Tuesday, April 15, 2014

More House Feelings!!!1!

Adam and I drove by the owner financing house on Sunday morning but it was pouring rain and we didn't get a great look.  I met with our realtor and toured that house last night while Adam was out of town.  My mom came with me, which in hindsight I am so glad because now I have someone to back me up when I say it was the MOST HORRIBLE HOUSE EVER.  It was good that we went back during rush hour time because holy hell was it ever a busy corner.  Being that we used to live in the heart of the city of Chicago, the busy doesn't bother ME, but for future resale value?  No thanks.  The yard wasn't as pretty when you got out of the car and it wasn't pouring down rain.  We walked in the front door and David (realtor) told me point blank that I couldn't have this house.  We laughed and then got down to business.

Y'ALL!  SO many problems.  They "gutted it", yes, but half assed every single thing they did.  It was awful.  The open concept was horribly done.  We're not even sure if the two poles (that were a completely different color than the awful laminate flooring) were actually supporting the place, it honestly looked almost like 2X4s that had been slapped together.  The kitchen was a nightmare, the original cabinets had just been painted over what looked like 10 times.  They cheaped out on every detail, the bathrooms were just weird.  The carpet was hideous and not even attached, I pulled up part of it in the master bedroom.  It was almost as though they had it cut to fit the rooms but never attached it to the floor with metal as one does when one installs carpet.  WTF.  There were weird cracks in the floor where it met the walls in a couple of places.  There was standing water in the garage from the rain on Sunday.  There was a huge hole in the back yard that could have fit both doggies and the baby in it.  The pantry (or lack there of) was pretty bad and there was space where they could have created a lot more kitchen storage but chose not to.  The fireplace (Y'ALL!) (SOB!) was horribly covered in this awful tile that didn't match anything.  Why didn't they just paint the brick?  The floor was the aforementioned terrible laminate but when they knocked down the walls, they didn't change out the floor in the kitchen and entry way so there were two really odd areas of terrible white tile.  I had so many questions.  Was this a flip gone wrong? (According to realtor.com's listing history, it appears that might be the case.) But the carpet in the bedrooms was clearly lived in so it left me wondering what had gone on between these walls.  The realtor representing the property didn't meet us there and was really awkward in her email back to me re: owner finance.  I actually felt sorry for her because this place was so truly bad.  They are priced way too high both for rent and for sale.  David told me to get it out of my mind for even renting straight up and he has a point.  I have no idea how I'd make the place work even as a temporary rental!  The sketchy poles that are potentially holding up the house freaked me out, I wouldn't even let Owen pull up on them.  I'd pay money to be a fly on the wall during the potential inspection.  I almost forgot!  The popcorn ceilings!  YOU GUYS.  They took ceilings like this:




and sprayed popcorn ceilings on top of that.  WHY? WHY?  You could still see the circles, which are CLEARLY SUPERIOR TO POPCORN CEILINGS.  Who did this?  What crack were they smoking when they did this "renovation"?  Like I said, I had more questions when I left than when I got there.

So where does this leave us now?  I have no idea!  David thinks we can get a loan this summer.  When I do the math, if we bought a cheaper house that needed work, it makes more sense for us to buy now rather than rent (duh, Jen).  We're investigating possibilities of getting a loan so please keep all your appendages crossed for us that someone has mercy on our souls.

Leave me a comment here and I'll email you back with the listing if you so desire.  Be forewarned, it looks semi-decent in the photos, as houses always seem to do.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, good call on passing this house up. It truly had some serious issues. I wouldn't want to waste my loan on that one. And yes, buying now makes sense so that the money you spend actually goes to actual upkeep and not as rent. I wonder if the next house you'll see is as bad as this one. Hopefully, it isn't.
    Ralph S @ Loans for Less

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