The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: Le Barbu on May 08, 2017, 11:28:10 AM
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Intro
We actualy live in a 10 y.o. house in a very nice neighborhood, especially for young families aiming for the American Dream. Midsize town with everything you need within 6km wich is an easy bike or even walk distance. House is a nice cottage, 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathroom, large backyard, 4 places alley (for cars, SUVs and F-150!!!), pool, spa, public park 50ft away, public forest 1 mile away (include MTB trails, hiking trails and in winter, fatbike and snowshoeing trails). We have been and still are perfectly happy to live here but...
Kids are getting older (10-13 now) and have less interest than they use to for the pool and the public park infrastructures. Their friends back in the days, used to be the kids arround. Now, then seems to live anywhere since they meet new friends in high school with more afinity, normal phenomenon I suppose.
We are lurking for places closer from downtown (3-4km from our actual place) where every services are at walking distance (0.1-2km at most). Density is a bit higher and services more diversified. It's litteraly "where the things happen" around here. The only thing between this part of town and the famous Old Quebec City is a ferry wich mean 3$ ticket and 10 minutes!
Now, most (90%) of theese houses were built from 1850-1910 and kept their original frame. Over the years, many upgrades but also lots of Asbestos and lead all through the building. As a DIYer, I planned to get one someday for a bit cheaper than our actual place and repair by myself while FIREed. My concern is, if I outsource most of the hasard jobs, the price is ridiculous. If I do it by myself, my health can suffer latter, not exactly my goal!
Am I over cautious about those shits or what? What is really dangerous and how to manage this? If I sell my place for 400k$ to buy a 250k$ house and spend 25-75k$ thats fine since I come ahead. But if I got to spend 100-250k$ (or even more!?) outsourcing most of the jobs, I will definetly stay where I am now!
FWIW, my home would sell for 225$/sq.ft. (living space) and this area sells for 100-200k$*/sq.ft. so it's a win-win, especially if we downsize a bit (1,700 now, 1,200 needed, maybe 800-900 later when our kids leave home). Meanwhile, I will track every sales and learn more about the area.
*depends of the lot size, state of maintenance & upgrades etc.
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Learn to recognise unbound asbestos, or asbestos in a bad shape, and/or have the place checekd by a trustworthy specialist.
Learn about what you can safely remove yourself. Cement bound asbestos products in good shape for example require some attention and basic equipment only.
Learn about what you can't safely remove yourself, like ubound asbestos. Don't touch the stuff. Have it removed by a properly equiped and registered contractor!
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This is a pretty broad question and I am mostly just posting to follow. I will give you my opinion only, as in what I would do. Note I am not a professional, and this is all hypothetical.
To me asbestos is about a 6/10 on the concerned scale. Yeah its an issue, but it is not going to burn your house down type deal. If you leave it alone it leaves you alone. Granted you are in Canada I would assume there is lots more of it in houses then down in the states? A small piece of it that I can easily bag up and throw away, sure I would DIY. You have about 100 feet of HVAC pipe covered in the stuff that needs to be taken apart? Yeah Id probably pay someone for that.
Lead paint is about a 1/10. It is the cost of doing business in an older home. Usually you repaint over it, or rip it out and throw it away. Neither of those things are very dangerous. I know lead is MUCH more of a concern in little kids, but it sounds like yours are mostly grown. As long as you use a little common sense you are probably going to be fine.
Honestly those two things would be peanuts compared to dealing with the knob and tube, HVAC, insulation, water pipes etc in an older home that you describe.
Take all this with a grain of salt, I am no doctor, YMMV
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To me asbestos is about a 6/10 on the concerned scale. Yeah its an issue, but it is not going to burn your house down type deal. If you leave it alone it leaves you alone. Granted you are in Canada I would assume there is lots more of it in houses then down in the states? A small piece of it that I can easily bag up and throw away, sure I would DIY. You have about 100 feet of HVAC pipe covered in the stuff that needs to be taken apart? Yeah Id probably pay someone for that.
Asbestos HVAC pipe insulation is usually of the unbound, dangerous kind. Just to give you an idea, in my native country, it's even illegal to try and remove this stuff yourself. You _have_ to use a specialised contractor. And don't even think of renting out a place like that over here...
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FWIW-I saw an add in a DIY magazine a few years ago for lead paint remover. Somehow it turns lead paint into an innocuous substance that can be thrown in the trash safely.