Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

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TomJarkin
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Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by TomJarkin »

I'm in the process of semi-early retirement in my 50s. I am single, no children, no desire to re-marry or have any offspring of my own. I currently rent a small apartment and never owned a home because my work required I travel 50 weeks out of the year. Once retired, I'd like to buy a modest home with cash. No mortgage. Property taxes will be $1k per year or so here in AZ and insurance will be reasonable.

I want to focus on spending time with family/friends and hobbies and travel. I want to own a home and not have the home own me. I've witnessed many of my friends dedicated most of their limited free time to various projects around their home. It seems like they are always busy doing something! I'd prefer the lowest maintenance home living possible. While condos and townhouses offer greater simplicity, I choose not to deal with HOAs in any capacity. I'm looking at a 3/2 of 1200 to 1400 sq feet to keep utility costs reasonable but still give flexibility in resale of the house (my realtor tells me 3/2s are the most flexible to resell should I choose to move).

AZ offers easy landscaping options with a natural desert set up (rocks and cactus). There is also a possibility to install solar panels.

What I'm looking for is the set up that requires the most minimal maintenance, is most robust, and can let me travel without having to have a full-time housesitter.

Are there any options within a home to help facilitate that lifestyle? (certain type of HVAC, solar/no-solar, plumbing options, toilet options, washer/dryer options, etc)

Are there any options within a home that I should avoid (swimming pool, grass lawn, carpet that needs replacing etc)?

Thank you in advance for allowing me to learn from your experiences.
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Watty
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Watty »

TomJarkin wrote:While condos and townhouses offer greater simplicity, I choose not to deal with HOAs in any capacity. I'm looking at a 3/2 of 1200 to 1400 sq feet to keep utility costs reasonable but still give flexibility in resale of the house (my realtor tells me 3/2s are the most flexible to resell should I choose to move).
Many subdivisions have HOAs too so watch out for that. It may take you longer to find a home that you like without a HOA so be prepared for that.

Don't buy more house than you need just to make it quicker to sell years from now. It could cost you a lot over the years just to cut a few weeks or months off of the time that it will eventually take to sell it someday. If you live in it the rest of your life you will not be around to worry about selling it anyway.

On the maintenance find a very good home inspector to minimize any surprises. If you don't want to do the home maintenance yourself then find a good handyman and pay to have it done. All homes require maintenance.

If you will be traveling a lot then get a good alarm system and figure out how to turn the water off since waterleaks can be a problem when you are away for a long time.
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Epsilon Delta »

On the face of it it looks like your best option is to rent a small apartment. Whatever you are trying to avoid by not renting is probably material to the type of house you should buy.
spammagnet
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by spammagnet »

TomJarkin wrote:... While condos and townhouses offer greater simplicity, I choose not to deal with HOAs in any capacity.
This seems to be a pretty firm condition, the way you wrote it. But as another responded commented, HOAs are not limited to condos and townhouses. While agree there are horror stories, they're also not all run by ogres.

I suggest you reconsider a townhouse or condo but make the makeup and behavior of the HOA board a primary criterion for your consideration. Many publish their minutes and budgets and you probably could attend a board meeting as an observer if you introduced yourself as a potential HOA owner/member. I think that would reveal a lot. You might find out they're just people trying to keep their neighborhood up without being Draconian about it.
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FrugalInvestor
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by FrugalInvestor »

A new home will require less maintenance than a pre-owned one (for a few years anyway) and many of those things that may go wrong will be under warranty.

Beyond that carpet gets dirty very quickly in AZ so using all tile on your floors is better in that regard. A grass lawn requires lots of water, mowing and often regular re-seeding so going with gravel means much less maintenance. Also, cactus and succulents will require much less water (sometimes next to none) than a tropical looking landscape. Some trees like Palo Verde are very messy, others like fruitless Olives require very little clean-up.

Like an automobile, regular observation and maintenance is important. For example, a small roof or water heater leak noticed and addressed early is no big deal but if if ignored can become a huge problem and expense due to water damage, mold, etc. Taking an active interest in your home even if you don't want to do repairs yourself will save a great deal of frustration and expense. Relying strictly on others to notice and repair problems is a recipe for being taken advantage of.
Have a plan, stay the course and simplify. Then ignore the noise!
jfave33
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by jfave33 »

Any house will either require your time or your money. If you can't deal with that then continue renting - it is okay to rent. Your lifestyle points to renting. There is always something to do with a house - you have to take care of it.

If you have to own then you seem more suited to a condo or townhouse - you are probably a bit too fearful of HOAs . For someone who currently rents I don't really see how having a HOA is going to be that much different than a landlord with his/her rules and unexpected rent increases etc. But you may have something you particularly do not want to deal with.

If you do buy a house then go for something with a small, simple and mature garden and has a small sq ft inside too. Buy something that has had major items replaced recently eg air conditioning, roof etc. Then just avoid things you don't need that require maintaining eg a deck.
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Raymond
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Raymond »

TomJarkin wrote:...I want to focus on spending time with family/friends and hobbies and travel...
So please tell us why you want to buy a house instead of renting :confused
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btenny
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by btenny »

Buy a house near where your family lives. Get no pool
Minimim carpet. 2/3 bdrms 2 baths. 100%. rock landscaping. Few plants and auto watering. No or minimum hoa. Watet shutoff for house when you leave. Lots of choices like this in Sun City.

But renting may be better for you. Landlord fixes stuff instead of you.

Good luck.
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TomJarkin
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by TomJarkin »

Raymond wrote:
TomJarkin wrote:...I want to focus on spending time with family/friends and hobbies and travel...
So please tell us why you want to buy a house instead of renting :confused
There's a few reasons. Maybe they are silly so I'll elaborate to get some constructive critiques:

1. Want to avoid being priced out of living in my current area of Scottsdale. Rents have been going up the last few years.

2. Have a desire to customize my living situation. Hardwood floors. Lighting. etc.

3. Have a desire to generally lock in a certain cost of living so I can sleep better in "early" retirement. If I rent, rents can always go up beyond inflation and investment return. If I buy a condo/townhouse, HOA fees can always go up. If I buy a single family house, there will be $1k taxes annually that will go up a little, but not likely to go up that much. This means if I buy the house cash, the only bill I absolutely need to pay is $1k a year. I can drop home owner insurance if necessary (although of course I wouldn't). I can visit local soup kitchens for food (although if it came down to that, I'd go back to work). But if I rent or have an HOA fee, then a 3% or 4% SWR may not keep up with the unknowns of those costs.

If feels safer to retire early if I own a single family home outright plus $X invested with a 3% SWR covering all expenses, compared to renting and having $Y invested (which would be $300k greater than X, because in this scenario I didn't buy a house and added that money into my investments).

There's always the unknown home expenses like a new roof or refrigerator, but in a dire financial situation, I can cover the roof with a tarp and get bags of ice to put in a cooler. Is that something I want to do? Heck no! But in a dire financial situation and I am renting or owe a HOA special assessment, then I can't postpone the HOA fee for 6 months with a $5 tarp from Home Depot while I try to go back to work and earn more money.

To be really clear, I plan to have a more than sizable investment nest egg set up before I retire in my early 50s coming up. I would never retire early if there was any real likelihood of needing to cover a roof with a tarp. But, crap happens, and it seems like owning a single family home leaves you with more flexibility to deal with crap than renting or living under an HOA.

I want to be in a position where the bills I need to pay are limited as much as possible. With renting, I'd need to come up with $12k a year minimum. With owning a single family home with no HOA, I'd only need to come up with $1k a year. In the scenario of renting, I'd have an extra $300k invested, so getting that $12k should be easy. But crap happens and it seems safer to lock away that $300k and lower that $12k down to $1k and give me the flexibility to tap into home equity to pay the $1k taxes.
spammagnet
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by spammagnet »

TomJarkin wrote:3. Have a desire to generally lock in a certain cost of living so I can sleep better in "early" retirement. ... If I buy a condo/townhouse, HOA fees can always go up.
Assuming reasonable management, increases in HOA fees generally represent inflation. You're subject to the same costs if you own a single family home. In fact, the HOA may benefit from economies of scale and suppressing risk across a large number of owners.

I'm not arguing that you should buy a condo but am refuting your HOA fee argument against it.
danaht
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by danaht »

To reduce some maintenance - get a single story with all brick on the outside. This will reduce the need to paint it on the outside. And if you still need to paint it - you can do it yourself since it's a single story home. Single story homes are also easier to maintain in general.
frequentT
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by frequentT »

For a homeowner that travels there is one easy step that will free your mind from a very worrisome hazard that many folks do not think about.

Install a valve that will cut off water to your house. Position the cutoff so your irrigation will still work.

Turn off the water every time you are traveling.

A house Fire is one of the few hazard more damaging than water. With the water cut off, leaky pipes, ice makers, hot water heaters will do limited damage.

One other travelers trick--put a tablespoon of bleach in the toilet bowls before leaving.
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dual
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by dual »

I have a similar situation and here are some thoughts.I am most familiar with Tucson and some of these considerations may not apply to other places.
  • Look at the date of construction of the house. Tucson had a huge growth spurt in the 1950's so many of the houses particularly in the central part of town are over 60 years old. They were not built that well to begin with so their plumbing, wiring, heaters, air conditioners, etc are wearing out. Newer construction homes are mostly cheap wood frame/stucco instead of brick construction, which I consider more desirable, so it will take some doing but is possible to find some newer ones that have good construction.

    Tucson has a very controlling city government. For example, they passed a law saying the weeds in your yard cannot be over 10 inches tall. They actually have full-time yard nazis who drive around and send fix-it tickets. If you ignore them, they start charging hundreds of dollars until you satisfy the inspector and there is no appeal from his decision. One strategy is to put up a tall fence around your property so make sure zoning laws allow that. There are also rules about painting your house, not leaving the city supplied garbage cans out etc and a big fence helps there too.

    I agree with you about HOAs--steer clear of them if possible but if not a careful investigation is needed. One consideration is that many mini subdivisions maintain their roads and re-paving can be a major expense that may not be built into their fees. BTW, most of the HOA fees I have seen are pretty high, greater than $100 a month, which is more than the property tax on the house.

    Speaking of property taxes, Arizona does not have a California style Proposition 13 so your taxes will go up as the selling price of houses goes up. You cannot do much about that except sign petitions and vote for the ballot measures that come up almost every election.
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jeffyscott
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by jeffyscott »

I want to say one word to you. Just one word....Plastics.

When we had our house built we wanted a low cost maintenance-free exterior, not fashionable materials. We have vinyl siding, vinyl frame windows, aluminum soffit. fascia and gutters. We have had to do no exterior painting for nearly 20 years, the vinyl frame windows have been problem free and there is no wood to be damaged by condensation (probably not an issue in AZ) inside, along with no painting of wood window frames outside.

Inside we have no tile anywhere (no grout), kitchens, baths, and entry areas are sheet vinyl the rest is carpet. One piece fiberglass shower stall in one bathroom, one piece tub and surround in the other, each with just a single caulk seam between it and the one piece sheet vinyl floor. Sheet vinyl flooring has just one short seam of about 3 feet where the kitchen connects to a back entry area.

Kitchen has the old fashioned Formica counter tops this has required no maintenance, I think I have read that most other materials require maintenance of one sort or another.
Mudpuppy
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Mudpuppy »

You'll want a way to shut off water to the house, but not the drip irrigation. As already mentioned, leaks while traveling are a big concern. Even if you go with a cactus landscape, it'll still need to be watered while you're gone, so you can't just turn the water off completely.

If you're taking multiple weeks off, you'll probably want someone to stop by at least once or twice to make sure the irrigation system hasn't sprung a leak either. Less damaging, but still something to watch out for. They can also check the house for any other issues that might come up, like phone books or ads that might accumulate on the doorstep. If you make good friends with your neighbors, this should be something they'd be willing to do just to be neighborly.

You might also want a remote monitoring system, whether that's a full alarm service company or just some way of remotely monitoring for theft, fire, etc. You'd want to catch anyone who trespasses when they do so, not weeks later when you get back from the trip. Same goes for a rapid response to any fires or other issues that may occur.
GreenGrowTheDollars
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by GreenGrowTheDollars »

I was going to say patio home (where the association takes care of the yard) until I saw the no HSA restriction.

I wonder if you could pay one of those personal assistant businesses or a property management firm to handle arranging all repairs and maintenance?

Are there nicer areas in Scottsdale that don't have HOAs? I would have thought most of the developments north of Old Town would definitely have HOA's. Lots of the housing closer to Tempe isn't so nice.

I love the water cutoff idea. I'd also suggest one of the internet-based security systems that you can check via a smartphone.
barnaclebob
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by barnaclebob »

There is a difference between a 2 hour diy light fixture replacement and a diy new shower. You will be retired so spending 2 hours a few times a year isn't a big deal. Just break out the checkbook when a task requires more time than you want to spend.
Sconie
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Sconie »

Just a thought----there is a BIG difference between landscaping and home maintenance issues in southern Arizona (say Tucson) than there is in, for example, in northern Arizona (say Flag)................
I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. - Alan Greenspan
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jeffyscott
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by jeffyscott »

Sconie wrote:Just a thought----there is a BIG difference between landscaping and home maintenance issues in southern Arizona (say Tucson) than there is in, for example, in northern Arizona (say Flag)................
The difference is mainly altitude not latitude, though. Flagstaff being 6000 feet higher is what causes most of the difference, not being 140 miles to the north.

As tourists one summer, we experienced 25-30 degree temperature changes in a distance of around 10 miles in that general part of the world.
barkingdog
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by barkingdog »

I would:
-Buy in a non HOA neighborhood
-No Pool
-All Desert Landscaping/Small front yard and back yard.
-Research Solar Options. Decide if you would like to live in a APS or SRP neighborhood. APS and SRP offer different "solar benefits" and monthly "solar charges"
-Use http://simplisafe.com/ as an alarm system, they have great sensors for doors, breaking glass and "leaking" water sensors. There are no annual contracts, it's about $15.00 per month if you travel for long periods of time.
-Buy a home or townhome with NO carpet or customize to your floor tastes with wood floor or tile.
-If you do buy a "new" home you will have to buy window treatments, and there will be a fair amount of new carpet you will need to rip out to replace with tile or wood floors.
-If you owned a non HOA home, I believe you would need more than $1k a year. If you include property taxes, monthly electric, garbage, water, homeowners insurance,internet?, HVAC filters, minor repairs, expenses do seem to add up quickly.
-I would suggest finding a highly reccommended handyman to help you customize your new home.
-If you really detest home maintenance projects I would stick to renting.
Good Luck!
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Epsilon Delta »

TomJarkin wrote:
Raymond wrote: So please tell us why you want to buy a house instead of renting :confused
There's a few reasons. Maybe they are silly so I'll elaborate to get some constructive critiques:

1. Want to avoid being priced out of living in my current area of Scottsdale. Rents have been going up the last few years.

2. Have a desire to customize my living situation. Hardwood floors. Lighting. etc.

3. Have a desire to generally lock in a certain cost of living so I can sleep better in "early" retirement.
I think buying is a lifestyle choice so 2. and to some extent 1. are reasons to buy. How much weight to put to 1. depends on how small an area you want to stay in. If you have strong ties to a neighborhood then yes. If you'd be willing to move within the region then no. I don't think there is any validity to 3. Owning a single piece of real property will have a far higher variability than renting with a diverse portfolio. Now you'll get many people who say that owning a home did give them fixed costs, but thats because of the variability. Disasters only happen to a few people, but they do happen.
Mudpuppy
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by Mudpuppy »

Sconie wrote:Just a thought----there is a BIG difference between landscaping and home maintenance issues in southern Arizona (say Tucson) than there is in, for example, in northern Arizona (say Flag)................
OP said the area of Arizona in particular is Scottsdale. So we're talking hot, dry (monsoons not withstanding) weather in the summer and no snow / very few freezing incidents in the winter.
dbr
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by dbr »

The most helpful thing we have done as retirement has gone on is pay someone else to mow the lawn, trim shrubbery, and clear the walks of snow. I never minded the snow shoveling that much but lawn and garden has been a major hate of mine since I was old enough for my dad to give me that job. We haven't fallen so low as to hire house cleaning, but it is an option. We did spend money on outside window washing this spring and it was one of the best expenditures we ever made. People who retire should think how much money they are going to save doing chores themselves or how much more money they are going to spend paying other people to do chores. Also we don't move furniture any more or help other people do it.

As far as people doing projects all the time, a lot of people find that a way to relax, especially gardening. Other people just like to build things, like decks, sheds, play things for the kids, etc. But a person that doesn't want projects doesn't have to.
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FrugalInvestor
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by FrugalInvestor »

dbr wrote:The most helpful thing we have done as retirement has gone on is pay someone else to mow the lawn, trim shrubbery, and clear the walks of snow. I never minded the snow shoveling that much but lawn and garden has been a major hate of mine since I was old enough for my dad to give me that job. We haven't fallen so low as to hire house cleaning, but it is an option. We did spend money on outside window washing this spring and it was one of the best expenditures we ever made. People who retire should think how much money they are going to save doing chores themselves or how much more money they are going to spend paying other people to do chores. Also we don't move furniture any more or help other people do it.

As far as people doing projects all the time, a lot of people find that a way to relax, especially gardening. Other people just like to build things, like decks, sheds, play things for the kids, etc. But a person that doesn't want projects doesn't have to.
I do most of those things myself not because I love doing them or because it relaxes me but because it keeps me moving, fit and healthy. I go to the gym as well but I think it's good to move in as many different ways as we can. I like retirement and want to enjoy as many years of it while in good health as possible.
Have a plan, stay the course and simplify. Then ignore the noise!
bloom2708
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Re: Simpliest Maintenance Single Family Home (AZ)

Post by bloom2708 »

What part of AZ?

Throwing an idea out there. In Anthem (NW corner of Phoenix) you can be inside the gated section of the community. All stucco, rock yard, newer single family for under $200k for 2 bedroom. Find a search by map and browse the east part of Anthem.

The gated part would facilitate leaving it for extended periods. A wi-fi thermostat can be controlled from your phone or laptop remotely.

Just an idea.
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