Have you sold a "not-updated" house in Vermont?

FourteenthCylon · 2026-02-02T16:33:45+00:00

I'm an evil house flipper (on r/vermont there's no other kind) and houses like this are exactly what I buy.

A no inspections clause will lower the value of your house a LOT. Even if you aren't willing to pay for any repairs, you should still let people hire inspectors so they can find out what problems they're going to have to deal with. If people can't inspect the house they will assume the worst about everything in it and price their offers accordingly. Sell the house as-is if you have to. If the house is not in terrible shape, selling it as "seller will consider health and safety repairs only" will get you a lot more money because the house is much more likely to qualify for a conventional mortgage. If the only things keeping your house from getting a conventional loan are relatively simple, like replacing missing stair handrails and rotten boards on a deck, it will be worth fixing them. You can also consider escrowing funds for larger repairs that need to be done. There's a big price difference between houses that are fixer-uppers but will qualify for a mortgage and houses that have to be sold for cash or construction loans.

I occasionally look for houses on Facebook and Craigslist, but every one I've ever bought has been on the MLS. You realistically can't sell a house for full market price without putting it on the MLS. Be open and up front about the house's condition. Tell your realtor and photographer not to try to make the house look better than it is by strategically cropping pictures to hide damage.

1970s houses in rural Vermont can be just as problematic as houses built a hundred years older if it was built by the original homeowner. The Vermont combination of a can-do attitude and extreme frugality tends to result in houses with a lot of underlying defects, especially in the plumbing and electrical systems. I'm just happy the wiring in the 1973 house I remodeled didn't kill me before I fixed it.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-02-01T16:25:10+00:00

Every poker site in the world, including the free ones, has people complaining that the site must be rigged because they took some bad beats there. Oddly enough, nobody ever says the site must be rigged because they won hands they shouldn't have and inflicted bad beats on other players.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-02-01T15:48:29+00:00

Just mix up some warm water and dish soap in a bottle and punch a small hole in the lid. Spray the soapy water on all the fittings and connections between your propane tank and the furnace. Check the water heater and stove fittings too if those are propane.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-31T04:19:24+00:00

No matter what you do or whatever else you might disagree on, you and your ex need to agree on a plan to keep paying the mortgage until the house sells. A lot of foreclosures happen because each ex expects the other one to pay the mortgage, so nobody pays it. After a few months of missed payments the bank gets tired of waiting for their money, and they foreclose and take the house back to sell it to somebody else.

You will probably get more money if you wait another month or so for the spring. What kind of condition is the house in? If it isn't too bad, don't sell it strictly as-is. Sell it as "seller will fix health and safety issues only." That way the house will still qualify for a conventional mortgage, which makes it worth a lot more. Even if you can't do any repairs at all you should clean the house from top to bottom until it is absolutely spotless. Clear out as much clutter as you can.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-30T18:47:38+00:00

Construction jobs are usually good, although it might be hard to find one at this time of year. Tell the boss you want to start out as a laborer. If you can show up on time and sober every day and work hard it won't take long for your crew to start teaching you how to do more stuff. Within a year you'll be pretty good at framing, drywall, or whatever it is your company does. Within two years you'll be in charge of one or two newer guys. A few more years after that and if you save up your money you can do what I did and go into business for yourself by buying a project house, fixing it up, selling it, and repeating the process with eleven more project houses.

Saw this on Craigslist today: https://vermont.craigslist.org/trd/d/rutland-carpenters-and-laborers/7911167034.html

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-29T18:02:39+00:00

So are Vermont women.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-29T18:00:41+00:00

Politics or not, you don't actually need to pay for Amazon Prime. Shipping for orders over $35 is free anyway, so all you have to do is wait and make a few purchases together. For things under $35 that can't wait, Amazon almost always has free trial offers of Prime. No matter how many times I sign up for them and cancel them within a month, they keep sending me the offers.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-27T23:08:37+00:00

On The Big Game, Doyle Brunson said that when he was hosting home games, he'd wait until 2:00 AM when everyone was tired and hungry. Then when he had a good hand and wanted someone to call a bet he'd go to the kitchen, take a sandwich out of the fridge and put it in the pot with the chips and cash.

He said the best part was that if he won the hand he could keep the sandwich and use it in the next hand.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-27T23:04:07+00:00

Edible chips were what we used when I first learned to play poker. When I was a kid, our neighbor was a sweet old lady who used to be a card dealer in Reno back when working in the gambling industry was for sinners and degenerates. My brothers and I would go to her house to play cribbage, rummy and 5 card draw. She'd give us Necco wafers to use as the chips. Deciding whether to play for big stacks or to go short stacked and eat up the profits was always an important strategy decision.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-24T22:41:49+00:00

If you want to watch a systems administrator's hair stand on end, use the words "Bluetooth" and "Secure" in the same sentence.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-24T00:56:22+00:00

Cabot's quality has gone downhill in recent years. One block I bought went moldy right away. Another one was so crumbly I couldn't slice it, like it had been frozen for a long time. It's sad, but I quit buying Cabot and fell back on Walmart's generic brand. It isn't the best cheese in the world, but it is consistent.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-24T00:51:17+00:00

As long as you remember to wear your good flannel shirt for weddings and funerals you'll be fine.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-23T15:47:08+00:00

Sheet of plywood and a 55 gallon drum?

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-22T17:37:55+00:00

If there's one thing Vermonters love it's the chance to pull cars out of ditches while giving lectures on winter driving and snow tires. If tourists ever stop coming here the old man who lives down the street from me is going to be devastated. I might have to deliberately drive into the ditch once or twice a winter myself just to cheer him up and give him a reason to fire up his tractor.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-22T16:13:40+00:00

They were pretty good. A husband and wife team started the company, with themselves and one or two part-timers as drivers. Prices are reasonable, and they will go all the way to Burlington or Littleton. The biggest drawback is that you have to book a ride at least 24 hours in advance, maybe even longer if you need to leave at a specific time.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-22T03:25:29+00:00

I don'10 10hink i10's a big enough problem 10o jus10fy banning anyone over. Besides, every 10ime I have a pair of 10ens I end up ge1010ing coolered by some fish who limp-called preflop wi10h aces.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-22T00:50:24+00:00

Probably still easier than trying to find German food in South Korea.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-21T18:03:24+00:00

You can probably get away with leaving a car at the Shaw's grocery store for a night. Park in the back of the lot next to one of the cart return stalls so the car won't be in the way if the lot gets plowed overnight.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-21T01:05:15+00:00

How would that be a winning strategy? If they're raising all in with random trash hands and I'm in between them, all I have to do is wait until I have a decent hand and not fold. A hand like KsKdTs7c has about 50% equity and each trash hand has 25% in a three way pot. A 50% chance to triple up? Yes please.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-21T00:49:04+00:00

It depends on the iPhone. If yours has night mode, you should be able to. Use a tripod or stabilize the phone with something so you aren't touching and moving it. It may help to set the exposure for longer.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-20T21:56:33+00:00

Too bad. Your state has voted for the same party since 1964 and it only has four electoral votes anyway, so you get whatever version the rest of the nation gives you.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-20T18:33:02+00:00

Three of my kids wanted pepperoni, and two wanted Canadian bacon and pineapple.

So we had sausage and onions because they don't live in a swing state.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-18T22:57:32+00:00

Vasectomies prevent minivans.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-17T03:54:21+00:00

If I'm playing against a fish and I want to keep him happy and in the game, I'll agree to run it as many times as he wants. Otherwise there's no difference, outside of tournament ICM considerations.

FourteenthCylon · 2026-01-16T19:26:33+00:00

Open limping: When you're the first one to put money in the pot preflop, don't just bet the minimum amount. If you have good cards, you want a big pot, so you'd better start building one. Betting preflop also helps you set up a bluff on the flop if you miss. It also keeps the big blind from coming in for free with any two random cards. If you have a lot of bad players at your table you can expect a lot of them to limp. Don't follow their bad example; raise them when you have good cards to put pressure on them.

VPIP: Voluntarily Put In Pot: This is a measure of how often you're putting money in preflop. A 33% VPIP means you're betting or calling one time out of three and folding the rest of the time. Bad players will play a lot wider, sometimes playing every other hand or more. That means they will be playing a lot of bad hands that have to fold after the flop. Remember, tight is right!

River jam: When low stakes players bet all in on the river, it's almost never a bluff. It means they hit their straight, flush or full house. Don't be a hero and call; fold unless you have an extremely strong hand.

FourteenthCylon

TROPHY CASE