My kids were never interested in the playground equipment. They preferred the park. They even called me mean making them go outside to play. LOL.

Yeah pool = higher insurance, more time and money to maintain, and here in NY you can only use it 4 months of the year. My parents had one and all of these things came into play especially us not using it after we reached a certain age, so luckily I learned that lesson through their mistake!

You can also find flood zone info via the FEMA map :)

Our outdoor kitchen is our main kitchen throughout half the year.

I love my soaker tub even after 22 years

About cleaning the pool. In Tuscany, Italy I saw a pool cleaning robot in the pool.

Arizona home inspection Cy Porter exposes what garbage these multi billion dollar home builders are slapping together. They also will not fix anything under warranty unless you fight them tooth and nail.

Little boxes that all look the same

Don’t buy a house you can’t afford, that means that you can afford the mortgage and maintenance. Then keep a house fund stocked for emergency repairs, or rent

I bought into new construction however, I had already made the contractor know what kinds of house material I wanted for both the rough and finish in my house. The finish product was great but there's always room for improvement and it also helps if you know something about construction.

Pool is a bad idea, but a hot tub works for everyone

I was looking at a 2 bed 1 bath home built in 40s ...its cute but my concern is the small square ceiling tile i was wondering could that be asbestos

Could the playground equipment be something for kids and adults for fitness? Then you can use it during and after your kids grow out of it?

It's important to know what you are getting into. An HOA can protect you or annoy you. It depends on what your expectations are. Just do your homework and see if that particular HOA is a fit. We have an HOA. It's been a very good thing for us.

The older your home, the more you need to budget for cost overruns. 20% is a starting point. We budgeted 50% knowing that we wanted unexpected problems to be fixed correctly so our home would be around for another 80+ years.

Best advice you gave = live in your house for a year before planning any big changes. Our house was built in the 40s. After living in it for a year, our plans for it have changed dramatically. We are so grateful that we didn't jump into a big renovation before experiencing the house as it was and learning what actually worked and didn't work for us.

The outdoor playground equipment for the home. Sure, it is only good for about 5 years. Short time to you the parent, but a significant time to the child. So, I would buy it, and be sure to install it in a way that I could remove and sell it to the next family. I would never have regarded it as an improvement to the home in any way.

I'm curious, what about building an indoor unground saltwater pool? They are easier to clean, maintain and it can be used all year long. We own a ranch style home, and have enough land around us to add on a couple of rooms including a room for a pool. We figure, people have workout rooms/home gyms, but we perfer the pool.

I was house hunting in western Maryland this past spring. There was a house with a beautiful pool shown and I just had to see it as it's always been a fantasy of mine to have a house with a pool. Close up in April, the pool area took up 95% of the small back yard, the pool deck was falling apart - missing boards and the others were cracked and splintered, and the pool was filled to the brim with dark green algae water that stank. I couldn't get away fast enough! I will never ever fantasize about getting a pool.

People sometimes forget trends change. Good advice, Jackie!

My ex inlaws had a house from 17th or 18th century. Electrical and sewage was great... But not a 90° angle in the house. Walls all waved so did the floors. Don't even bother mounting a tv to a wall. And not allowed to modify the outside look of the house since it has monument status.

All of these upgrades are amazing if you use them.

If you do buy a new construction home, you must go and check on them at least weekly, if not more. My friend bought a new home in the 90s in Phoenix Arizona and after she moved in she was wondering why it was so hot even with the AC on high. Discovered there was NO insulation installed. In the Sonoran Desert in summer! 110F (43C) is normal there. You can expect anywhere from 104F (40C) to 118F (48C) in a normal summer. She had to get the builder to come and install all the insulation after she had already moved in. And that was 25 years ago. I can't imagine what it's like now.

What kind of halfwit doesn't consider the ongoing cost of a pool? On that, houses with pools where I live, sell for LESS than those without pools. They're considered a liability, and no one wants that these days. And this is in a place with a warm/hot climate. Converting a whole bedroom to a wardrobe is just as nuts. If you need to do that you have way too much clothing. Finally, an outdoor kitchen is hilariously redneck. Unbelievable that people still do that 😂

Re: high-end appliances. My appliances in my condo were original. I was on a single income, but wanted to update my oldish stove. A coworker asked me…”Does it still work? Can you boil water on the stove?..if yes, keep it! He was so right. I was looking to get rid of my stove solely based on wanting to modernize my kitchen to look good. Crazy!

Thanks for the honesty.

I think the first thing to do is... STOP watching HGTV. That channel will make you want stuff you just don't need.

It's all the illegal immigrants that come from countries were people are murdered in the street and were you can buy a human being for $5,000. They manage to move to this country and the last thing they care about is pride in their work, they just don't want to die or otherwise want to kill and take advantage of other people.

Very simple, home builders, developers, all the trades and everyone involved in home construction are crooks, drug addicts and illegal immigrants. It is the most untrustworthy group of people you will ever work with in your entire life. Buying a home in America you should expect to flush 30% of the cost of the home down the toilet. I've owned three new homes in three different states in the country and it's clear noone cares about doing quality work, about pride in their work. It's all about taking advantage of people. Your better off trying to build your house yourself and spending a lifetime to learn how to do it all yourself because everyone that does anything to build homes are incompetent crooks that only care about themselves

Home Insurance is expensive - snd you have to include extra for plumbing/sewer coverage that arent automatically included but you're responsible for anything from your house to the street.

good points. if it is a small community ( 20 homes or so) then I would think the risk is considerably less.

Agent here, I agree with a lot of your suggestions, however the appliance one is a big "It depends." First time home buyer, and its a home at or below your avg price point in the area? You don't need to get fancy, you will be just fine with a nice Whirlpool fridge, or Heck if you want to get a little fancy a Cafe or something. However if you are buying a home thats a decent amount above the average, then you will want to go fancier. I've had clients I've shown 1.5-5m homes that DIDN'T have a Wolf, and just had a basic GE and they basically lost interest in the house for something similar that did. Once you get to a certain price point thats when you really should be going with high quality finishes and appliances. You could also buy used.

"Predatory loan practices" If you recall, the gov't was forcing banks to do this lest they be labeled as "discriminatory". That's why the gov't bailed them out afterwards - it's political WWF wrestling, they're both in on it and we all lose.

So, in Florida, we get things called hurricanes, which causes something called flooding, which means it's safer for your house to be elevated, for which the bank won't give you a mortgage because the house being elevated somehow constitutes an "increased risk"...in a state that floods... Am I getting this right?

On the outdoor kitchen issue, i agree, to an extant. I live in Texas, so we have really hot, brutal summers. An outdoor kitchen wood be nice, with the overhead roof, to provide shade. However, if you are going to build one, my advise is, keep it simple. If your going to brick in a grill, either buy a more affordable propane grill, or just build a charcoal grill. Dont go with a massive, expensive fridge. Hint, its outside and even under the roof, it is still in the elements, so go with a basic cheap one.

Re: space conversions - anything that involves having to rip out walls is going to be expen$ive, and only makes sense if the house, because of its location, is worth a lot, and is old and designed for an earlier era; don't do it in with your cheap track home in its dumpy subdivision.

Even if their build does include everything exactly like the model home the way the lighting enters the home is different as it is could block by other homes or facing the opposite direction so doesn't get the same good lighting and the home is very dark inside and uninviting. Have bad views and less privacy and more noise from traffic as closer to busy roads than the model home. People don't take these things into consideration. Yes oftentimes they are built to a lower standard and uses cheaper materials and hoping the buyers don't pay attention.

Your videos are so entertaining, esp. when you say "really?"

Ugh, another video where I find out I messed up again! Nah... there are only a few homes left in my community so soon prices will no longer be held down by the builder's discounted homes, and our purchase price is the second lowest on our street of 2 dozen homes.

I went from a 4 bedroom 1 bath to a 3 bedroom 2 bath (master with en suite bathroom). In addition, I took the existing doorway to the former bedroom into washer/dryer closet so there's no need to take the laundry to basement. So having the extra bathroom and laundry closet adds functionality and more modern features.

Re: playgrounds - there should be some type of a used market for these, such that the only cost is really assembly & disassembly, and of course, damage from the elements and the kids.

Re: pools - get a membership at a pool club. Problem solved.

12:18 OMG, I love that avocado green kitchen!

prices will drop when more units are built and baby boomers kick the bucket leaving sometimes two homes for the kids to sell thereby flooding the market. perfect storm is people having less kids thereby reducing demand, prices will drop. Maybe 5 years out depending also on how rezoning changes the landscape...yimby vs nimby.

Pools in most areas (unless they live in the desert) typically TAKE AWAY from the resale value, most people don't want the hassle and expense of dealing with them.

Hmm, I am not sure the first one apply to all NYC or Bay area. The apartment I had in NYC was pre-war and solid. The house I have now in Bay Area is over 100 years old and solid.

houses are $1m now a days, making that 7% $70k. So that pool will be worth it if you could actually get it installed for $50k.

Where can you buy a 500k house and to afford a pool? I lived in Houston Tx and you pretty much have to have a pool. Maybe not in NJ, but in hot areas, that’s pretty much a staple.

I have a condo on Hawaii Island and we only pay $540 a month HOA fees. The resale here is good. We bought at $410K three years ago. My real estate agent told me she would sell it at $580K today. We have a nice backyard because we are on the bottom floor. We are also on the 18th hole of a golf course with views of the large pond, the Kohala Mountain range and we have Mt Mauna Kea looming over us. (It’s dormant) They are super laid back here and I have remodeled the condo. All they did was ask two questions and it was approved. We are on the bottom floor and have lucked out to have quiet neighbors. Mostly seniors here. No short term rentals. For us it was a good move for our senior years. Three pools, two hot tubs, lawn care, painting, roof, water, even the porch light is taken care of!

I never understood the need for a ton of clothes requiring a huge closet. Clothes are expensive. Clothes go out of style. Most huge closets I've seen are packed with clothes the person hasn't worn in years and should have been given away long ago.