I watch a lot of HGTV. When I want the TV on for company or noise, I generally tune in. I've watched a lot of the shows, but I've also just let it roll past the corner of my eye while I did something else. The shows that are the hardest on me are the first time home buyers.
I've bought and sold a lot of houses. With a spouse in the military, you move a lot and learn to do it often. Home ownership is important to DH and myself, so we've bought when we knew we would only be in the area for four years. Staying a short time in a property gives you a different perspective. First, you don't expect to double your money or make a killing. Second, you are careful about the amount of money you sink into the property.
Watching the first time homebuyers walk through properties and wax poetic about the paint colors and other surfaces is annoying. Can they really be that stupid? Paint is the easiest thing to change. You have to look past the cosmetics and see the bone structure.
Lately the big whine is "but I really wanted stainless steel appliances!" Really? In my day, I wanted WORKING appliances. If you go modest, you can change all the appliances in your kitchen for about $2800 and get that stainless steel look you so desire, moron. Why would someone make a selection on a home where they are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars based on the finish of the appliances? Or the countertops? Really, even very nice granite and marble can be had at $50 a square foot. Take some measurements, do the math and bid slightly lower on the house. Then put in what you want.
The cosmetic choices in a house fall so far below what you should be looking at.... the structure, foundation, the major components like roof, heating system, plumbing and electrical. Those are the items that will cost you a small fortune if they need to be replaced. There are also things that cannot be changed about a house--location, school system, whether or not the building codes allow additions or second stories added.
A friend of mine recently told me that to get into the neighborhood where she wanted to live, she was going to buy a 'livable fixer'. That is totally my goal. Find something you can live with, and beautify it to your standards. Everyone has a different aesthetic. Everyone has something that is a 'deal breaker' for them. You can't make everyone happy no matter how good your taste is.
When you look at a home, you have to look past the surfaces and to the structure, the layout and the location. I'm not saying everyone should buy a fixer. Some people aren't handy and need to buy properties that have been updated by someone who IS handy. But when you're shopping for a new home, you should be smart enough to know that dreadful wallpaper can be stripped. Paint can be slapped up. And you can clean up and get rid of most gross stuff in an overgrown yard. Tender loving care to a downtrodden property will actually raise property values for everyone on the block.
Try to get past the shiny appliances people. Look for the real value in your real estate.
--Sandee Wagner
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When we moved to Pryor I found a house on the lake. I loved the it being on the lake. Loved the yard. Love the fact that it didn't have a lot of neighbors.
But the rooms were tiny and it was too far from town. The worst part? To get to the house, you had to turn off the highway at a very dangerous S curve.
Everytime I went out to drive by the house, as I turned off the highway, I had a vision of one of my children being in a horrible wreck right there.
So I changed my mind about the house and bought another one.
The owner who, I later learned, was a spoiled only son of the local banker, called me in Cleveland to ask why I decided not to buy his house. "Just so I can fix whatever it is that put you off."
So I told him. Too small rooms, too far out, too scary highway.
He SCREAMED at me and I learned how easy it is to hang up on a man. :-)
He couldn't change what was wrong with it and I didn't want to chance trying to live there. We didn't really need to talk.
You can't change location. Or scary S curves. You were right to draw the line on that one. I'm sure someone bought the house. But not if he yelled at them. spw
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