Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Mike CHS]

A good way to start my day was to see how you all finished yours. I know Latestarter had to be beat.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's so cool that ya'll got to meet up! Big question is:::: Did he like the property????????

And, yes - ya'll are a good lookin' group . Maybe a little rowdy lookin' but nothing we Texican's aren't accustomed to, LOL!!

 

[misfitmorgan]

I recently snapped a couple of shots of our 18 month old grand daughter playing with our dogs, which of course is much cuter than the floor! Oh, and Latestarter said I was more than welcome to come do his floors. and

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Ty for the pics..the floors look nice.

x2 did he like any of the properties?

 

[Latestarter]

After dinner, crashed hard for a 3 hour nap then woke up, so hit the road ~10pm last night. Just got home and let the dogs in and heard rushing water... Friggin pipe under the house broke!!! AGAIN!!! Water off at curb, plumber on the way, so much for a shower and nap. Will give all the details later. I'm tired

By the way, that is a horrible picture of me! I'm normally MUCH more slouched over

 

[OneFineAcre]

After dinner, crashed hard for a 3 hour nap then woke up, so hit the road ~10pm last night. Just got home and let the dogs in and heard rushing water... Friggin pipe under the house broke!!! AGAIN!!! Water off at curb, plumber on the way, so much for a shower and nap. Will give all the details later. I'm tired

By the way, that is a horrible picture of me! I'm normally MUCH more slouched over

I was wondering if you plan on farming in those flip flops?

 

[sadieml]

Thing is, I've done just that MANY times!!! I hate shoes, but learned from my Daddy never to run around the yard barefoot (I have no idea how many times I stepped, barefoot, on a smoldering cigarette butt as a kid)!!! Hence, flip-flop farming fun. It's the 4-F club, don't you know.

I had a horrendous week last week, spent 4+ hours at SS office both Thurs & Fri, took DH to meet her best friend of 3 years (on-line friends, and mailed Christmas presents only until now) 3 1/2 hours away in GA Saturday, slept in the car for 3 1/2 hours, then home by 1pm Sunday. Haven't been on here since last week, and now I spend 45 mins catching-up on here. MY GRACIOUS!!!

@Latestarter - AMAZING!!! I am sooo excited for you. I remember when you 1st posted that FSBO property, and I thought it looked great at the time.
If you can get a deal on it, a little lower than the $165 they're asking, AWESOME. That barn has SO much potential. You can start your chickens and goats there, and then check-out the idea of boarding horses. My boys work at a horse farm, shoveling horse-stuff for minimum wage. They also do lessons. The farm owner doesn't teach, 2 others do on farm-owned school horses, and he gets a cut. It's $35 for a 1/2 hour and $45 for an hour here--some places charge more. To board in a paddock with sheds, feeding stalls, no indoor stalls, is $250 a month. Places that offer indoors or pasture cost more. That's not cheap, so could be a tidy little enterprise. Anyway, you'll have plenty of time to decide about all the other things, while you hunt some of those bucks nearby! I can't wait to hear how you liked the properties you looked at and which one you're gonna choose. Man, I'm thinking my family needs to visit Texas REAL SOON!!! We need to have a great big BYH throw-down in the Lone Star State!

Okay Joe, update us SOON, please.

 

[Latestarter]

OK, so I expected to arrive at the barn property right about noon. I pulled up to the gate at 11 and called the guy, he was ten seconds out, so timed well. Started by looking inside the house... it's a ranch, narrow and long, built in 3 separate segments. the original center section 2 bed 1 bath, a huge master with 2 walk in closets and a regular exterior door to the back yard added at one end, then 2 bedrooms added to the other end at another time. all parts are settling and there are "patched" separation cracks in the brickwork. The slab is also suspect as some of it appeared to be crumbling out from under the house. The layout was horrendous, the inside would need to be gutted, re-configured... just a total remodel. Most everything inside was original... appliances, fixtures, etc. and trashed. They did have a new AC condenser unit and outside blower unit, but the inside location was ridiculous and they had the drain pipe running through the front of the house and out into the front planter. There were dead wasps on the floor throughout the house meaning the attic has an infestation and they're in the duct work.

Both barns were in serious need of work. The big one you can see was a mess, dirty, not cared for Major overhaul needed with repairs. The smaller one behind the house was trashed and best use would be for demolition practice. The ~40 acres was beautiful, but way overgrown, weedy, uncared for, and needing serious work. Fence lines completely overgrown, etc. major problem with invasive plants. The entire property would basically need to be re-set and started from scratch. I told the owner I'd let him know then went to see the other property.

It's a 2000sqft+ 2003 manufactured on piers/pilings with skirting. So no VA/FHA loan available (I suppose I could install a fixed concrete foundation then refinance). In pretty decent shape but needs new flooring throughout and the exterior mud room door replaced (a crook tried to jimmy with a crowbar). They just finished completely fencing the perimeter of both properties (it's split with ~10 acres across the road) with 5 strands of barbed wire. So I'd need to run hot wire, but they cut an inside path ~ 3 feet wide around the entire perimeter as well, so easy to do. They also already have several pastures cross fenced. 2 car garage, but no barn/animal outbldg(s) which I'd need to build/place. Both sides of the road are mostly wooded and filled with ruminant treats to eat. In addition, both sides have electric, wells, septic, and leech fields, so the smaller parcel could have a home put on it and sold off, or rented out as a horse property. On the main side (~30 acres) there's a wet weather creek bed some 5 feet deep that splits the property and I could clear an area, dig it out and dam it up to form a retention pond that could cover several acres in size and a couple of good rains would most likely fill it. I could consider it sweat equity... and the swim in it to wash the sweat off.... (edit to add this would be on the same side of the road - large parcel, and in addition to the pond they already dug)

The man for prop #2 was at work, so I met the wife and she gave me a tour on their 4wheeler over the entire property. They let the listing expire because they were unwilling to come down on price. I told the REA that I know he's entitled to a commission if I buy it, but if I had gone with my own REA he only would have gotten 1/2 or 3% of the original 6, and he would act as the paperwork broker for 1.5%, so if he'll accept the 3% and I pay 1/2 of it, the sellers would be able to come down to my offer price and still net about the same as they would have with a full price offer and a full 6% REA commission. I told her that I need to think about it but that I can see myself submitting an offer to buy their place. She seemed OK with it. I'd also buy all new appliances. The stove/dishwasher are originals and at 13 yrs old, need gone. The refer is new and she wants to keep that. (It's black where everything else is cream so it doesn't match anyway)

Then went back to the barn property (the owner was going to be there doing maint work all day) and basically told him I couldn't buy his property because the sheer amount of work that needed to be done was just so overwhelming to me. I mean totally daunting! The land was very exciting, and has huge potential, but I'm just one old tired guy, with no heavy equipment, and insufficient pocketbook (or strength of body) to cover all that needed to be done to make the place what it could be. Best case would be to bulldoze the existing house and start over. Even the bones of that place were over-stressed and fragile. Just to clean the place up would have taken probably 3 of those large RORO dumpsters, with an additional one for the gut of the home. It's priced where it is for a very good reason. And the cost to make it the special property it could be would be way over the possible short term return. Would take years to gain enough sales value to recoup cost of re-doing it.

Did a quick update when I got home, and Bay already shared about the evening's festivities, so not much else to cover. The dinner was great, the company shared was greater. If I hadn't been so tired, and everything hadn't been so hastily thrown together, I'm quite sure we could have sat there for several more hours spinning yarns. Hopefully, next time we all get together, @Ferguson K and her DH will be able to make it, and maybe even @frustratedearthmother & @animalmom can make the trip.

I'll sleep on it and contact the REA down there tomorrow. OK, don't beat me up too much, but I still want to do one more gander over KY way. When last I looked, there wasn't really anything over there that was grabbing my attention. I'm only gonna get one shot at this and I don't want to look back with regrets... Not a huge fan of heat and humidity, but like y'all said, that's only for ~3 months, and the rest of the year is great. As I get older, I'm not handling cold too well anymore either. Why can't it stay like a perfect fall day year round? Cool but comfy 65-70 degrees, light breeze, warming sun, a few puffy clouds, and fall foliage to ease/improve the view... just love it...

Never did get the nap I wanted/intended. Nor the shower to lead into it. I have a small lake under the house but the pipe has been repaired. The city replaced the water meter & cover while I was gone and I don't think that (pressure change) caused the break, but may have contributed. It was the same issue as the last break... a "T" busted off right at the root. He said the floor is wet, but not soggy, & will dry out quickly with the dry heat we have here. I just hope the lake is gone before they have a home inspector come by. Though I really don't anticipate any home inspector will climb all the way under and to the back corner anyway. Could be wrong... time will tell. They accepted and signed the counter changing it to occupancy 48 hours after close and close time TBD by the listing realtor.

I really don't want anything else to go south on me between now and mid-late September.

 

[Bruce]

Yeah boarding horses depends a LOT on who is boarding and what they want. When we bought this house November 2011 there was a lady that was boarding 2 horses and a pony here. She and her husband did ALL the work. Came in the morning before work to let them out into the pasture and give them their "daytime" hay. Came back after work to clean the stalls, bring the animals back give them their grain. All I was responsible for was making sure there was working electricity and water in the barn. She sold the Thoroughbred and the other horse in the Spring and moved the pony closer to where she lived because her life got complicated due to her mother's health. Nice while it lasted.

Then there is the other end of the spectrum. People who have horses and MIGHT visit them on weekends. The facility is responsible for ALL the horse care. You better know what you are doing if you go into the deep end. I personally know almost zero about horses so I wouldn't do anything much more that what I described above. I could take the horses out of the barn and give them their predetermined amount of hay and bring them back in and make sure they had clean water daily but if any health problems came up they would have to be REALLY obvious REALLY fast.

 

[Bruce]

Too bad about that first house but like you said it was priced as it was for a reason. The second does sound more reasonable. How big is the road that divides the property? Rural dirt without too much traffic?

And though there are some Texans that might disagree I think you are right to give another pass through properties in Kentucky just in case the perfect one happens to pop up right now as you are READY to buy vs "window shopping" as in the past. I know, don't mess with Texas! But it is a really long way from there to here and I'm sure the drop would have the round hit dirt long before it got to me

And what is wrong with older appliances? They USED to make them to last. I have a 26 Y/O refrigerator at the old house and a Sears dryer that is probably 35. Both still work JUST fine The only repair ever made to the refrigerator was taking out the fan, cleaning and oiling it then putting it back. And the dryer needs new "door holder upper" cables. Don't write off the "golden oldies" too fast, after all they are US!

 

[Latestarter]

It's a regular (width), paved, county road, sees some traffic in morning and afternoon for workers at a mill down the road a ways, but other than that, very quiet. The whole time I was there, I don't recall a single car going by (1.5 hours?). Not a major route to/from anywhere (except that mill for some workers). The neighbors are absentee, and the property backing the main parcel is owned by a tree farm that logged it a year or so ago, so they won't be doing anything back there for decades. The property behind the smaller parcel is a field used for hay, and the neighbors over there are very genial I understand... Her horses escaped over there before they got the fence fixed/up, and that neighbor called her and just said "get them when you get around to it..."