Home Owner Thread

[N7RobBob]

HOA seems like a racket. limits to what you can and can't do with your land that you paid hard earned money for. Seems like a fraternity for adults, not for everyone and seems like more of a hassle than not.

 

[bob2the2nd]

Im going to make a second post about general home ownership but I wanted to address HOA's first. Each HOA is different and unfortunately without a lot of pre-buying investigation chances are you wont know what sort of HOA you have until its too late. Some HOAs are responsible for a whole lot to include lawn care and exterior work of all properties etc. Some just exist for the purpose of common area lawn cutting. Hell my father's HOA exists for the sole purpose of paying the electric bill on the street lights (4) of the community. But ultimately its the make up of the board and officers that really impact how good/bad the HOA is. My experience is that most people dont want to be involved and all of sudden you get a Karen running things because she has nothing better to do. I cant state enough that everyone should at least be paying attention to their HOA and attend meetings whenever possible.

I am the president of my HOA with the sole purpose to keep it just as minimally active as possible without getting fined by the county/state or having a Karen take over. We dont enforce any real rules and mostly just keep common area grass cut and keep a storm water management area maintained. Lucky for the community that I actually care about integrity because in the 2 years I have been president I have held 5 open public meetings and 12 board of directors meetings (people can attend but cant talk), and in that time we have had less than 10 households of 93 attend. Our last annual meeting (3 weeks ago) had 5 households (the 3 officers, the president from 10 years ago, and one random household). The previous president who was run off paid herself 6k/year to cut less than an acre of grass 18 times a year (about twice the going rate), and then paid her neighbors son (who had no qualifications) to do 35k worth of work one year. No one would have ever figured it out if she hadnt tried to quadruple our rates. I cant stress enough how easy it is for people that run HOAs to abuse their power because quite frankly no one pays attention/doesnt want to volunteer their time until its too late. You want a good HOA go help your HOA.

 

[prf100]

Im going to make a second post about general home ownership but I wanted to address HOA's first. Each HOA is different and unfortunately without a lot of pre-buying investigation chances are you wont know what sort of HOA you have until its too late. Some HOAs are responsible for a whole lot to include lawn care and exterior work of all properties etc. Some just exist for the purpose of common area lawn cutting. Hell my father's HOA exists for the sole purpose of paying the electric bill on the street lights (4) of the community. But ultimately its the make up of the board and officers that really impact how good/bad the HOA is. My experience is that most people dont want to be involved and all of sudden you get a Karen running things because she has nothing better to do. I cant state enough that everyone should at least be paying attention to their HOA and attend meetings whenever possible.

I am the president of my HOA with the sole purpose to keep it just as minimally active as possible without getting fined by the county/state or having a Karen take over. We dont enforce any real rules and mostly just keep common area grass cut and keep a storm water management area maintained. Lucky for the community that I actually care about integrity because in the 2 years I have been president I have held 5 open public meetings and 12 board of directors meetings (people can attend but cant talk), and in that time we have had less than 10 households of 93 attend. Our last annual meeting (3 weeks ago) had 5 households (the 3 officers, the president from 10 years ago, and one random household). The previous president who was run off paid herself 6k/year to cut less than an acre of grass 18 times a year (about twice the going rate), and then paid her neighbors son (who had no qualifications) to do 35k worth of work one year. No one would have ever figured it out if she hadnt tried to quadruple our rates. I cant stress enough how easy it is for people that run HOAs to abuse their power because quite frankly no one pays attention/doesnt want to volunteer their time until its too late. You want a good HOA go help your HOA.

Was part of an HOA for our condo building that was really well run and necessary given how old the building was. Had a buddy who lived in NC before moving to Massachusetts tell me he become President of his HOA because no one else wanted the job only to learn how the previous president (who left upon selling her unit), paid herself handsomely for lame chores, employed her friends businesses without looking for **any** alternative bids, and basically wasted the HOAs money. He cleaned it up, but was happy to move.

Good on you for being a responsible steward; sounds like there are a lot of shitbags out there

 

[bob2the2nd]

General home ownership post:
A bit of background I have flipped 5 houses (doing most of the most), and I own 2 rentals. To my current house I have completely remodeled my kitchen (pictures elsewhere in the thread), have completely gutted my master bathroom/closet (not pictured), redid everything but the tub in another full bathroom. I dont do structural work, large electrical jobs, carpet, large drywall jobs, window replacement, garage door replacement, or large roofing projects (just redid our shed roof last month). I can tell you before I do pretty much any job I watch multiple youtube videos. While my degree is in Mechanical engineering I can tell you right now rocket scientists dont built houses and being able to work on your house is mostly just about your free time and your natural inclination . Chances are you can figure out most things that need to be worked on in your house. That said the question is always going to be the cost effectiveness to hirer someone else and if you trust yourself not to burndown/flood your house.

If you are new to doing household work a couple of things I highly recommend- you are going to end up spending $500 dollars building a general care kit by its worth it.
Roybi has an AMAZING lineup of items. For just general household work that you dont plan on being a professional with I recommend roybi just because of their "massive tool" lineup and good price range.
You will want a drill (and probably an impact driver though not required).
A circular saw (maybe not required)
battery powered tire pressure pump with readout
2 sets of decent bits make sure some have torque (T) bits. Also make sure these are the long bits. The little half inch short ones you are goign to lose very quickly.
A decent set of drill bits (preferably the ones that also fit the impact driver)
A couple of types of flashlights to include magnetic/headlamps/handheld
2 levels (6 inch and 2 foot)
a set of screw drivers
a nice ratchet/socket set (preferably 1 that has both 1/4 inch and 3/8)
a nice hammer
a large set (50) of self drilling drywall anchors (for the love of god and all that is holy do not use the ribbed ones that come with the thing you are buying)
a speed square (Rafter square)
a carpenter square
both metric and standard wrenches, plus a couple of adjustable wrenches (make sure one goes up to 1 inch)
both metric and standard set of allen wrenches
a couple of plyers, to include at least once needle nose
3 tape measures (one that lives in the kitchen or other common area, one that lives where the tools are kept, and one that lives in the tool bucket).
1 pound box of 1 -1/2 inch drywall screws
1 pound box 2 inch all purpose screws
a pair of good wire strippers
wire nuts
voltage detector pen
2 box knives (With easily replaceable blades) -one will live in the bucket and one will get lost
at least 2 pencils - one will live in the bucket
a 5 gallon bucket that has a tool bib. the purpose of the bucket is for ease of movement and reduces the need to go up and down your stairs 18 god damn times because you keep forgetting shit.
A REALLY NICE SET OF GLOVES YOU FIND COMFORTABLE and SAFETY GLASSES (fuck maybe 2 sets of both)

Thats a good general purpose starter kit.

 

[Randolphkeys]

I am the president of my HOA with the sole purpose to keep it just as minimally active as possible without getting fined by the county/state or having a Karen take over. We dont enforce any real rules and mostly just keep common area grass cut and keep a storm water management area maintained. Lucky for the community that I actually care about integrity because in the 2 years I have been president I have held 5 open public meetings and 12 board of directors meetings (people can attend but cant talk), and in that time we have had less than 10 households of 93 attend. Our last annual meeting (3 weeks ago) had 5 households (the 3 officers, the president from 10 years ago, and one random household). The previous president who was run off paid herself 6k/year to cut less than an acre of grass 18 times a year (about twice the going rate), and then paid her neighbors son (who had no qualifications) to do 35k worth of work one year. No one would have ever figured it out if she hadnt tried to quadruple our rates. I cant stress enough how easy it is for people that run HOAs to abuse their power because quite frankly no one pays attention/doesnt want to volunteer their time until its too late. You want a good HOA go help your HOA.

I've heard HOA horror stories. I stopped looking in the city of San Francisco partially because a good HOA rarely sees someone leave, and bad HOAs have units opening up all the time.

In the HOA we found, they charge @200 less per month than other comparable buildings. I learned that is because many retirees bought a decade ago. However, in the carefully kept minutes, I could also see improvements made in the past decade along with investment records of the money they accumulated. If an HOA has a paper trail that looks good, it raises value for all the properties.

That's the end goal, right? Sell your property much higher than your buying price?

This is a saturated housing market all over the U.S. It will be for at least another calendar year. I think learning more about townhouses and condos can help a lot of people become first time buyers.

 

[Kouki]

My favorite gloves are six dollars from Harbor Freight because I lose them and because they are cheap makes them woodworking gloves, mechanics gloves, gardening gloves, etc.

I just buy a pair pretty much every time I'm there lol

 

[Blink]

My favorite gloves are six dollars from Harbor Freight because I lose them and because they are cheap makes them woodworking gloves, mechanics gloves, gardening gloves, etc.

I just buy a pair pretty much every time I'm there lol

I just picked up a pair from Rural King, and decided to get safety yellow. It makes them much easier to find back when I have to take them off every 5 minutes because my kids are whining about something.

 

[Sebastian]

I also lived in a HOA for a time and I had someone complain about the route I was walking from the road to my townhouse because it was waking up their dog which was waking them up. I agreed to take a different route but I thought it was ridiculous since it seem like more their problem with having a overly sensitive dog.

We had to deal with the worst HOA in Seattle.

Very much like those episodes of Frasier when he had to deal with the HOA.

We got yelled at for putting cardboard in the recycling. Because cardboard gets wet.

We can only hand off cardboard when the garbage men come.

When we left I sent a missive to the whole condo imploring them to rise up and fight petty tyranny. I received a lot of positive responses. The seeds of revolution were planted.

I found out that the horrible witch who was president was indeed voted out the next year.

 

[Randolphkeys]

So I have these space heaters attached in two bedrooms. The company is Intertherm. I'm guessing they were popular in good old 1975:



Anybody run into replacing these things before? Any good heating install recommendations if there isn't central heat?

Looking at the cheap route - Com-Pak electric fan wall mounted heater. Interested in any suggestions for something people like more.

 

[Scrote Squad]

So I have these space heaters attached in two bedrooms. The company is Intertherm. I'm guessing they were popular in good old 1975:

View attachment 10312

Anybody run into replacing these things before? Any good heating install recommendations if there isn't central heat?

Looking at the cheap route - Com-Pak electric fan wall mounted heater. Interested in any suggestions for something people like more.

View attachment 10313

Are they gas or oil heaters?

 

[bob2the2nd]

Are they gas or oil heaters?

I've seen electric as well.

But heat source is the first question

 

[Cavatt]

HOA's are great if you like to pay someone to bully you about your own property

 

[Randolphkeys]

I've seen electric as well.

But heat source is the first question

Are they gas or oil heaters?

I assumed that it didn't matter. I hoped that modernizing the old baseboard heater would allow me to save energy and space.

Is this a situation where I have to stick with oil if it was an oil heater originally? I believe it's electric but I'm going to check again before any purchases.

 

[inliner311]

So I have these space heaters attached in two bedrooms. The company is Intertherm. I'm guessing they were popular in good old 1975:

View attachment 10312

Anybody run into replacing these things before? Any good heating install recommendations if there isn't central heat?

Looking at the cheap route - Com-Pak electric fan wall mounted heater. Interested in any suggestions for something people like more.




View attachment 10313

Those look like electric baseboard heater which are typically the most energy efficient and comfortable for standard electric heaters. If you switch to electric fan ones it might get hotter quicker but it will be harder to maintain a constant temperature and you might use more electricity.

 

[inliner311]

I assumed that it didn't matter. I hoped that modernizing the old baseboard heater would allow me to save energy and space.

Is this a situation where I have to stick with oil if it was an oil heater originally? I believe it's electric but I'm going to check again before any purchases.

You won't save any energy by modernizing them. Electric heaters all run on a electric element so adding a fan would just add to the energy cost. With electric heaters its about matching the type of heater to how you use the room. Those baseboard heaters where made for long use which give slow but constant heat for comfort. If you only use a room for a short time and want it to heat up quickly then a fan electric heater would be more appropriate.

If you want to save on energy, you could switch to a heat pump and AC split unit. That would really depend on the climate you are in but it will give you AC if you don't have it.

Switch to gas units if you have natural gas in your house could save you money and would be more appropriate for colder climates. The question though is how much money you save over time with natural gas price influx.