Samsung is the ****ing worst at appliances. Had multiple issues with both the fridge and the washer. Both repairmen said don't buy Samsung or LG. New house is going to have GE appliances. Kitchen Aid is backed up for quite some time.

I've heard the same cautions about Samsung & LG. We replaced our washer six years ago with an LG top-loader and have been very happy with it. My only complaint is that since it does not have an agitator my wife thinks, "Goody! Extra room to stuff more **** in there to wash." *sigh*

Asko far harder to get repairman, but perform well until they trip up.

As far as smelly front washers, don't close the door after the wash dumbass.

Washing machines w/o the center agitator are the worst. We bought one last year, what a piece of ****.

You don't like the 2 hour wash cycle that doesn't get all the dirt off?

Ok boomer.

I had one of those pos for a couple weeks then got rid of it and got an old style washer for 100 bucks off Facebook.

Smartest move I've made in awhile.


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Is Kenmore still a thing? I bought new old-school (top loading washer w/agitator) in 2001, and in 2015, they were still going strong. Estate model, if I recall correctly. We have LG in the new place, no complaints so far.

I've never had a washer and dryer with the same lifespan so I tend to replace them separately.

I tend to buy washers used. I bought one last year off Marketplace which was the same model to the one I had go out, except it was like 12 years newer than mine. I paid like $150 for it and the reason they were selling it after less than 2 years was because the wife wanted something fancier. It's pretty common to be able to find something pretty new especially when people move.

The last dryer I bought was new. Like $500 or so. Best time to buy seems to be major holiday weekends, although if you look at prices throughout the year you'll see that the appliances are always "on sale" and never cost the full MSRP. Clearly this is psychological so that everyone buying feels they are getting a deal when in fact, some are paying the highest price the appliance is ever really sold at.

I heard the Maytag repairman is pretty bored.

i'm here to agree with tx

Our washing machine has worked for a long time with no problem. The dryer has broken three times I think and I have fixed it. The two times I'm sure of - one was a broken belt and the last one was a bad timer/switch. Oh yeah, the third was like something jammed in between the drum and the frame.

I don't think the repairs have taken more than a couple hours, which isn't much different than shopping for a new one.

I'm having a home buying dilemma that I'm trying to think through. My kids are off to college and we're looking to downsize a bit. The area we are looking is hot and is up 15-20% this year. We've looked at a dozen or so homes and have been following the market. Homes typically go pretty quickly and over listing.

Found a home that meets our needs and is FSBO but we believe the owners kids are asking a ridiculous amount. Home was built in the early 70s and the parents recently passed and have been there since the mid 80s and have done almost nothing cosmetically so it's very dated and in very poor shape. They've done a good job maintaining the home mechanically. I consider the home a complete cosmetic rehab with new kitchen, baths and we need to add a powder room because the home doesn't have one. I expect the renovations to be 150-200k.

We have three excellent comps. The first two were within 100 sf in size and in perfect shape with new kitchens, baths and all mid to upper finishes and they went for 795k and 825k. The third was somewhat updated and move in ready but still very dated and went for 565k. All three had the same number of bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

The parents had a local handyman who is telling the kids that the home should sell for 750-800k and my agent suggested we offer 505k. Since we really liked the home and we know the market is hot, we offered an "as-is" all cash offer for 545k and was quickly rejected but said they would take 750k. Kids live in a different part of the state, about 100 miles away.

I replied that we would get back to them and am now wondering how to reply. We are willing to up our offer a bit and wait it out. Our agent suggests we give them a rough idea on how we arrived at our number and a close friend who I respect says we should tell them no thanks but we can't go that high and wait for them to get a dose of reality and they'll come back to us with a more reasonable offer.

In the meantime we will continue to look at the market.

Cliffs:
FSBO seller thinks his rehab house should sell for same as completely updated house

If you feel its a fair offer, just tell them its a standing offer for x amount of time.

Why worry about them asking so much?

Just move on and if you find something else, so be it.

You don't have to buy it.

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Agent is right. Reality dose might hit faster that way. Just say something like "updated, it is indeed worth 750, maybe a bit more. Sadly, we got estimates on what it will cost us to update, and it's in the 200K range. Best I can do is $X."

Since the market for fixers is generally slow, even in a hot market, they may come back to you.

Thanks for the responses. I think we're leaning toward saying thanks but the home is out of our range and if things change please give me a call. At that point if they ask why we were so low be clear as to why. We will continue to look.

I'd just straight up tell them that the numbers don't work based on how much it will cost to remodel.

Yeah, no reason not to include the reason why. They’ll probably reject it but at least you will have provided a bit of education and you never know. They might end up being reasonable.

'sactly.

to be clear, let them know your offer + cost of updates = direct recent comps in the area that have been updated to the level of quality you are looking for.

I have all of that. At this moment all I've told them is thanks but out of our range. Give me a call if your situation changes.

They're either going to get a dose of reality and call me and I will be prepared to lay out exactly why I arrived at my offer, including a small discount because of no agent fees. It's always possible that someone comes and offers what they're asking and if that's the case, so be it.

I have a good relationship with them, they thanked me after my last note and said they'd keep in touch. I'm also contemplating sending a text to the handyman and thanking him for his time and if he'd be interested in helping with some small projects when we move into the area no matter the house.

I don't think I want to be the one to break it to the owners that they're pricing the house too high as I feel they may get offended. Let them get offended at someone else and I'll be around(maybe) to purchase.

Is this is as bad as I'm fearing?
In early spring we started noticing that a 3 foot wide strip of our front lawn, from the porch walkway all the way down to the sidewalk at the street (perpendicular to the steeet), was much greener, and was growing much faster than the rest of the lawn. Like the lawn was growing a mohawk. If you draw a line from the toilet in the rear bathroom through the toilet in the front bathroom and out to the street, it would go right through the grass mohawk. Is my main drain line ****ed? How would you proceed without digging up the front yard?

Probably related:
About a month ago our kitchen sink backed up pretty bad, but I was able to temporarily clear it with a hand cranked snake. 2 weeks later we had gray water flooding both bathroom showers and toilets. A plumber came out and and cleared it through the roof access pipe with his electric equipment. He said he had enough line out on the snake that the stoppage was somewhere beyond the house, out in the front yard.

Edit:
This is the only recent pic I could find of the front lawn. I had just mowed so its not that noticeable, but the strip around the red line is where its growing faster/greener.

Ugh, probably a partial collapsed pipe.

The only real good and easiest fix is to dig down in that area and inspect the pipe.

You can get a plumber to inspect the line with a camera unit, but chances are they will still have to excavate the area to repair.

I've heard of re-lining pipe without excavating but I imagine its pricey.

I had a similar area and drain problem a few years ago but also had a tree near by.
Dug down and found roots had basically plugged up that section of sewer pipe.
Took that section out and replaced it with new pipe i split and connected with a combo of glue and hose clamps.
It just has to be able to carry waste and not leak since its gravity fed and not under great pressure.

Outside of my labor it was probably 20 dollars in pipe, a small amount of glue and two hose clamps.

The tricky part is to be sure to dig around the pipe a little to find the break, its usually on the underside of the pipe.

Edit:

Now looking at that pic makes me wonder if its a broken/ leaky sprinkler line.

In that case it might be easier to take a probe and see if you can find a saturated section to start digging.

But the plumbing problem makes me lean towards septic line.



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cs3
how long have you lived in the house? if it's been under a year or two, the grass mohawk could be a result of someone seeding the lawn with an aggressive growing grass mix after digging up the yard to replace the sewer line to the street before you moved in.

if you've been there for several years and it's just showing up for the first time, a collapsed waste line could be the cause. running a camera down sewer lines is a very common and fairly inexpensive practice and should likely be done before you commit to replacing the sewer line.

if you find that you do need to replace it, directional boring is a very common practice to replace underground piping and won't require digging up your front yard (much, other than at the points of connection). likely a few thousand to get it done right.

how old is the house? this will give a clue as to what the waste line might be made of and what the possible points of failure may be. it doesn't look like you have large trees near that location, so root damage seems out of the equation.

Thanks for the quick replies Eeyor and RED.
Fwiw the house is old, built in the 50's. I imagine its clay pipe?
I've lived here just over 2 years. I dug up the front lawn myself and seeded the lawn, but didn't do anything with any piping. Sprinkler system was already installed when I moved in (they did a shitty job and I should've replaced everything before I connected the electronic controller).

Where would the camera be run from? The same roof access point that was used to clear the blockage?
The plumber suggested installing a clear out at the edge of the lawn along the walkway where the drain comes out from the house, but I have no idea how feasible and useful that would be.

Ok, sounds like clay pipe to me.
I think it was called orangeburg.

It would go bad and it sometimes was hard to find the exact spot of the break, so the simplest thing to do is replace it all.

But its not cheap.

I think what your plumber is trying to do is to get a cleanout that is more accessible than having to climb on the roof to do a rooter.

Many plumbers won't do a rooftop clean due to the cost of specific tools and liability.

So as bad as that greenbelt is, if it is your sewer, I imagine most plumbers will want to do a total replace as opposed to a patch, simpler and more profitable.

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Ok sounds pretty much like what I feared.
So what's the worst downside of not fixing this immediately?
Really not excited to destroy the yard after spending so much time getting it somewhat presentable.