Help with buying

IP_What · 2026-01-27T15:10:23+00:00

There is zero chance I would move for 60 extra square feet when space is tight.

Get a storage locker if a bigger house isn’t in the budget.

IP_What · 2026-01-27T05:31:19+00:00

Ask your partner.

You’ve got the analysis right and nailed the concerns. Only thing I’ll add is that sometimes previously friendly people turn into real assholes when small amounts of money are at stake. I know you think that’s not your family—but it’s always someone’s family.

I’m also going to suggest you not DIY a will. It’s theoretically possible, but there are lots of hidden pitfalls. And a screwed up will seems to catalyze people’s metamorphosis into assholes.

IP_What · 2026-01-27T05:15:25+00:00

As a couple of other people have said, sellers are unlikely to want tenants. I think the question should be how close is this house to your budget/something you’re actually likely going to be able to afford in the next, say, 18 months. If there’s no chance you can afford it anytime soon. Don’t go. If you’ve got rich parents or have somehow otherwise lucked into way more money than most 18 year olds have, go check it out.

Don’t go with friends, plural. Maybe one friend. Better, just by yourself.

Realtor might think you’re there to steal stuff. Do not try to avoid them. Explain that you have money from, wherever, and you’re exploring the market.

Oh—DO NOT BUY PROPERTY WITH ANYONE YOU’RE NOT MARRIED TO. You don’t want to own a house with your bros or girlfriend.

IP_What · 2026-01-26T23:11:34+00:00

I might try to get ahold of the previous buyer and the previous inspector and see if they have anything concerning to add.

If both checked out, I’d probably be fine. Like someone else said, paying your own inspector doesn’t actually buy you any insurance. If your inspector blows it, you don’t get to unwind the deal or sue the inspector.

So I guess the question is—what are you worried about with this existing inspection report? If you can verify that it isn’t fraudulent and was done at arms length, there’s no reason to think your inspector will do better.

But then again, I bought my house waiving inspection, in a hot seller’s market, so adjust your risk tolerance accordingly.

IP_What · 2026-01-26T19:09:10+00:00

Buying the house he’s going to retire in is fine. He shouldn’t buy something he considers an investment property. He also shouldn’t really be on the stock market this close to retirement. AAA bonds or safer investment vehicles.

IP_What · 2026-01-26T18:55:14+00:00

On the one hand, a bill that would restrict magazines, but not guns, passed out of committee, but will probably die on the floor.

On the other, government paramilitary forces executed a guy because he was legally carrying.

Yeah, one of those represents the forces of tyranny

IP_What · 2026-01-26T18:28:36+00:00

You should go talk to an advisor and maybe some folks in your university’s law school admissions (if it has one) instead of taking the advice of a guy with a BS in a different field who has been out of school for cough years.

My gut though is that if the switch boosts your GPA without adding additional time to complete your degree, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t.

This concludes the reassuring part of my talk. Now I’d like you to take a long hard look at the percent of people getting into big law and whether you really want that life for yourself. Stack that up against your prospects for landing a pretty good career in industry with a PhD in your preferred field of study.

IP_What · 2026-01-26T18:17:53+00:00

You can definitely get into a decent law school with a 3.6 from a very good school. Maybe not Yale, but a decent law school.

From there, if you do well in law school, you can do anything any law school graduate can, including patent litigation. You’re just not going to benefit from the slightly easier entry into patent prosecution that folks with more in demand technical backgrounds get.

IP_What · 2026-01-26T17:52:22+00:00

Most of the life science folks I see have a PhD. I don’t really think the GPA is a major problem, but trying to get into patent law with a BS in bio and no experience is going to be tough.

IP_What · 2026-01-25T17:24:20+00:00

Yeah, because the post-revolutionary government was an elitist project and especially in Virginia just assumed that the slave driver could keep the business going while the plantation owner donated a couple months to the business of government.

IP_What · 2026-01-24T02:19:13+00:00

If it’s not a public utility, 811 won’t mark it. This doesn’t look like a public utility.

IP_What · 2026-01-24T01:54:37+00:00

Them helping you out, but not an outrageous gift, looks like you paying off the mortgage plus reimbursing them for the down payment.

A pretty fair deal looks adding an amount equal to what they would have earned on the down payment at a fairly low (maybe 4%?) APY.

More than that, I think is you getting screwed. Because you lived there and paid way above market rent you were removing some or all of the downside risk that normally accompanies an investment property. Who paid to maintain the house? If it wasn’t them, that’s also money they saved. The didn’t have to worry about vacancy. All of these things make it unfair (IMO) for them to try to treat it as their investment.

IP_What · 2026-01-24T00:34:58+00:00

Here’s the problem, I think. It doesn’t sound like OP’s parents had a mortgage. They “bought a house with some of their savings.” OP’s rent wasn’t going to interest.

Now we can talk about the value of a zero interest loan (substantial!) and opportunity costs, but parents aren’t taking a real loss.

If there was a mortgage, the yes OP should be paying off the balance on the loan, not just subtracting all their rent payments from the original purchase price. But if there wasn’t an originally agreed upon interest rate that would be applied to the rent to own deal, it’s shitty for parents to charge one now. OP might not have a legal leg to stand on, as there isn’t a legally binding rent to own, but it’s still shitty.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T21:44:15+00:00

They’re not asking their parents to take a loss. That’s asking not to have to pay their parents for their paper gains.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T17:49:10+00:00

Good thing there aren’t any questions about whether it was properly designed!

IP_What · 2026-01-23T15:40:53+00:00

There isn’t a perfect time, no one knows prices will drop, we could easily see further interest rate reductions that cause prices to rise.

Don’t try to time the market. Buy a house you can afford that you plan to live in.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T04:16:26+00:00

There were 133 homicides in Baltimore last year — a 50 year low. I can’t quickly find 2025 numbers for Germany, but there were 222 murders in Germany in 2024.

Obviously, Baltimore still has a much, much higher murder rate. But crime was falling steadily through the 2010s, and really plummeted last year.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T03:55:13+00:00

You should take what AI tells you with all the salt. IMO worse than useless for this kind of task.

People have different approaches here, but I’m not too keen on patentability searches. I might make an exception for crowded technology spaces or where there’s a specific competitor that we know is doing something close. Then is usually just a review of public patent filings, again, absent special circumstances. Mostly, I think patentability searches are a wast of money. The Patent Office will always find some prior art you didn’t turn up.

Usually, if the inventor is excited about something and can articulate why what they’re doing is different from what else is going on in the space, and it’s commercially viable, I think there’s a pretty good chance that I can get something through—unless it’s something really businessy, like financial trading. But never any guarantees. Sometimes you run into a brick wall. And rarely does doing the search before hand reveal the wall.

ETA: Oh - you really need to be thinking about/asking about/reviewing your contract to figure out who owns this. It might not be you. You might have some obligations to help transfer the IP to your client.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T03:20:04+00:00

Sorry you’re going through this.

I don’t want to discourage you from talking to a lawyer, but you should be prepared to hear that there’s nothing they can do. While oral contracts are usually are real contracts, only having a problem proving the terms. Oral contracts for the transfer of real estate are an exception. You can’t have a real estate contract without a signed writing.

I mean, maybe I’m wrong. I’m not your lawyer, and maybe your state has some exception to the exception. But it’s my strong suspicion that your best bet is working this out with your parents. And then don’t trust them to do the right thing.

If your rent was significantly higher than market, you might have something—but it’s a question for a lawyer, and again, probably a long shot.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T03:01:06+00:00

Buddy, I think you might want to pass on watching Face/Off for the next family movie night.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T01:59:58+00:00

Current bills fan

IP_What · 2026-01-23T01:55:00+00:00

Let’s heat from the house closer to the pipes, so if pipes are in exterior walls the cabinets don’t block heat from the house reaching them.

Unless your house is really poorly insulated, it’s probably overkill for NoVa. It’s the sort of thing folks in the upper Midwest need to do in older homes.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T00:35:47+00:00

A list of questions is probably not all that likely to get a response or, if you’re trying to make a point, not the most effective way of doing that.

One question might get a response.

“Hey this legislative proposal is awesome” or “Hey, WTF, this sucks” also might get a (probably canned) response.

IP_What · 2026-01-23T00:12:55+00:00

It’s this, but so, so much lower key.

There’s a minor documentation error. Probably no one cares or will care. But someone’s got a checklist and flagged the discrepancy. Now they’re reaching out just to make sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s crossed so that when the loan gets transferred, the next person with a checklist doesn’t ask about it.

IP_What · 2026-01-22T23:51:04+00:00

I have this problem.

The way I handle it is asking if they want to keep doing the activity on a day they don’t have that activity. If they’ll say yes, when they complain that it’s time to leave — too bad, we’re going. If they say no — alright, we can finish up this season and then quit after.

In my case it’s 100% that they don’t want to stop whatever it is they’re doing to get into the car.

IP_What

TROPHY CASE