Many Should Not Be Home Owners

**james.hendrickson** · 06-20-2018, 07:32 AM

That blows my mind. Why would you NOT keep your home up?

Right, two or three thousand dollars worth of preventive work is easily worth five or ten thousand dollars in resale value.

**msomnipotent** · 06-20-2018, 08:43 AM

A lot of people decide they are selling their home, so screw it. Let someone else worry about it. I loved seeing homes that had overgrown weeds and peeling paint when we were home shopping, because you could low ball. People in our area don't even want to paint any walls when they buy, so non-perfect homes can sit until the sellers are desperate.

There was one house, though, that still haunts me. Really cute on the outside with a large lot and great schools. As we walked around back, we noticed sludge in the yard next to the house. It ruined my brand new shoes. Then we noticed that every room had a different type of floor and they were all 1" to 6" in height different. One of the bathroom sink's pipes consisted of nothing but joints held together. All the windows were shot. The roof was shot. The worst was that the basement had a water line right at eyeball height around the entire basement. They had 5 ft of water in the basement at one time and didn't even clean the walls off. It was priced as if nothing was wrong with it. I feel sorry for whoever was stupid enough to buy it.

**rennigade** · 06-20-2018, 08:43 AM

Its not just homes people no longer take care of. Its pretty much everything.

We now live in a throw away society. You buy something...use it for a little...trash it...throw it out and buy another.

There are so many options now for cheap crap...people elect to buy cheap stuff...it starts to break...at which point they just buy another.

Me personally...I like to buy quality stuff and keep it as long as possible. But then again...Ive always taken care of things Ive owned.

**AJ444** · 06-20-2018, 08:54 AM

I didn't realize how clean and meticulous I was until I started home shopping recently and viewed a lot of other homes, I was shocked how most let small maintenance items go for years and can't even clean up when their properties are being shown.

I had the same shock when I became a Manager and realized how others navigated their days at the office.

It's not hard to stand out when the general level of competence is so low.

**AJ444** · 06-20-2018, 09:01 AM

I also decided to buy a townhome since I had no desire to manage external upkeep, I'm fine paying monthly to a well run HOA to handle it.

**Fishindude77** · 06-20-2018, 11:05 AM

One we looked at today, the homeowner didn't even go to the effort to make the beds, there were skid marks in the toilet and underwear laying on the floor.

**~bs** · 06-20-2018, 12:40 PM

that's why i live in a condo. my friends with houses spend a lot of time on the weekends maintaining the inside and outside of their homes. more square footage means more to clean and repair too.

Termites and wear and tear on roofing is a big problem in my area. You pick a random single family house, chances are it's termite eaten, the roofing is leaking, and it desperately needs painting, all very expensive to fix.

I'd rather just fork over the maintenance fee and have someone else take care of everything outside my condo, and I just keep the interior clean and do laundry and whatever.

**Smallsteps** · 06-20-2018, 06:29 PM

It is funny we used to take walks in the neighborhood around our house and would love to look at the flyers on houses for sale often run down with yard issues etc. but they were asking and unbelievably getting way too much for all the work the new owner would need to do.
When we moved ( before buying the 2nd home) we rented and I really would prefer that. The outside was taken care of and any issue the handyman was a call away and weekends free, but rent was jumping about 20% a year .
After we moved husband put in grass and guess who has had to mow � yep me.
I never understood why people would allow their homes to be shown if not clean that is gross.

**~bs** · 06-20-2018, 08:41 PM

Originally posted by Smallsteps View Post

It is funny we used to take walks in the neighborhood around our house and would love to look at the flyers on houses for sale often run down with yard issues etc. but they were asking and unbelievably getting way too much for all the work the new owner would need to do.
When we moved ( before buying the 2nd home) we rented and I really would prefer that. The outside was taken care of and any issue the handyman was a call away and weekends free, but rent was jumping about 20% a year .
After we moved husband put in grass and guess who has had to mow � yep me.
I never understood why people would allow their homes to be shown if not clean that is gross.

laziness. it costs nothing upfront to the homeowner. realtors only get paid after the sale.

**bjl584** · 06-21-2018, 03:48 AM

Originally posted by Smallsteps View Post

It is funny we used to take walks in the neighborhood around our house and would love to look at the flyers on houses for sale often run down with yard issues etc. but they were asking and unbelievably getting way too much for all the work the new owner would need to do.
When we moved ( before buying the 2nd home) we rented and I really would prefer that. The outside was taken care of and any issue the handyman was a call away and weekends free, but rent was jumping about 20% a year .
After we moved husband put in grass and guess who has had to mow � yep me.
I never understood why people would allow their homes to be shown if not clean that is gross.

Spend some time on Craigslist and you will see endless examples of people too lazy to clean the items that they want to sell. People want top dollar but can't be bothered to clean it and make it look half way presentable and appealing before they snap a picture of it.

**Thrif-t** · 06-21-2018, 03:54 PM

Oh man you all are making me feel so guilty for sitting out on my patio on this nice night, with my laptop, reading these boards, instead of getting off my butt and pulling the weeds in our yard

Well in my defense it's going to rain all day Saturday and I'd rather pull weeds after the rain, so much easier. Ya that's my story

But I get you all. I remember my late Mother telling my DH when we moved in that houses were a lot of work and if he wanted to be lazy he should've stayed in the apartment. We didn't get mulch this year because we have to redo a retaining wall and I think I'm going to see about getting a landscaper because the boulders we have and want to continue to use are too heavy for DH to lift and move. We're getting too old and are counting the days until we can downsize and not have such a landscaped yard.

**Captain Save** · 06-22-2018, 03:46 AM

owning a home is a part time job. People come home tired and they have too many responsibilities... they bought the house not realizing that it's a responsibility. But somewhere online they read a financial blogger who told them to do the math between owning vs renting.

Personal finance is not a math problem.

**Permanent Temp** · 06-22-2018, 05:30 PM

Totally agree. My house was in this kind of shape when I bought it.

I regularly budget for the upkeep but have neglected landscaping so far. I need to fix my debt situation first.

Many of the people I hired to fix the house were in shock at the mistreatment it endured.

I also quit my part time job, I did this for many reasons but one of them was because I knew I would have spend much more time on the cleaning and upkeep of this house than I ever had to on our old apartment.

At the same time if those people hadn't mistreated the house we probably wouldn't have been able to afford it in this market so it's a mixed bag.

**TexasHusker** · 06-23-2018, 04:50 AM

We live in a nice neighborhood and we've found the same - a few houses here and there where the yard is dying, etc. Often, these turn out to be RENT houses.

So perhaps the title should be "Many should not be RENTING..."

Many Should Not Be Home Owners