Spent the morning with real estate agent Diane. Told us some stories about her work--how it can be handy to carry a firearm and how she was inadvertantly responsible for getting a homeowner's cat knocked up. (Diane had strict instructions not to let the cat outside. After the showing, she saw a white cat outside, so she corralled it and put it back in the house. Turns out the cat she "put back" in the house was a male neighborhood cat who got busy with the in-heat female cat who was in the house the whole time. Whoops).
We saw another five properties today. The first house was a few blocks from Mike's apartment. The interior was an unrelenting shade of peach with pink/mauve tile in the kitchen. Its side yard and patio would be great for entertaining/gardening, but indoors seemed a little cramped.
The second house had a great kitchen layout, lots of closet space, laminate wood floors and tub/shower combos in both bathrooms. The downside: there's only a chain link fence between the backyard and a canal. And the canal was having some noisy construction work done--prep work for a new development planned for the opposite bank.
The third house was in Mission--a town west of McAllen, which would make Mike's commute longer and up the property taxes according to Diane. The house has good bone structure, but needs some serious help from HGTV. The kitchen counters are pink laminate (what is up with the pink kitchens?!) and the cupboards could use a coat of paint. No room for a dishwasher without losing precious cabinets. A dated-looking sprinkler system is wired into the kitchen--not set up in the garage as is usual. The washer/dryer could be moved outside to the garage (a plus) and the space used for a pantry instead. Vile carpet and wallpaper in the master bedroom and a private commode. There's a bonus room at the front of the house that could be an office or library. The yard isn't deep, but it wraps as wide around the side of the house as it does at the back. Has a couple of mature trees and potential for an enormous garden.
At the fourth house, we startled the occupants. Diane started speaking Spanish to the woman who opened the door; she answered in what we thought was Hindi and directed us to the other occupants (who were busy calming their Chihuahua). The living and bedrooms were spacious, but the kitchen was a wee, cramped space with no room for a dishwasher, ever. The backyard had a couple of mature fruit trees and a concrete basketball half court (yay) but the rear of the property abuts a road and a self storage complex (boo). The garage was massive, with laundry, storage and built-in shelving. Didn't care for the dark green/black shiny tile floors. Makes me think "bordello."
House #5 was my favorite: two living areas plus a large den built onto the back of the house. Shade trees, mature citrus and lush, well-cared for back lawn and garden. Nice-sized rooms and bathrooms with plenty of storage, a separate laundry room between the garage and kitchen and a cement patio with built-in BBQ grill. The painting and colors are tasteful (meaning we wouldn't have to repaint). The kitchen is small. And pink. (Seriously, was pink on sale 1984-1991?) We're already talking about knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dining area to make more room to work in, maybe add an island...
This one's my top pick. Mike likes this one and the house in Mission that needs the style update--and he's thinking the repo we saw yesterday is a contender. It would be a bargain, true. But how much work (and money) would we have to put in to make it as livable as house #5 already is? Mike's thinking we'd stay in the repo long enough to fix it up, build equity, then sell and have the means to upgrade to a more posh dwelling. House #5 we'd be in for the long haul. It's older than the others, so we'd likely have to deal with more issues as it ages.
In the meantime, I have a few more listings to read through for tomorrow so Diane can make the necessary appointments. I think we've already seen the one we'll buy--but which one will it be?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think the pink kitchens may be a remnant of the eminently regrettable 'southwestern' decoration style of the '80s. Peach and pink and mint green...oh my. Most people probably stuck w/ their 'native american'-but-pastel (!) style fabric patterns in drapery/upholstery and/or wallpaper borders (ye gods), but clearly some got carried away and let it run over into the kitchen in a more permanent way. Ack.
As for the desire for lush lawn/mature trees...well, IMO that's a SoCal thing that is SO hard to let go of. My dad was out of Pasadena for almost 20 years before he finally got over his surrounded-by-green yard and tree/plant needs. He lived in Nevada and finally came to terms with the 'drought-resistant' yard. It involves no grass and only desert-friendly plantings - it can look really good (his always did), but it doesn't have that green, shady thing that didn't come naturally to the arid desert region. (It's also a nice way to manage your eco-footprint or whatever the phrase is.)
Now, as I'm saying this, I'm remembering that Texas has lots of naturally green and un-arid places in it (I've roasted in Houston humidity and downpours enough to remember this fact permanently), but also has more desert-y places...which one are you actually moving to? (Forgive me if you already covered the climate of your new region and I'm having a forgetful moment here...)
Final thought: I know I have lived in the most expensive of real estate markets for most of my adult life, but OMG, the real estate prices there seem unbelievable to me. Did you really say that one of the houses you were looking at was $75k, or it was $75k MORE than something else...? Just on the face of it, it seems like buying a house for $75k would make it do-able in terms of adding on the refurbishing costs on top? But then, there is the time/hassle factor (I'm less of a remodeling enthusiast myself).
I think the three things that would be most important to me about a house - in this order - are: (1) That I have some emotional response to it (House, you're the One!), (2) That the house is located as close as possible to my workplace (commuting is for suckers), and (3) That I like the neighborhood it's in. Of course, you should probably ignore me, since I bought an entire 3000-sq-foot house on three acres of lovely mountain-and-stream land that ONLY met criterion number 1. That it was located two states away from my job (um, what was that about commuting?!), and in a small, sheltered Utah town, weren't enough to drive me away from the fact that I Loved That House. :-) PS - no regrets on that house - we had a great time there, loved it thoroughly, kept it just two months past Capital Gains tax time limits, and sold it for a $55k profit. Sometimes True Love is all you need...
Post a Comment