The Joys and Horrors of House Hunting
Nov. 2nd, 2007 06:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prosodicI've been meaning to write this entry for awhile, inspired by some of the truly awful houses we saw during our trip to Washington last week.
First of all, if you're selling your house...for crying out loud, KEEP IT CLEAN! It's common sense that potential buyers would be turned off by a dirty house.
That being said...
We started out early Monday morning with a list of our top 10 houses. Two of those houses had gone subject to inspection (meaning that they were in the process of being sold), so we were down to 8 houses. Then our agent added a couple more that had just come on the market right before we arrived (one of which became our third favorite house).
First stop: the house that was #1 on our list. This was a yellow tri-level on nearly 1/2 an acre of land. Neighborhood: decent looking, but some of the houses and yards looked a bit shabby. The neighbor still had last year's Christmas lights hanging up. On walking in the house: good first impression. House was clean and nicely decorated. Rooms were very small. I thought this house had potential until...
...we got to the half bath downstairs: hello! There's a refrigerator in the half bath! (Probably every man's fantasy, right?) WTF? Also, there is a door leading out into the garage. Imagine pulling your car into the garage, walking in the door and... well, you get the idea.
The other bathroom was also a problem. It was a continental bath, meaning there are two entrances: one from the master bedroom and one from the hall. Not really ideal when there are guests. This bathroom was also the laundry room. I personally have an issue with this, although I can't tell you why. I guess I prefer the washer and dryer not to be out in the open.
The covered porch had damage from the recent wind storms, and the yard was littered with debris. Not really factors in our decision, but the two barky dogs next door certainly were.
...
House #2: This is somewhere in our top 10, and I can't imagine why. I felt immediate discomfort upon walking in. The sign at the door said to take off your shoes, but when we walked in, the entire floor was COVERED in shoes. I felt like I was in Imelda Marcos' shoe closet. And the house was about that size. Plus, nobody answered the door, but when we walked in, a man came out of the bedroom and told us to make ourselves at home.
Uh...yeah.
The furnace looked like it hadn't been touched in a decade. The door to the furnace was half torn off its hinges. The kitchen was the only room of decent size, but the peninsula was added on after the house was built...the cabinetry and countertops didn't even match the rest of the kitchen.
There were two fruit trees in back, and the owner couldn't even tell us what they were. It was no kind of fruit I had ever seen.
This was the worst house we saw that day. They wanted $280K for this crap? Good luck with that. The agent selling the house called our agent later (they always leave business cards at each house) and he said, "Well, let me just say...it doesn't show well." In other words, it's OMG HIDEOUS!
...
House #3 - the one we bought. I won't go into many details because I posted the pictures. But walking through, I felt very comfortable and relaxed...Lance asked me how I felt and I said, "I love this place!" It was hard to keep our poker faces around our agent...he could tell how much we liked it right away. And the backyard backs up to a small wooded area (part of which belongs to us), so there is a buffer between us and the people who live behind us.
The neighborhood looked great. Everyone seemed to take a lot of pride in their yards and the outside appearance of their homes. It was quiet. There is an Elder Care home next door (only 6 women live there, from what I understand). There's a park just a couple houses down. The agent who sold the house lives right down the street, so if he lives in the neighborhood, it must be pretty good. There are two other, more expensive subdivisions surrounding it, which will bring up the value of our house, among other factors. A conservative estimate is that our house will increase in value by 6% every year, and that's if we don't do anything to it (the average in that area is 9.1% per year).
So our agent made a phone call and was told that someone else was making an offer on the house. And you all know the rest.
...
House #4 - This house wasn't on our initial list, but it became third. A cute rambler, it had a mountain view from the backyard. But the view was somewhat obscured by a HUGE WATER TOWER (at least it was painted with flowers and stuff). I can't say that I found any real issues with this house, other than it lacked architectural and aesthetic interest.
(This house went subject to inspection a few days ago.)
...
House #5 was the house with the little guest cottage in the back (I've posted a link to this house before, so some of you might remember). It was tiny. The house itself had only one bedroom and one bath, with a bonus attic room that the current owner was using for an office/living room. The guest cottage had the additional bedroom and bath. I thought the house was absolutely adorable, and I really loved the style of the woman who lived there...very eclectic, artsy, European chic (she had a Parisian theme going through most of the house). The kitchen was AWESOME (stainless steel appliances). But the house was, as I said, tiny. And the guest cottage was a bit shabby and needed a fair amount of work.
***
House #6...this is where I fell in love. Madly, passionately in love. This place is what I will always refer to as "Harvey's House," because Harvey is the current owner and the guy who brought this house back to life with the work of his own hands. This house was amazing in every way. Stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. Dishwasher drawers. Two huge bedrooms and two huge bathrooms. Gorgeous teak floors. A huge office in the basement with bookshelves attached to the wall. A big backyard and patio, nice landscaping. An old garage with a vertically folding garage door. A fence that was partially on wheels that rolled back for access between the driveway and the alley behind the house. I nearly swooned as I walked around inside.
But ultimately, Harvey's house wasn't for us. It has a double ceiling, which creates a problem if there is a fire. Our agent pointed out that one of the bedrooms was right off the front door, which I didn't see as an issue, but he said it would become one if someone broke into the house..there is no buffer area. The neighborhood wasn't as nice as where we bought our house (it was in downtown Auburn, and there was a lot of traffic noise), and it was further away from Lance's work.
And there's the issue of how high maintenance the house is, and we're not high maintenance people.
(And I tell you, I'm very happy with the house we bought, but my heart broke at the thought of not living in this one.)
...
The rest of the houses were pretty lame...basically flipper homes in questionable neighborhoods. No thanks. There was one house that was right next to the commuter rail tracks. HAHAHA. Yeah, right. We didn't even bother to go inside that one.
So when it came right down to it, there were two main contenders, and another, distant, third. Ultimately, we decided on house #3 because it had a more laidback feel. And after living in a German home for 4 years, I really don't relish the thought of continuing to chase dust bunnies around with a Swiffer, as I would have to do all the time in Harvey's house. Besides, his house was perfect as is...and I'm just itching to decorate. ;) The house we bought really needs updating, and believe me, I'm all too anxious to get started on that.
First of all, if you're selling your house...for crying out loud, KEEP IT CLEAN! It's common sense that potential buyers would be turned off by a dirty house.
That being said...
We started out early Monday morning with a list of our top 10 houses. Two of those houses had gone subject to inspection (meaning that they were in the process of being sold), so we were down to 8 houses. Then our agent added a couple more that had just come on the market right before we arrived (one of which became our third favorite house).
First stop: the house that was #1 on our list. This was a yellow tri-level on nearly 1/2 an acre of land. Neighborhood: decent looking, but some of the houses and yards looked a bit shabby. The neighbor still had last year's Christmas lights hanging up. On walking in the house: good first impression. House was clean and nicely decorated. Rooms were very small. I thought this house had potential until...
...we got to the half bath downstairs: hello! There's a refrigerator in the half bath! (Probably every man's fantasy, right?) WTF? Also, there is a door leading out into the garage. Imagine pulling your car into the garage, walking in the door and... well, you get the idea.
The other bathroom was also a problem. It was a continental bath, meaning there are two entrances: one from the master bedroom and one from the hall. Not really ideal when there are guests. This bathroom was also the laundry room. I personally have an issue with this, although I can't tell you why. I guess I prefer the washer and dryer not to be out in the open.
The covered porch had damage from the recent wind storms, and the yard was littered with debris. Not really factors in our decision, but the two barky dogs next door certainly were.
...
House #2: This is somewhere in our top 10, and I can't imagine why. I felt immediate discomfort upon walking in. The sign at the door said to take off your shoes, but when we walked in, the entire floor was COVERED in shoes. I felt like I was in Imelda Marcos' shoe closet. And the house was about that size. Plus, nobody answered the door, but when we walked in, a man came out of the bedroom and told us to make ourselves at home.
Uh...yeah.
The furnace looked like it hadn't been touched in a decade. The door to the furnace was half torn off its hinges. The kitchen was the only room of decent size, but the peninsula was added on after the house was built...the cabinetry and countertops didn't even match the rest of the kitchen.
There were two fruit trees in back, and the owner couldn't even tell us what they were. It was no kind of fruit I had ever seen.
This was the worst house we saw that day. They wanted $280K for this crap? Good luck with that. The agent selling the house called our agent later (they always leave business cards at each house) and he said, "Well, let me just say...it doesn't show well." In other words, it's OMG HIDEOUS!
...
House #3 - the one we bought. I won't go into many details because I posted the pictures. But walking through, I felt very comfortable and relaxed...Lance asked me how I felt and I said, "I love this place!" It was hard to keep our poker faces around our agent...he could tell how much we liked it right away. And the backyard backs up to a small wooded area (part of which belongs to us), so there is a buffer between us and the people who live behind us.
The neighborhood looked great. Everyone seemed to take a lot of pride in their yards and the outside appearance of their homes. It was quiet. There is an Elder Care home next door (only 6 women live there, from what I understand). There's a park just a couple houses down. The agent who sold the house lives right down the street, so if he lives in the neighborhood, it must be pretty good. There are two other, more expensive subdivisions surrounding it, which will bring up the value of our house, among other factors. A conservative estimate is that our house will increase in value by 6% every year, and that's if we don't do anything to it (the average in that area is 9.1% per year).
So our agent made a phone call and was told that someone else was making an offer on the house. And you all know the rest.
...
House #4 - This house wasn't on our initial list, but it became third. A cute rambler, it had a mountain view from the backyard. But the view was somewhat obscured by a HUGE WATER TOWER (at least it was painted with flowers and stuff). I can't say that I found any real issues with this house, other than it lacked architectural and aesthetic interest.
(This house went subject to inspection a few days ago.)
...
House #5 was the house with the little guest cottage in the back (I've posted a link to this house before, so some of you might remember). It was tiny. The house itself had only one bedroom and one bath, with a bonus attic room that the current owner was using for an office/living room. The guest cottage had the additional bedroom and bath. I thought the house was absolutely adorable, and I really loved the style of the woman who lived there...very eclectic, artsy, European chic (she had a Parisian theme going through most of the house). The kitchen was AWESOME (stainless steel appliances). But the house was, as I said, tiny. And the guest cottage was a bit shabby and needed a fair amount of work.
***
House #6...this is where I fell in love. Madly, passionately in love. This place is what I will always refer to as "Harvey's House," because Harvey is the current owner and the guy who brought this house back to life with the work of his own hands. This house was amazing in every way. Stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. Dishwasher drawers. Two huge bedrooms and two huge bathrooms. Gorgeous teak floors. A huge office in the basement with bookshelves attached to the wall. A big backyard and patio, nice landscaping. An old garage with a vertically folding garage door. A fence that was partially on wheels that rolled back for access between the driveway and the alley behind the house. I nearly swooned as I walked around inside.
But ultimately, Harvey's house wasn't for us. It has a double ceiling, which creates a problem if there is a fire. Our agent pointed out that one of the bedrooms was right off the front door, which I didn't see as an issue, but he said it would become one if someone broke into the house..there is no buffer area. The neighborhood wasn't as nice as where we bought our house (it was in downtown Auburn, and there was a lot of traffic noise), and it was further away from Lance's work.
And there's the issue of how high maintenance the house is, and we're not high maintenance people.
(And I tell you, I'm very happy with the house we bought, but my heart broke at the thought of not living in this one.)
...
The rest of the houses were pretty lame...basically flipper homes in questionable neighborhoods. No thanks. There was one house that was right next to the commuter rail tracks. HAHAHA. Yeah, right. We didn't even bother to go inside that one.
So when it came right down to it, there were two main contenders, and another, distant, third. Ultimately, we decided on house #3 because it had a more laidback feel. And after living in a German home for 4 years, I really don't relish the thought of continuing to chase dust bunnies around with a Swiffer, as I would have to do all the time in Harvey's house. Besides, his house was perfect as is...and I'm just itching to decorate. ;) The house we bought really needs updating, and believe me, I'm all too anxious to get started on that.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 05:05 am (UTC)Commuter trains probably run more frequently than freight though?
Yay for you moving to Washington! Good call on not moving to Auburn. Bleck. We've got a friend there, and I'm not impressed with the area.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 06:23 am (UTC)Besides, all the houses on that street looked exactly the same.
I didn't think Auburn looked that bad, although Kent is nicer, IMHO. Auburn still looks kind of old. Kent's historic downtown area is being fixed up and parts of it are very nice.