Not So Ho Lee Crap

Well I was not blown away by the house as I expected. It was just okay. I didn't get the "I'm home" feeling at all. Not sure if that was because I was nervous about this huge step I was taking or maybe my mind was distracted by pink when I first entered the home through the converted garage doors. What I did get was a lot of "this will need to be replaced", "this could be patched", "hey look, they have old house cracks just like I do". The best way I know how to put it into words is this: For a house that had been "completely remodeled", I would never hire whoever did it. It's not that it was a bad remodel, it just didn't look like it was professionally done. The pictures did their job, though. They got me there.

The central heat and air appear to be under 5 years old. The water heater looked very new as well. The converted garage in the picture appeared to have laminate flooring but in reality was painted concrete, which can be cool, unless someone decides to paint it the ugliest color pink I have ever seen. In addition, they matched the back covered patio area, that is also concrete, the same ugly pink. There are no air conditioning vents in the converted garage either so utilizing that room for anything other than a very large laundry room, which is where the washer and dryer hookups are located, would be difficult.

The kitchen floor laminate was not done well at all. I'm not against fake wood floors, but I would want the entire floor to look good. There were areas where it was much more worn than it should have been and it kind of looked as if each piece was slightly bowed. Could have been the lighting, though. The cabinetry was decent looking but I found it hard to look anywhere except that area on the floor that was messed up. I can't for the life of me remember what the counters looked like.

In the 2nd bathroom it looks as if they ran out of one kind of tile and got the closest thing to match. It doesn't. But I was impressed that it was almost the size of the bathroom I have now. (My bathroom is MUCH larger than what they put in most modest homes these days) The master bath was SMALL. But all the tile that was there was in very good condition in both bathrooms.

The carpet was laid poorly. There were places in the middle of the living area that were bunched up pretty good. It was very new looking, though.

The master bedroom is about the size of what I have now. I'm okay with that. I don't do much in my bedroom except dress and sleep anyway and I like the size of my room now. The second bedroom is a little smaller and then the 3rd bedroom was really small. Good for an office, though. The only closet I can remember is the hall closet. But that's because I opened it and instantly felt guilty like I was looking through someone's stuff. The owner still lives there.

The house has been on the market for 286 days. The listing price at this time has gone down from the original listing price by 10,000 dollars. If I HAD to have a place to live as soon as possible, I MIGHT offer 20,000 less than the asking price now, and that's after about a 10 minute walk through and just glancing at stuff quickly. If I had walked in and been blown away I probably would have looked a little more closely at things, but I wasn't, so I didn't.

I guess the strangest thing I saw, aside from the pink cement, was the two chain locks on the master bedroom door. You know... those things you put on your front and/or back doors with the chain clasp that you have to get in the hole just right or you're standing there for 5 minutes wondering why the chain isn't longer or the hole bigger so the darn thing would work? Not one, but two of them. And every door inside that house had keys sticking out of knobs.

For it being a buyer's market right now, that house is probably priced about 30,000 more than it should be, which I know is the thing to do, but through my limited research there is usually not THAT big of a difference between the asking and what's it worth. From what I've seen so far, it ranges about 10,000 dollars.

I guess in a very small way I'm disappointed, but in the last couple of weeks I've learned more about buying a house than I did before these last couple of weeks. Plus I can now use in conversation the words, "my real estate agent said...". Also, she's going to get me in touch with some lenders and I can go forward there and at least get a price range on what someone will lend me... if I don't get laughed out of the room, that is.

So all in all, it wasn't a bad house. It's old and I didn't expect it to be new. I wouldn't even mind buying a house that I had to fix up, but I would expect the price to reflect the repairs needed... pink cement aside. And that's BEFORE I hire the inspector to check the wiring and the plumbing and the roof.

What I need to do next is talk to some lenders and then find some other houses to look at which will give me an idea of what's out there in my price range. I've taken the first step... and it kind of makes me feel like a grown up.