We went out with Tom and Nancy (our realtors) on Saturday morning to see five houses. Tom and Nancy are both really nice, although I think we both find them a little too perky for our tastes at times. That being said, of the five houses we saw, we’re really interested in 2, so I think they did a pretty decent job.
I think before we even set foot in the first house we had pretty much decided against it. It had a gigantic car park in front, which was fairly unattractive, plus the yard was in crappy shape. That being said, of the five, the first one had the most interesting (in a good way) interior—very modern and open, which we both liked.
The second house is probably the most intriguing of the five. It has a beautiful wraparound front porch, five bedrooms (well, five only if you count something the size of a closet as a bedroom), an basement apartment and a pretty big front lawn (the house itself is on a corner).
The downside is that it’s a short sale, so even if we make an offer, it may be days or months before we hear back. More importantly, the backyard is a disaster. At a minimum, we’d have to level, break up a crappily-constructed concrete pad and put a new fence in. The interior is pretty nice, but there were definitely some warts—bad drywall jobs, excessive wear-and-tear, etc.
On the other hand, the third house, which we also really liked, was in much better shape—we could basically move in as-is without having to put too much work into it. I really liked the third one, but I wasn’t wowed by it in the same way the second one did. Still, there’s something to be said for not going crazy trying to renovate yourself…
Anyway, I just wanted to update y’all. I’ll try to post again in a couple day about the joy of getting a good faith estimate from a bank (think of it as root canal without anesthesia).
