but i cant help to be afraid and scared about how old it is. Looks to be in great sgape and modernized, but ive scene alot of older 1800’s houses and i know they can look great from the outside but falling apart on the inside.
Sooo, I love the layout of this house but hate how old it is. Will this prove to be a smart buy in 5-10yrs or are old houses depreciating inj value these days?
well, its lookin like baseboard heat and hotwater, so id imagine not that much money. I have baseboard heat in my current appartment and my electric bill is around 75-100bucs in the winter.
well, its lookin like baseboard heat and hotwater, so id imagine not that much money. I have baseboard heat in my current appartment and my electric bill is around 75-100bucs in the winter.
[/quote]
I’m sure this house has a lot more square footage than your apartment. You can call the gas company and find out what they normally pay per month.
Anyway, old houses are great. I live in one right now. There are some concerns with them though.
Asbestos - costs a fortune to remove.
Plumbing - unless they replaced it, which they may have given they have a tankless water heater, but water delivery isn’t a huge issue, water drainage is. They did some wacky shit back in the 1800s for plumbing.
Electrical - check to see if the wiring has been updated. You might see 3 prong outlets in the house but that doesn’t mean that all of them are grounded.
The nice part is if the house is structurally sound after all these years, then you shouldn’t have to worry about the dreaded Amherst foundation issues.
I think it’s a really nice house and whoever talked about the high taxes obviously hasn’t looked in Williamsville lately. $6,000 is the norm. $4,500 is cheap. The house is assessed at $137,000 which is why the taxes are cheaper. If you bought it for asking price, the house would be reassessed at $149,000 and your taxes would go up. I was just looking at a house in the Williamsville N. school district and the taxes were almost $7000 a year.
Anyway, if you are serious about it, go take a look.
Your mortgage is going to be a lot more than the 800 you pay now. Keep in mind some of the other expenses as well. With that size lot, you will need a rider I would imagine. Even though it is only 75-100 for your current heat, that house is going to be a lot more. Hopefully it is well insulated. Do thorough research on the utilities and mortgage prices. Don’t strangle yourself with house payments if you can’t afford it. You could start smaller, work up some equity and go bigger in a few years. My house has gained 25-30K in the 3 years I have owned it. It is a great investment.
Looks like a really nice house, but as you can see Williamsville taxes are high (look at that like another $375/mo bill not going towards equity). Also theres no way thats going to be less than $300/mo to heat in the winter, or probably $160/mo on the budget billing. Figure $50/mo for non-heat electric and $100 for cable/internet.
A 150k 30yr mtg at 5.75 will be about $875/mo.
This brings you to $1560/mo for mortgage, taxes, and utils. Don’t forget to leave room for homeowners and all the little bs things that will need to be fixed here and there, and also room for a potential HE line or loan payment if large things need to be fixed.
As for the age of the house, I wouldnt worry about it. They do have the potential to have large problems if things arent kept up with as mentioned above, but old houses have a lot of charachter and hold their value well. Look at some of the cookie-cutter houses built in the 60s-80s. Most of these were poorly built with cheap materials, and now are bland and out of fashion.
If you can swing it then I think that looks like it could be a great house :tup:
Seems like a reasonable price, the house looks updated in the pictures. Has some nice features big garage, driveway, and looks like hardwood. But who knows could be a dump, small pictures can hide alot. You really have to see it in person to make a good judgement. My moms a realtor if your interested in checking out some places.
Anyway no older house is going to depreciate in value if the structure and foundation are solid. Houses are good investments, unlike cars.
This brings you to $1560/mo for mortgage, taxes, and utils.
[/quote]
Also don’t forget PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance). The biggest scam the banks pull, but it can add about $150 a month on to your monthly payment if you aren’t prepared to lay out 20% of the value of the house as a down payment.
If you go in with 0 down, you will have to pay that extra mortgage insurance for almost 10 years.
I’ve never understood people’s obsession with this. It’s space you don’t use (unless you love micro RC helicopters) but it’s space you have to heat and cool all year long. Sure it looks cool but it’s such a waste.
As for the old house fears you just have to be careful. Really look it over and if you’re serious have a good house inspector go over it. The big things to look out for, as stated earlier, are wiring, plumbing, and hazardous materials (lead paint, asbestos etc).
Another HUGE one with old houses is insulation. Depending on what’s been done to seal the place up your gas bill could run as high as 600-800 a month in the winter. A co-worked of mine showed me his $750 heat bill when I called BS on him. If old houses haven’t had energy star upgrades they can be incredibly “leaky”.
Do you have kids or are you planning to have kids? My other concern would be living right on Hopkins. That road sees a ton of traffic.
All that being said, that’s a pretty cool house and a very large lot for Williamsville. It looks like it’s been kept pretty modern so I’d pay extremely close attention to the details. If everything checks out I’d expect that house to be closer to 200k than 150k.
I wouldn’t be concerned about the house it looks like it is updated nicely, and probably well taken care of. just get a home inspection to be sure. like others have said figure out all of the costs, if you can swing it should be pretty nice.
hopkins is not the best street to live on, but depending on where it is it is not bad. It is not a bad neighborhood just a busier street.
IMO 150K is really cheap for what it seems like the house is, which always throws up flags, i’d be concerned if it doesn’t have new windows/insulation (energy star preferably), could be a fucking bitch to heat.
edit: I am also looking for houses - and good find, I kind of want to check this out
if it is at the north end it is pretty quiet. otherwise if it is south of JJ Audoban, i’d look elsewhere
edit: just google mapped it - it is a pretty busy part of hopkins, I dunno if the hosue is FAR back from the street it might be ok but otherwise, yea too busy to be nice.
if you’re paying 800 / month with rent and bills now, figure the mtg on 150k will be about 925 a month, then add 200 for taxes, then add bills ~300 or so, then insurance and misc 75… so rough estimate you’re lookin at about ~1500 monthly for a 150,000 house.
Don’t forget 8.75% sales tax on 150k is $13125. And I wouldn’t expect much room for negotiating price if there isn’t something seriously wrong with that house. It’s already way cheaper than I’d expect for that size house/lot in Williamsville. Hopefully it’s just the location on Hopkins and the age that’s causing the price to be that low.
And 200 for taxes is wrong. 4500/12 = 375. It’s 375 right now based on their current assessment which I can almost guarantee is lower than what the selling price will be. The new assessment will be based on the selling price so the taxes will go up. $300 for bills seems very low too.
[quote=“AWDrifter,post:18,topic:34119"”]
The thing is though, with time, busy roads only get more and more busy and a lot of times they get wider and wider to handle traffic.
[/quote]
That section of Hopkins (between Dodge and W. Klien) is very busy now. With all the expansion going on to the north I can see Hopkins being extended and becoming 4 lanes in 5-10 years to help alleviate the traffic on Transit. You’ve got Millersport feeding a lot of traffic south from all the new rural developments and tons of people working in Amherst/Williamsville. Being able to feed that traffic to Main down a 4 lane Hopkins makes a lot of sense.
