Wow, three posts in one day. That's amazing...or obsessive. Whichever. First of all, you need to check out this. Annie told me about it and during the first minute or two I was like, "why am I watching this nonsense?" But believe me, you'll laugh out loud by the end. If not then you might be dead inside.
Thank you to those who have responded with advice thus far. It really does help. I do, however, feel the need to illustrate just how much renovation work the big blue box house would need. Annie said the house gave her the creeps. Basically every surface will have to be redone. Floors, remove the wood paneling (on every wall in the house!), complete kitchen re-do, downstairs bath going from 1/2 to full, turning 2 rooms upstairs into a master suite, build a detached garage, and landscape. Check out this virtual tour if you're interested. So, yeah, it's a piece of work. But that square footage! Dahlia made a good point that it's not our dream home. That's true. We're not looking for our dream home, I'm just trying to figure out which is the best investment.
Okay, so one more house option. This one (see above picture) was just listed a few days ago at 309,000 and it's a 3 bed/3 bath and 1,632 sq ft. It has hard wood floors and a large backyard, and a garage! Like the others (except the big blue box) this looks like it needs just some cosmetic changes. I really, really like this house, it's just a mental thing because we purposely set the max low at 300, and something inside of me wants to eliminate it as an option because it's over by a bit. Silly, I know. Especially since adding the cost of all the renovations and a detached garage would put the big blue box well over 300. This house is actually really great. Maybe we can talk 'em down. We can show them all the other houses that keep lowering their prices by tens of thousands, houses that have been on the market for 6+ months. Wow, this housing stuff is on my mind so much lately. It just seems like a lot of money, and I want us to make the best decision possible. So I figure that the more information I can gather, the better our chances are of making to that best decision.
Look for the next few posts to be about what I want to do with the house. I'm thinking "not wasteful", if you know what I mean!
4 comments:
I'm horrible at making decisions. I wish I had your gift with the booth. My input on house hunting is to give a lot of consideration to the location - schools, parks, church, grocery/base. And if you think you'll want to spend a lot of time outside in the non-snowy weather, which lot do you like best? I'm personally partial to smaller houses and one story with the laundry close at hand. I like cozy and if I can't see the laundry pile, it gets out of hand. And smaller is less to clean - and forces you to organize. And easier to keep cool. I admit I only skimmed all the house details. I liked the yellow little one best by looks. I felt myself swooning at all the choices and the stress of making a decision. Good luck!
Wow, California! That will be fun. House hunting is really stressful, especially when you are doing it long distance. My only thought is seriously consider how much time you will have to renovate. We bought an old house that needs lots of little repairs and Jonathan is doing all the work himself. But he is SOO busy with work, school, church callings, new baby, etc. that it takes a long time to get anything finished. So if you plan on doing the repairs yourself make sure it's only cosmetic repairs that you can temporarily live with and nothing major that needs immediate attention. Good Luck buying! Can't wait to see what house you choose.
Okay, I totally see the potential in the blue box. Also, isn't it creepy that the realtor wrote "no prying eyes"? No one wants to think about that while house shopping! Anyways, I agree, house shopping sucks but it is so exciting! I'm excited to get to work on ours! Good luck!
oops, that comment was from me, Natalie!
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