c/atlanta-homeowners

Tenant said my back deck felt 'bouncy', I laughed, then the inspector proved them right

Rented out my intown bungalow near Grant Park and the tenant mentioned the deck wobbles when they have people over. I walked on it myself and honestly felt nothing, so I told them it was fine. Then the city inspector came for a different permit and flagged the same joists, two of them had dry rot at the beam connection. Cost me $1,800 to sister in new lumber last month. Has anyone else gotten criticism from a renter that turned out to be the smartest warning you ignored?

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pat1•5d ago

Watch out for that cheap gutter guard trick on social media

I saw this hack about shoving pool noodles in your gutters to keep leaves out and tried it last fall after a friend swore by it. Within two months in Decatur, the noodles had shifted and clogged my downspout so bad that water poured over the side and soaked my foundation. Pulled out about 40 pounds of wet debris by hand on a Saturday, total mess. Has anyone else fallen for one of those viral fixes that ended up costing way more time than the real gutter covers would have?

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phoenix_adams60•6d ago

Finally hit the 300K mark on home equity, still can't believe the numbers

I bought my place in Decatur back in 2018 for $215K, just a basic 3 bed 2 bath with a cracked driveway and outdated kitchen. I used it as a rental for two years, then moved in during 2020 when work went remote. Got it reappraised last month for a HELOC and the appraiser came back at $515K. That's almost 300K in equity from a house I almost passed on because the water heater was dying. I did put maybe $18K into it total, mostly a new HVAC and redoing the bathroom myself, but nothing crazy. The crazy part is I know three neighbors on my street who sold for even more, one got $540K and his house is smaller. I'm not planning to sell, but it makes me wonder if I should cash out some for a rental property or just let it ride. Anyone else been shocked by their appraisal in Atlanta lately, and what did you do about it?

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matthewsullivan•7d ago

Rant: Took 9 weeks to get my HOA to fix a leaking roof patch

Back in March I noticed water stains spreading on my bedroom ceiling after a heavy storm. Called the HOA manager, they sent a guy out who said it was a minor shingle issue. Fast forward 9 weeks, two more storms, and a bucket in my hallway later, they finally replaced the whole section. Has anyone else fought their HOA over something that should've been a 2 day fix?

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michael807•14d ago

Can we talk about granite countertops being way overrated in Atlanta

Everyone in my Buckhead condo group raves about granite, but I pulled mine out after 3 summers of stains from red wine and lemon juice. Quartz or even solid surface holds up way better in this humidity, has anyone else switched and not looked back?

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green.hannah•16d ago

Why does nobody talk about gutter screens that still clog?

Installed those mesh gutter guards in March after cleaning out five trash bags of leaves, but the seams still let pine needles through and water backs up over my front door. Took down the guard on the worst section this weekend and cleared a solid foot of gunk. Has anyone else had luck with a different style, or do I just need to budget for a ladder every fall?

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kelly.dylan•17d ago

Found a slab leak under my guest bathroom at 9pm, here's how the emergency plumber visit went

Water was pooling in the hallway off 285 last Tuesday night, I turned off the main valve myself, called a 24/7 guy for $450, and he located the leak under the tile with a thermal camera in 20 minutes, so now I'm wondering if anyone else has had luck getting their insurance to cover the drywall repair part of a slab leak claim?

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rosed32•18d ago

My inspector's throwaway line about foundation vents changed my whole plan

Had my home inspection done last Tuesday on a 1960s bungalow in Decatur. The inspector, this older guy named Ray, points at the crawl space vents and says "those things are just for show, the real airflow comes from the grade." I laughed it off at first, but then I walked around the yard and noticed the soil was piled right up against the brick, covering the bottom 6 inches. He showed me how that traps moisture and causes wood rot over time, and I spent the next hour checking every side of the house. So now I'm looking at a $300 grading job before I even close, and I never would've caught it. Has anyone else had a inspector point out something that ended up costing you more than the inspection itself?

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logan632•21d ago

My lawn went from dirt patch to actual grass in 3 months, here's what did it

Bought a place in Decatur last fall and the back yard was basically all red clay and weeds. I tried a couple of cheap seed bags from the hardware store, nothing took. Then a neighbor told me to stop fighting the soil pH and just get a soil test done through the county extension office, cost me 15 bucks. Turns out my dirt was super acidic, so I spread lime in February, then seeded with a fescue blend in March. Now it's mid-June and I've got a thick green carpet back there that I actually don't hate looking at. Anyone else have to fix their soil before seeding actually worked?

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quinn_king16•25d ago

My water bill tripled for 4 months before I found the leak

Last October I got a $340 water bill, which is about triple what I normally pay in Decatur. I checked toilets, faucets, even the sprinkler system, everything seemed fine. Then in November it hit $410, and I started thinking I had a billing problem with the county. Last week I finally pulled up the crawl space access panel near the water heater and found a small pipe joint dripping right where the old copper meets the new PEX. It was underground in the slab, so no wet spot ever showed. Plumber quoted $1,800 to repipe that section, but I'm going to fix it myself with a clamp kit and hope it holds. Has anyone else dealt with a slab leak that took forever to locate?

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thomas.cameron•1mo ago

The HOA board president who knocked on my door at 7am on a Saturday

I bought a 1950s bungalow in Kirkwood back in March and last Saturday morning this guy from the HOA shows up before I even had coffee going, complaining my porch light fixture was 'non-period appropriate.' He stood there for 20 minutes explaining the historical paint chart from 1962 and then handed me a 14 page packet of rules, but honestly his passion was so weird that I kind of respect it. Has anyone else dealt with a HOA enforcer who actually made you want to follow the rules, or was this guy just a one-off lunatic?

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max_ramirez48•1mo ago

Finally figured out why my HVAC bills were so high, it was the attic door

For 5 years I lived in my house in Decatur and just accepted that summer bills ran $280-320. Last month I replaced my pull-down attic stairs because the spring broke. When I took the old door off, I noticed the foam weatherstrip on the back was basically gone and there was a 2 inch gap all the way around. All that cold AC was just dumping into the attic every single day. I put in a new insulated cover with the foam seal and my August bill dropped to $210. I felt so dumb. Why did nobody tell me about this? Anyone else have a stupid simple fix like this that cut their bills way down?

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gonzalez.vera•1mo ago

My HVAC guy quit mid-repair and left me with a half-torn unit in Decatur

Last month my AC started making this awful grinding noise, so I called the same company I've used since 2019. The tech came out, pulled half the condenser apart, then said he had a family emergency and never came back. I called the office six times over two weeks and they kept saying he'd call me, but nothing. Finally got a second company out and they found the first guy had left a part unplugged that could've caused a fire. Anyone else dealt with a contractor ghosting them like this? How do you vet a company before you let them touch your unit?

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bethj44•1mo ago

Hit 40 rental inspections in one month, the August heat made me rethink attics

I do property management on the side and this past August I hit 40 attic inspections across Decatur and East Atlanta. That number surprised me because last year I only managed about 15 a month, but so many folks are renting out older bungalows now. The real kicker was finding three separate attics with zero ventilation, just heat baking the roof deck. Those houses are probably fine in winter, but summer temps up there hit 140 degrees easy. Has anyone else seen a spike in rental turnover or attic issues in their neighborhood lately?

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alex_taylor10•1mo ago

I finally asked my elderly neighbor about her 40 year old roof

She told me she's never had a leak and just patches the shingles as they peel off, which made me rethink my whole 'replace at 20 years' plan from the inspector. Has anyone else gotten away with old roofs in Atlanta or am I just asking for trouble with our storms?

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harperschmidt•1mo ago

DIY fence stain vs hiring a crew, wish I'd paid up front

Stained my own fence in Decatur last month and it took me 4 weekends, plus I ran out of stain halfway through and the color looks patchy near the gate. My neighbor paid a company $1,200 to do the same sized yard and they finished in 2 days with a sprayer, even cleaned the overspray off her siding. I saved maybe $400 after buying my own sprayer and extra coats, but my back still hurts and I gotta redo a section this fall. Has anyone else been burned by the DIY route on a big surface like this?

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the_daniel•1mo ago

TIL my crawlspace dehumidifier was the reason my power bill jumped $80 last month

After three weeks of chasing phantom humidity readings in my Decatur ranch, I finally noticed the old unit cycling nonstop with a frozen coil, and has anyone else had one of these things just quietly eat electricity until you catch it?

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wright.jesse•1mo ago

Just realized my insurance doesn't cover cast iron drain stacks

Was reading my policy after a pipe woke me up at 3am, and turns out a lot of Atlanta policies exclude the old cast iron stuff since it's considered pre-existing wear. I'm looking at $4,800 for a section in my 1962 bungalow in Kirkwood. Has anyone else dealt with this or found a decent rider?

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sanchez.blake•1mo ago

Sold my flip house without a realtor, total game changer for me

I was dead set on using a traditional agent for my Grant Park flip, figured it was just the safe play. Then my neighbor sold his place on the East Side in 11 days using one of those flat fee MLS listings and saved around $9k in commissions. I did the same with a $450 flat listing, handled the showings myself with a lockbox, and honestly the hardest part was just answering calls. Got my asking price after 2 weeks and pocketed way more than I would have with an agent, anyone else go this route and regret it or was it smooth for you too?

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jesse290•1mo ago

Pro tip: compare two AC quotes before you panic about the heat

My compressor died during the June heatwave and I got quotes from two local companies, one was $8,400 and the other was $5,900 for the same SEER rating. The cheap guy had a longer wait time but did a thorough load calculation, while the expensive one just looked at the old unit's size. Has anyone else found that the second quote caught something the first missed entirely?

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benlewis•1mo ago

Can we talk about how flippers keep gutting bungalows and slapping in cheap vinyl flooring?

Walked through three open houses in East Atlanta last weekend and every single one had the same gray LVP over original hardwood, why are we covering up the one thing that actually gives these houses value?

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the_drew•1mo ago

Dropped 6 grand on a new AC unit last July and it died two weeks later during a heatwave

Hired a guy off Nextdoor who seemed legit and now I'm stuck fighting the warranty company while my house hits 95 degrees, anyone else had to deal with a shady HVAC contractor in the Atlanta area?

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kaip11•1mo ago

Switching from a push mower to a self-propelled made me realize what I was missing

Spent 3 summers fighting with my old cheapo mower on a 1/4 acre lot in East Atlanta, just drenched in sweat every Saturday. Finally grabbed a used Honda self-propelled off FB marketplace for $150 and I can actually finish the yard in under an hour without feeling like I ran a marathon. Has anyone else had that "why did I wait so long" moment with a basic yard tool?

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wesley_fox92•1mo ago

Pro tip: check your sewer line before closing on a house in Decatur

My buddy bought a place last month near Oakhurst and found out day one the main sewer line was collapsed and roots had grown through it. Cost him $4,800 to dig it up and replace it. Has anyone here had a sewer scope inspection save them from a nightmare?

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elizabeth220•1mo ago

The radon test i was sure was a waste of money

I bought a radon test kit from Home Depot for $15 just to shut my wife up about it. Left it in the basement for 3 days and it came back at 5.2 pCi/L which is way over the EPA action level. Had to drop $1200 on a mitigation system last month but now our basement level reads 0.8. Has anyone else found something cheap that ended up saving you a bunch of money?

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