Yeah that one could, it was 100% a scam to funnel business to a relatives landscape and supply company, so glad to be out of that house and community.
I live in a condo (the townhouse kind where I share walls on the sides with neighbors) so there is obviously an HOA. It includes all exterior maintenance/landscaping/snow removal/trash and recycling/water and is $285/month. In the time we’ve been here they’ve replaced all the siding and repaved some sidewalks with minimal additional assessments, so I think they must budget reasonably well. They’re pretty hands off, but they installed a fence and some additional exterior lights after my catalytic converter got stolen, but let my neighbor get away with having fires in his backyard all the time (even though it’s technically not allowed) since none of us are complaining about it. HOAs vary a lot, like anything else, but you won’t hear me complaining when I’m walking out to my car to go to work and someone has already shoveled the walk and plowed the parking lot.
Just put an offer in on a place for $315k, $15k over asking. I'm one of three offers. It's a cool place, rural for DC (43 minutes from work), quiet, on the water, more space than I need, and in excellent shape (cosmetically, at least). Downside is it's on well water and septic tank. My agent said it's the nicest place we've seen in over a year and a half of looking. This house was built in 1981, and it has a black toilet, a mobile home next door, and looks like one of the Golden Girl's lives there. Fuck this absurdity.
My mom's old business partner in RE just called her to inform her that he sold a house for $400k over asking in a desireable part of town here. (Byron). It was listed for $800k±, and went for just over $1.2. It was also the only house in Byron that was available. Fucking insane.
I got a reminder today to follow behind your inspector and look at everything yourself. Our water heater is in an enclosed area, to access it you have to remove a screwed-in wall panel. Today is the first day I've opened it myself to clean and vacuum the space, something I generally do once a year or so. I found there is NO LEAK PAN UNDER THE WATER HEATER. A leak, especially if it happened while we're away, would have been catastrophic. Who installs a water heater without a leak pan and drain to outside the home? I saw the inspector's picture of the WH and it's condition, so I never opened it myself until I wanted to clean the area.
https://www.straight.com/news/canad...00000-since-justin-trudeau-took-power-in-2015 I am not blame him. But that is about right for around here.
Where are you located? None of those things are typical in this area. The water heater can't be sealed away like that, and while some may have disaster pans, it's not code or normal. And I've never seen one exhaust directly outside. When your water heater lets go and you aren't home, you flood your basement as God intended.
See, I don't blame him at all for this. This is a big effect from the pandemic, if you ask me. A ton of people no longer had to commute to an office in downtown Toronto, so they said "fuck it", and sold their insanely high priced Toronto condo for enough money to move 2 hours away, London (my town), buy a house for cash, at $100k over ask, put a Porsche in the garage, and still have a whack of cash in the bank. And now people are saying "fuck you" to returning back to that office commute. That is, I think, the real driver for the current real estate market. And I think some people are delusional when they define "affordable housing". It somehow got translated into "I should be able to buy a house with a lot in Vancouver/Toronto with a minimal salary from a shitty job."
You haven't lived until you've dumped in a black toilet. My grandparents always had them in their guest bath. Probably one of the things I'll miss most about their house. Well, other than them.
There has to be something done with house prices. Both me and my wife make good money, and i don't know how half of these people are getting mortgages.
I know how the previous owners of our new house did it. They got a mortgage, and a second mini-mortgage to cover the down payment, and then never paid except when one payment would stave off foreclosure.
Virginia, US. The home is a modular, likely different codes than site built homes. And, it isn't sealed, it's vented, just enclosed, hidden from sight in the laundry room. I'll be putting a leak pan in and plumbing a drain for that clean water to the outside because I will not be some fool with a flooded house. I've always had leak pans in my houses here.
If I'm not mistaken, modular homes built in the past 25-30 years follow the UBC. A few little HOA horror stories I got to deal with today: A guy got fined yesterday because his lawn is brown. It's December. A woman that lives out of state and has a vacation home she purchased new 14 years ago. She has done nothing to the exterior of the house except maintenance. She got a fine because her TV cable line is not painted the same color as her house. The cable wire was installed by the builder when the house was new. A man purchased a home in 2014. In 2015 he repainted it with the exact same colors. Last month he got fined because the colors are not approved. Another guy removed a dead tree from his yard. He is currently accumulating fines because he has not replaced it with the same species that is of a similar size.
Another little HOA horror show from a community we manage: The board of this HOA got together and negotiated a deal with a local cable company to provide TV and internet for the entire community. The only way to opt out of paying the monthly cable fee is prove all occupants of the house are legally deaf and blind. Just signed a 3 year contract with Dish Network? Fuck you, pay me. You're Amish and shun all electronics? Fuck you, pay me. Several people have challenged it with lawsuits. The only thing they got was lawyer fees.
Although I'm a homeowner, I can't really give any useful advice here other than to go back in time to 2010 and buy a house in Vegas. Mine is in an HOA, which I originally wanted to avoid but lacks any of the nightmare bullshit (knock on wood). Letters are sent out to advise of violations, another one a month later, then if the issue is unresolved you can appear at the next meeting or start getting fined; none of this instant fine for your moving truck or a brown lawn in December.