Tell me about owning a House

I would be curious as to why the owner is selling. If for example they bought the house cheap 30 years ago, it's completely paid off, and the rental income is more than the property taxes, I would wonder why they would sell. Is there a big problem they know about? Is the rental just too much of a hassle? There obviously won't be any clear answers to this but maybe you'll have a gut feeling about it if you learn more.

Get a realtor to help you out here. You know how much the rental income is since you live there but a realtor can help you find out what the current property taxes are, how much the owner originally paid, etc. You obviously need to get a different realtor from a different company than the one who is selling the house. Note that you don't have to pay them anything. They get 3% (I believe) when the house sells and I think in most cases the seller pays the realtor fees (does anyone else know for sure?).

It's worth mentioning that if the owner is asking 70k you don't necessarily have to offer that much. If 70k is a stretch for you but 60k would be a no-brainer, then make an offer and see what happens. Again, a realtor will help you out here with the necessary paperwork & everything. You can figure that at this point the owner would like you to buy it because otherwise he probably has to evict you and the other tenants and clean the place up to get a good price for it. It will definitely sit on the market for a while if he's trying to show it with people still living inside. So he's probably hoping that you'll buy at the asking price and save him a big hassle. You can probably use this to your advantage.

This brings up the big question: why this house? If you are really interested in buying, it probably doesn't make sense to settle on this house simply for convenience's sake. Have you looked around at other houses on the market in your area? It's likely that you can get a place for cheaper with no rental to hassle with. I wouldn't think about moving as a hassle so much as it being a cost (the cost of moving plus the cost of lost business) which you can then factor in when you compare this house to other places in the area.

And finally, when you figure out what your monthly costs are going to be, don't forget to factor in home insurance. I don't believe that's been mentioned yet.

Has anyone done geothermal energy? Both our furnace and AC unit are extremely old, and when you add up the cost of replacing them plus the modest energy savings plus all the incentives and tax credits, it might actually make economic sense for us to do. I guess the main environmental benefit is really that you are switching to electric and therefore have the future option of more sustainable power sources, although the pure energy savings is not meaningless.

I have an in-law unit that I rent out, and apparently it's not well-connected to central heating (one small corner vent that doesn't do much to heat the space), and so my tenant has to resort to using a space heater, and which, of course, is increasing our electric bill by a fairly large amount. I've looked around and as far as I can tell, space heaters are all going to run at 750W-1500W, so that's not a great solution IMO. Is my only real option getting a contractor to connect the unit to the central furnace?

Anyone dealt with property line issues? I have a very strangely shaped property where parts of what you'd think are my neighbors' yards are actually mine - they are literally separated from my yard by features (a retaining wall and large rocky/sloped area) and not even very easy to access from my yard - you kind of have to climb to them.

I have no immediate use for the area, and the neighbors' kids play in it and my neighbors are great people and I'm 100% fine with the current setup. The problem is I'm concerned that an adverse possession situation could come up down the line, more likely with a subsequent owner than them. Is there some way I could mark it as part of my property or put something on the land, maybe even something their kids could use freely, without having to fence it or put stakes in the ground or something? Maybe I need to talk to a lawyer.