Real Estate Investing

Families naturally want to be with a buyer when they are ready to find a new home.  Parents can be very supportive, but there are some who believe that if their baby buys a home, they’ll lose them forever.  Those parents do whatever it takes to scare and intimidate a buyer. 

Besides parents and in-laws, children may be the other biggest impediment of a house-search.  If you must bring the kids, here are some tips about making the trip easier.  However, here are my Top 10 “Reasons You Should Not Take Your Children With You when Househunting.” 

1. A decision as important as buying a home needs your undivided attention.
2. The seller may feel very uncomfortable about children running through their home, especially if they have pets.
3. The Realtor feels great stress when your child(ren)  touch and pick-up everything.
4. Children have to make frequent bathroom stops (Every ten minutes is too often!).
5. Sometimes they don’t make it to the bathroom stop.
6. When you have a teenager with a cell phone, the constant beeping of incoming text messages will drive one nuts.
7. When you have a teenager without a cell phone, the constant haranguing about turning the radio UP is nerve-wracking (not to mention the lyrics which make one say, “What did he say?” or “Did he just say what I think he said?”).
8. The temper tantrums can induce a migraine for your Realtor!
9. The spills in your Realtor’s car don’t easily clean (soured milk in the heat is not a pretty smell).
10. It’s not fair to the children to force them to sit in a closed space for hours and hours.

Leave the next generation with a babysitter when you tour homes!  And here’s what you CAN DO to help make the at-home kiddos feel more comfortable about moving.

Have car with full tank of gas, will travel.  After yesterday’s very interesting showing instructions, arguments, and additional comments I thought I’d share the results of these specific house searches with you.

1. No showings until 4:00 p.m.  We didn’t go see and won’t go back.  But we knew that yesterday when they said we couldn’t see it until after 5:00 p.m.
2. Key hidden under rock.  What a beautiful, loved home it was.  Unfortunately the back yard goes straight down and will be too hard to mow (but check out the gorgeous photo of the jogging ring!).
3. Something smells dead.  Yes, like a mouse maybe or squirrel even.  But the house was amazingly beautiful.
4. The doors stick.  We couldn’t even get in because the part I left off was “don’t lock bottom lock.”  Someone did lock it and the frame of the door came over so that we couldn’t get key in to unlock.  We’ll have to take their word for it that the doors stick.
5. Don’t go into the basement.  We didn’t.  Actually we didn’t go at all when we read more information about the property and saw that it didn’t have central heat and air.  I felt bad about skipping it, but we must have cool air when the temperature is 105 degrees and the humidity hangs at 99 percent.

Thankfully we didn’t experience anything scary this go-round.  Like Doreen.  Or anything suggestive.  Like Marianne.  Have you had any interesting experiences while looking for a home?

Buyers in my area have become hesitant to purchase homes that have been renovated or remodeled by investors / flippers.  A buyer told me today that she’s been advised by her friends to never ever buy a house that the seller has not lived in because they haven’t personally had the chance to fix the little things that will go wrong once a home is lived-in.

I’ve thought a lot about the advise and believe it makes sense, except for one thing:  Home Inspectors.  A home inspector should test wall outlets, check the heat and air unit, water pressure, appliances, attic, ceilings, crawl spaces, and more.  There should be no major surprises after you move into a remodeled home if the inspector has done a thorough job. 

However, like humans when we break an arm or catch a cold, houses can also “get sick.”  Whether it’s been one month or three years since you moved in, problems inevitably occur.  Home maintenance is part of the package that goes along with home ownership and part of that maintenance is making repairs as needed so a house doesn’t wear down.

YouTube has great videos about do-it-yourself home repairs.  Before you begin a home repair, you might visit Evansville, Indiana’s Better Business Bureau to determine if you have what it takes to do it on your own.  They say,

Cosmetic changes, such as painting or wallpaper are easy DIY projects. Structural changes, such as plumbing, wiring, or framing are typically best left to the professionals. Even moving a bathroom sink a few inches can become a huge hassle involving re-routing the plumbing, painting, caulking, and tiling.

My biggest home project was stripping wallpaper (I failed) and painting (success!).  I know my limitations.

Photo from here (which incidentally shows you how to remove wallpaper).