Home Purchase

[EricKei]

Seshat - re the flood levels -- yeah, the water levels can get pretty high during a hurricane, but usually a 3-4 foot elevation is almost overkill unless a levee breaks during a storm, which is actually quite rare for lesser storms. Katrina was...special. Literally a once-every-40-years storm, but it was enough (check the storm history for the 1900's, I *literally* mean 40ish years). Plus it could have been worse (remember, the hurricane that accompanied it, just to the West, was STRONGER by a full Category level). Thing with it was, unless you got out of town and went far North (which we did), you were screwed: the eye (most dangerous part) was 200 miles across and landed just to the East, which is a BAD thing. The storm itself covered pretty much the entire Gulf, which made many locals go "WTF" at the national media's penchant for saying the city "dodged a bullet." -- Ya know, dodging **a** bullet is great, but the entire rest of the clip hit us >_>

[Moirae]

Yeah, the eye was in the worst possible the location with the city ending up on the bad side of the hurricane. And the levees were a big issue because they weren't built to handle a cat five. Plus it didn't help that one of the boats wasn't moored properly (or it broke free, whichever one you happen to believe) and smashed in to one of the levees.

I wasn't living here then but my husband was. He lost everything in the storm. He got out about three hours before the storm hit. They stayed a few hours (long enough to sleep) in Alabama, then he moved on to Tennessee. I guess they even saw some of it there but it wasn't even remotely the power.

We were together at that time and it was heartbreaking watching and being unable to do anything. I was barely making above minimum wage and unable to send him anything at the time. But other people were simply wonderful. One man fixed my husbands car for free after he was hit by some woman in a parking lot right after the storm. People were sending food and money to help with things like buying clothing. There are some really great people in this country.

What would be really great is if we could build on a small hill so the water went down in to the street and not into our house or car. But being swamp, that doesn't exist here lol.

There are several areas here that are slowly being "gentrified", but I know those areas too well and wouldn't want to live in them.

One of the additional issues is that we have been pre-approved for a mortgage. It's not a real high mortgage level. Yes, we can afford a house, but it isn't going to be high end. Hope we can get everything we want.

[smileyeagle1021]

One warning I would give you about modular homes... they are indeed not mobile homes, but at least in Nevada they are still treated as them for appraisal purposes and this can cause you a lot of headaches at times. There is definitely an advantage in that mobiles typically have lower taxes, however (and again, this is speaking with experience from Nevada, your state may be different) there are very few insurance companies that are willing to insure mobile/modular homes (in Nevada there is only one), a lot of contractors won't work on them, and there are even lenders that will take into account whether your home is site built or mobile/modular before approving a loan (and I'm not talking just about mortgages either, though obviously that will be a concern if you ever want to refinance, but I've even had car loans ask me whether I rent, owned a site built, or owned a mobile/modular). This is all before keeping in mind that since it is listed as a mobile for tax purposes, come time to sell it, you will have to list it on the MLS as a mobile meaning that your resale value will be lower.
A modular can be worth it, I grew up in one that was really well built, I'm now renting one that is really well built, I honestly can't tell the difference between them and site built homes I've seen, and the money buying a modular saved my mother when we moved there allowed for me to experience a lot of things that I wouldn't have had she spent the money on a site built... but they definitely aren't for everyone, you will have to take the bad with the good.

[EricKei]

smiley - you just reminded me of something - Thanks, btw

Orleans Parish has a $75,000 Homestead Exemption -- which is a fancy way of saying that the first $75k of your home+land's value "does not count" for yearly property tax purposes. Yes, this does mean that a home assessed at under $75k owes either no tax or just a basic fee, I am unsure which; one worth $100k is taxed as if it were worth $25k, etc. There may be other parishes in the area that do the same; I know only that Jefferson Parish does not - and, as you know, JP is freaking HUGE.

[Seshat]

I lived in Brisbane for all my childhood and most of my early adulthood. Brisbane is not directly cyclone territory, but it is cyclone-tail territory. (IE, we dodge the bullet, but not the rest of the clip. Nice analogy, by the way.)

When I was five, we got hit with a once-in-a-hundred-years storm. Cyclone Wanda wasn't even a category 1, but she flooded Brisbane so badly - well, Brisbane has hills. If Brisbane was a swamp like NOLA, it would've been as wrecked as NOLA was by Katrina. There are memorial markers to the flood scattered around the city, showing the flood height in various places.

Oddly enough, though, if you look up Brisbane Floods in wikipedia, you see that we get severe flooding .. oh, every twenty to thirty years. And the media likes to call them all 'once in a hundred years' storms.....

IOW: if you don't want to lose everything, plan for the worst.

[EricKei]

(IE, we dodge the bullet, but not the rest of the clip. Nice analogy, by the way.)

TY I cannot comment on my feelings/theories about the news agencies that made those particular comments...On this board

You're definitely right about planning for the worst. Many people there do just that.

The levees back home are generally pretty hardcore, tho (some have huge metal plates). They're our only hills aside from Monkey Hill that I'm aware of (which is artificial, and was created expressly as a children's playground) and the aforementioned long spans of concrete the cars drive along. Heck, engineers from the Netherlands have gone to NOLA in order to study our levee, drainage & breakwater systems in order to get ideas on how improve their own, already phenomenally-good systems

Many are built to withstand a Cat-3 or Cat-4 storm (Kat was a 4), iirc, as that or less is what you're gonna have 99% of the time. While this may sound cold, it's not worth the investment to the state to build ones that *could have* theoretically helped for Kat...And even if they did, it wouldn't have worked anyway. The issues were the aforementioned breaches caused by a boat colliding with a levee, and poor maintenance.

[Moirae]

smiley - you just reminded me of something - Thanks, btw

Orleans Parish has a $75,000 Homestead Exemption -- which is a fancy way of saying that the first $75k of your home+land's value "does not count" for yearly property tax purposes. Yes, this does mean that a home assessed at under $75k owes either no tax or just a basic fee, I am unsure which; one worth $100k is taxed as if it were worth $25k, etc. There may be other parishes in the area that do the same; I know only that Jefferson Parish does not - and, as you know, JP is freaking HUGE.

Ooo, now that's useful to know. We are looking at Jefferson Parish. Orleans crime is sky high and my highest priority is safety.

[Aislin]

For modular or prefab homes you might look at dwell.com. Dwell has a lot on prefab design and they have a whole step by step guide to modern prefab. My husband and I are looking in to building a prefab home in New Mexico on a property my family owns. The process can be daunting but you can see the process and have a good picture of how prefab modular construction goes.

[EricKei]

Yeah, for safety, you're gonna wanna look at Metairie or Kenner, or possibly the Northshore -- tho the commute would be downright brutal in the latter case. Best bet is to ask around which areas in your target zone are nicer than others, then go out and see them for yourself. I used to live right off of I-10 and Bonnabel, which is one of the safer 'blue collar' zones (just north of Doctor's Row, as I like to call it) -- read: as safe as yer gonna get without getting into places where the land alone will eat up that entire mortgage budget. A friend lives out in another decent area in 'Kennarie' (almost to Kenner but still in Metairie), a few blocks East of Williams and West Napoleon, iirc. Will be hard to find vacant lots tho, unless you go further out, tho you may wanna see if anyone's building subdivisions in currently-unclaimed land. An undeveloped area *should* be cheaper.

If Orleans is still on the table...well...the Eastern chunk of the Westbank maybe...? Part of it is in Orleans instead of Jefferson (I think Gretna is where the JP part begins), and it's slightly safer than Da City, but not by much, nowhere near as safe as Met/Ken. And you have the CCC & its heavy traffic to deal with (morning commute and about 4-6:30pm on weekdays).

If you want "how is this neighborhood?" (or just restaurant recommendations ) for Metairie, drop me a PM and mention the intersection for the area yer looking at. I used to sling pizzas in the area. Clearview <-> the NOLA Parish line and I-10 <-> Airline is what I know best -- I know the general area north of there, as well (you REALLY don't wanna be immediately South of Airline, trust me); I lived in Metry for 20+ years.

[Seshat]

If you're building for safety, there are some simple measures that vastly improve your physical safety.

Have your doorframes and window frames attached to the studs with nice long bolts, not short ones, and plenty of them. I'm sure NecessaryCatharsis has the info on how long 'long' bolts are, and how many is 'plenty'.

Buy longer screws for the door hinges, door locks, and striker plate for the door locks.
Ditto for window hinges, if using hinged windows.
Get and use window locks, including locks that will lock partly-open windows.

Don't use a hollow core door, or if you do, don't use one made of silly thin stuff that breaks if you look at it funny.
Similarly, ensure the design of your windows doesn't just let a thief pull a pane out and let himself in.
Choose your window glass for defence.
Choose your type of siding for defence, or use an insulation that will help with defence.
Get and use security screen doors and windows, and make sure you use the long-screw trick with those as well.

These measures will help not just against thieves, but against storm-tossed debris. Obviously, the tougher the siding/doors/windows are, the tougher your house will be versus hurricane-tossed/flood-tossed debris: but there's a point where you will have to say 'we can't afford better' or 'it's not worth it to us to guard against a category N wind'.

[EricKei]

Reminds me of an editorial cartoon from the local paper where I work -- first comment around the office was "The butt crack was a nice touch"



Art Credit: 'Uncle Bunky'

[Moirae]

Love the very useful information.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, we were looking at a place near Napoleon today in Metairie. 1350 square feet, new heater/ac, new water heater, energy efficient windows, ada additions, a massive dip on one side of the front yard where water will pool, cracks in the cement porch, the tiniest living room you have ever seen, a master bedroom that's actually smaller than the one we have now (our current bedroom is 15x12), two bedrooms with glass sliding doors directly into the backyard, a glass window cracked down the center and "fixed" somehow, an inside door that seems to have been cut in half, and the washer and drier in the "mother in law" suite. According to the agent, this house was listed in excellent status. If THIS is excellent status, then what the hell is "very good" going to mean?

So uhhh, no. I don't think so. Moving on.

I so badly just want a new construction.

[Tama]

The heck with that, what will "poor" condition mean?

No doors on bedrooms? Criminal haven!

[Seshat]

In Australia, it's standard for an educated purchaser to get an architect's report before buying a house.
I now strongly recommend getting a plumber and an electrician to look at a house as well; having had to replace the toilet and de-gunk some of the outflow pipes from the bathroom. (Yeee-uck. Awful job.) We also need to get ALL the electrical wiring replaced.

That's the other thing. From the moment you sign on the dotted line, you have a line item in your family budget: home maintenance.

Given your career, I'm sure you can make better guesstimates for home maintenance costs than most; and the tradies who help you out at the hotel may well either be willing to help you out at home - or know who in your new home's region is both skilled and fair-in-pricing.

Keep looking, but don't turn down a house because it needs a couple of repairs to be worthy: if the repair price+purchase price = roughly what you expect to pay, it might be the best house for you.
BUT: do get those reports, and go over them with one of the tradies you have a good relationship with at the hotel.

(If 'tradies' is an Australianism, it's a general term for tradesman-skilled professionals. IE: electricians, plumbers, bricklayers, roofers, welders and metalworkers and carpenters and all of that. The people who keep the physical infrastructure of our lives going.
I tend to use 'tradie' rather than 'tradesman' out of respect for the female tradesmen. 'tradie' is just as respectful as 'tradesman' in Australian lingo, and doesn't imply a gender.)

[Moirae]

Hmmm... well we were going to see a home today. Then my real estate agent called when we were standing outside waiting for her and said that the house doesn't have central heat or central air. Wth? This is New Orleans, there is no way in hell I'm going to live with window units. So she said the owners agreed to pay for it but... get this... we'd have to get it installed ourselves.

Damn, and I really liked the neighborhood too.

Two of the houses we wanted to look at have sold in the last two days. So houses are selling quickly here. The thing is, I'm a little frustrated because they are going so fast, but even looking at pictures of places most of them are ruled out. And then that one that we really did want to look at today actually said on the site that it HAD central air and central heat or there's no way we'd have asked to see it. So apparently I can't trust what the real estate agents site says.

And I asked her last week about modular homes. She said she had heard of it but didn't know much about it so she contacted the pre- mortgage approval company to ask and they didn't know anything about it either. So they would "get back to us". Only it's Tuesday and nothing.

THIS is why I hate waiting for other people and would rather just do it all on my own but I need someone that knows the legalities of the area. Tempted to find another agent... one that knows what the hell I'm talking about and is up to date on the most recent information on the market. Isn't that what they are there for?