Mistake in buying a GE Cafe Range. The range pauses cooking because an error message reads the oven door is open, which it is not. A GE service technician came out the first time, inspected it for 5 minutes and ordered a new control panel. Another technician arrived to install the control panel, performed a diagnostic and said it was not the control panel, that the system was not calibrated upon installation. He reset the controls but did not install the control panel. Tried the oven again, same problem. It will preheat to desired temperature, food is placed in the oven to cook, THE DOOR IS CLOSED, but 5 minutes later it pauses cooking "because the door is open". Frustrating. There is nothing in GE's troubleshooting guide to give any assistance. Another call to GE to send a third service technician. Anyone else experience this issue?

I think a lot of it depends on how competitive the housing market is where you live and what your timeline is. I agree with others that $100k won't get you very far in renovation costs. I do think, however, that in some areas of the country, finding a home with the right location and property requirements can be very hard. Are there lots of other homes in this location with the property requirements? If not, and this is a needle in a haystack, then you should consider it more closely. If the area has lots of homes in your prices, size, with your property requirements, then hold tight. I looked at 25 homes over the course of five months until I found mine. Every morning I wake up feels like heaven. I'm so glad I waited for it. I never want to move.

The concern with permits is usually those renovations without them fall short in doing the work to safety requirements. That is why the increasingly unhandy, unskilled, and undercalitalized, home buying public has latched on to the presence of permits as one avenue of assuring themselves that the home won’t suddenly cost them massive amounts of money that they don’t have. That overlooks the fact that permits, just like a home inspector, don’t catch everything. Once you found out that the contractor who did the renovation was still in business, (didn’t fold, or flee immediately) seems to have a good reputation, and that some permits were applied for, that is all you need to know in order to have good faith that the renovation was properly done. Any further digging or poking around that increases your knowledge of the situation is only likely to result in additional disclosures needing to be made that may harm you or your sale. This isn’t a case of deliberate concealment of improperly done work. Let the potential buyer do their due diligence, just as you will do on any new house that you buy. Ask what you want to ask for your listing price. The market itself will tell you if it thinks your price is in error. If you get 4 offers at 100K under list price, all citing the fact that they feel the garage conversion needs work to bring it up to code, then you have a problem. Right now, your good faith assumption is that it met codes when the project was permitted and done 15 years ago. Deal with that issue if it crops up. But as long as your preliminary research has lead you to believe that it’s fine, they have to prove it is not. Just take to heart in the search for your new house. Even permitted work can be done incorrectly and cost you money to correct. Yes, even in a brand new house. Life is not idiot proof. A better idiot 2.0 comes along all the time.

Yes, our blower door test was < 5 ACH - required here in Indiana...which seems to mean an air-to-air exhanger (whole house ventilation system) is also required on all new construction in Indiana. I'm still trying to figure out how that got missed during our inspection process. I looked up ERV and HRV and they are pretty sizable units that someone should have noticed missing. We have a 4 ton AC for 2400 sqft ranch with 2200 sqft finished basement. We also have a 750 sqft bonus room over our garage that has a 2 ton AC - though we rarely run that since the room is not fully finished. We have poorly designed ducts so the basement gets very low air flow (can't heat above 62 degrees in the winter) and we have had to resort to using portable heaters in the winter and a portable dehumidifier in the summer due to humidity levels near 70% It's all very sad for a brand new house in which we planned to retire.