the craziness of doing a parade of open houses.
 

wow..

EFFEN HUMBLING. i took the weekend to spend with my wife. she took full advantage of my committment to her for a solid two days and dragged me house looking. we are pre-approved, so we know our budget. (banks havent changed their MO a bit since the implosion). talk about a wild emotion swings..mostly involving the fact that on the grand scheme of things..i am a broke ass bastard.

houses are all over the place: but i want to talk first about the flipper house. we saw three beautiful homes..perfectly staged, cookies in the oven, those paper booties you put over your feet so you dont soil the flooring, etc. a parade of hopeful shoppers, all asking about bid opening dates and stuff. ME? i had a flashlight and grubby clothes. one house had great work done. i peeked under it's skirt. rusty galvanized waterlines and paper wiring..NONE of them had that backflow prevention thing that gives your sewage a way to flood your yard instead of your home. (Motion, too soon?) this one house had the niche for the future uber front loader washer/dryers, and i could peek into the water lines and see the rust. no ground faults in the kitchen. i kinda think i want to buy a more original but clean house..so i can just kinda work thru the checklist fixing things. the flipper house pushes up prices, and still will need work.

i was sent to another house by the agent. it was not on the market yet.still a few weeks out. priced way low for the neighborhood. she described it as "unique". owner was a tile and carpenter guy. i drove by, it looked normal from the front. maybe way too many skylights. this guy steps up to me, looking like he is from the early 70's. feathered hair, nice guy. he asked me was i was doing..i told him, early shopping. he invites me in!! we go in, and i almost had an epileptic seizure. it looked like he collected extra tile from all of his jobs and incorporated it into his house. nothing matched. no surface was untiled, or unsheathed in wood. there wasnt a right angle in the house..he treated every corner like is personal homage to his mad-tiling skills and OCTAGON(ed) EVERYTHING..everything was chamfered with his treatment. he had cubby holes..yes, octagon shaped cubby holes everywhere. the colors!! the colors! oh my God, the colors!!

his biggest sin? he built out his home. he cut out the entire right side of his home and pushed it out. the wall is about 2/3 height and he used those skylights you see in sun-rooms to do the roof/ceilings. his bed, you sleep under the stars. of course you sleep under the sun as well. without digging to deep, i think he will not meet seismic codes. his ceiling and missing wall, are not shear walls and diaphrams.

we got home late and exhausted. i was unloading stuff and came into my house after my wife. she was standing in the living room doing circles like a drunk person. she utters, "our house is really really good". i'm not done yet, but i am working from the inside out. new copper, new sewer, updated electrical...

buying a new house is a wild experience. i think i am going to try to keep my old one and rent it out. but reading Motion's thread..that seems like a moving target as well.

sorry for the ranting..my mind is racing on overload. redline, almost.

House hunting is hectic for sure Cliff! I see crazy stuff here with renovations, and most of the houses are less than 40yrs old. Can't imagine whats hiding under some of those 30day renovation jobs on houses close to 100 yrs old!

And I lol'd on the tile house. I saw one like that here, crazy tile in every room, nothing matched and it was HORRENDOUS. Tons of $$$ going to be spent ripping all that crap out!

Good luck! We talked about moving to get a smaller house and smaller payment. The more we looked the more we decided we didn't want to bother with it!

When we were looking at houses, every single one needed remodeling. Even the already remodeled houses, because the sellers' tastes were rarely in line with our tastes. When housing prices are high, remodeling costs can be overwhelming. Maybe moving is just a bad idea.

Part of the reason we built our current house and there are still things I'd do differently if I had it to do over again.

I would seriously consider renting a house in the new location and renting out the one you own. I did that for a few years and was very happy to return to my house after it was lining up with work. Of course, in the Bay Area, both buying and renting are through the roof these days ...

Last time I shopped was 2013 and it was already hell. I know what you mean with the "flipper houses". The paint and window dressing literally stops where you can see it.

LOL on the tile guy. May be a deal to be had! Maybe he will throw in some LSD!

G

LOL on the entire post. Thank God I'm not moving any time soon.

No kidding

Just went through a home sale and a reno on my place, I'm done. At least you have eyes open, too many just gloss over the guts and get caught up with finishes.

As you know, you look for "good bones" in a house, everything else can be modified and changed to suit your tastes. On that note, it's amazing what some people will do to a structure in the name of "taste". Keep at it, you'll feel it when the right one comes along.

the tile house. Wife and i call it "tile madness" should list next week. i cant wait to show you the pics.

i dont think i represented it correctly with my weak grasp of the written word :)

my wife uttered this sentence on the way home. it's looking like a viable option.

That tile house reminds me of a house my wife owned when we met. We still refer to "stucco man" when we look at a house owned by someone with poor taste and either the time or money to put it into effect. Her house had stucco geegaws everywhere

house hunting is way more stressful & totally a negative, and more even more negative experience than it was 18 years ago, which was the last time I bought a house and moved from the previous home of 15 years.
Between the non-permitted renovations, inept contractors work and a significant number of upside down mortgages, soon to be short sales so no room to negotiate,
we were almost ready to buy the condo/townhouse and give up on the dream of living in a cottage in the woods on water. After 3 months of looking and another 5 months - (3) contracts & (2) attorney reviews on the same house; we bought a 1920s shingle style cottage on a river in the woods from the owner who was 101 and is now 102. We had to gut it to the studs, install new electric, plumbing, windows, AC, a completely new heating system including pipes & fix the fireplace/heating flues, new insulation (never had any), and put in a new septic not to mention a new kitchen and bathrooms, but at least in the end we know it was all done right and will last for the next decade/s.
My daughter & her husband recently went home shopping this past fall. Unbelievable experiences; I joined them on a number of open houses because of our experience renovating 3 homes. Every hack with a hammer & saw has been OD'ing on to much HGTV.
After a couple months looking it was apparent, this wasn't going to be easy or inexpensive. The last batch of houses we all went to look at, we ended up taking a home inspector with us to 4 houses. Fortunately he was a friend of my son-in-law and was a former building inspector so his expense was a case of beer. The one home that sort of past muster went into a bidding war and settled at $60k over asking. WTF is that all about? $60K?? Oh, and don't get me started on real-estate sales people. Find one you trust and like and let them advocate for you, it's worth it!
I thought maybe all this crap was just what it takes to stay in NJ, but I guess not.

VASH, I WISH YOU LUCK!
I also have a rental story after renting out our last house, but probably should start my own thread on that subject and not get off topic here. I'll just say it was a fairly positive experience, but like anything else, garbage in, garbage out, so interview well!
Rob

it took us 7 months. saw some tragic looking homes. had to make a few compromises.
worst common theme: the textured ceiling. everywhere. brutal, those ceilings.

Cliff,

Between this post and the moving post, did I miss a thread about you changing jobs?

It isn't perfect, it will cost you net every month, but you aren't on the hook for a million dollar mortgage, which I appreciated. I knew, I could always move back to the house I own with small mortgage and small tax bill.

If I recall, this move is for your wife's first job after school. Maybe not a lot of choices. So, go take that first job and then aim at getting back in the old area in a few years. Or, by then the market eased up and you can go shopping ....

G

That's the seller's conundrum, isn't it. Don't remodel and the house looks like crap, no one wants to pay you for it. Remodel it and it doesn't suit the buyer's tastes, and they don't want to pay you for it.
I would look for a house with a rough looks and new mechanicals, but I don't think I'm the typical buyer.

no sorry. my wife "recently" graduated from nursing school. she landed her dream job in Sonoma wine country. by dream job, i mean it is fullfilling (to her) in all aspects except $$.. (where is the cent symbol on our keyboards anyways?)

so i grimaced and asked for a transfer..i got it FAST.

my new office is full of abalone diver types, so the transition should be okay. the beer and wine are amazing. and i see a SEA Kayak in my future. hehe..time to full native when i get there.

this.

i'm gonna target CLEAN, with good guts. redoing my current home..the biggest PIA's were the copper water lines and the sewer line from the house to the street.

CLEAN..oh, and not haunted. and decent location. it doesnt appear that awesome location is in my budget.

Not haunted? Geez, you're particular. I'll bet you want indoor plumbing, too!

one can dream.