran a wire from the groung screw to the metal box (the boxes were grounded). that was fun :)

I just replaced the cord to our dryer from a three wire to a four wire. Both are 30 amp/250 volt. It's wierd how it has to be a certain way for code.

I just replaced the cord to our dryer from a three wire to a four wire. Both are 30 amp/250 volt. It's wierd how it has to be a certain way for code.

damn it. I edited your post w/ ,y responce by accident :)

so that's why there were 3 and 4 prong dryer and range plugs (I was loking at them at home depot) ...... I was wondering about that. I thought they were all 3 prong

houses suck you blind. money pits from hell. programmable thermostat and some paint today. ceiling fans and ducting tommorrow. it's a train man. and i want off. :p

houses suck you blind. money pits from hell. programmable thermostat and some paint today. ceiling fans and ducting tommorrow. it's a train man. and i want off. :p

lol .... yup. The house owns you, not the other way around :)

wired in a programable thermostat two weeks ago :) ..... went with the honeywell 3200 .... not a bunch of bells and whistles... but it's better then the old-school mecury one that it replaced. I'll be finding out the joys of painting real soon! .... have not done any walls yet, but I've been putting drylok floor paint on the floor in my basement (I'm still not done yet :) )

its a must have man. cut the energy bill down.

i feel like a dragon.

progamable t-stats are great :nice:

you can turn your air up to 85 from 9-4:45, then it turns on just before you come home :)

progamable t-stats are great :nice:

you can turn your air up to 85 from 9-4:45, then it turns on just before you come home :)

Mine is heat only (well the stat will do AC, I do not have AC though :( .... window Ac's is all I got, I'm thinking about running ac from the attic down though) .... but same principal, keep it cool during the day and night, kick it up for when I get home and before sleep.

its a must have man. cut the energy bill down.

i feel like a dragon.

:nice: yup, that's why I did it, I'm a cheap bastid :)

So .... I bought 1000' of cat5e cable a few months ago .... went to run cable from the basement to the attic (finished attic) for data / voice (redoing the whole house.... cable / data / voice in every room) and discovered that the walls have a fire-break in them (Horizontal 2x4 going across in the middle of the wall). Been putting it off until last night (I knew I'd have to cut a hole in the wall to drill holes in the fire break) ..... it's been fun. the drywall is 7/8" thick (thickest drywall I've ever seen) ... had to drill through 4.5" of wood to get from the basement ceiling into the wall .... and 6.5" to get from the attic to the wall (going between the rafters ... the top of the wall had 6.5" worth of wood to go through). I'm still drilling tonight (drilling 3 holes through the fire break incase I want more cables in the future .... won't have to get in the wall again) I'm having to let the drill cool down every 10min or so, so that's been fun. I will be verry happy when I get this done.

Made some progress on the wiring today (yeah, I've been slacking on it :) ) Ran the cables over to my 66 blocks that I mounted on some mdf (I should post some pics :) ) ..... mounted the 66 blocks, a whole house DSL filter, and a 4 port keystone wall plate to the board.

Also, Ran electric to the outside of the house at 4 locations last month (needed to get it in for christmas lights :) ) .... went with 12/2 romex and 20amp outlets (GFCI's) .... put two locations on 1 20amp breaker w/ 20 amp outlets .... so I added 2 20amp breakers (one to each box in the house.... the appt. box and the main box)

OH, and sometime over the summer we (my GF and I... mostley her) painted the LR walls and cieling. :)

I think I moved the camera a little bit, so it's a little blury .... but here's the work in progress.

Finally going to get my basement carpeted :nice: .... got Empire comming out tonight to give me an estimate :nice: ..... I went to homedepot over the weekend to figure out how much it would cost from there .... built a little excell sheet the caculates it based on stuff you can change on the sheet .... I'm proud of myself :nice:

$2600 from empire ... and they do not use any 15' roles of carpet ... I'd have seams everywhere w/o 15' carpet :not: .... I'm holding off until Pres day sales ... then I'm getting some from someone ... Homedepot if I have to.

Welp ... I bought the carpet and pad ... I got really good padding ... not the foam stuff ... got the hair looking stuff "Ultra 40 Altex" I think they called it ... and I got some berber carpet ... a little over 100 sq yards of each for less then $1600 .... I brought the padding home (in 6' x 60' roles) and got that in the house .... I'll be going back over to pick up my carpet in a few minutes ... I ended up getting it from a local small-type carpet store ... I'm going to attempt to install it myself ... there's only one seam, I should be able to handle it :nice: I'll save about $600 by doing it myself! (I'm in no rush to get it done... its only the basement) Ther're cutting the carpet into the sized pieces I need.

YAY!!!! .... I'm happy ... finally getting carpet down there! 3 rooms and 100sq/yrds of living space to be added to what I allready got!

.... So, I got started on installing the carpet today. ... let me tell ya, pounding those tackstrips into a cement floor is a real PITA ... it's not the hammering or anything that's a pain (oh, I'm real glad I did not paint the walls first, I hit w/ the hammer in a few spots while pounding the strips in), its the fact that the nails bust the concrete and don't hold.... I had to go buy a box of 1"ers and sometimes they bust the cement and then don't hold.... Well I go 2 out of the three rooms done (the strips around the edge); just the smallest room is left to be done.

Started laying the carpet ... one 15' x 15' 6" piece in one room, one 15' x 14' 6" piece in another room. .... put the padding down, then layed the carpet down ... have not kicked it against the wall and done the final trim yet I've still got a 15' x 29' piece of carpet to lay (not sure if I'll be able to get that one down by myself) so that I can do the seams before kicking it in and doing the final trim. Doing the carpet is not a bad as I thought it would be :nice: when it's done I'll take pride in knowing I did it myself :nice:

Who's the ****ing man? :nice: ... my dad came by yesterday and gave me a hand w/ the big piece of carpet ... I trimmed all the rooms today, still need to kick the edges in w/ the knee-kicket thing. Here's some pics :nice:


1st pic is the "den" I guess you can call it. I plan to have a wood burning stove in there by fall.

next two pics are of what I'm calling the "game room", plan to get a pool table and ish once I have money.

Last two are of my office. The 'lil deer on the wall was my first deer ever, got her when I was 12 :nice: ... 18yrs ago and can still remember the details of the day.

I guzzle my own "load".

houses suck you blind. money pits from hell. programmable thermostat and some paint today. ceiling fans and ducting tommorrow. it's a train man. and i want off. :p
I'm not fixing shit until my kids move out. There's just no point. :nonono:

fuknuts
For some reason that made me laugh like hell. :D

I guzzle my own "load".

nice testy, that's real ****ing nice. thanks for sharing. :|