As a married guy, it is very simple to buy a house. I drove her to. My job was to look at phisical or logical problems like beeing to close from a highway (too much noise) etc. The major tip that I could give to someone who're buying an existing house, is to pay a specialist to inspect the house. I have experience in home repair, but I'm NOT a specialist. I could'nt find hiden failures.

Good advice. I'm both buying and building a house right now and contemplating starting a little Internet village/subdivision next door to where I live.

Both suggestions are absolutly necessary. After buying a house 4 years ago it was discovered that abestos was used extensivly. There was no disclosure of that fact, so now expenes must be found to fight a battle that would not have been necessary with a good independent housing inspection.

Was abestos used for insulation purpose?

File through the Manville Trust -- that's what all that money is there for!

I'm thinking of buying a house on South Congress right across from St. Eds, what do y'all think of this neighborhood compared to North Austin or Hyde Park/University Heights. I'm torn because I like the house but I work and workout in North Austin around the Arboretum. It's a 5 bedroom 2 story 2800 sf house with no garage. Tough choice. This? Or a more modern house with a pool and two car garage and 3-4 bedrooms in North Austin. Or a smaller house in central Austin The advantage of the St. Ed's place is that I could rent out 4-5 rooms and have a real good income off the place with a ready supply of students right across the street. Is there any advantage to living this close to St. Ed's otherwise?

I'm not familiar enough with the area to say, but the wife says that the Sout Congress area has a higher crime rate. Her psychic lives there, though.

You've hit on my biggest reservation at this stage.

Crime or wer's wife's psychic?

Crime, it's fine to have a psychic in the neighborhood. I have a "short list" of about 20 houses now, most with pools and views and at least 4 bedrooms.

nice, Autumn...

What's the view of? Here the bay view property is sought after (and priced accordingly)

The views are mostly of the City of Austin, which is the view I'm looking for, wouldn't that be paradise, a 5 bedroom place with a pool, hot tub and sauna with a view of Austin? I can dream. Maybe I can even realize it.

What would you put in the other 4 bedrooms? (Or whom?)

i know what i would do with an extra bedroom or two......*wink*

breakfast nook and formal dining room?

room mates, to answer Autumn, to help pay the mortgage. Like I'm doing now in the Cedar Creek place.

Ugh. I can't imagine living with anyone I'm not inextricably bound to. I guess because I never have.

Found it today. The perfect place. Huge pool and backyard. Six bedrooms, and a gorgeous split level floor plan. North Austin.

Washer/dryer near bedrooms??

did i hear 6 bedrooms? man....anything with 4 and any square footage runs in the mid to upper 100K's, way more than i can afford *boo hoo* one day, huh?

You need to get rid of that deadwood at your house and get you some payin' guests, Wolf!! :-)

There is a laundry hookup on the first floor but intentionally no washer/dryer so the room mates have to go two blocks to the laundromat. There reason was that it might be going and disturbing folks too much. I'll cross this bridge when I come to it. For now, I've got to make an offer and go through a lot of stuff. By no means a done deal yet.

so you really are making a community, kinda like those places in the netherlands, huh? i think that's where it was. dunno read about it a few years ago, they had a community kitchen and stuff and the families had their turns to cook and stuff. not a bad setup on the surface, but don't know how it would really work.

Actually, there are lots of intentional communities all over the US.

and a whole lot more accidental ones...

Not exactly that structured, structure follows personalities and such. By the way, I just did a bunch of host type stuff in the restaurants conferences, including making sure WER was set up as host, and played around with the various welcome and goodbye messages, which wer is now free to change.

wer, are you accessing ok?