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    That's what we call a surveyor, right?
    Really?

    They are two rather different professions over here. Surveyors primarily deal with parcel boundaries and the like. Reed is talking about a structural engineer who does inspections of existing structures.

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      And yes, estate tax is almost certainly irrelevant to the kind of inter-generational transfer likely to have occurred here.

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        I also found it pretty shocking that they had no idea that the front wall was crumbling prior to closing escrow. Was there no inspection done at all?

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          Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
          If I could have been bothered to post that this weekend, I would have been on this thread. Something in that story is left untold or I need to become a school teacher.
          He's no regular school teacher, he's a school teacher at a maker academy (rolls eyes).

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            Yep HP My folk have helped me out as well back in the day. But when helping out means handing you a House (to occupy, sell to fund buying somewhere you want to live, or become a leeching good money from the economy rentier class mofo), this entrenches inequality much more than grants/e-zee loans of money that may or may not be declared to the taxman/ May be spent on boats and ho’s*.

            But then how do you go from allowing money transfers in the hundreds or few thousands and ban larger sums if all parties are still alive. I guess it’s these little holes in Adam Smith Institute World Brainiac Empathy Free logic that see things like the Poll Tax being presented by them to late Thatcher Church Militant Govt as a low risk win win. Randroids with table manners.

            *Drink and green and rent.
            Last edited by Lang Spoon; 20-02-2018, 23:29.

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              Yeah, the "Maker Academy" raises the possibility that he was previously a tech bro or banker who wasn't making a teacher's salary.

              It does look like they didn't do a structural inspection, which isn't unheard of here, but is pretty stupid given the nature of the housing stock (visual inspections/walk throughs are generally required for mortgages)

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                Spoony, we have a "gift tax" regime and other rules on inter-generational transfers that could be used if there was any political will to do so.

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                    Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                    They are two rather different professions over here. Surveyors primarily deal with parcel boundaries and the like. Reed is talking about a structural engineer who does inspections of existing structures.
                    Yes that would indeed be a surveyor in the UK (building surveyor, rather than land surveyor), and what you call an inspection would be known as a survey.

                    The most dispiriting aspect of that story is that a house with so much time and money spent on it looks so bland and devoid of personality. All that tasteful interior-designer-friendly greige paint and neo-victoriana, and paintings that look just like the pick of the TK Maxx "wall art" section.

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                      Originally posted by SouthdownRebel View Post
                      Underrated. Great physical comedy.

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                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                        Yeah, the "Maker Academy" raises the possibility that he was previously a tech bro or banker who wasn't making a teacher's salary.

                        It does look like they didn't do a structural inspection, which isn't unheard of here, but is pretty stupid given the nature of the housing stock (visual inspections/walk throughs are generally required for mortgages)
                        My inspection determined I needed radon mitigation (which I still believe may be some kind of elaborate scam), and a few other minor things. But it was built in 1994.

                        A regular inspection might not turn-up structural issues, but for that amount of money and that house, they should have hired one.

                        On the other hand, it sounds like they would have bought it anyway or some other dumbass would have at that price.

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                          In multiple-offer Toronto of last summer, you'd get 10 or 12 people bidding on a house - with all conditions waived. So, nothing conditional upon financing, inspection, etc. Apparently these would immediately put you out of the running.

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                            My experience in the US compared with the UK was that the people in the US who did building inspections and so in didn't seem to have any legal liability, gave vague sort of reports if anything, and the whole show was very superficial. The UK surveyor handed me an 80 page report full of all kinds of thing, covering their arses on the tiniest risks of maybe a hint of decay in a joist somewhere, or whatever. I think UK surveyors can be in big financial trouble from mortgage lenders if they fail to spot problems that damage the value of the house. Our US inspection was - I think - voluntary, not needed by the mortgage company at all.

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                              Originally posted by WOM View Post
                              In multiple-offer Toronto of last summer, you'd get 10 or 12 people bidding on a house - with all conditions waived. So, nothing conditional upon financing, inspection, etc. Apparently these would immediately put you out of the running.
                              That should be illegal.

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                                Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
                                My experience in the US compared with the UK was that the people in the US who did building inspections and so in didn't seem to have any legal liability, gave vague sort of reports if anything, and the whole show was very superficial. The UK surveyor handed me an 80 page report full of all kinds of thing, covering their arses on the tiniest risks of maybe a hint of decay in a joist somewhere, or whatever. I think UK surveyors can be in big financial trouble from mortgage lenders if they fail to spot problems that damage the value of the house. Our US inspection was - I think - voluntary, not needed by the mortgage company at all.
                                It's often required for the mortgage. I don't see how, in the situation WOM describes, the banks aren't just begging for a disaster if they hold mortgages on so many houses they know nothing about. Because they're going to end up owning a certain percentage of them, and as prices go through into orbit, that percentage is likely to grow, isn't it? Or maybe they think that prices will go up forever. We saw how that turned out.


                                In every US state I'm familiar with, the seller is legally obligated to disclose certain things, like if the house ever had termites.
                                After the inspection, you can try to chisel the seller down a bit, get them to agree to pay for certain repairs, or agree to split the costs of certain things that need to happen. Like with this house, I got the seller to help pay for the radon thing and fix the drain in the downstairs bathtub, which still is kinda not fixed. I think it's just inherently too narrow or something.

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                                  My experience in the US compared with the UK was that the people in the US who did building inspections and so in didn't seem to have any legal liability, gave vague sort of reports if anything, and the whole show was very superficial. The UK surveyor handed me an 80 page report full of all kinds of thing, covering their arses on the tiniest risks of maybe a hint of decay in a joist somewhere, or whatever. I think UK surveyors can be in big financial trouble from mortgage lenders if they fail to spot problems that damage the value of the house. Our US inspection was - I think - voluntary, not needed by the mortgage company at all.
                                  Yeah, in principle the surveyors/valuers (in practice it's the same person/firm) are directly liable for any loss which is the result of a negligent report. In practice it can be difficult to establish that, but there's a formal duty of care in that relationship. Sounds like there isn't in the US.

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                                    Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                    That should be illegal.
                                    You should mind your business until roughly the end of April, when hopefully mom's house is sold.

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                                      Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                      You should mind your business until roughly the end of April, when hopefully mom's house is sold.
                                      Will you be able to retire to the Carribean on the profit?

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                                        I could certainly get into a reasonably salubrious mobile-home park in Ft Myers with my half. Which would suit me just fine.

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                                          If you get it in cash, you could buy somewhere down here, WOM.

                                          Yes cash. Property purchases in Argentina are paid for in suitcases of actual US dollars.

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                                            This has been doing the rounds recently, to wide derision from everyone. But particularly scathingly from actual Angelenos. It's quite astonishing in all kinds of ways.

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                                              Not in the NYT, but related to the kinds of tone-deaf bits they do.

                                              This piece takes down the trend of hotels (and apartments) that are insanely tiny, but only slightly cheaper than a human-sized space, but try to distract guests/renters with lots of "curated" bullshit.
                                              https://theoutline.com/post/5709/wel...=2&zi=jdcaz3wh

                                              I would argue that this is, to some extent, just the non plus ultra of a trend - perhaps a fact - of hotels and apartments everywhere, which is that it is damn near impossible to just buy what you want at a fair price. Last time I was in the apartment game in the DC area, all I wanted was four walls and a roof that didn't leak, a lock on the door, reliable plumbing and electricity, reasonable quiet, and no roaches. That simply isn't available. If you want those things, you also have to pay for a on site pool, on-site half-ass "gym," marble floors in the lobby, and various other services and amenities that no healthy person in their 30s needs or really wants. Of course, all of this is sold as "luxury," but it's not even that. It's just extraneous. But these places still turned out to be more affordable than any of the places that offered actual luxury, of course, or anywhere much closer to anywhere I wanted to be. People like me couldn't really afford to think in terms of cost per square foot. They can only think in terms of the total cost.*

                                              But this "curated" microhotel/microapartment bullshit is just taking that sad fact of life for so many people and trying to to turn it into some kind of bohemian hipster thing that people should pay top dollar for. It's the housing equivalent of a $350 plaid flannel shirt.

                                              The only apartments I've lived in where I felt like I wasn't getting ripped off were in places owned by individuals who were just trying to make a little hassle-free investment income while mostly hoping just to park their money in a property that will rise in value. Because they're the ones dealing with the tenants directly, its too their advantage to make that relationship as friendly as possible. But big developers and property managers are, apparently, more inclined to try to squeeze every dollar out of it and don't mind if there's a lot of turnover and frustration. They're underpaying staff to handle it all anyway, so it's no sweat off their back to make those people's jobs a bit harder by pissing-off the tenants.


                                              Anyway...

                                              This really takes the cake. People who make $155k telling other people their age how to be "frugal."

                                              https://theoutline.com/post/3840/fru...ty-millennials
                                              Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 05-12-2018, 14:00.

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                                                This one ticks many of the boxes but the development it describes may actually be encouraging.

                                                https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/04/s...orefronts.html

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