What is Digg?68 Comments
- MackPrime, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33#78 - Cover up indian burial ground
- sockpuppets, on 10/12/2007, -2/+32This is true- my wife was on extreme makeover and now she's constantly receiving better offers from people. Why just the other day she commented on letting a new handyman in the back door.
- amandaw33, on 10/12/2007, -3/+161. Beg, plead, cajole, wheedle, bribe – use all your powers of persuasion to get your home on any one of those makeover shows on television – Extreme Makeover, Trading Spaces, and if you’re unbelievably lucky, The Oprah Show. Once Nate Berkus steps in your door, you can bet your last buck that your home’s value shoots up to the stars and beyond!
This is likely true for Extreme Makeover/Oprah, but on Trading Spaces.. forget about it. 2 of my friends were on it... terrible quality (what do you expect for $1000 or whatever it is)... They actually moved a dresser the team had built for them and had several holes in the drywall behind it...
Oh yea, you also get to pay taxes not only on your $1000 room, but also on labor charges, etc so it ends up costing you more than you think
Rest of the article has good tips tho - Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12The smaller things - go ahead. But any major home improvements you do (adding a bathroom, redoing the kitchen, getting a patio or deck installed) should be because *you* want them. You will not recoup your investment on those larger things when selling the house. You might get back as high as 75% of what you paid to have the work done, but it's usually more like half.
- banditski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10"What the hell kind of home doesn't have a place to park your car off the street?"
Mine and almost all my neighbours. Apparently you've never seen an urban house over 100 years old. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Step 1: Buy a house.
- petepetepete, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7#78 Buy and hold for 20+ years.
- jlunski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Speaking as a homeowner there are maybe 10 useful tips in this list, the rest are all common sense. No digg.
- szembek, on 10/12/2007, -5/+10You're the only ***** idiot I see around.
- TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Flipping is like day trading - it gets popular in waves, and the success of a few people make others think they can emulate or do better. "Reality TV" programming perpetuates that myth. There are still some markets where you can make money flipping, but they are few and far between now.
HOWEVER ... property ownership is still one of the best investments you can make, and is one of the few areas where you can really benefit in the long term - especially with tax laws. - Brows, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Dude you are a ***** idiot. There are a lot of homes without off street parking and there are also a lot of places where it doesn't drop to 1 degree, just because you live in upstate NY doesn't mean that everyone lives like you. Asshat.
- nougat98, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6not everybody lives in *****, NY
- JTtheXIII, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5... or cut a hole in a box
- CraigJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3In other words, fix the broken *****, upgarde the fixtures, paint where needed and clean your house.
- StripeyMagee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Ah screw it, I have title and deed to my house and I'm not selling.
- iamnos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm glad somebody pointed this out. Obviously its going to depend on the area you live and how the real estate market is, but most improvement projects will cost you money, especially if you plan to sell shortly after. If you can do the work yourself, you might break even. Things like putting on a fresh coat of paint are a good idea, but redoing flooring, or adding a bathroom will cost you money.
We're planning on selling our house next spring (just over a year from now), so last summer, we decided, no significant improvements any more. We're going to re-stain a portion of the fence, do some cleaning and tidying, and repaint a couple rooms. Anything else, would just cost us money and we'd not be able to enjoy the improvements for a significant amount of time, so its not worth the expense or the bother.
Generally, speak with a real estate agent. They can advise you on improvements to make which will increase the perceived value of your home, without costing you money. - szembek, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Where do you live where you're thinking about A/C right now? Ecuador?
- JimMessenger, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I'll echo what Amanda said above. Being on any of the shows listed in item #1 will do nothing for your property value, let alone "shoot the homes value to the stars". That comment alone made me question whether the author has ever sold real estate.
There are some decent tips among the others in the list. - howski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh, come on: you're a Dream Theater fan - how much longer could you possibly have til you move out of your mom's basement?
j/k DT rules! - shoover, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Buying with cash upfront and no mortgage? What a waste of money. If you can't beat 4.25% on an investment property then you're either a really poor manager or you're extremely unlucky. A better idea would be to invest 20% into 4 properties, mortgage them all and rent them out to cover your mortgage. The extra 20% you can keep for cash flow. As you gain equity, pull it out (remortgage) and invest in new properties.
- No13Baby, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"And last, but not the least, make sure that the value you add reflects the worth of the house. You may end up spending thousands of dollars only to realize that you have not improved your home’s monetary market worth by much. So tread with caution."
Gee, thanks. - converge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"Live in your mother's basement rent-free until you're 45"
yeah, that sounds like a good plan. - howski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"In other words, fix the broken *****, upgarde the fixtures, paint where needed and clean your house."
Upgarde? Is that like "En garde!" - Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's actually a very good sentiment. If you're renting, and you don't expect to move out of the area for a couple of years, you should buy a condo. You don't have a problem *living* in an apartment; why not keep the equity for yourself? If you need to sell and move in a couple years, no big deal, and you might just have enough equity from rising property values to buy a free-standing structure to live in.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As a suburban resident of Upstate New York, let me be the first to apologize for szembek's idiocy. Maybe he could see some houses in Urban areas of Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. He's bound to find at least one that doesn't have a garage or a driveway. Failing that, travel south, go into Brooklyn, NY.
As with any city... If everyone had a driveway and a garage... then why do so many people park on the streets? - converge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you're going to own for a couple years, it's probably not worth buying at that point. You're mostly paying interest in the beginning and not gaining much equity.
- fogster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think that's the single most important thing about trying to spruce up a home before you sell it. Half of his tips (replacing windows to lower energy costs?) probably wouldn't net you a dime if you went to sell your house. That little caveat really shouldn't be tucked away down at the bottom.
- pirategaspard, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1HORAY FOR SPAM!
http://www.newenglandcommons.com/ - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1and don't invite over your crazy psychotic hip-hop singer girlfriend after she tried to burn down your house the FIRST time.
- election, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Direct Link to story on san diego real estate slump http://digg.com/business_finance/San_Diego_Real_Estate_Takes_25_Slump_Time_to_Buy http://sandiego.houserebate.com
- cuoops, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A new a/c system for sure. Just replacing the outside condensing unit helps tremendously.
- gamecast, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1#79 Completely plate it in Gold (like that one rapper whose name escapes me at the moment)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1First ... buy a house.
Then... - howski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Don't price yourself out of your neighborhood, either! If you completely overhaul your 70-year-old city rowhouse, you're going to have a hard time selling it because it will be so much more expensive than the other house for sale just down the street.
- shoover, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As h00 alluded to, there is more income than simple appreciation when it comes to a home. You have to consider rental rates as well. If you buy an investment property, you should be able to recover your mortgage by charging rent, so think of it this way:
You buy a $200k house with 20% down, so your investment is $40k cash. Get a couple renters to cover your mortgage / taxes, so you aren't required to suppliment it at all. House goes up say, 5% per year - but that is 5% of $200k ($10k), and you only have $40k invested - that means *your* investment of $40k has increased by 25% per year...
If it is your first property and you need to live in it, the same economics apply, just think of paying yourself the rent instead of someone else. - election, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Direct Link to story on san diego real estate slump http://digg.com/business_finance/San_Diego_Real_Estate_Takes_25_Slump_Time_to_Buy http://sandiego.houserebate.com
- converge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm one of the few DT fans who has escape their parent's basement.
- CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FYI a lot of the houses in the most desirable areas in Toronto don't have driveways. Not because we're ***** retarded, but because these houses were built 75 years ago when cars weren't all that popular.
- Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Making floor-plan changes to most track homes isn't generally a great idea. There are some exceptions. Easier to restore what you've got to increase value, and much cheaper. I've seen some properties where the wisest move would be to rip out some of the half-assed "improvements" some goofball installed.
- Y0tsuya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Considering that home "value" has risen over 200% in some bubble markets, don't count on your home increasing its value anytime soon. If you haven't sold, you've missed the boat. I bought my home in 1998 for $100K over what it was just a year ago (builder build in phases). I was pretty pissed to have to be in a lottery for the honor of paying $100K more for the house. But at that time my traditional mortgage equaled what I paid in rent so it wasn't so bad. The house stayed at that price for years until 2004, when for no apparent reason the value shot up to. I knew flippers were flipping houses, but I had no idea of the magnitude until in 2006 my house is "valued" at over 2x what I paid for it. Not for one second do I believe that my house is worth anywhere near that much, because the fundamentals do not justify it, nor do I believe people who overpaid for these houses could actually afford it unless they like to live on top ramen. People would grasp at straws trying to justify real-estate values not adhering to fundamentals by saying things like, "They're not making anymore land", or "It's not a house, it's a home.". Both arguments are emotional arguments, not data. Similar arguments were heard in 2000 justifying nosebleed stock prices on companies not making a single penny. I see housing dropping back to its historical affordability over the next 3-7 years, whether through price cuts (hope so) or inflation (hope not), or a combination of both.
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@converge:
You're right about the mortgage part, but you're forgetting about rising property value. That's equity, too. My first house was a spec home - we gained $10,000 in equity *at closing,* because in the few months between our signing the contract and closing the deal, the builder had raised the price of the homes. Over six years, we made about $60K, which we were able to turn into a down payment on a much nicer house not so long ago.
Had we been renting, we would be out $60,000. - echo2501, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Step 2: ...
Step 3: Profit! - ValuationHome, on 09/16/2008, -0/+0There are some great programs out there than can analyze investment property from a financial point of view. You're absolutely right in that investment property offers capital growth, tax savings, a hedge against inflation, hopefully positive cash flow, and diversification benefits when held with Securities. There are some great programs out there than can calculate the amount of return (before tax/after tax) utilizing discounted cash flow analysis to take into consideration your time horizon.
- Diggtastic99, on 11/22/2008, -0/+0"#78 - Cover up indian burial ground"
Priceless, I am still laughing!
http://realestatelicensedirect.com - AdaWakeman, on 12/12/2007, -0/+0This blog is realy usefull!A very good job!Thank you for the tips!
Ada costa rica real estate - ValuationHome, on 09/16/2008, -0/+0Due to Market inefficiencies, it is extremely difficult to track Real Estate. Good quality controlled data is scarce and very expensive to obtain. I would agree that stocks likely offer a higher return but the real question is, which investment opportunity offers the greatest return at a risk level acceptable to an investor. I would venture to say that through asset allocation, having a combination of stocks, bonds, treasuries, and Real Estate can be quite effective.
- michaelzenga, on 07/15/2008, -0/+0Tear your house down!!!
I am working with many people who decided to tear down their existing house and put up a modular home. They have build $100k in equity doing this every time.
Michael Zenga
www.zncustombuilding.com - vb2010, on 07/03/2008, -0/+0Easily find and compare all Hawaii real estate MLS listings by map. See what you have been missing! The most complete source of free real estate information and statistics.
http://www.alohamapper.com/ - jenson22, on 04/06/2009, -0/+0Kind of surprised that creating a video tour and putting it on real estate video sites like http://www.realeflix.com isn't on the list. This poses extremely valuable, especially for relocators who don't have the luxury of viewing homes in person.
- dustine, on 11/29/2007, -0/+0I am not sure if you could do that in this market:
http://www.1st-orlando-real-estate.com/ -
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