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I wish I would have known that technology would render all of the CAT 5 cable obsolete and worthelss before I finsihed installing it.
CAT5 can't be obsolete.. it's still better then wireless!
I'm surprised no one has stories of horrible internet.. (maybe I should wait a while.. now that I mention it ) I decided to buy a house/live in kansas city.. really just because google is coming.. and cheap houses
Last edited by themaster; 05-15-2012 at 07:23 AM..
Location: Born & Raised DC > Carolinas > Seattle > Denver
9,338 posts, read 7,107,800 times
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Great thread.
As a first time homebuyer, one of the things I wish I would've known, is to just get everything done up front with a new construction home.
Besides kitchen upgrades, we decided to do just about everything ourselves afterwards, and its been a nightmare. In the last 3 months, we've had to have a contractor build a fence, build a deck, install sprinkler systems and landspace our backyard, install an air conditioning unit, and finish our basement.
We thought it would be a great idea to save money by doing all this stuff on our own, but man on man it's been a nightmare coming up with the cash for all this stuff. We were able to get a darn good interest rate, so it might've almost been easier just to have the builder do it all for us. I've had to take so many days off and have spent so much time getting quotes, and then being home for the contractors to do the work.
We're almost done now, but damn, the last several months have been hectic as hell and money was really tight.
CAT5 can't be obsolete.. it's still better then wireless!
I'm surprised no one has stories of horrible internet.. (maybe I should wait a while.. now that I mention it ) I decided to buy a house/live in kansas city.. really just because google is coming.. and cheap houses
Yes it is techinically better when you read the specifications, but both are so fast, you do not notice the difference. Our wireless internet is lightning fast. The hardwired internet may be much faster, but our brains cannot register the difference. You do not notice much difference between the wireless and wired computers except at 3 p.m. when all the kids get home from school and neighbor kids are borrowing our wireless (we really need to get that security thing functioning again).
However the bottom line is no one like to use the hardwired computers. They prefer to be able to walk around with laptops and computer from wherever they want to sit or lie. They also like to skype with friends and carry around the computer as they talk and do whatever they are going to do.
A post above remineded me. I wish we had known that most of the trees on our lot were dead. WE bought the lot in February and it was a heavily wooded lot. However in known to us most of the trees were ash and killed by the ash borer. We had to cut down around 40 trees and ended up with a small bit of woods and very few large trees. Ooops.
A post above remineded me. I wish we had known that most of the trees on our lot were dead. WE bought the lot in February and it was a heavily wooded lot. However in known to us most of the trees were ash and killed by the ash borer. We had to cut down around 40 trees and ended up with a small bit of woods and very few large trees. Ooops.
Ouch! Ideally it would be good to see things in different seasons, but often this is just not possible. A few months later you would have known, but a few months later you maybe wouldn't have had that lot.
I have an ash tree out back myself I'm hoping to save. Now that it finally has leaves again (takes forever last couple years) I need to get someone out to look and maybe treat it (apparently the trees can be treated now to prevent emerald ash borer).
- I wish I would've known what a pain it would be to have a lack of closet space. We bought a 100 year old house with narrow, two foot deep closets in the bed rooms. We knew it would be tight fitting our clothes and that we would make do, but now it is frustrating and needed to obtain many dressers..
- OF course, only half of the dressers we obtained were able to fit up the U-shaped narrow stairs to the upstairs. I wish we would have known the stairs would be tough logistically. They are fine to walk up and down if you aren't hauling anything. We tried a few dressers and wardrobes that we got from old relatives and they just don't fit up the stairs, so we had to buy new, cheap ones that you can assemble.
- Wish we would have known our neighbor leaves their barking dog out all night and their motorcycle buddies will come over and rev their engines late at night. They just did that Saturday night after we got our kids to bed, argh. Of course, during the time of scouting the neighborhood before buying the house, we never heard their dog or saw/heard their loud friends visit. Go figure.
My DH and I bought our first house together last Aug. after looking at 72 of them in 3 months. We wish we knew to be patient and not get so stressed out during the process. We probably would not have purchased the home we did because:
We wish we knew:
- It's in the MAC Zone (Metropolitan Airport Commission) directly under the takeoff path of the Minneapolis International Airport, the jets go overhead every 45 seconds during the 4-5 rush hours they have every day. The noise is so loud it shakes the house and vibrates the floor.
- The previous owners DECLINED TO PARTICIPATE in the MAC sound abatement program and turned down over $28k worth of free updates to the home, including all new windows, storms, doors, insulation, Kitchen and bath venting, new furnace, Hot water, A/C.. and now there is no way for us to claim the updates. So we are having to to it all ourselves, because the noise wakes us up early in the morning.
- When in the Airport zone everything must be heavy duty - special order items.
- Flipped houses with fresh paint and new sheetrock hide things like... roof leaks, basement leakage, water damage...
- A house that was a previous rental and then foreclosed will likely have not been maintained properly..
- Regrading your entire yard is not really a simple inexpensive, 1 afternoon job.
This is my 5th house so there are a lot of 'wish I would have known" items but I will focus on my current home. I think I did pretty good figuring out most things one should figure out (heck I've had 5 tries) like what I need out of a home, what spaces I really use and so on. Of course there is always a gripe. I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect house. You just need the right fit for the most part.
My list of gripes
I have a laundry closet in the kitchen. I LOVE having first floor laundry but now that I am living with it, I miss having a laundry room. Its not a deal breaker but don't think I care for the whole laundry closet thing. If I could afford it and it was practical, I would bump out the house a bit and create a real laundry room.
My neighborhood is a bit snooty. Everyone keeps to themselves and the one neighbor that doesn't is a straight up gossipy *****.
My son's bedroom is too small. It seemed adequate until he grew and needed a double sized bed.
The HOA is lame. People mostly complain about how strict an HOA is, ours is a notch above useless. No one wants to be the bad guy and tell trashy neighbor he needs cut his freaking grass.
Its a semi rural area so there aren't any options on cable/internet. Comcast has a monopoly on the area.
I also hate having a septic tank.
Overall, I really love my house and lot. Out of all the homes I have owned this is what I had hoped for.
- A house that was a previous rental and then foreclosed will likely have not been maintained properly..
Oh yes, this one I can relate to. We went into eyes wide open but still, the sheer number of deferred maintenance items on the house was staggering. No one had done any work on the house in 12-15 years. Structurally it was sound and was not trashed (we had all the manuals, keys etc.) but literally nothing worked....
Oh yes, this one I can relate to. We went into eyes wide open but still, the sheer number of deferred maintenance items on the house was staggering. No one had done any work on the house in 12-15 years. Structurally it was sound and was not trashed (we had all the manuals, keys etc.) but literally nothing worked....
I hope you are not having to fix everything right away like we are. We are dealing with the effects of 30 years of no maintenance or very very shoddy maintenance. Our house was supposed to be "move in ready" - yeah right.
Our house was bought & flipped by a real estate agent who's been in the biz for 30yrs. He knew exactly how to spend the least amount possible to get the best visual appeal and what would get it past the inspectors.
I wish I knew - not to buy a flipped house!!!!
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it's still better then wireless! 
(maybe I should wait a while.. now that I mention it 
Ideally it would be good to see things in different seasons, but often this is just not possible. A few months later you would have known, but a few months later you maybe wouldn't have had that lot.
