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Thread: I Bought My First House Today

  1. #11
    PabstBlueRibbon's Avatar
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    Congrats! A tip from someone who lost a roof and everything under it in a natural disaster not too terribly long ago.

    Buy INSURANCE!

    Yep, it seems like a waste of money.
    Yep, you might go 20 years and never even look like you'll use it.

    But when things go straight to hell and you need to fix and replace your entire life, insurance will be a godsend. (And a tip if you need to get estimates, get them at popular places, Sears, Home Depot, places you absolutely know will try to overcharge because they're greedy. They will overcharge you to F-and back,($500 for a 2x5 gate, really) but they still gave you estimates on their official big brand-letterhead, and insurance is going to base their payout on what those estimates say. They'll try to give you less than you ask for, but never ever be low-end conservative on an insurance estimate to be "nice". But they're not going to check who actually comes to do the work.)

  2. #12
    Nattiee's Avatar
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    Congratulations! What an accomplishment I hope it’s everything you’ve been looking for & that the move goes as smoothly as possible.

    My recommendation is to learn about your house. You need to know what you have in order to be able to properly care for it. Is your flooring hardwood, laminate, vinyl? Countertops granite, quartz, marble? You can’t use certain cleaning products on certain materials. It seems obvious but no matter how flashy or basic your house is, it will last if you learn how to take care of it.. And read your appliance manuals! Front to back don’t skimp


  3. #13
    ucohuc's Avatar
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    Thanks to everyone for the congratulations and well wishes. It took a long time to get to this point and I am very excited to have our own place. I actually have not unpacked my belongings since moving to the US from my own country and it has been 1.5 years!

    I think we will get a professional to paint reading everything you said. I just know if it doesn't look great it will bother me and some of the places are hard! I have someone coming tomorrow night to give us a quote. Other things my FIL can help with as he is a plumber/electrician so that is nice too. Now we have the long process of doing it up and furnishing it.

    It is a four bedroom split level with two bathrooms. It has a fairly decent sized yard set up with a playground area as it used to be an in-home daycare! It's 1600sqf which is smaller than other houses but we saw some houses with some crazy issues. It works for us!

    I am in the Midwest and so it is very cold! Having a room that is just for the furnace, water heater etc is so weird to me. Glad to have those things though.

    We already have insurance.

    I think that answers everything. There was too much to quote!

    Oh, piece of advice. I saved really hard. I put all of my money after bills into savings and only left myself a little bit of spending money. Also I went into this with a lot of things I did not want to compromise on and in the end I did. We had to in this market. The main two were location. The location is fine but it is the other side of town to my in-laws. However it takes ten minutes to get there so not a big deal. The other is I wanted four bedrooms plus an office and we didn't get the extra office. I also wanted a kitchen that was already white. Over all not huge deals!

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  5. #14
    Pidgey's Avatar
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    Congratulations!!!

    I dont have time to read all these comments as I have to get ready for work.
    But 2 things.

    Change out locks.

    And change out toilet seats.

    Both are super easy to do


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  6. #15
    Pinecone's Avatar
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    Congrats on this huge achievement! I'm really happy for you. You'll see that it's fun, exciting, and comforting to have a space of your own.

    Definitely seconding the get a solar water heater idea, if you can. It helps a lot and they last for a good amount of time.

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  7. #16
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    Congratulations on a HUGE MILESTONE! Its such a great feeling to have a space to call your own.

    Hmm for my advice:

    - When owning a place, for the big projects I agree with others to hire a professional but for smaller ones like changing locks, replacing a toilet seat, installing a fan, putting together a desk etc., it would be great to learn a few handy tricks on your own. In the end it will save you money for the bigger stuff.

    - Furnishing your place is so exciting, but there is no need to do it all at one time. Waiting a bit might even net you some great deals on furniture! (Especially during certain holidays like around Thanksgiving and Presidents Day) Also compare prices and see if stores will be willing to do price matching if its the same item!

    - It can be very temping to overspend on decorative items for your home, but always second guess if you really want/need it right now because its easy to accumulate junk real quick.

    - Buy a weather proof lockbox for very important items like your passport, deed, etc.
    Team Healers

  8. #17
    ucohuc's Avatar
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    I never even considered swapping the toilet seat out but that makes total sense.
    I need to change the code on the front door still.

    We had a painter quote today and it was a lot higher than we expected so we are thinking about using him for the main living areas and vaulted ceiling/doors and then doing the bedrooms with the help of our family. :')

  9. #18
    Solitaire's Avatar
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    Congratulations! I started working as a conveyancer about 3 months ago and I always get so jealous when people my age buy a house LMAO
    I don't have any advice past the buying process, so I wish you all the best and a bomb ass housewarming

  10. #19
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    O wow how exciting. Congratulations. Before you just sttart changing thing live in the house a bit. Then you only relies what really need to change and what you can love with.

  11. #20
    Harvest Goddess's Avatar
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    The hugest congratulations!!!!!!!

    That is so amazing and fantastic!

    My advice, make sure when you’re moving in you buy the basics that you may not be able to live without - anytime I moved or had to relocate even if I had the items in storage, I bought new towels and toothbrushes, just little things to make it easier.

    I second the living in it for a little while before changing things, it’s amazing how many little quirks you can fall in love with in a house that you may initially think as troublesome.

    Regardless of all of that, celebrate!!!!! This is so exciting!
    UB Courtesy of: @Munna

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