New Home Construction
- Thread starter bmac
- Start date
- Views: 41943
RobS
Super Member
Just beautiful bmac! I particularly like the porch, looks like a wonderful place to relax. Your finish details are spectacular throughout. Naturally, you'll be throwing a housewarming party for all of your TBN buds, eh /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
bmac,
It's really coming together very nicely!!!
The closets are amazing. Hopefully you'll be able to keep yours for a very long time, but I understand how that goes. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Have you listed the house your living in yet? Or are you gonna wait until you're moved out and do the super cleanup and prepair it for showing when it's empty?
Your timing is pretty good as spring is the best time to sell. It gives people the whole summer to move in and be ready for the new school year.
Eddie
It's really coming together very nicely!!!
The closets are amazing. Hopefully you'll be able to keep yours for a very long time, but I understand how that goes. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Have you listed the house your living in yet? Or are you gonna wait until you're moved out and do the super cleanup and prepair it for showing when it's empty?
Your timing is pretty good as spring is the best time to sell. It gives people the whole summer to move in and be ready for the new school year.
Eddie
Rob,
Thanks, buddy.
<font color="blue"> Naturally, you'll be throwing a housewarming party for all of your TBN buds, eh </font>
Absolutely! I think if I can get the Texas contingent out here we'd be in great shape. Harv & Iris can put up the fence, dig some holes to plant trees and do some stone work. Eddie and his dozer to take down some trees on the trails and dig me a pond. Once we get the landscaping done we could all move inside to finish the basement. I figure if ABC Extreme Makeover crew can build an entire house in a week, surely a hearty TBN crew could knock out this small list by dinner time. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Thanks, buddy.
<font color="blue"> Naturally, you'll be throwing a housewarming party for all of your TBN buds, eh </font>
Absolutely! I think if I can get the Texas contingent out here we'd be in great shape. Harv & Iris can put up the fence, dig some holes to plant trees and do some stone work. Eddie and his dozer to take down some trees on the trails and dig me a pond. Once we get the landscaping done we could all move inside to finish the basement. I figure if ABC Extreme Makeover crew can build an entire house in a week, surely a hearty TBN crew could knock out this small list by dinner time. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
EDDIE!!!!! You still speaking to me? I thought after that "liar" comment maybe I'd made you mad. You've been kind of quiet. Glad we're still friends. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
The closets have my wife concerned a little bit. She thinks they were mounted too high. Although my daughter has more than enough rod space on the lower level to hang her clothes (now), there is no way that she can reach the upper rods. Also, my wife doen't think my daughter can even see whats in some of the drawers as things are now. I'm sure she'll grow into them, but we want them to be usable. Maybe they are adjustable. I haven't really studied them to see. But I agree with you, they do look nice.
<font color="blue"> Have you listed the house your living in yet? </font>
No
<font color="blue"> Or are you gonna wait until you're moved out and do the super cleanup and prepair it for showing when it's empty?
</font>
Yes. With 2 kids and 2 dogs and 2 parents whose schedule doesn't really allow us to keep the place ready to show at a moments notice, we decided to wait unti we get out to really clean things up so it will show well. We have 1 lead of interested buyers that may allow us to sell without even listing it with an agent. That would be ideal.
Good to hear from you.
The closets have my wife concerned a little bit. She thinks they were mounted too high. Although my daughter has more than enough rod space on the lower level to hang her clothes (now), there is no way that she can reach the upper rods. Also, my wife doen't think my daughter can even see whats in some of the drawers as things are now. I'm sure she'll grow into them, but we want them to be usable. Maybe they are adjustable. I haven't really studied them to see. But I agree with you, they do look nice.
<font color="blue"> Have you listed the house your living in yet? </font>
No
<font color="blue"> Or are you gonna wait until you're moved out and do the super cleanup and prepair it for showing when it's empty?
</font>
Yes. With 2 kids and 2 dogs and 2 parents whose schedule doesn't really allow us to keep the place ready to show at a moments notice, we decided to wait unti we get out to really clean things up so it will show well. We have 1 lead of interested buyers that may allow us to sell without even listing it with an agent. That would be ideal.
Good to hear from you.
scott_vt
Super Member
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2004
- Messages
- 7,476
- Location
- east wells,vt
- Tractor
- 1986 MF 1040, 1942 Farmall A, 1949 Farmall Super A
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Dishwasher. All kitchen appliances are stainless steel. None have been cleaned. All are very smudged. )</font>
Hi Bmac,
Did you say teenagers? Smudges are a way of life /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Just ask me how I know!
Ahh, but its easy goin now, the youngest is 22 going on 23 going on, off on his own = no smudges...dont tell Mom I said that /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
scotty
Hi Bmac,
Did you say teenagers? Smudges are a way of life /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Just ask me how I know!
Ahh, but its easy goin now, the youngest is 22 going on 23 going on, off on his own = no smudges...dont tell Mom I said that /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
scotty
steveinmo
Silver Member
bmac,
Man, what a house! I love everything about it (except the color - kidding!) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I love the kitchen and the appliances. Your range looks too cool. We looked at all of the high end gas ranges when we were going building. When I found out you couldn't fix a TV dinner on one, we went with a cheaper model. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I think the porch turned out great. I'm sure you'll spend more time out there than you think. Everything just looks great! I bet everyone is really getting excited.
Steve
Man, what a house! I love everything about it (except the color - kidding!) /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I love the kitchen and the appliances. Your range looks too cool. We looked at all of the high end gas ranges when we were going building. When I found out you couldn't fix a TV dinner on one, we went with a cheaper model. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I think the porch turned out great. I'm sure you'll spend more time out there than you think. Everything just looks great! I bet everyone is really getting excited.
Steve
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
bmac,
Of course I'm speaking to you. Your my idol. Your home is what my long term goal is. To build by dream home and be able to do it the way I want it. Your an inspiration!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
As for the closet shelves being to high, just get them a plastic stool from Lowes or someplace else. Steph said the same thing about the kids closets. No way they could reach way up there. Heck, they are only 8 and 5. But I told her that there's no way we're not taking advantage of all that storage space up there. They each got a stool and have never questioned it.
Before you sell your house, and I've sold a few myself, I'd highly recomend you bring in at least five realtors in and have them tell you what your house will sell for and even more importantly, what you need to do in order to get the best price. One mistake allot of people make is to fix up a house to their likeing. Of course, the person buying the house might not have the same tastes and what you did was not only a waste of time and money, but might even hurt the sale of the house. Walpaper is the biggest mistake I've come across, but colored paint, carpet and even drapes can have a negative affect on your sales price.
Do this before you sign a contract with anyboyd. Do it now so you can plan what needs to be done. Do it now so you know what your talking about if you do sell it without a realtor. Nothign wrong with saving the 6% sales commision, but the reality is that most people that sell a home themselves make two major mistakes. First, they ask too much for it and scare everyone away. Second, the sell it too cheap and loose out on what they should have made. A good realtor knows the market allot better than we do.
I know people that have tried to sell their own homes without any success only to list with a realtor and gets tens of thousands more then they were asking on their own. I also know people who refuse to accept what their home is worth and either sell it way too cheap or never sell it at all.
My brother and I were looking at land this past week and came across quite a few properties that have been on the market for over a year. One has been listed for over two years now. You don't want to get into that situation either.
It's very, very important to bring in at least five (5) different realtors. Don't use friends or family. It rarely works out well and then you just have bad blood aftewards. It's better to be angry at somebody you don't know than feel a family member took advantage of you. With big dollar amounts, even the best of friends get weird. Also remember that a good real estate agent is very, very good at getting you to sign a contract with them. Hold off until you've talked to five. Most people hire the first one they talk to and have no idea of any other views. All of them claim to be experts in your area, some are, some are just full of it. No way to know by just talking to them. They make their living this way. To survive, they have to be good at it.
Good luck and thanks for all the updates!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Eddie
Of course I'm speaking to you. Your my idol. Your home is what my long term goal is. To build by dream home and be able to do it the way I want it. Your an inspiration!!! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
As for the closet shelves being to high, just get them a plastic stool from Lowes or someplace else. Steph said the same thing about the kids closets. No way they could reach way up there. Heck, they are only 8 and 5. But I told her that there's no way we're not taking advantage of all that storage space up there. They each got a stool and have never questioned it.
Before you sell your house, and I've sold a few myself, I'd highly recomend you bring in at least five realtors in and have them tell you what your house will sell for and even more importantly, what you need to do in order to get the best price. One mistake allot of people make is to fix up a house to their likeing. Of course, the person buying the house might not have the same tastes and what you did was not only a waste of time and money, but might even hurt the sale of the house. Walpaper is the biggest mistake I've come across, but colored paint, carpet and even drapes can have a negative affect on your sales price.
Do this before you sign a contract with anyboyd. Do it now so you can plan what needs to be done. Do it now so you know what your talking about if you do sell it without a realtor. Nothign wrong with saving the 6% sales commision, but the reality is that most people that sell a home themselves make two major mistakes. First, they ask too much for it and scare everyone away. Second, the sell it too cheap and loose out on what they should have made. A good realtor knows the market allot better than we do.
I know people that have tried to sell their own homes without any success only to list with a realtor and gets tens of thousands more then they were asking on their own. I also know people who refuse to accept what their home is worth and either sell it way too cheap or never sell it at all.
My brother and I were looking at land this past week and came across quite a few properties that have been on the market for over a year. One has been listed for over two years now. You don't want to get into that situation either.
It's very, very important to bring in at least five (5) different realtors. Don't use friends or family. It rarely works out well and then you just have bad blood aftewards. It's better to be angry at somebody you don't know than feel a family member took advantage of you. With big dollar amounts, even the best of friends get weird. Also remember that a good real estate agent is very, very good at getting you to sign a contract with them. Hold off until you've talked to five. Most people hire the first one they talk to and have no idea of any other views. All of them claim to be experts in your area, some are, some are just full of it. No way to know by just talking to them. They make their living this way. To survive, they have to be good at it.
Good luck and thanks for all the updates!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Eddie
rox
Veteran Member
BMAC,
Eddie brings up some very good points about the re-sale of your present home. Couple things I could add. Only sign a 3 month lsiting contract. They will try and get you to sign more but don't. You can always extend it if you would like. Don't take 6% as Gospel. You can negotiate the commission. I think we paid 4.2% mainly I think because it was a high end home. They were going to make a lot of money even at 4.2%. Also if you do list with a Realtor be absolutly firm about getting showing reports. After every showing you should receive a showig report fort he agent who showed your property.
Based on our showing reports, where people kep saying the kitchen was too small (it really wasn't) I hired a carpenter and re-arranged the kitchen. The next two people who saw the house both put in offers and we more than made up for what we invested in the kitchen re-do. I didn't spend that much on the kitchen jsut under $10,000. Anyone who ahs ever done a kitchen knows that is not that much. I re-arranged what we had and had the carpenter take off the matching cabinets in the laundry room to use in the kitchen. I only had to have built two custom cabinets. But again, the whole imputus was the showing reports. Go figure same square foot kitchen, jsut a bit of re-arranging and then we had two offers form the next two people who saw the home.
I would vote for trying to sell it yourself first. It does not hurt, run an ad in the paper, run a couple open houses and see what happens. My last house was the only home I ever sold with a Realtor the rest we sold ourselves. I was very happy with all our previous self sales. You are going to get market appraisals from the Realtors anyway, together with your own homework, you can come up wiht a price and try it yoursel first. I know I was more than happy to save thosuands of dollars. What I did was take the realtors estimate, which of couse would be a 6% commission, and I split the difference with the buyers. I earned the extra 3% in my sales price and the buyers saved 3%. Say for example 100,000 at 6%. That would cost us $6,000 in Realtors commsiion. Priced the house at $97,000 sold immediatly. The lawers fee for closing really wasn't all that much, ess than you woudl think. Just an idea for you to consider. Jsut think of what you can do with the new house if you had the same amount of money you would pay to the realtor in your pocket. That is the way I always thought about it.
Wil be patient waiting for the next round of photos as no doubt, you and the missus are pretty busy at the moment.
~rox
Eddie brings up some very good points about the re-sale of your present home. Couple things I could add. Only sign a 3 month lsiting contract. They will try and get you to sign more but don't. You can always extend it if you would like. Don't take 6% as Gospel. You can negotiate the commission. I think we paid 4.2% mainly I think because it was a high end home. They were going to make a lot of money even at 4.2%. Also if you do list with a Realtor be absolutly firm about getting showing reports. After every showing you should receive a showig report fort he agent who showed your property.
Based on our showing reports, where people kep saying the kitchen was too small (it really wasn't) I hired a carpenter and re-arranged the kitchen. The next two people who saw the house both put in offers and we more than made up for what we invested in the kitchen re-do. I didn't spend that much on the kitchen jsut under $10,000. Anyone who ahs ever done a kitchen knows that is not that much. I re-arranged what we had and had the carpenter take off the matching cabinets in the laundry room to use in the kitchen. I only had to have built two custom cabinets. But again, the whole imputus was the showing reports. Go figure same square foot kitchen, jsut a bit of re-arranging and then we had two offers form the next two people who saw the home.
I would vote for trying to sell it yourself first. It does not hurt, run an ad in the paper, run a couple open houses and see what happens. My last house was the only home I ever sold with a Realtor the rest we sold ourselves. I was very happy with all our previous self sales. You are going to get market appraisals from the Realtors anyway, together with your own homework, you can come up wiht a price and try it yoursel first. I know I was more than happy to save thosuands of dollars. What I did was take the realtors estimate, which of couse would be a 6% commission, and I split the difference with the buyers. I earned the extra 3% in my sales price and the buyers saved 3%. Say for example 100,000 at 6%. That would cost us $6,000 in Realtors commsiion. Priced the house at $97,000 sold immediatly. The lawers fee for closing really wasn't all that much, ess than you woudl think. Just an idea for you to consider. Jsut think of what you can do with the new house if you had the same amount of money you would pay to the realtor in your pocket. That is the way I always thought about it.
Wil be patient waiting for the next round of photos as no doubt, you and the missus are pretty busy at the moment.
~rox
Eddie.
A step stool is a great idea. My wife is thinking that she has enough space on the lower rods for things that she wears at any one time. She thinks the upper rods will be used for out of season clothes. Now, what i don't understand is that as spring is upon us and we are thinking about shorts and t-shirts. The soon to be out of season winter clothes would be placed on the upper rods at the appropriate time. When next winter comes along, nothing will fit anymore. So why hang them up? Maybe my wife has her eyes on the kids upper rods for HER out of season clothes. She didn't really specify. And if her warm clothes don't fit next winter, well, unless they are too big, then we should probably have a little talk. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Another good idea about multiple realtors. I'm sure they would have some good pre-sales advice. As far as establishing a price, we've recently had out house appraised, not by a realtor but by a mortgage appraiser. She came back with a figure based upon comparable resales in the area. I think this is more accurate than a market appraisal by a realtor. My experience with realtors has been that they tend to set the initial asking price too high (which gets the seller all lathered up thinking that they are going to make a huge profit). Then the house is still on the market 6 months later. I'd rather get a realistic figure from the beginning, one that a lender would accept, and go for a quick sale.
As far as fixing things up, we will have to paint some of the interior. Some is in pretty good shape and only needs a little touch-up. The kitchen color is a little too bold so we will tone it down a little. Baseboard trim is scuffed up so we'll paint that. But, nothing wild with the paint colors. Only earth tones.
Carpet needs to be replaced. We are toying with a carpet allowance for the buyer so they can get what they want. Or we may just put in something in a beige like most builders put in. Our current house is not a high end home. It was essentially a spec home, although we did buy early enough where we got to select the fixtures, appliances and colors. Not much of an allowance in any category, though.
Rest assured, we won't put much money into it before we get some professional feedback. And, while I won't give it away, I will accept an offer that is reasonably close to the asking price just so I won't have to carry 2 mortgages any longer than is necessary.
Oh, as far as selling it ourselves, I'll do that only with this one prospect. If that doesn't work out, we'll list it with a realtor. And, as rox suggested, they'll get a 3 month contract. If not sold, we'll look to someone else. Afterall, this is the prime selling time so we should be able to unload it in a reasonable period of time.
Again, thanks for the sales tips.
A step stool is a great idea. My wife is thinking that she has enough space on the lower rods for things that she wears at any one time. She thinks the upper rods will be used for out of season clothes. Now, what i don't understand is that as spring is upon us and we are thinking about shorts and t-shirts. The soon to be out of season winter clothes would be placed on the upper rods at the appropriate time. When next winter comes along, nothing will fit anymore. So why hang them up? Maybe my wife has her eyes on the kids upper rods for HER out of season clothes. She didn't really specify. And if her warm clothes don't fit next winter, well, unless they are too big, then we should probably have a little talk. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
Another good idea about multiple realtors. I'm sure they would have some good pre-sales advice. As far as establishing a price, we've recently had out house appraised, not by a realtor but by a mortgage appraiser. She came back with a figure based upon comparable resales in the area. I think this is more accurate than a market appraisal by a realtor. My experience with realtors has been that they tend to set the initial asking price too high (which gets the seller all lathered up thinking that they are going to make a huge profit). Then the house is still on the market 6 months later. I'd rather get a realistic figure from the beginning, one that a lender would accept, and go for a quick sale.
As far as fixing things up, we will have to paint some of the interior. Some is in pretty good shape and only needs a little touch-up. The kitchen color is a little too bold so we will tone it down a little. Baseboard trim is scuffed up so we'll paint that. But, nothing wild with the paint colors. Only earth tones.
Carpet needs to be replaced. We are toying with a carpet allowance for the buyer so they can get what they want. Or we may just put in something in a beige like most builders put in. Our current house is not a high end home. It was essentially a spec home, although we did buy early enough where we got to select the fixtures, appliances and colors. Not much of an allowance in any category, though.
Rest assured, we won't put much money into it before we get some professional feedback. And, while I won't give it away, I will accept an offer that is reasonably close to the asking price just so I won't have to carry 2 mortgages any longer than is necessary.
Oh, as far as selling it ourselves, I'll do that only with this one prospect. If that doesn't work out, we'll list it with a realtor. And, as rox suggested, they'll get a 3 month contract. If not sold, we'll look to someone else. Afterall, this is the prime selling time so we should be able to unload it in a reasonable period of time.
Again, thanks for the sales tips.
