Would you be willing to live in a HOA neighborhood?

[JAG2955]

Aluminum bat + green hulled black walnuts = entertainment when I was young.

I don't mind the smell at all.

[skb12172]

*Ask me about my theory on sidewalks

I'll bite: HTRN, what's your theory on sidewalks?

Simple - Sidewalks are the canary in the coalmine for population density. If there's enough people packed close enough together to warrant sidewalks, then it's pretty much guaranteed that it's gonna mean all kinds of annoying laws, regulations, restrictions, zoning, etc.

There are exceptions. My childhood neighborhood is one.

[HTRN]

Any reason why you couldn't just add on to the house and make it bigger over time?

I have a set budget in mind - trying to get the most USABLE land for the least amount of money, with a livable house on it.

Doesn't matter what size the house is, I can always make it bigger. Personally, I think people buy too much house and not enough land, but then, Mcmansions on postage sized lots was a thing here for quite a while.

[Greg]

Any reason why you couldn't just add on to the house and make it bigger over time?

I have a set budget in mind - trying to get the most USABLE land for the least amount of money, with a livable house on it.

Well of course you're going to optimize your purchase.

Doesn't matter what size the house is, I can always make it bigger.

While it's tempting to discount the deferred costs in order to have land NOW, you still need to factor just just how much it's going to cost you to make the house bigger/better.

Personally, I think people buy too much house and not enough land, but then, Mcmansions on postage sized lots was a thing here for quite a while.

They're still a thing here. And lots of different places, too but especially in areas where buildable land is limited. Builders want to maximize their ROI just like everyone else, and if people are willing to pay the McMansion premium even on a postage stamp lot, all the better (for the builders, anyway).

I can't understand that either, but there do seem to be a lot of people who want a 'nice' house to show off, and live luxuriously (and competitively) with their checkbox mandatory high-end 'features'. They're really the kind of people who'd be happiest with a big apartment in a doorman building in an upscale neighborhood in the city, but the McMansion in the suburbs is much, much cheaper and somewhat more kid-friendly.

[Greg]

I'm tempted to post some general observations from our house hunting experience. Yes, we were in the St Louis suburbs for a week, in a house shopping frenzy. I can't imagine what we would have done without a buyer's agent.

I guess that's my first observation - you almost certainly want a buyer's agent. It's his job (and you're not paying him) to do a lot of the scutwork that you'd otherwise be doing yourself, and he knows the area.

Watch a bunch of episodes of 'house' shows on HGTV. I recommend 'Love it or List It'. Analyze the mistakes of the irrational fools with poor decision-making skills, and learn from them. Then do your homework.

We talked out exactly what we were looking for, what was mandatory, what was nice to have, what we were willing to pay for each, what could be prioritized above other factors, etc etc. Then we (well mainly me) pored over dozens/hundreds of online listings for the area, researched school districts, etc, to get a feel for what's out there and what it costs. Then when it came time to *go there* and shop, we had a good idea of what we wanted (for our agent to do searches for us), where and why, and some 'prospect' listings to show our agent as examples. And yes, somehow our agent was even able to find a few places for us that didn't show up on Zillow, etc.

We actually went to see, in person after narrowing things down in stages, 10 houses. Not a single one of them was accurately captured by the online listing. Not a one. A few were actually *better* in person. Some were worse. A few were MUCH worse. But there was not a single one where the impression we got from seeing it in person matched the impression we had from 'seeing' and reading about it online. If we hadn't done our homework beforehand... I have no idea how we would have been able to find a house to buy while only being onsite in the area for a week. Would have had to do the 'rent, then find a house once you're local' move-twice thing. And I HATE moving.

[Greg]

Oh, and I have to mention this somewhere.

There was one house we looked at, looked like a lovely, lovely house in a very good area for a modest price (still had the West County markup, of course). Only seeming problem was a small (only 1/4 acre) lot, but the lot was as lovely as the house. So why not, we went to look. 2 story home with a full basement. We looked at the upper floors first, and they were indeed lovely. Then we went to the basement. Then we had a few oh my god moments, then we nicknamed the house 'the Titanic'. Because it was holed below the waterline and taking on water. Worse than the real Titanic, because there was flooding in all compartments.

Something was very, very wrong with the foundation. There were inches of standing water in the rooms on the 'ends' of the house, but the water was shallower in the 'middle'. And in the back of the house, the foundation wall was bowing in in the middle and cracks were developing. Apparently this was an episode in an ongoing problem, because there was evidence of earlier attempts to repair a similar problem - patched over cracks, and BIG STEEL BEAMS installed to shore up the foundation wall. That weren't working.

Anyway, we saw it on Thursday morning. There was an open house scheduled for that Sunday, and the owners were probably pretty eager to sell because they had already moved out. The listing was removed on Friday.

[g-man]

Any reason why you couldn't just add on to the house and make it bigger over time?

I have a set budget in mind - trying to get the most USABLE land for the least amount of money, with a livable house on it.

Doesn't matter what size the house is, I can always make it bigger. Personally, I think people buy too much house and not enough land, but then, Mcmansions on postage sized lots was a thing here for quite a while.

Absolutely agree.

I can add house which does not currently exist above/beside/around the existing structure. Over time. On a budget. I cannot add empty land which does not currently exist beside/around the existing lot. My parents bought the empty lot next to our house in Birmingham just so someone wouldn't build on it. It was a draw through which the drainage for the area ran, and would have had to have been filled in to put a house there anyway. They moved out after my freshman year of college, and before I graduated some idiot had bought that separate lot, filled it in, and plopped a house on it. I'd imagine they have problems similar to those Greg described to this day. Build over the summer, sell by fall, and be gone before the rain comes and shows the new owner how much of a dumbass they are...

[Greg]

Almost forgot something:

'custom' when used in describing a home, means 'embodies bad decisions made by self-indulgent morons, that they think you should pay extra for'.

'unique' is much much worse.

'one of a kind' is a desperate invocation. It means they've given up on finding anyone normal and sane to buy this house, and are trying to seek out a sad victim with an overlarge helping of the mental imbalance that causes people to put stickers and non-functional wings on their cars in an effort to 'customize' them, to express their 'personality' and special 'uniqueness'.

[Vonz90]

Any reason why you couldn't just add on to the house and make it bigger over time?

I have a set budget in mind - trying to get the most USABLE land for the least amount of money, with a livable house on it.

Doesn't matter what size the house is, I can always make it bigger. Personally, I think people buy too much house and not enough land, but then, Mcmansions on postage sized lots was a thing here for quite a while.

I've met more than a few people who very specifically do not want a lot of land. If you don't need the space for some activity and don't mind neighbors close (or prefer it) - then extra land is just one more thing to take care of.

This is not an attitude I understand, but it is common.

[Greg]

I've met more than a few people who very specifically do not want a lot of land. If you don't need the space for some activity and don't mind neighbors close (or prefer it) - then extra land is just one more thing to take care of.

Exactly. I've known enough people like that myself- like I said before, I think they'd be happiest in a luxury apartment building.

This is not an attitude I understand, but it is common.

I understand it. It's a value issue- what do you care about, what has value to you?

I just violently disagree.