Never buy a house..

[sendero]

.... from a doctor. Don't ask, just heed my warning :)

[Avalux]

1. Tell me!!!

I really wanna know - cadavers in the basement? :hide:

[tallahasseedem]

2. Seriously...

You need to tell us why.

[sendero]

3. Elaborating..

... would require stereotyping and conjecture on my part.

Don't do it!

[tallahasseedem]

5. This is the lounge...

home of stereotyping and conjecture...out with it.

[sendero]

6. All right..

... you've twisted my arm :)

I bought this lovely house in 1998. It is a nice house, spacious and an interesting floor plan. And fortunately, I got it for a really good price.

But, many of the "improvements" that the previous owners (a doctor and his nurse wife) added/updated were done completely half-assed.

I have fixed the sprinkler system at least 15 times. It is clear to me that whoever installed it didn't know what the **** they were doing and didn't use primer on the pipe joints.

The pool was jerry-rigged also. The retaining wall in the back yard was clearly installed by a rookie, I've heard it was a brother-in-law deal. Interior painting was done so horribly bad I have repainted most of the house.

I have spoken to a few folks about this, including contractors who do home repairs. They say that doctors are their least favorite customers because they don't want to pay to do anything right. A theory is that doctors think that everyone thinks they make mucho dinero and everyone is hence out to "get" them, i.e. rip them off for repairs and improvements, so they press for the absolute lowest price and get the work they pay for.

Ok, that's my story. Bottom line, don't buy a house from a doctor!

[tallahasseedem]

8. Damn...

so not the answer I thought it was. Thanks for the advice anyway.

[sendero]

9. No...

... no cadavers. Yet :)

Oh, and also, lots of junk mail about exotic vacations and investments, even after all these years :)

[Pithlet]

11. I'm so sorry for your troubles.

But I can't help but be a little disappointed that there are no body parts involved.

[politicat]

14. Alternately, Doctors do so because they don't make much.

Our neighbors are an emergency room doc and his RN wife. They do a lot of their own home repairs because he makes about $40K and she makes about $44K; they also have a couple of kids, one in private school because she's so gifted she's almost scary. Since he's a trauma guy, he's never really going to get into private practice. He just has to move up the ladder at CU Medical, and that takes time. The kids need to be in school here, so it's not like he can just take the next director of Trauma job that comes up in Podunk, Arkansas.

She and I have had long talks about how everyone around them thinks they're rich (and in Boulder County, they practically qualify for food stamps) because he's a doctor. With mortgages starting in this area at about $200K, there's not a lot of money to go around after the mortgage is paid, the student loans are dinged again, and tuition is paid. They live in a mobile home because they absolutely cannot afford even a townhouse. The hospital covers both of their malpractice insurance (that's how we got on the subject; I was bitching because my malpractice insurance went up again, even though I've never had even a hint of a whisper of a claim).

Apparently, this is the case nearly everywhere for those in the professions not working in private practice.

[sendero]

16. Yes....

... as I said elsewhere, my rant is somewhat tongue in cheek.

Yes, doctors are not always raking in the big bucks. Especially "family practice" non-specialist doctors.

The insurance industry has squeezed doctors' income a great deal. My own family doctor and I have discussed the situation at length, he told me how much he gets for an office visit (there are 3 levels) and it is not much.

In fact, back before the dot-com bust finished off my software business, I was making about the same as he was.

Personally, I think any "good" doctor ought to make at least $150K, but many of them are not.

Of course, many of the specialists are in fact making plenty :)

[Misunderestimator]

19. Well, my father was a doctor...

and from that experience, I would have to agree... he never wanted to pay to have things done right. It had nothing to do with others' perception of him though... he was just cheap.

I've met other doctors who aren't anything like that though. :shrug:

[seemunkee]

20. Previous owner of our house is now referred to as "That Clown"

As in when I'm cursing while doing some repair in the house my wife asks "What did that clown do now"

And he was supposedly a contractor.

[Pithlet]

4. You can't do that to us.

That isn't allowed here. Spill it! Share with the group.

[In_The_Wind]

7. Are you finding spare body parts about the place?

[xmas74]

10. A friend bought a house from a dr's family.

He had passed away a year before. It's an old country house. They went exploring in the back and found a mini cemetery. Turns out he used to bury the stillborns out there.
Not kidding at all. 12 little graves w/ makeshift headstones.

[Lex]

12. . . . or get a really thorough Home Inspector before closing.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. This is ALWAYS a good idea,

no matter who you're buying the house from!


Way to go, Lex! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[sendero]

15. Believe me..

.... I did.

Problem is, a home inspector cannot really find stuff that is "going to go bad", only stuff that has "already gone bad" :)

My rant is somewhat tongue in cheek. I had yet another sprinkler system failure, this time a pipe joint underneath a stone walk I laid soon after I bought the house.

I had to tear out the stones to get to it, and sure enough it is yet another pipe joint that had no primer. Arrrrgghhhhh.... so completely unnecessary! Folks who want to do major home projects themselves should take the time to learn how it is done. Cleaner/primer is not optional when welding PVC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bassic]

17. Not without details I wont!

I'm just independent like that :P

[no name no slogan]

18. And never get surgery from an electrician

I had to learn the hard way.