So, we had scheduled 5 houses to see, we ended up seeing 4 out of 5.
I don't even know where to begin. How about this; If you are trying to sell your house, please do 2 things.
1. Clean your cat litter box. I don't know if you realize it, but some of us don't have cats, and don't really want to buy a house that smells like cat litter dust and cat poop. GROSS!
2. Have a lock box/key box. Whatever you call it, you do not want your realtor telling our realtor, "Just use the side door, it's unlocked." When you initially stated, "Someone will be there to let you in." You look so unprofessional, you look sloppy and it makes me nervous to enter a house without someone there, or a key to get in. (This is why we only saw 4 houses.)
House 1, lower Uxbridge, MA. We have discussed this house before, this is the house from a few weekends ago where they locked the door and we couldn't get to the key box. Well this time we actually got to go into this beautiful house. It was way more impressive than I thought it would be. It's a short sale, has just under 2 acres, it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. It's wonderful. I really liked it. I could see adding a beautiful farmer's porch down the line, having a dog, some neat furniture. Well the downsides to this house, it's at the higher end of our budget. We loved it, BUT it was AS-IS. This means that you need to do whatever this house needs. I can tell you there were mice in the basement, I can tell you that the kitchen was original 1970s. The house came with a stove. Yep. Only a stove, no negotiating with that. A stove. I mean for $215K it's amazing. But 215 that needs washer/dryer, fridge, microwave, dishwasher. The bathrooms were ok, the first floor was a little busted, but again they had kicked out some people who were renting and this is how they left it. This is one contender.
House 2. Uxbridge Ma, right near the schools. It was a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house. It was adorable. The house had a great layout, kitchen was tiny, living room was between the kitchen and the dining room (so strange to me), and an office on the first floor. I didn't hate it. They had a cat, which didn't bother me, he pretty much was our tour guide, the litter box was in the basement, (I'm ok with this, and it wasn't smelly in the house) The second floor was a nice bathroom and really neat rooms, I mean the rooms had dormer type nook and such. We liked the house, not the teeny pie slice shaped lot that could barely hold a picnic table and a grill. I mean it was really strangely shaped. This one was not a contender. Whomp whomp.
House three, this was in sutton, Ma. It was built in 1867 or something insanely old like that. It was a flip. We also had to take our shoes off upon entering. WTF?! The person bought this house on it's last leg and they bought it pumped a bunch of money into it, and relisted it. I can tell you that the first floor was beautiful. The hardwood floors were spectacular. The bathroom was impressive and roomy, I could do yoga in the bathroom then shower. It was massive. The upstairs left something to be desired, like head room. That would have been nice, it it wasn't basically a finished attic it would be better. There was a 6 foot wide slice down the center of each room and then a 45 degree slant on each side that stopped about 18" above the floor. I was let down, so we were like, "Maybe make those the offices. Let's see the basement." Well, let's say that they have done nothing to the basement since it was built. My grandmother's dirt and gravel drive way was in better shape. So. Yes this house was not a contender.
House 4, The house we didn't enter because we act like vampires and need to be invited by a key or person. This house had a lot to offer us. Third of an acre, large spacious open floor plan on the first floor, a garage, a shed, and a back up shed in the yard? I mean ok, I get the garage and a shed, but a second shed, I can only hope you grow pot so it makes sense to have so much extra space. Well they yard was filled with young kid's toys. It looked like they loved their yard. The porch, was built for entertainment, they had a speaker system and a BAR. It was awesome. Then we left. We were not going in there.
House 5, We had seen this one, the porch collapsed thru the garage and was beautiful and close to John's work. Well it is not worth the 200K they're asking for it, because frankly the cost of inspection and tearing up that porch (still slightly attached to the house) isn't worth it, kitchen needs an update, the entire house needs to be bleached. It too is sold AS IS. I mean if they want to leave the ps4 and the xbox 360 ok, I'm game. Then again how is your house in Short Sale if you have over 20 new games for the PS4 and like 15 games for the XBox?! I'm not entirely sure. I just know that I was disgusted by the disarray of this house, I know as home buyers we have to be prepared for anything, Well, trash bags on the porch, a litter box in the kitchen, filled to the brim with poop and clumps of pee. I mean come on, we're told this is "Vacant" but if I moved out fast, I'd have taken the 2K worth of electronics out of the master bedroom. But that's just me. John talked to the town assessor, they had no information about the collapse, it was never reported. They have almost a dozen open permits, (that's scary) it's septic and private water, another 5K to shell out to get those passed. I mean if we bought this house at 150K we could still pass 200K and still have holes in the wall that need patching, since it looked like a frat house. We love the location of this house, that's about it.
This week just doesn't seem like it's going to work out for us. We're thinking about looking a little bit north of where we have been. I say WE but I think if we go north there's a chance we'd be able to afford everything, with some to spare. We can find jobs and people that actually want to hang out with us. I know that sounds stupid, but it's been impossible down here for us lately, everyone knows everyone and there is more Drama than Saved by the Bell.
That was our misadventures in house hunting this past weekend. (This was all on Saturday)
Oh we also had a birthday party we had to attend for a classmate of Lars, it was in an indoor trampoline park, it was awesome. Lars had an asthma attack and nearly threw up. Kid doesn't understand the whole, "Know your limits" It was fun non the less.
Thank you for reading,
Happy House Hunting,
Amanda
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