We put an official offer in today. Not on the dream home, but a different one. It's funny, because you always hear you need to be emotionally unattached from the house buying process. But then you find these great places, and you get all gushy about them and they don't work out, and then it's a huge bummer. Well.... I am about as unemotionally attached from this house as you can be. Our realtor called us yesterday and wanted to show it to us right away-it just came on the market. It's in a great town, about 7 minutes from the highway for my commute. It's on a hill called 'Christmas Tree Hill' with very nice houses all around it. Fine, but I never intended to live in this town so the location is more for dh than anything, as he puts stock into that stuff. The neighbors do look nice, though. Anyhow, it's on a hill. There's a HUGE garage at the bottom of the house-2.5 car, so I could fit all my Sprout stuff in there and be in Heaven. Then you walk up a ton of stairs (kind of standard for hill houses out here). The main floor of the house starts with a large deck and a terraced grassy area, and the first floor has a dining room/living room, kitchen, half bath, laundry room and storage. The second story has a community area, three bedrooms and a whole bath. The people living there have no personality-I think they tried to do something art deco, but failed. We don't care for art deco, so I'm glad they didn't get further with it. The kitchen needs new appliances, the whole house needs color, the stove on the second floor needs to be incinerated and replaced with a beautiful built-in fireplace and the bathrooms need new tile. But the house is solid, it has the space and the location, and as bad as we think the style is, the real truth is there ISN'T a style, which makes it a blank slate for us. A bit of paint, some cute hardware, lighting, art, drapes and furniture, and it could be a great house. We put in our one and only offer on it this morning. Our realtor is there right now, so it will be interesting to hear what they think. They are saying they won't accept 'low' offers (apparently we're 'low', even though we're right in line with the current going rate for the area), so they may reject it. But the husband is already in TX for work, she has two little boys, and they are going to walk away with cash on the offer regardless, as we know how much they owe and it's very little. I think they'd be fools to hold out, but we'll see. I'll keep you guys updated! Upstairs:
I should add that I made our realtor put the patio furniture into the offer. I have been dying for patio furniture for years, but it's really expensive. With a house payment, there is no WAY I'll ever be able to afford it. So if I'm going to suffer through bad bathroom tile for a year or two, I want a nice table and chairs to eat dinner on. Rick thought I was crazy, but he humored me.
Jem, it looks great. Really, it is a blank slate. With some of your own touches, it would look great. Love the hardwoods! The sellers would be silly not to take your offer. I mean, things aren't really moving fast in the housing market in a great deal of places.
The floors are really nice. I think it has a lot of potential for you to make it your own. Obviously it doesn't have the charm of the other house but it is more practical and I bet you will bring charm of your own.
It's cute, Jem- you may not be emotionally attached, but every house you post gets some members here emotionally attached and involved. Let us know when something comes through for you. I hope you love what you end up with.
This house is not comparable to the last house. But, you can make it be as charming. And, it has a bedroom for me when I visit.
Ugh. We got the disclosures. It's going to need a new roof, it has a crack in the foundation and there's been a legal issue with an easement and their neighbors. And a fence needs to be replaced. And there's sloping sinkage. AAAAAAARGH! If you're going to charge over 700k for a house, can you PLEASE make sure it's structurally sound????
Oh my, with that list of disclosures I would be extremely hesitant to buy it. Man, just when things were looking good! I do think it looks like a nice place though. The floors definitely look great.
Cosmetically there's great potential but when you start having foundation cracks and sinkage you're looking at big bucks and the possiblitlity of never having the issues resovled. Some friends of ours have spent a fortune on their foundation over the last ten years and still have no resolution. It blows my mind at how expensive homes are out west! Don't despair Jem, there's something out there.
As the wife of an engineering geologist, I vote RUN - that stuff costs SOOOO much to fix and you may not be able to get a mortage company to fund it or insurance company to insure it. Next.....(sorry)
I'd walk. A roof can be costly. On top of other, harder to fix issues, it isn't worth your time and $$. It could be a regular money pit from day one. I know it is easy to become impatient and complacent, settling for something that is less than what you want. You should not settle for a house with structural issues like that.
Yep. We're retracting. Looks like more open houses on Sunday. I'm well aware that the right house is out there. I'm also aware that the perfect house will probably NOT be out there-there will always be an issue, big or small. We just have to figure out what we're willing to settle with. I feel silly for getting my hopes up on these houses, but you guys are my friends, so I feel good showing them to you. ONE of them will be the one. Thanks for the encouragement and advice.
