[blparent] Advice: buying a house

Wed May 9 21:51:31 UTC 2012

and what I am saying is that there are plenty of mainstream resources out there to offer this kind of sound normal advice instead of waisting up inbox space on this parenting email list on a subject that has "Nothing" to do with parenting directly.
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On May 9, 2012, at 2:41 PM, Veronica Smith wrote:

> Whether it be your mortgage, your rent or doctor bills, whether your air
> conditioner quits or your heater goes out or your car won't run, all part of
> life. The important thing here is when yu buy a house or a car or toys for
> your children to play with, learning about that particular product is first
> and foremost. It odesn't matter if you are sighted or blind, learning about
> the product is important and what a beter way to find out but to ask
> questions from those peeps who have gone through the process.
> Sightlings look for esthetic things, blind peeps for practical ones.  But
> what I always said, if the rug is bad or the paint is worn or the fllors are
> dirty, those are things that can be replaced.  
> What can't be replaced is the structure, how it is built, are termites
> eating the wood, is the house sinking because of whatever, are the pipes
> rusted and old. Those are the things we should look at when buying a house.
> Area is a good idea, especially for a blind person, you want to live in a
> safe crime free area, you want good schools and of course, you want
> transportation.  
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 3:17 PM
> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
> 
> That's right.  Whether you rent or own, you'll be paying somebody's 
> mortgage.  It might as well be yours, if you can afford it and your budget 
> allows for things like broken air conditioners in the heat of July and 
> vacuum ducts that need to be vacuumed out, which just cost me nearly $500 
> last month.  That was a close one.  I had single digits in my checking 
> account, but the work had to be done.
> 
> Jo Elizabeth
> 
> "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, 
> compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of 
> the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of 
> these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist
> 
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Veronica Smith" <madison_tewe at spinn.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 3:12 PM
> To: "'Sean Paul'" <newsandtraffic at aol.com>; "'Blind Parents Mailing List'" 
> <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
> 
>> My mother always used to say, pay your own mortgage, not someone elses.
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Sean Paul
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 9:02 AM
>> To: Blind Parents Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
>> 
>> I would totally agree with the last line of Roberts email here. Don't get
>> rushed in to anything. You buy a home when you're ready. Don't let someone
>> talk you in to it or out of it because that's what they think you should 
>> or
>> shouldn't do. Home ownership just as renting is a big step. Choose 
>> something
>> you're going to be happy with. One more thing I'll say on the renting side
>> of things is this. If you find something, you're there & after a period of
>> time you find you're dissatisfied. It is much easier to leave a location
>> that you rent. When you own that home you have to sell it 1st before 
>> you're
>> able to leave it. Unless you're rich & can carry on 2 house payments. Most
>> leases are yearly & have some previsions in them for breaking them even.
>> Some even let you go month to month after the initial term of the lease is
>> met.
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jaquiss, Robert" <RJaquiss at nfb.org>
>> To: "Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 09:29
>> Subject: Re: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
>> 
>> 
>>> Hello:
>>> 
>>>    Over the years, I have bought and sold four houses and one mobile
>>> home. It is fairly typical for a real estate agent to drive his/her
>>> customers to see a property. My advice is to pick out the bus routes
>>> that work for you and tell the agent to look for houses near the
>>> routes. You might get a friend to drive the bus route and try and spot 
>>> for
>> sale signs.
>>> 
>>>    As for the mechanics of buying a house, I would advise having a
>>> trusted sighted person look over the property. Hopefully, you have a
>>> trustworthy agent, but some agents are more conscientious than others.
>>> A very thorough building inspection is very important. My wife and I
>>> bought a house and the inspection missed some major flaws resulting in
>>> us having to spend thousands of dollars to correct them. Its very wise
>>> to get insurance such as American Home Shield. This type of policy can
>>> insure against roof leaks, appliance break downs, plumbing problems
>>> etc. When my wife and I bought a house in Louisiana, we had AHS and it
>>> was a good thing since a heat pump failed a week after we moved in and
>>> it had to be replaced. When you make an offer, you can add a clause
>>> such as, "The house needs to meet the approval of xxx." This is a good
>>> backup in case you miss something and need to back out of an offer. My
>>> last piece of advice is to take your time and don't get rushed into a
>> decision.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Robert
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Robert Jaquiss
>>> Access Technology Specialist
>>> National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute
>>> 200 E. Wells Street at Jernigan Place
>>> Baltimore, MD 21230
>>> Phone: (410) 659-9314, Ext.2422
>>> Email: rjaquiss at nfb.org
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org]
>>> On Behalf Of jan wright
>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 7:53 AM
>>> To: blparent
>>> Subject: [blparent] Advice: buying a house
>>> 
>>> Hi All,
>>> First, I want to thank everyone who responded to my questions about
>>> bottles and johnny jumper things.
>>> We have a pretty consistent group of parents and child care providers
>>> who --- may not always agree, but give wonderful advice for each
>>> season of our lives. And, we are as diverse as any other parent group:
>>> from spiritual to not; from crunchy to progressive (those might not be
>>> opposites, but you understand what I mean); from babies to adult
>>> children; from stay-at-home parents  to working parents; ... etc.
>>> 
>>> So, I thought that I might post here about our "house buying" and ask
>>> for any tips and advice. I have done research, but, there isn't much
>>> from a blind person's prospective. Maybe there doesn't need to be:
>>> because maybe it is not any different from sighted people buying a house.
>>> But, I did have a couple of questions:
>>> 1. How did you choose your realtor? We have one of these, already, but
>>> wonder if we  shouldn't have looked farther. DH's boss said that his
>>> realtor would transport him to and from the prospective houses. Is
>>> that normal??? We find that this is one of the most difficult things
>>> to do because paratransit takes so long, we can only see one house per
>> day.
>>> 2. Public transportation is not very good here in Indy. People from
>>> other cities have commented on how fragmented it is. And, there aren't
>>> many sidewalks in residential areas or down busy streets and ... ... a
>>> good shoulder is hard to find. [ARe those words to a country
>>> song?????]
>>> (smile) But, we are trying to find a house that is close to a bus stop
>>> --- and a bus stop that would take DH to work and us downtown.
>>> Sometimes we find a house close to a bus stop, but the wrong bus stops
>> there.
>>> 
>>> Any other advice????
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> rg
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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