The joys of home ownership are only exceeded by. . . . . . .

[amboy49]

Our house is 45 years old and we’ve live here for 37 years. In the last few year months we have replaced all the windows, majorly remodeled the master bedroom and master bath. In the last couple years we’ve replaced the roof ( shingles and decking), the submersible well pump, exterior and interior doors, Installed new hardwood floors, and asphalted the driveway. Our garage door opener sounds like it’s on it’slast legs. I just had and annual maintenance check on my home A/C unit which is 23 years old. The tech said he thought the fan motor bearing sounded awfully loud and said it might need to be replaced - at an estimated cost of $850 include a fan blade in case the old one won’t come off with being damaged. I don’twant to put $800+ into a 23 year old unit so I asked him to give me a quote for a new A/C unit.

He mentioned our furnace is 15 years old and I might to give want to give some consideration to replacing our 90% efficiency furnace as well. He wasn’t sure a new coil would fit into the existing furnace which is located in our crawl space and that is what prompted the discussion. I have no idea yet what the A/C alone nor replacing the whole system might cost. Suffice to say regardless of the bid(s) I know it ain’t going to be cheap.

The joys of home ownership are only outweighed by the joys of raising children !

 

[J Galt]

Children eventually become self-sufficient and leave....to get their own homes. Houses just require more and more. You never recoup the amount you have put into the home.

Biggest fallacy popularly accepted: A home is an investment.

An investment should have the potential to give you more money than you have spent on it.

 

[Hoosierdood]

Children eventually become self-sufficient and leave....to get their own homes. Houses just require more and more. You never recoup the amount you have put into the home.

Biggest fallacy popularly accepted: A home is an investment.

An investment should have the potential to give you more money than you have spent on it.

Both houses that I have sold have netted me more money than I had put into them.

 

[indyjohn]

Our house is 45 years old and we’ve live here for 37 years. In the last few year months we have replaced all the windows, majorly remodeled the master bedroom and master bath. In the last couple years we’ve replaced the roof ( shingles and decking), the submersible well pump, exterior and interior doors, and asphalted the driveway. Our garage door opener sounds like it’s on it’slast legs. I just had and annual maintenance check on my home A/C unit which is 23 years old. The tech said he thought the fan motor bearing sounded awfully loud and said it might need to be replaced - at an estimated cost of $850 include a fan blade in case the old one won’t come off with being damaged. I don’twant to put $800+ into a 23 year old unit so I asked him to give me a quote for a new A/C unit.

He mentioned our furnace is 15 years old and I might to give want to give some consideration to replacing our 90% efficiency furnace as well. He wasn’t sure a new coil would fit into the existing furnace which is located in our crawl space and that is what prompted the discussion. I have no idea yet what the A/C alone nor replacing the whole system might cost. Suffice to say regardless of the bid(s) I know it ain’t going to be cheap.

The joys of home ownership are only outweighed by the joys of raising children !

Our house is 22 years old, we've been in it 10. It was resurrected from not quite dead yet after 3 years abandoned by the original builder. The reno company did an acceptable job.

* New roof - check (twice)
* New HVAC - check
* New sump pump - check (different than a well pump, I know)
* New garage door opener - check

New coils not fitting old units is the norm, you'll end up replacing the whole thing for less time & misery.

I got a great deal on this home and with the current market will realize a respectable return on my investment.

 

[Tombs]

I don't know what I'd do with myself if it wasn't for upkeep on the house. I rather enjoy it.
It's so much better than sitting on your hands and complaining about your landlord refusing to fix your AC. You can break out the tool chest and do it yourself.

It's one of the few things that keeps me sane in this climate.

As for replacing your whole HVAC system, I don't know how big your house is or what size unit you need but it'll probably be in the $3k region with labor.
Just had the whole thing done in this house a couple years ago. The newer high efficiency units are no joke and work quite well. I'm also a fan of the multi-stage heating.

 

[maxwelhse]

I lost about $60k on the house I lived in for 10 years. I've spent about $40k renting the next one in 3 years.

So... From my prospective of generally being unlucky in home ownership, it's still the cheapest option. I'm hoping for better luck next time and you can be sure I at least learned something from the money I spent.

 

[churchmouse]

Just a note on the new furnaces. They have better blowers and move more air which is a basic requirement to get all that the new A/C system will be able to give you as it is R-410A and not R-22.

And no do not dump $800 plus into the 23 year old unit.

That whole crawl space thing sucks.

 

[Jeepster48439]

That whole crawl space thing sucks.

Not as much as the AC unit built into the wall. Finally found a replacement, but had to replace the whole system. Ran me $5K.

 

[churchmouse]

Not as much as the AC unit built into the wall. Finally found a replacement, but had to replace the whole system. Ran me $5K.

I have done 1 of those and no direct replacement exists. I had to modify a regular heat pump air handler and build an enclosure.
Yup that sucks.

 

[Ingomike]

Children eventually become self-sufficient and leave....to get their own homes. Houses just require more and more. You never recoup the amount you have put into the home.

Biggest fallacy popularly accepted: A home is an investment.

An investment should have the potential to give you more money than you have spent on it.

If that is your experience you are doing it wrong...

Or you are just wrong...

 

[jfed85]

I bought my house in 2012 (was built in 1961) for $85K and it last appraised for $170K so ill take it. I have probably put under $10k into it over those 8 years. Granted I got a family friend hook up on HVAC and my dad and I rebuilt my sunroom into a nice addition. Still needs roof, driveway, and garage is in desperate need of attention. Cant complain too much when I have over $100k in equity currently.

 

[Jeepster48439]

I have done 1 of those and no direct replacement exists. I had to modify a regular heat pump air handler and build an enclosure.
Yup that sucks.

I did find a direct replacement for mine. But I only needed a 2T unit. The manufacturer is National Comfort Products.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[amboy49]

Asking for recommendations for HVAC. Install of A/C and possibly new furnace as well. Will require rerunning the refrigerant line I’m told - there is a bad kink in the existing line.

Anyone use a company recently they felt did a good job ? I have two local company’s where I live (Zionsville) but wondering about any others in the Indianapolis and suburbs area folks think would do a good job at a fair price.

Thanks in advance

 

[JettaKnight]

Biggest fallacy popularly accepted: A home is an investment.

Learned that hard way when we sold for the same price we paid fifteen years earlier.

If that is your experience you are doing it wrong...

Or you are just wrong...

Not the first time you've told me I'm wrong...


There's not a lot you can do when the entire neighborhood has suddenly declined and you need to get out.
We didn't invest a lot in that home, just sweat equity.

 

[Alpo]

Our house was built in 1892 and has been through a history of boarding house, duplex and now single family.

We've been here 15+ years and spent the first year ripping out coal bins and oil tanks, replacing windows, updating electricity and kitchen, etc. Not something I could do today at 70.

But, it's nice to live in a house that is older than me. A connection to the past.

 

[AtTheMurph]

The joys of home ownership are only outweighed by the joys of raising children !

The joys of home ownership are only outweighed by the joys of owning two homes!

Home 1 (23yrs): Replaced:
concrete drive (11 truck loads @ 10 cubic yards each).
Replaced 38 windows.
all interior and exterior doors including garage doors and openers.
All flooring, including 1800 sq ft of hardwood and 400 sq ft of tile.
All 4 bathrooms completely remodeled
New roof including plywood underlay
Some cedar siding
Wood deck
All landscape terracing/blocks
New kitchen with redesign, move plumbing and add gas for stove. Cost me almost half what I originally paid for the place.
Furnace/AC/Water heater/Water Filtration/Softener
All new lighting inside and out.

House 2 (3yrs)
New roof after hurricane ($25,000 deductible)
New pool cage
2 New AC Air handlers
1 New AC condenser
1 main water line replace
Paint everything inside and out

There is a lot of carry cost!

 

[Hkindiana]

What a lot of people fail to take into account, is the RENT that they would have paid for those 10 or twenty years that they live in a house. So, you live there for ten years and sell it for exactly what you paid. Your PROFIT (from that investment) is all the rent you would have paid for similar living arrangements.

 

[gregkl]

Both houses that I have sold have netted me more money than I had put into them.

Same here.

First house: doubled the value
Second house: purchased for $68K, sold for $119K, put about $25K into it.
Third house: kinda broke even
Current house: paid $210K, put about $50K into it. Current market value: close to $400K.

But I do a LOT of work myself. If I was to pay myself, I would probably be upside down on all of them.

And since folks are listing what they have done, here's mine for the current house:

New roof including replacing decking
New piers and posts to jack up the main beam 1.5" to bring the floors back to almost level
Condition crawlspace
Perimeter drain and sump pump
Excavate exterior down to footer, install french drain and 2 types of waterproofing.
Run underground pipe for my downspouts
Take out 4 dead trees
Put in dry creek to try and control the washout in my back yard
Remove all rotten wood siding, insulate and re-side with vinyl
Replace solid wood soffit with al soffit. Yes, they had the attics closed off from ventilation.
Insulated garage walls and ceiling and added a sub panel
Had my electrical line buried and a new 200 amp service panel installed
Gutted basement to concrete, and totally rebuilt with stud walls, insulation, family room, guest bedroom and bathroom, laundry room and "man caves".
Installed sand and seal hardwood through entire main floor
Replaced or repainted all of the interior trim and doors
Installed new kitchen after re configuring it.
Scraped, primed and painted 37 windows inside and out
Redesigned the master bedroom, master and hall bathroom gutting it completely to exterior studs and floor joints. I had to sister a lot of the floor joists.
Painted the other two bedrooms. This was the least touched renovating done in any part of the house.

I am waiting for the vanity tops for the master and hall bath. Once those are installed, I am effectively finished with the inside of the house.

I still have to re-do my screened in porch; new screens, paint, railings, lighting and tear off and replace my deck and landscape. I tore out the overgrown landscaping when we moved in.

I have been working on this since I bought it 5 years ago with hardly a break. Even though I enjoy doing projects, you don't know how happy I am to be able to say the house is virtually finished, fully functional.

I have probably forgot several things like redoing all the closets with extra shelves and covers over the rods and stippling the garage ceiling and building 3 workbenches for different rooms, building a mailbox post, etc.

My wife and I are going out to dinner tonight to celebrate being done!....mostly.

 

[gregkl]

What a lot of people fail to take into account, is the RENT that they would have paid for those 10 or twenty years that they live in a house. So, you live there for ten years and sell it for exactly what you paid. Your PROFIT (from that investment) is all the rent you would have paid for similar living arrangements.

When we sold our third house, I was a little disappointed in not making a bunch of money. My real estate agent reminded me that I live there for 16 years and didn't pay rent.

16 years X $1000 month = $192,000. Not a bad savings.

 

[JettaKnight]

What a lot of people fail to take into account, is the RENT that they would have paid for those 10 or twenty years that they live in a house. So, you live there for ten years and sell it for exactly what you paid. Your PROFIT (from that investment) is all the rent you would have paid for similar living arrangements.

So, you didn't have a mortgage on that house, nor insurance, nor taxes?
Never replace the carpet? Or the roof? Or a water heater?




Sincerely,
Debbie Downer