re: Bought my first house- Any Tips?

Hookers and Blow

quote:

---

What’s some need to know tips from the OT?

---

Congrats on buying a house...but...

- houses have a whole lot of different systems and there is always something needing repair or maintenance on one or more of these systems.

- if you are used to having a lot of extra cash lying around the house, forget that...all of your spare cash from here on out is likely to be spent on either repairs or updating shite on your house.

- if you are married, prepare to be nagged incessantly by your wife about imaginary noises and other shite that she wants you to spend every Saturday working on for the rest of eternity.

quote:

---

if you are married, prepare to be nagged incessantly by your wife about imaginary noises and other shite that she wants you to spend every Saturday working on for the rest of eternity.

---

Are our wives sisters?

quote:

---

The property taxes you are paying into escrow now are based on the previous owner’s records. 

Your new purchase price will reset those for next year and your escrow amount will shoot up next year. 

Be prepared because it is too low right now.



This one caught me off guard when I bought my first house. It was in mid-city and vaules had jumped up insanely since the previous owner had the property assessed. We were gonna be short in escrow by like $1,500, so our monthly payment jumped up. Was a bummer.

---

Check into the procedures for appealing your prop value. Bought mine...then prop valuation was 90k more than purch price. I talked to county appriser . i got a letter from the county advising my new valuation price. I thought it still too high talked to appraiser again and valuation was lowered. I had already paid the nominal fee for an arbitration meeting; so even after the additional lowering...i decided to see what arbitration was like. The morning of the meeting there were four appraisers present and set to have their valuations arbitrated. I was the only " citizen" to show up (3 appraisers had to wait their obligatory 15 min post scheduled time and then head back to their office...apparently its standard for the home owner to not show up) i presented my case/comps and the appraiser presented hers...all mine were useless but ultimately the arbitrator found for me. (Appraiser didnt back out closing costs?) So..tldr putting in 3 to 4 hrs of leg work and going through with the arbitration hearing brought my valuation down a right at 100k. Dont be afraid to call the appraisers office and ask questions. They are busy and make mistakes and may give youb the benefit of the doubt - if you arent a jerk.

Oh..the next yr. My prop valuation jumped (i didn't own the prior yr fully so exemption had not taken effect. I called again and valuation was lowered