Research, Research, Research

The condition of a home isn't the only thing one needs to look at. Some pre-screening can be done by using Google Street View and Google Maps in Satellite mode.

This listing has been up awhile but I looked anyway.

Hmmmm....farm fields next door?

Let's look in Google...what is across the street?

Ugh!! Really?!?! Can you say "stink and flies"?

We found this gorgeous Hustisford listing, right in our price range!

But...sadly...farm fields all around.

Fartilizer, oops, FERTILIZER drift (Freudian slip?), pesticide drift, herbicide drift, dust from plowing, planting and harvesting....nope, I can't deal with any of that. The farms are all around and the tree line is not wide enough to provide a buffer.

Then there is the overpriced dumpy house in Hartford with the leaking foundation we looked at.

And the view across the street

Lovely

The difficult search continues. Unfortunately for most home-buyers today, inventory is at an all-time low and the number of buyers is at an all-time high. Many houses end up in bidding wars with potential buyers putting in offers above list price. The seller happily gets to choose between maybe a dozen offers.

Duplexes tend to sit on the market for some time. They come with a different list of issues. Since they are not single-family, none of the home buyer credits are available. Also, they require 5% down.

Homes that need some repair but are not considered a "fixer-upper" by the bank can be considered, and they tend to sit longer. There are not many in that category. More likely they will be full-blown fixer-uppers requiring a cash sale.

Odd-ball houses tend to sit longer. For instance, we were thinking about looking at this one in Hustisford, until we figured out there is no way to use the upper bedrooms. There is no bathroom upstairs, and the only way up is by the outside stairs. 

Beautiful property, nice house

A screened-in porch!

Oops! What where they thinking?

So....what do you tell your guests? "The guest rooms are upstairs. There is no bathroom, so you will need to come downstairs, outdoors, in the pouring rain or dark of night, and come into the house to go to the bathroom."

Or...."Here's a bucket."

It would be hugely costly or maybe structurally impossible to put a bathroom upstairs. 

Hartford has lots of older, 2 story homes built in the 1900's. To be updated for modern times, they need new windows, re-wired electric, insulation, new siding, new roof, first-floor laundry (or indoor access to the basement. Often times the bedrooms are too small, such as the common 9x9, and often there is no bathroom upstairs. 

Nice, but the bedrooms are way too tiny

Bigger, but all-wood siding needs scraping and painting, and there is a lot of it.

The search goes on.