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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 16, 2017 8:37:59 GMT -5
Man, if you've got a suburban yard I can't recommend a cordless electric lawn mower enough. It won't power through a half-acre of waist-high grass on one charge, but it's no trouble with regular use and I can always raise the height if I have to. I bought one for $100 at a yard sale, replaced the battery for $40 (the only trick was finding the right generic battery), and it runs like a champ. No gas cans in the car, no fixing the thing. The only special part that will ever need replacing are these little $5 carbon brushes, nothing to it and a video on YouTube. No one is going to steal it because I keep the charger inside. I disconnect the battery and keep it in the house over winter. We live on a block of townhomes with an HOA and no fences (decks and patios are allowed) so the maintenance guys just mow everything. The two streets south of us are townhomes but there's no HOA, so people can do whatever they want to their yards. Many are fenced. I have found myself wondering what the people in the middle do to mow their backyards. Do they carry their lawnmower through the house every time? Perhaps they do, if they have one of those suckers. |
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on May 16, 2017 8:42:09 GMT -5
Man, if you've got a suburban yard I can't recommend a cordless electric lawn mower enough. It won't power through a half-acre of waist-high grass on one charge, but it's no trouble with regular use and I can always raise the height if I have to. I bought one for $100 at a yard sale, replaced the battery for $40 (the only trick was finding the right generic battery), and it runs like a champ. No gas cans in the car, no fixing the thing. The only special part that will ever need replacing are these little $5 carbon brushes, nothing to it and a video on YouTube. No one is going to steal it because I keep the charger inside. I disconnect the battery and keep it in the house over winter. See, that's what I thought until my electric mower stopped working and my trouble shooting steps are: - Is the battery charged? Yes - Maybe it's the battery, do you have another you can try? Yes - Did that work? No - Uh...is it still under warranty? But otherwise, the battery powered mower was great. Relatively quiet, no buying gas, no oil changes, the smug satisfaction from knowing that any pollution coming from your lawn maintenance is happening at the power plant. Good times... |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 16, 2017 9:54:54 GMT -5
My parents picked me up a giveaway gas mower last weekend. My dad said it just needs a tuneup and should work fine for my small amount of grass (most of my yard is garden/trees.) So long cheap pushmower that's impossible to keep sharp.
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moimoi
AV Clubber
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Post by moimoi on May 16, 2017 12:27:25 GMT -5
Man, if you've got a suburban yard I can't recommend a cordless electric lawn mower enough. It won't power through a half-acre of waist-high grass on one charge, but it's no trouble with regular use and I can always raise the height if I have to. I bought one for $100 at a yard sale, replaced the battery for $40 (the only trick was finding the right generic battery), and it runs like a champ. No gas cans in the car, no fixing the thing. The only special part that will ever need replacing are these little $5 carbon brushes, nothing to it and a video on YouTube. No one is going to steal it because I keep the charger inside. I disconnect the battery and keep it in the house over winter. How noisy is it compared to gas powered? There are many things I hate about my gas mower, but the noise is at the top of the list. |
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 16, 2017 12:28:57 GMT -5
I really wanted to grab a battery powered one but my amount of grass to cut is so small I couldn't ever justify the cash outlay.
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Post by ganews on May 16, 2017 12:31:27 GMT -5
Man, if you've got a suburban yard I can't recommend a cordless electric lawn mower enough. It won't power through a half-acre of waist-high grass on one charge, but it's no trouble with regular use and I can always raise the height if I have to. I bought one for $100 at a yard sale, replaced the battery for $40 (the only trick was finding the right generic battery), and it runs like a champ. No gas cans in the car, no fixing the thing. The only special part that will ever need replacing are these little $5 carbon brushes, nothing to it and a video on YouTube. No one is going to steal it because I keep the charger inside. I disconnect the battery and keep it in the house over winter. How noisy is it compared to gas powered? There are many things I hate about my gas mower, but the noise is at the top of the list. Definitely quieter, though mine rattles a bit because after I take the case off something I never put all the screws back on. No pull-cord start is nice too. |
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Trurl
Shoutbox Elitist 
Posts: 7,699
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Post by Trurl on May 16, 2017 13:07:13 GMT -5
When I was a kid I always hated electric mowers - they just didn't have much power and would get clogged up if they had to trim off more than an inch of grass. This 30+ year-old B&S engine still has power to spare when I take it into tall grass.
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Post by chalkdevil 😈 on May 16, 2017 14:20:08 GMT -5
Man, if you've got a suburban yard I can't recommend a cordless electric lawn mower enough. It won't power through a half-acre of waist-high grass on one charge, but it's no trouble with regular use and I can always raise the height if I have to. I bought one for $100 at a yard sale, replaced the battery for $40 (the only trick was finding the right generic battery), and it runs like a champ. No gas cans in the car, no fixing the thing. The only special part that will ever need replacing are these little $5 carbon brushes, nothing to it and a video on YouTube. No one is going to steal it because I keep the charger inside. I disconnect the battery and keep it in the house over winter. How noisy is it compared to gas powered? There are many things I hate about my gas mower, but the noise is at the top of the list. It's pretty quiet. I can still listen to headphones at a normal volume while mowing. So, kind of like a box fan on it's highest setting. |
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Post by Not a real doctor on May 26, 2017 7:38:29 GMT -5
Made an offer on a mid-century fixer-upper ranch on Wednesday. The counter offer was so far away from what we think the place is worth that I don't think any further pursuit is worthwhile. Whatevs, they're pretty regularly dropping it by 3k every 2 weeks so we may revisit it in the future if nothing else comes along. They're overvaluing it by ~15% or so, asking for basically a fully renovated price for something that still looks like 1966 inside and last had any mechanical work done during the Clinton presidency.
But! Going to look at a few new places today (one of them is an adorable 40s cape cod that I hope doesn't break my heart) and if none of those tickle my fancy there's another place from the first round that is also overpriced but is probably worth making an offer on anyway.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 26, 2017 8:21:17 GMT -5
Made an offer on a mid-century fixer-upper ranch on Wednesday. The counter offer was so far away from what we think the place is worth that I don't think any further pursuit is worthwhile. Whatevs, they're pretty regularly dropping it by 3k every 2 weeks so we may revisit it in the future if nothing else comes along. They're overvaluing it by ~15% or so, asking for basically a fully renovated price for something that still looks like 1966 inside and last had any mechanical work done during the Clinton presidency. But! Going to look at a few new places today (one of them is an adorable 40s cape cod that I hope doesn't break my heart) and if none of those tickle my fancy there's another place from the first round that is also overpriced but is probably worth making an offer on anyway. We had one baffling experience when we were househunting, we found a midcentury split-level that had clearly last been updated in the 90s - the bones of the house were pretty solid, it had a nice lot, but there were mirrors everywhere, the kitchen was very 90s with black appliances, none of the bathrooms had been updated since the 90s (one was all blue!). They were clearly overvaluing it by at least $20-30k. We put in a somewhat lowball offer hoping maybe they'd meet us in the middle, and instead they countered by lowering it only a few thousand. We sighed, gave up, and moved on. I kept track of that house for awhile out of curiosity. They took it off the market and a week later put it back on with an even higher listing price. Despite no cosmetic changes at all. It never did sell. (I mean, maybe it has in the five years since, but I feel like they didn't really want to sell it in the first place.) |
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 26, 2017 11:55:10 GMT -5
Made an offer on a mid-century fixer-upper ranch on Wednesday. The counter offer was so far away from what we think the place is worth that I don't think any further pursuit is worthwhile. Whatevs, they're pretty regularly dropping it by 3k every 2 weeks so we may revisit it in the future if nothing else comes along. They're overvaluing it by ~15% or so, asking for basically a fully renovated price for something that still looks like 1966 inside and last had any mechanical work done during the Clinton presidency. But! Going to look at a few new places today (one of them is an adorable 40s cape cod that I hope doesn't break my heart) and if none of those tickle my fancy there's another place from the first round that is also overpriced but is probably worth making an offer on anyway. People who do this - and they are legion - baffle me. We get it, you like your house the way it is. But the fact no-one's interested has got to eventually tell you something, and where in this is the real estate agent saying "Guys, your house isn't going to sell at this price"? |
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Post by Not a real doctor on May 26, 2017 17:31:49 GMT -5
"twas a bust today. The cape cod I had the highest of hopes about broke my heart with a really odd layout that's the result of unfortunate past additions that I just don't think I'd ever be happy living in.
The wonky kitchen layout, old windows, weird basement finishing job, and 9 types of flooring through the place was fixable, but the weird "breezeway converted into a dining room accessible by going down a few steps and making a hard right turn" was the deal killer along with a single car garage that blocked access to the rest of the lot to expand something bigger.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on May 26, 2017 17:47:49 GMT -5
Made an offer on a mid-century fixer-upper ranch on Wednesday. The counter offer was so far away from what we think the place is worth that I don't think any further pursuit is worthwhile. Whatevs, they're pretty regularly dropping it by 3k every 2 weeks so we may revisit it in the future if nothing else comes along. They're overvaluing it by ~15% or so, asking for basically a fully renovated price for something that still looks like 1966 inside and last had any mechanical work done during the Clinton presidency. But! Going to look at a few new places today (one of them is an adorable 40s cape cod that I hope doesn't break my heart) and if none of those tickle my fancy there's another place from the first round that is also overpriced but is probably worth making an offer on anyway. People who do this - and they are legion - baffle me. We get it, you like your house the way it is. But the fact no-one's interested has got to eventually tell you something, and where in this is the real estate agent saying "Guys, your house isn't going to sell at this price"? based on my formerly real estate agent friend there's roughly 20% of the people out there who won't listen to the agent no matter what and if you don't list it at what they want they'll just go agent shopping until someone will. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 26, 2017 18:35:28 GMT -5
People who do this - and they are legion - baffle me. We get it, you like your house the way it is. But the fact no-one's interested has got to eventually tell you something, and where in this is the real estate agent saying "Guys, your house isn't going to sell at this price"? based on my formerly real estate agent friend there's roughly 20% of the people out there who won't listen to the agent no matter what and if you don't list it at what they want they'll just go agent shopping until someone will. And then blame the agent they do pick for not being able to get the house sold, of course. |
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Trurl
Shoutbox Elitist
Posts: 7,699
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Post by Trurl on May 27, 2017 11:29:51 GMT -5
I have never met a real estate agent that's worth a damn. It's like the only research they do is reading the listing.
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Post by Dr. Rumak on May 27, 2017 15:27:48 GMT -5
I have never met a real estate agent that's worth a damn. It's like the only research they do is reading the listing. The one we used to buy this house convinced us that we could offer way less than I was expecting, and even though we accepted a counter offer, it was significantly less than I might have offered to begin with. And since his commission is a percentage, that actually cost him money. (Although, I gave him a thank you gift card worth what that ended up costing him in commission, but there was no way he could have known I was going to do that.) |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on May 30, 2017 7:46:06 GMT -5
I have never met a real estate agent that's worth a damn. It's like the only research they do is reading the listing. I know a lot of realtors, since Mrs. Snape is one (though it's not what she does for work right now), and so is her mother and some friends and on and on... As for the "find the house" phase, I agree. They really have no magic. The home seeker has access to the same tools and information, more or less, than the realtor. However, I do think their value comes into play further into the process ... helping negotiate, reviewing contracts, advocating on behalf of their client. Of course, a lot of them are really shitty at it, and are just trying to pull in a quick commission, but the good ones can really help you not get screwed over. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on May 30, 2017 8:26:47 GMT -5
I have never met a real estate agent that's worth a damn. It's like the only research they do is reading the listing. I know a lot of realtors, since Mrs. Snape is one (though it's not what she does for work right now), and so is her mother and some friends and on and on... As for the "find the house" phase, I agree. They really have no magic. The home seeker has access to the same tools and information, more or less, than the realtor. However, I do think their value comes into play further into the process ... helping negotiate, reviewing contracts, advocating on behalf of their client. Of course, a lot of them are really shitty at it, and are just trying to pull in a quick commission, but the good ones can really help you not get screwed over. Our real estate agent (not sure if he was a realtor) was decent at the contractual stuff but definitely paid little to no attention to what kind of houses we said we wanted, did not know the neighborhoods at all, etc. So we found all of the listings on our own and told him which ones we wanted to see. In no hurry to do this all again but next time I'd definitely like to find someone who is actually really good at their job. |
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LazBro
Prolific Poster
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Post by LazBro on May 30, 2017 8:48:48 GMT -5
I know a lot of realtors, since Mrs. Snape is one (though it's not what she does for work right now), and so is her mother and some friends and on and on... As for the "find the house" phase, I agree. They really have no magic. The home seeker has access to the same tools and information, more or less, than the realtor. However, I do think their value comes into play further into the process ... helping negotiate, reviewing contracts, advocating on behalf of their client. Of course, a lot of them are really shitty at it, and are just trying to pull in a quick commission, but the good ones can really help you not get screwed over. My BIL was recommended a realtor by his uncle (who as a landlord and contractor had a lot of knowledge of real estate on his own). The realtor had been around for years, lots of experience, so it seemed good. He helped my BIL find a nice house, and, when he was ready to make an offer, proceeded to fuck up the paperwork and not give it to the seller. When my BIL tried to contact him to see what was going on with the offer, the agent blocked his phone number - so not only didn't he get the house he wanted, he had to get his uncle to harang the guy because he had actually held on to the deposit for a month. The realtor involved in purchasing my house provided nothing at all - we found the place, got the inspection, did the legal research and got the paperwork done. They wandered around and shook hands. Recently went to look at a house with my BIL and his new realtor. Now my BIL is an electrician and I used to work construction so we can do a pretty good inspection on our own - the realtor didn't add anything to the experience. How can you be a realtor and not be able to point out, say, water damage or the fact that flooring was laid without proper subflooring? Why am I explaining what's wrong to them? Maybe I'll meet a good realtor some day. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting though. Yeah, I probably could have said that despite my mild defense of the profession, the shitty agents FAR outweigh the good ones. I think one contributing factor is that it's one of those jobs that everyone thinks they can do. There are a lot of "professional by definition only" actors in that space. I'm amazed at how often people ask Mrs. Snape how to get into it. How hard is it to get a license? How do you find a broker? How much do you make? People see a chance to make their own hours, be their own boss, or to have an evergreen side gig they can turn on and off. But to do it well you actually have to know a shit load of laws and processes. Mrs. Snape works as a leasing consultant right now, and all day she deals with agents who don't have the first idea what the fuck they're doing. It infuriates her. |
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Post by ganews on May 30, 2017 9:09:22 GMT -5
I know a lot of realtors, since Mrs. Snape is one (though it's not what she does for work right now), and so is her mother and some friends and on and on... As for the "find the house" phase, I agree. They really have no magic. The home seeker has access to the same tools and information, more or less, than the realtor. However, I do think their value comes into play further into the process ... helping negotiate, reviewing contracts, advocating on behalf of their client. Of course, a lot of them are really shitty at it, and are just trying to pull in a quick commission, but the good ones can really help you not get screwed over. My BIL was recommended a realtor by his uncle (who as a landlord and contractor had a lot of knowledge of real estate on his own). The realtor had been around for years, lots of experience, so it seemed good. He helped my BIL find a nice house, and, when he was ready to make an offer, proceeded to fuck up the paperwork and not give it to the seller. When my BIL tried to contact him to see what was going on with the offer, the agent blocked his phone number - so not only didn't he get the house he wanted, he had to get his uncle to harang the guy because he had actually held on to the deposit for a month. The realtor involved in purchasing my house provided nothing at all - we found the place, got the inspection, did the legal research and got the paperwork done. They wandered around and shook hands. Recently went to look at a house with my BIL and his new realtor. Now my BIL is an electrician and I used to work construction so we can do a pretty good inspection on our own - the realtor didn't add anything to the experience. How can you be a realtor and not be able to point out, say, water damage or the fact that flooring was laid without proper subflooring? Why am I explaining what's wrong to them? Maybe I'll meet a good realtor some day. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting though. Our agent was pretty OK. He was nice, was easy to make time with, had the timely details on the property (we had to get our offer in within 4 hours of seeing the place), and came though with a really thorough home inspector. Even the inspector wasn't perfect, as I was the one to point something rather important out, but he did go through the root of that issue carefully afterward. Still, who knows what stuff didn't get noticed? A year or more before him we had a different realtor on a one-off appointment about a specific property we were interested. Her opinions about the property were valid once we got inside, but for all her "35 years experience in the area" she didn't know shit about the neighborhood. Yeah, I've lived here five years, it's not crime-riddled. And then as we were parting ways she obviously dropped the fact that she drove there in her Jaguar; if she thought that factoid was going to impress me she isn't much at sizing-up clients. |
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Trurl
Shoutbox Elitist
Posts: 7,699
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Post by Trurl on May 30, 2017 9:11:00 GMT -5
My BIL was recommended a realtor by his uncle (who as a landlord and contractor had a lot of knowledge of real estate on his own). The realtor had been around for years, lots of experience, so it seemed good. He helped my BIL find a nice house, and, when he was ready to make an offer, proceeded to fuck up the paperwork and not give it to the seller. When my BIL tried to contact him to see what was going on with the offer, the agent blocked his phone number - so not only didn't he get the house he wanted, he had to get his uncle to harang the guy because he had actually held on to the deposit for a month. The realtor involved in purchasing my house provided nothing at all - we found the place, got the inspection, did the legal research and got the paperwork done. They wandered around and shook hands. Recently went to look at a house with my BIL and his new realtor. Now my BIL is an electrician and I used to work construction so we can do a pretty good inspection on our own - the realtor didn't add anything to the experience. How can you be a realtor and not be able to point out, say, water damage or the fact that flooring was laid without proper subflooring? Why am I explaining what's wrong to them? Maybe I'll meet a good realtor some day. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting though. Yeah, I probably could have said that despite my mild defense of the profession, the shitty agents FAR outweigh the good ones. I think one contributing factor is that it's one of those jobs that everyone thinks they can do. There are a lot of "professional by definition only" actors in that space. I'm amazed at how often people ask Mrs. Snape how to get into it. How hard is it to get a license? How do you find a broker? How much do you make? People see a chance to make their own hours, be their own boss, or to have an evergreen side gig they can turn on and off. But to do it well you actually have to know a shit load of laws and processes. Mrs. Snape works as a leasing consultant right now, and all day she deals with agents who don't have the first idea what the fuck they're doing. It infuriates her. Mind you, I could say the same thing with every profession though. There's no way I'd hire contractors without overseeing everything they do - I know how they work, I've been there. I recently took over the codebase for an application that a client had professionally written and it's mind-bogglingly bad - it's got unrolled loops and no code reuse, I rewrote one file in 15 minutes and it was a 10th the size. And never walk into a doctor's office without doing your research beforehand. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on May 30, 2017 16:28:42 GMT -5
My suspicion is, as happened with my grandfather who was a legitimately good realtor, that the really good ones go into corporate real estate work, because businesses won't put up with shitty agents and do big enough deals to make it worth good agents' time.
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Post by Not a real doctor on May 31, 2017 9:29:39 GMT -5
Going to look at another place today and if it's a dud I'm going to make an offer on another place that I liked a lot but have internally wrangled greatly over its "value."* This is where my agent is sort of falling down on me in this modern age where I can find out so much about previous sales of the place, and sales around it through some internet sleuthing coupled with what I know about the cost of doing certain things to come up with what I *think* it's worth. But! I need more than that! Like, I need a professional to just say "$X is a fair price to offer for this house." I like the place, it's a great size and I love the neighborhood so hopefully it shakes out in a workable way.
*It has had work done to it that, while having value, isn't exactly what *I* would have done and finding a midpoint of what that's worth to me versus what it's worth "to the market" has been difficult. Like, it technically has a mostly new kitchen, but with crappy cabinets and nothing done to fix the slightly wonky layout. It also has a very large detached garage/shop that I looooooovvvvvveeeeeeee but have zero idea how to value and I don't think the place has been appraised since it was built.
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Post by Not a real doctor on Jun 2, 2017 18:41:03 GMT -5
Made an offer on a place today. I'm fairly certain we'll be able to agree on a price on it. So, barring any wacky stuff during the inspection, this one might be it.
Edit: we agreed on a price, so barring anything wacky on the inspection, this is it
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jun 5, 2017 15:48:52 GMT -5
Found a sizable hole beside the house the other day, and my neighbor said he saw a skunk run by the front of the house over the weekend. I haven't seen the animal yet, but sure enough I did find some tracks that look about right. So I guess a skunk has moved into our foundation. Time to break out the fox pee.
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Post by Not a real doctor on Jun 5, 2017 16:17:22 GMT -5
Dropped off my earnest money check and got the paperwork I needed to the bank to move that process along (including paying for the appraisal). Realtor's supposed to be getting a list of inspectors to me so I can get that scheduled.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Jun 6, 2017 17:24:36 GMT -5
Dropped off my earnest money check and got the paperwork I needed to the bank to move that process along (including paying for the appraisal). Realtor's supposed to be getting a list of inspectors to me so I can get that scheduled. The most amazing thing I've ever learned is that there are people who buy a house without having it inspected. |
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 9, 2017 9:32:21 GMT -5
Dropped off my earnest money check and got the paperwork I needed to the bank to move that process along (including paying for the appraisal). Realtor's supposed to be getting a list of inspectors to me so I can get that scheduled. The most amazing thing I've ever learned is that there are people who buy a house without having it inspected. Unfortunately some places you don't have much choice. I missed out on a couple houses because interest was high enough (and our market is nuts) that they could just choose an offer without an inspection requirement. I can imagine it's worse in Toronto/Vancouver at this point. |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Jun 9, 2017 9:43:38 GMT -5
The most amazing thing I've ever learned is that there are people who buy a house without having it inspected. Unfortunately some places you don't have much choice. I missed out on a couple houses because interest was high enough (and our market is nuts) that they could just choose an offer without an inspection requirement. I can imagine it's worse in Toronto/Vancouver at this point. Everything about this is so insane that I don't even know where to begin. This is how I envision it:  |
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jun 9, 2017 10:14:08 GMT -5
Yeah, I wasn't buying one without a good (expensive) house inspection and in fact ended up paying for 3 house inspections.
The fact that one seller tried to talk me out of needing an inspection made me immediately say fuck off too.
Hah, that actually reminds me. One realtor told me another house the couple selling it wouldn't accept any offers contingent on a house inspection because on their previous selling experience a house inspector had ruined a deal by pointing out "minor issues." Suuuuure...
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