Where to live? Again, house related. And long.

[wrath]

I know a bunch of people on here are looking for houses just like I am.

#1 List of what I need.
I'll rank them in order.
#1 Location (http://www.wrath.com/hunting/livingarea.png)
#2 Price. Would like to keep *paying* for it below $190k. I'll go a little higher to get something a little better. If I don't set a limit for myself I'm going to end up looking at $250,000 houses and be in the same monetary situation I am today.
#3 A yard. Needs to have at least 2500sqft of green, fence-able back yard area for the dog to torture and room for a small garden
#4 Full basement. No crawlspace, no slab. Preferred unfinished.
#5 Full 2 car garage, at least 22x22. Or the ability to put one up.
#6 3 bedroom, smallest room 11x10 (110sqft) plus closet. Otherwise, if the bedrooms are small it needs to be 4 bedroom.
#7 Little or no knee walls if it's a two-story. I don't want to duck, ever. Rules out most non-dormered out cape cods.
#8 Decent kitchen. An eat-in kitchen is fine. It just needs to be large enough for fat people like me to get past each other. A 14x15 eat-in kitchen is perfect, no need for a dining room. If it's got a galley kitchen it needs to be able to be remedied. I'm not looking for a ton of counter space, 20 square feet is more than plenty.
#9 Ability to add a half bath to the first floor and a full bath to the basement.
#10 Ability to put up at least some kind of outbuilding. If it's not car-fitable (say the 180sqft limit in Brookfield then oh well. I'll store crap in it/make it a metal/non-wood workshop. I really don't want to have to set up my non-wood workshop in the basement. A wood workshop in the basement is fine.

#2 Municipalities
I'm hoping for New Berlin > Pewaukee > Waukesha > Brookfield as far as what I can do with the property. Brookfield is pretty brutal on fences and outbuildings. Brookfield won't let you do your own wiring. Waukesha limits you pretty heavy on outbuildings as far as square footage and adding square footage to an existing garage.

#3 Neighborhoods
I think I have the neighborhoods pretty well figured out. Basically I drew a giant map based on how far from work I was willing to drive. (http://www.wrath.com/hunting/timefromwork.png) Worked out to ~10 minutes south and west, 15 minutes southeast, ~15 minutes north, Milwaukee County east, and almost to Menomonee Falls northeast. I'd live in Menomonee Falls if it was what I wanted.
My ideal property location map (again, it's big). (http://www.wrath.com/hunting/livingarea.png)

Are there any areas I should avoid that I'm not missing? Butler doesn't excite me, haven't even looked there and Elm Grove doesn't have anything in my price range that meets my requirement.


#4 figuring out what I can afford
I know what I can afford. This is the hardest part for most people, myself included. Mostly because I've been paying a lot more than what the house I would buy here costs due to paying for two places to live for the last year. Essentially, I'm looking to pay ~$190,000 for a house. I'll put down 5% and save the rest of my money for "maintenance/upgrades/repairs" at move-in. $10,000 extra down only saves you about $70/month. My 401k pays out better than that even in this market. Even with rising interest rates it's still cheaper to use someone else's money than your own.

It's the PMI that is killer. My plan is to refinance shortly after I get the "upgrades" done to get out from under PMI.

As of today, September 9th, 2008... a $180,000 loan on a $190,000 house costs $1,200/month principal, interest, and mortgage insurance if you have A credit. PMI is about $90 of that.

This is a pretty good mortgage calculator:
http://www.jeacle.ie/mortgage/

#5 Find a lender
I don't really have a lender. I'm pre-approved at several banks and credit unions. Something tells me I'll end up with Landmark.


#6 Find a house
I've been GISing, looking at MLS, driving ideal neighborhoods, documenting recent sales, et cetera since last November. I've found four houses total that met my requirements and none of them met all of them.

Am I being too picky? Is my girlfriend? The biggest killer has been location. There was a nearly perfect house in Waukesha on Wabash street. The killer was the location. In rush hour it'd take half an hour to get to work so I'd have to change my office hours. Plus, that part of Waukesha is "changing".

My girlfriend doesn't want a ranch. I don't want any fscking knee walls. It seems like anything in my price range that isn't a century old has fawkin' knee walls.

If I live in Brookfield I'm giving up the life I want to live. That means no dog fence, no outbuildings, no working on project vehicles without tying up the garage, et cetera. But I can live with that for now since I know I'll always be able to sell the house for at least what I paid for it.

[CobraSnake]

what the hell is a knee wall??

[PonyKiller87]

Knee walls are where you have about 4-6 tall wall then angled ceiling up to the flat ceiling. Thats what happens when you build rooms in an attic that has steep outside walls.


My suggestion is build. Right now with the market being slow you can get a good price from a builder if you know how to haggle right. There struggling just to keep working so even if there not making a ton of money on it they would take the job. Then you get exacly what you want and you dont have to do any repairs. And if your a do it yourselfer you can save even more money in sweat equity by doing alot of the stuff yourself.

[CobraSnake]

The cheapest but still nice newest houses that I've seen are in Caledonia. Otherwise your paying a good amount. You can get a brand new house 2 story about 2000 or less sq ft in caledonia for 200k or less. At least thats how it was 2 years or so ago but with the crappy market it may even be a better deal now. Although I don't believe you want to travel that far.

Mark

[wrath]

Building doesn't seem like an option for me. It's still more expensive to build than buy someone's five year old house in the area I'm looking. The area I'm looking seems to be what is keeping the prices up. The lots are like $100k for 1/4-1/2 acre. I can buy a heck of a house in Oconomowoc or Vernon but they're both half an hour from work. There's no guarantee I'll be where I'm at forever and if I end up working in Milwaukee that's adding some serious time to my commute. And resale is never going to be good there.

Do builders let you do anything yourself? When I asked a couple builders this spring they said "no".

Caledonia is a bit too far, 45 minutes. Even Muskego and especially Big Bend and Vernon are pushing it.

[PonyKiller87]

Yeah I agree, getting the land at a decent price is the hard part with building.

Some builders will let you do what ever you want, others don't allow it at all. Depends who you go with.

When I am ready to build a house, I will be designing it myself, acting as the general contractor and hiring sub contractors to do all the work. Then I can manage the costs myself rather than just hiring a builder and assuming that hes getting me a good deal on stuff.

[jbiscuit]

you have a lot of specifics and requirements. Build

[JC70SS]

Rule out Brookfield as $190,000 will get you nothing that doesn't need major renovation. Plus you will live around a bunch of gossipy stereotyping a-holes. I really want to move north. Oh yeah don't even think about a fence.

[johnny--2k]

Yeah, most of brookfield is pretty much out, as is a good portion of new berlin and all of elm grove. My parents house is for sale in brookfield, but its 4300 sq feet, 13 years old, and asking $775,000 so that's a no go!

[wrath]

I can handle something needing renovation, I'm not thrilled about disrepair. A harvest gold Formica countertop doesn't excite me but as long as it's in good shape I don't care. I'd put granite in on my way out, not before I move in. I'd rather have 40 year old cabinets than have ones that you can't put dishes away wet as the particle board will blister. I'd rather have a place with 25 year old windows than new $150 Menard's cheapies.

I don't think I'd fit in within Brookfield either. I'm pretty hillbilly. I will be out in the yard cutting up a 1975 Chevy pickup with a torch. I'll also probably have the best landscaped yard in the 'hood. But I'm still a hillbilly. I'm pretty quiet. I'm not going to be revving up a SBC at 9pm. I'm not going to be lighting off fireworks. I'm not going to have parties. And yes, I will be painting a car in the garage once in a while.

I don't think I can afford to build. Mostly due to land costs. That, and time. I'm tired of living in an apartment. Plus, what I like, isn't necessarily what everyone else likes.

My parents and I started building their house from the dirt up in Spring of 1995. We moved in August of 1998. We did everything ourselves except welding the beam and the furnace installation (code required someone else install the furnace). I'd like to do the same someday, but a smaller house. Theirs is 2500 sqft, I'm aiming for like 1500 + semi-finished basement.

[wrath]

Yeah, most of brookfield is pretty much out, as is a good portion of new berlin and all of elm grove. My parents house is for sale in brookfield, but its 4300 sq feet, 13 years old, and asking $775,000 so that's a no go!

What do you do with a house that size? Do you have like 25 siblings? My parents' house is 2500 square feet, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath and a 28x32 attached garage. It even has a 13x16 foyer with a balcony that is a complete waste of space (my Mom's library). It was built the same time your parents' was and cost a whopping $94,000 to build.

I don't want to live in Elm Grove. Too many noses pointed in the air.

I don't really want to live in Brookfield either.

New Berlin is more affordable than Muskego.

[xxsn0blindxx]

My wife and I are closing on our first house on the 18th. We started our search last March so we're pretty familiar with the Waukesha county market. As stated before at your price range you can rule out Brookfield or Elm Grove. New Berlin is questionable as well since they tend to run higher than Waukesha, although they have lower taxes. For the money you will get a better house in Waukesha versus New Berlin, for whatever reason 95% of the houses we looked at in New Berlin were straight out of the 70s, whereas most of the house in Waukesha had been updated. For the amount you want to spend you should be able to get a 3 bedroom home with a 2-car garage in Waukesha without a problem. Your requirement for a trailer makes things more difficult, so you may have to look in more rural areas of Waukesha and New Berlin. A real estate agent should be able to tell you what each municipality allows.

Be sure to factor in the taxes as well as the energy costs when determining what you can afford. You can call WE energies to get the average energy costs over the past 24 months. This ruled out several houses for us that at first glance seemed affordable, but when you add a $240/month energy bill it changes things quite a bit. We were looking at houses in the 1500-1800 sq. foot range and the average energy cost was around $200/month. Taxes in Waukesha can be a real killer too as much as $1,00 more per year versus Brookfield and New Berlin for the same priced homes.

My biggest recommendation is to go to as many open houses as you can to get a good feel for the market so you can determine when a house is a good deal versus one that is overpriced. We were exceptionally picky and looked for over 4 and half months before starting to make offers, but in the end I feel like we got the best house we could afford. In total we looked at easily over 60 houses.

[wrath]

The problem I'm finding with Waukesha is travel time. It pretty much rules out anything in the City of Waukesha East of the Fox River and South of US18. Anything East of EAST STREET (Waukesha is confusing so I capitalize streets) is inhabited by people that collect trash like junk tires and broken kids' toys. Anything between EAST STREET and the Fox River is hit and miss. It's old. It gets nice down by 59 but again you're talking 25 minutes to work.

If you go west of the Fox River there are a lot of nice areas if you avoid the low income and/or high density housing areas. But a big lot here is .25 acres (which gets me my 10,000 square foot goal) but they're almost always corner lots (no back yard) and the most expensive. Most are 50x100 or 60x90 lots in Waukesha. Even brand new stuff is almost never 100x100. If you go to Rolling Ridge (Corner of Northview/Meadowbrook) a big lot there is .25 acre and the houses start at $345. The subdivision doesn't even have all its lots sold. This is $345,000 and is on a 88x122 lot with a drainage easement next to it. (http://www.shorewest.com/vp/ListingServlet?cd_MLS=1047491&SITE=SHOREW&ScreenID=LISTING_DETAIL_P&mapvars=minx%3D-88.286861590784%26miny%3D43.02641063634899%26maxx% 3D-88.278043272404%26maxy%3D43.03383658866899%26lp_lo w%3D0%26lp_high%3D99999999%26beds_low%3D0%26baths_ low%3D0%26p_type%3DSingle%20Family%20Residential%2 6wf%3D%26zoom%3Dtrue%26scale%3D9%26s_layer%3d10474 91)

Taxes seem to be 2% everywhere I've looked. It's definitely a factor. Nice thing about Waukesha County is the GIS maps and tax data so you can easily look at what the taxes are. Since everyone was reassessed in 2007 it makes it pretty reliable.

I never thought to call WE Energies to ask them what the heating/electricity usage was. Thanks. I'll definitely do that.

All the municipalities I've looked into have their building codes online. That's how I learned Brookfield is NOT hillbilly friendly. Town of Brookfield is a glorified City of Waukesha.

There are oddball foreclosures/REOs/Shortsales in places that I normally couldn't afford like this one in Town of Brookfield. (http://public.superlativestudio.com/IDXDetail.aspx?sp=y&segmentid=218159&mlstableid=METROMLSRES&mlsnum=1037261&rid=24930&uid=24930&sid=24930&sponsorid=24930&htmlfile=67679.html) Taxes have it assessed at $226,000. I think it's a deal at $205,000. I haven't been to it.


Where did you end up choosing in Waukesha?

[07ROUSHSTG3]

i too think that you should look into building. you know exactly what you want, which is usually the largest obstacle when building. if a realtor cannot find you a house based on what you posted here, then building may be your only option.

[DirtyMax]

i too think that you should look into building. you know exactly what you want, which is usually the largest obstacle when building. if a realtor cannot find you a house based on what you posted here, then building may be your only option.

I agree..

You have a lot of specific wants, which there's nothing wrong with. Throw in your commute limitations you're putting on the situation and you are even more handcuffed.

Unless you're patient, there's either going to have to be a bit of give/take or you're going to have to "settle" if building isn't an option.

We kind of "settled" but didn't have much of a choice at the time. We HAD to find a house and fast and had very little geography to work within and the market crazy hot. 2+ years later, we have a few wants with our existing house but we're working on them.

[xxsn0blindxx]

We ended up in the neighborhood north of 18, west of Springdale and south of Bluemound. It's right across 18 from Griffin Ford and the other dealerships.

The neighborhoods around Sunset should have houses in your price range with 3 bedrooms and are good areas to live. Most of the lots should be ~1/4 acre. Some friends of ours just recently bought a 3 bedroom ranch on Garfield with a 2-car garage. It's a corner lot with a nice private back yard, but probably less than a quarter acre of land. I think they paid $165-175.

I would have to guess that it is nearly impossible to build house for $210k and if you could you'll have to buy a cheap lot outside of Waukesha county.

[wrath]

I'm sitting here trying to figure out which of my wants/needs are killing me. The most important one is the area. The area I selected is close to where I work now and close to anywhere I'd likely worth in the future if I choose to stay in SE Wisconsin.

I'll rank them in order.
#1 Location (http://www.wrath.com/hunting/livingarea.png)
#2 Price. Would like to keep *paying* for it below $190k. I'll go a little higher to get something a little better. If I don't set a limit for myself I'm going to end up looking at $250,000 houses and be in the same monetary situation I am today.
#3 A yard. Needs to have at least 2500sqft of green, fence-able back yard area for the dog to torture and room for a small garden
#4 Full basement. No crawlspace, no slab. Preferred unfinished.
#5 Full 2 car garage, at least 22x22. Or the ability to put one up.
#6 3 bedroom, smallest room 11x10 (110sqft) plus closet. Otherwise, if the bedrooms are small it needs to be 4 bedroom.
#7 Little or no knee walls if it's a two-story. I don't want to duck, ever. Rules out most non-dormered out cape cods.
#8 Decent kitchen. An eat-in kitchen is fine. It just needs to be large enough for fat people like me to get past each other. A 14x15 eat-in kitchen is perfect, no need for a dining room. If it's got a galley kitchen it needs to be able to be remedied. I'm not looking for a ton of counter space, 20 square feet is more than plenty.
#9 Ability to add a half bath to the first floor and a full bath to the basement.
#10 Ability to put up at least some kind of outbuilding. If it's not car-fitable (say the 180sqft limit in Brookfield then oh well. I'll store crap in it/make it a metal/non-wood workshop. I really don't want to have to set up my non-wood workshop in the basement. A wood workshop in the basement is fine.

[Karps TA]

If you want to do stuff to your property I'd rule out living in any city. I'd be looking at towns, etc. Cheaper taxes as well. My folks moved out to Vernon probably 10 years ago ffrom Muskego and love it there. I'm still stuck in Muskego, but as soon as the market turns around I'll be out there as well. They have 4 times the house and land then I have with taxes just slightly more. They can pretty much do whatever they want to their land, whereas I need to pull a permit to change lightbulbs.

[johnny--2k]

What do you do with a house that size? Do you have like 25 siblings? My parents' house is 2500 square feet, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath and a 28x32 attached garage. It even has a 13x16 foyer with a balcony that is a complete waste of space (my Mom's library). It was built the same time your parents' was and cost a whopping $94,000 to build.

I don't want to live in Elm Grove. Too many noses pointed in the air.

I don't really want to live in Brookfield either.

New Berlin is more affordable than Muskego.

Haha....well, the house itself is 3400 square feet, then 900 for the finished basement. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, and one in the basement, along with a full bath, kitchen, walkin closet, and rec room. Upstairs has the 4 bedrooms and two full baths, then the main floor has two half baths. It's myself, mom, dad, brother, and grandma. So there is just one extra bedroom as a guest room. 3 car attached garage, just under 3/4 of an acre. I think the killer for price etc is the location, they are in Weston Hills Subdivision, which is nice, but IMHO a waste. His property taxes last year were just shy of $12K which seems completely outrageous to me! :flipoff2:

[CobraSnake]

Haha....well, the house itself is 3400 square feet, then 900 for the finished basement. There are 4 bedrooms upstairs, and one in the basement, along with a full bath, kitchen, walkin closet, and rec room. Upstairs has the 4 bedrooms and two full baths, then the main floor has two half baths. It's myself, mom, dad, brother, and grandma. So there is just one extra bedroom as a guest room. 3 car attached garage, just under 3/4 of an acre. I think the killer for price etc is the location, they are in Weston Hills Subdivision, which is nice, but IMHO a waste. His property taxes last year were just shy of $12K which seems completely outrageous to me! :flipoff2:

Shit my whole house is 900sq ft.

[xxsn0blindxx]

I'm sitting here trying to figure out which of my wants/needs are killing me. The most important one is the area. The area I selected is close to where I work now and close to anywhere I'd likely worth in the future if I choose to stay in SE Wisconsin.

I'll rank them in order.
#1 Location (http://www.wrath.com/hunting/livingarea.png)
#2 Price. Would like to keep *paying* for it below $190k. I'll go a little higher to get something a little better. If I don't set a limit for myself I'm going to end up looking at $250,000 houses and be in the same monetary situation I am today.
#3 A yard. Needs to have at least 2500sqft of green, fence-able back yard area for the dog to torture and room for a small garden
#4 Full basement. No crawlspace, no slab. Preferred unfinished.#5 Full basement. No crawlspace, no slab. Preferred unfinished.
#5 Full 2 car garage, at least 22x22. Or the ability to put one up.
#6 3 bedroom, smallest room 11x10 (110sqft) plus closet. Otherwise, if the bedrooms are small it needs to be 4 bedroom.
#7 Little or no knee walls if it's a two-story. I don't want to duck, ever. Rules out most non-dormered out cape cods.
#8 Decent kitchen. An eat-in kitchen is fine. It just needs to be large enough for fat people like me to get past each other. A 14x15 eat-in kitchen is perfect, no need for a dining room. If it's got a galley kitchen it needs to be able to be remedied. I'm not looking for a ton of counter space, 20 square feet is more than plenty.
#9 Ability to add a half bath to the first floor and a full bath to the basement.
#10 Ability to put up at least some kind of outbuilding. If it's not car-fitable (say the 180sqft limit in Brookfield then oh well. I'll store crap in it/make it a metal/non-wood workshop. I really don't want to have to set up my non-wood workshop in the basement. A wood workshop in the basement is fine.

I don't doubt that you can find something that is exactly what you want, but you may have to wait a while for something to come up. Do you have a date that you need to move by? If you don't have a date to move out by and you can be patient, then just keep checking the MLS listings religiously and go to as many open houses as you can. Keep an open mind too, look at anything that is close to matching your criteria, sometimes you will be surprised when you see a property in person.

[wrath]

We ended up in the neighborhood north of 18, west of Springdale and south of Bluemound. It's right across 18 from Griffin Ford and the other dealerships.


I know that area pretty well. I like that area. A lot of those houses are actually Pewaukee addresses. Some real nice houses in there for sale for reasonable. Real nice one on Rambling Rose I spotted a week ago... and a while back one on Lexington sold for cheap that was real nice. Over on the other side of Banting Park are a bunch of foreclosures on Cardinal (I think), Empire, and Manhattan that are driving prices down. Further to the west are a bunch of houses stacked on top of each other. There is/was a house for sale on Gertrude that I griped about in the past that didn't even have a mudded ceiling.


I don't doubt that you can find something that is exactly what you want, but you may have to wait a while for something to come up. Do you have a date that you need to move by? If you don't have a date to move out by and you can be patient, then just keep checking the MLS listings religiously and go to as many open houses as you can. Keep an open mind too, look at anything that is close to matching your criteria, sometimes you will be surprised when you see a property in person.

Nah, I've been paying a premium for the ability to leave with 30 days notice. Some call it month-to-month. I call it a $100-stick-me-in-the-buttocks-every-month fee. I signed the lease on the apartment a year ago. I'm starting to get ornery about the whole living in an apartment thing. It's pretty depressing living in a multi-brown environment with 3 windows that only get sunlight in them for a brief period in the morning.

I think the keeping my mind open is a problem. We've gone to bunches of open houses and have pretty much physically driven to every single house in our price range in the area we want to live in... and ALL of Waukesha's houses in our price range (because about 2/3 of Waukesha I'd rather not live in).

[95mustang302]

We ended up in the neighborhood north of 18, west of Springdale and south of Bluemound. It's right across 18 from Griffin Ford and the other dealerships.

The neighborhoods around Sunset should have houses in your price range with 3 bedrooms and are good areas to live. Most of the lots should be ~1/4 acre. Some friends of ours just recently bought a 3 bedroom ranch on Garfield with a 2-car garage. It's a corner lot with a nice private back yard, but probably less than a quarter acre of land. I think they paid $165-175.

I would have to guess that it is nearly impossible to build house for $210k and if you could you'll have to buy a cheap lot outside of Waukesha county.

lol, Joe, I live on garfield, and I think I know what house your talking about LOL

[wrath]

Anybody besides me still looking at buying a house?

[PonyKiller87]

A little, I'm always looking for a good plot of land.

Have you worked with any realitors at all? I know the one that I used took down all of my requirements and as soon as something new hits the MLS that meets the requirements she would send it to me.

Also, still saying, look into building, I keep hearing from people in the home building industry about how slow they are and thier laying people off.... In a market like this you can almost name your price as long as your keeping them working. And land prices are finaly becoming more reasonable for the market.

[wrath]

Building isn't really an option since I don't want to live in Ixonia or something ridiculous. Here you pretty much buy the land and you get the house for free. They still want $100k+ for 1/3 of an acre in an undesirable location. Even more in a desirable location. Semi-desirable locations (like Rolling Ridge South in Waukesha (meadowbrook/northview)) are still really expensive for 1/3 acre lots in what used to be farm fields. I think the cheapest house in that 'hood is $379k. Most of these houses are brand new and never lived in--builder owned. If you have a chance, take a look on Shorewest or something. It'll give you a good giggle. Still way out of my pricerange.

I kind of have two realtors. One is the "relocation" person my company pays for. She sends me email on every house in Waukesha County that is listed for $195,000 or less. I've never met her. I have another one that I'll probably use when the time comes to buy. I was going to fly solo but I think I'm going to use a buying agent.

[lordairgtar]

I was looking for a house a couple of years ago, but my price range would put me at 12th and Keefe.

[PB86MCSS]

as soon as the market turns around I don't know if the market will really turn around/rebound as far as prices...I think alot of the crash is partly a correction due to overinflated values. As far as the glut of homes for sale on the market slowing things down, that hopefully gets better and loosens things up.

As far as the requirements go, I haven't followed the market as closely since purchasing over a year ago but I'd think New Berlin could have what you are looking for. Then again I'm not as familiar with the further west/north suburbs.

I hope to be in Waukesha county somewhere by the time I have kids. I'm in Milwaukee county not by choice.

[Holeshot]

What about Western Greenfield or Hales Corners. Tho I got a killer deal from Dan and Jacki there are a lot of nice homes by me for sale that may fit your needs budget.

Granted my lot is small but I don't have time for a big yard. I have great neighbors and my taxes were $3700.00. Three BR Bath and 1/2 eat in Kitchen LR and DR are L shaped and we have a NG FP. Basement was 1/2 finished and the spent a lot on exterior updates.

[wrath]

Things definitely got inflated here. Last year house prices were up 34% over inflation in Waukesha County. Meanwhile average wage went down. But family income went up. In 1998 the average person paid 2.8 times what they made for an average house. In 2007 the average person paid 3.8 times what they made for an average house. Housing is already down 15% unless you have a really nice house for the listing price. I think it'll only go down another 10%. People can't afford to sell their house for any more of a discount, or they won't.

I think what will really happen is house prices will go down around 25% from their peak and then they'll stagnate until wages catch up. If Fannie and Freddie will only give you 28%/36% of your gross income to borrow for a house that's all people will be able to buy. The only way it'll change is if lenders get loose again. But in reality I think this time it'll stay like it is currently... which is the same way it was 9 years ago when I bought my first house. If renting remains a bargain (it was at one time 25x to buy vs rent but now it's down around 21x) instead of being at 15x where most people start buying it'll keep downward pressure on real estate prices, especially if nail-n-hack-n-paint builders start building again.

[97z2801ss]

Rule out Brookfield as $190,000 will get you nothing that doesn't need major renovation. Plus you will live around a bunch of gossipy stereotyping a-holes. I really want to move north. Oh yeah don't even think about a fence.

haha quote TMFT I live not to far from you but everyone here gossips or like you said stereo type everyone. My sons grandma on his moms side is huge into that so I herd alot of stuff.......:chair:

[Korndogg]

fuck brookfield......




right tony? lol

[Rocket Power]

I hope to be in Waukesha county somewhere by the time I have kids. I'm in Milwaukee county not by choice.
Too late for me but yeah I want out of MilTAXwaukee county, the sooner the better. Preferably New Berlin or farther out. I actually like my daughters elementary school here in Stallis, but not so much the upper grades

[97z2801ss]

fuck brookfield......




right tony? lol


Mark you've been out this way alot in the past im sure my sister has told you bout stuff too hahahahaha.... Nice schools for my kid but thier are other good school districts.

[Korndogg]

honestly man...... When I was dating your sister. I could not stand that city at all. You family is cool but fawk man.....There is some spoiled ass people over there.

[97z2801ss]

honestly man...... When I was dating your sister. I could not stand that city at all. You family is cool but fawk man.....There is some spoiled ass people over there.


yea alot of snobby people for sure...

[PB86MCSS]

Too late for me but yeah I want out of MilTAXwaukee county, the sooner the better. Preferably New Berlin or farther out. I actually like my daughters elementary school here in Stallis, but not so much the upper grades
Agreed. Though we hope to keep this place as a rental property whenever we move on, I'm fine with it now and the location is great though. I have a couple good friends who's wive's are teachers as StAllis Central, what I hear is most problem kids are ones from Milwaukee but doesn't sound like where I'd want mine to go if I can help it.

I spent the first 24+ years of my life in Muskego and the next two or so in New Berlin so I was spoiled perhaps with nice areas, the people in Muskego seemed pretty down to earth that I encountered, for a wealthier community somewhat blue-collared too at least in spirit. Never lived in Brookfield but many (definately not all) of the people I've encountered that live there, its very much stuck up and snooty. Whenever I have kids I wouldn't them to go to StAllis schools but probably not Brookfield either. I'd be ok living in Muskego but after growing up there, it would be weird to have them go to the same schools and whatnot.

[CATNHAT]

I will build your house for you. I will do it for a flat fee and do an "open book" contract for you as well. You will get to see all of the proposals, vendors, etc. We will get multiple bids from multiple vendors and compare apples to apples.

I have built $130K condos and up to $5M houses.

I have a lot of work right now, but not as much as I would like.

However, if you want get someone to nickle and dime all of the trades and buy your sheet with a 10% discount at Home Depot and Lowes when you open a credit card, thats not my cup of tea.

I am looking at lots in Milwaukee for dirt cheap if you talk.

PM if interested.