COVID and the housing market | Page 361 | GTAMotorcycle.com

COVID and the housing market

shanekingsley said:
Are the posts set in 4ft of concrete or just in the dirt?

I removed about 8 posts from my old fence using some wood and a fulcrum method, but they were only in about 18" of concrete, so the fulcrum method worked pretty easy.
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A mix of dirt and concrete. We all know Kevin's handiwork...
 
So I bought a house last week. Its been a wild ride. This market is crazy. Getting hotter every day.

Here was my journey of looking at houses under $750k in Durham Region:
#1 - Open house near my parents place, probably 20 other families there in the 15mins I was there. Sold well above asking
#2 - House built in 1919, never once update. Needs $250k worth of work so you could resell it and loose $100k. My agent said there was 120 showings in 1 week, 30 offers.
#3 - Good place but outdated, backed onto the 401. Huge lot but half environmentally protected. Over 90 showings on it. I put in an offer but lost out by $15k.
#4 - ~80 year old house. Middle of house had sunk by 3". Everything was on a slant. Squirrel in the garage. Hard pass.
#5 - Again another old house. Floor was wavy, had a few runs of knob and tube. Told seller I'd put in an offer if they replaced the wiring so I could get insurance when I moved it, never heard back. They were desperate to sell so not sure why they didn't work with me...
#6/7 - Townhouses, I didn't want a townhouse by my real estate agent was like "every detached house in your budget sucks, here are decent $750k townhouse in Bowmanville". Again, hard pass.
#8 - 1940's Victory home, updated main floor, half converted to a duplex. Been on and off the market for months. 2hrs after I put in an offer another offer came in and they took that one...
#9 - Again another late 40's victory home. House was 20 years outdated, but garage was nice (2 car detached with a natural gas heater!). Kitec plumbing tho. Put an offer in and sellers jerked us around for 2 days. My agent got into an argument with the seller's agent and they told us they weren't selling to us lol. A day later they came back and said they couldn't work the closing date out with the other buyers and accepted our offer.
 
48Connor said:
So I bought a house last week. Its been a wild ride. This market is crazy. Getting hotter every day.

Here was my journey of looking at houses under $750k in Durham Region:
#1 - Open house near my parents place, probably 20 other families there in the 15mins I was there. Sold well above asking
#2 - House built in 1919, never once update. Needs $250k worth of work so you could resell it and loose $100k. My agent said there was 120 showings in 1 week, 30 offers.
#3 - Good place but outdated, backed onto the 401. Huge lot but half environmentally protected. Over 90 showings on it. I put in an offer but lost out by $15k.
#4 - ~80 year old house. Middle of house had sunk by 3". Everything was on a slant. Squirrel in the garage. Hard pass.
#5 - Again another old house. Floor was wavy, had a few runs of knob and tube. Told seller I'd put in an offer if they replaced the wiring so I could get insurance when I moved it, never heard back. They were desperate to sell so not sure why they didn't work with me...
#6/7 - Townhouses, I didn't want a townhouse by my real estate agent was like "every detached house in your budget sucks, here are decent $750k townhouse in Bowmanville". Again, hard pass.
#8 - 1940's Victory home, updated main floor, half converted to a duplex. Been on and off the market for months. 2hrs after I put in an offer another offer came in and they took that one...
#9 - Again another late 40's victory home. House was 20 years outdated, but garage was nice (2 car detached with a natural gas heater!). Kitec plumbing tho. Put an offer in and sellers jerked us around for 2 days. My agent got into an argument with the seller's agent and they told us they weren't selling to us lol. A day later they came back and said they couldn't work the closing date out with the other buyers and accepted our offer.
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Congrats. So are you doing a gut to clean up the outdated and kitec at the same time or are you minimizing the damage and just doing access holes for kitec (or are you rolling the dice and leaving it in for now)?
 
What I've learned though is if you put any conditions on your offer, there is almost no chance they will accept it in this market.

Oh another house I tried to go look at but didn't had 13 people living in a 1400 sq-ft house lol
 
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48Connor said:
What I've learned though is if you put any conditions on your offer, there is almost no chance the will accept it in this market.

Oh another house I tried to go look at but didn't had 13 people living in a 1400 sq-ft house lol
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Ugh. My brother is screwing up again and waiting to look at houses until he has some magical number for a down payment. I suspect he will start look about the time interest rates start to drop and again he will be blown out of the water by people with more money. If you say it's already cooking, it will be even worse than I expected after a rate cut.
 
GreyGhost said:
Congrats. So are you doing a gut to clean up the outdated and kitec at the same time or are you minimizing the damage and just doing access holes for kitec (or are you rolling the dice and leaving it in for now)?
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I'm going to rip it out immediately.

The house is surprisingly well laid out to make the replacement easy. Water heater / laundry is in the basement right below the kitchen, with no ceiling. in the room next door on both floors is the bathrooms. May need to do a bit of drywall work but nothing more than one or two patches.
 
GreyGhost said:
Ugh. My brother is screwing up again and waiting to look at houses until he has some magical number for a down payment. I suspect he will start look about the time interest rates start to drop and again he will be blown out of the water by people with more money. If you say it's already cooking, it will be even worse than I expected after a rate cut.
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Even the place I bought, I removed all conditions for financing/home inspection, but had a condition to find insurance within 5 days of my offer being accepted (re: Kitec). They were like no conditions. I talked to my broker and he said his house had Kitec plumbing and not to worry, so I removed it.
 
Wow! Sounds like a wild ride @48Connor but congratulations! Glad to hear it worked out.

Now keep us posted on the progress! I’m going to fire up my Reno to finish up soon as warm temperatures return.
 
oioioi said:
You and I are in the same confused boat.
My dad is turning 65 and mom 60. Both in April of this year within 5 days of each other.
Not sure what to get them both.

I know what I want for my milestone birthday but don't think there are any willing parties to present it to me.
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I'll book the tickets for you, me and @mimico_polak round trip to Bangkok buddy no problem. Red light district here we come!
 
I bought with KiTec and was told I was not insured past 30 days of closing . I had the plumbers booked . Lucky your insurance is different, my KiTec remediation was 12k , but over 3 floors .


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crankcall said:
I bought with KiTec and was told I was not insured past 30 days of closing . I had the plumbers booked . Lucky your insurance is different, my KiTec remediation was 12k , but over 3 floors .


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They had a quote from a plumbing company, including replacing all the taps and running PEX, $5k. Still not sure on why taps need to be replaced so I'll have to look into that
 
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mimico_polak said:
Wow! Sounds like a wild ride @48Connor but congratulations! Glad to hear it worked out.

Now keep us posted on the progress! I’m going to fire up my Reno to finish up soon as warm temperatures return.
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Lol will do. I don't get it until May so a long wait.
I've got some immediate Reno's to do - like the plumbing, a fence for the new puppy (part of the reason I've been off the forum for a while), and paint. Won't be actually moving in until mid summer. I've got it pretty sweet at the parents.

Also if any of you need paint - March 1-4 Sherwin Williams has buy 1 gallon get 1 gallon free if you create an account with them (free account). So I got 6 gallons of their emerald paint for like $325. And they will tint it for free later as well as shake it up. Like what a steal
 
Congrats and welcome to home ownership.
 
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