In love with a house
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In love with a house
| Thu, 07-10-2008 - 6:10pm |
Oh lordy. Today I was going into houses and feeling nothing and then went into the last one and damn near peed my pants. it was so lovely and it was old but semi renovated victorian and with all wood stained crown moldings and vintage touches everywhere like mirrors built into the walls and redone and stain glass on the tops of door frames and and and.....oh god I could go broke. But I am smiling so big around here. I would love to go broke and live there. Peanut butter sandwiches here we come. It needs SOME work but it is totally livable and SYB got all teary eyed because it looks like his old house from the UK. It really has a lot of character with the rooms in very distinct shapes and a claw foot tub in the bath. They must have kept a lot of the house original when they redid it years ago. It needs a good clean and the owner is a slob but I didnt care a whit about that. I wish wish wish I had taken pics so I could show on here but alas I cant. We would be buying in a transitional neighborhood in DC which means I would have to reread all of your recent posts so I could be down with the lingo if you know what I mean. But it also means it is a fine investment and that we would be putting our money somewhere where it is bound to grow. The market is a buyers market right now and this neighborhood is moving up for sure. It is full of old victorians and you can see that 60-70% are al in new ownership and being renovated now. The street we would be on in particular is treelined and less in the hood then a street down for example so that is good. Also, there is a HUGE deck, a very large unfinished basement I could make into a studio with a separate entrance already there and ....wait for it......an original antique mirror with new glass RIGHT in front of the master bed, LOL. I saw the mirror before SYB and I just looked at him and winked and yes, rubbed up against him as I walked past him before he saw it. He had the biggest grin on his face. I plan on being the naughtiest home owner on the block....that is, IF he accepts my bid which is going to be a bit on the low side but my fingers are crossed. I think the house is up for too much based on comps and he has already rejected one offer months ago but mine will be significantly higher than that. The house has been up for over 90 days so my feeling is he might have been right at the cusp of reducing the price anyhow. Here's hoping!!! Send big positive thoughts!!
Also, I am being reviewed for one of my performances ( last night) by a major newspaper tomorrow so send good thoughts for that too. The thing was in a huge hall but for some reason VERY poorly run and I dont know really what the reviewer is going to say exactly. It was a tough circumstance even though I was proud of myself.
Aw screw it - save all of your good thoughts for the house, screw the review!
Can you tell I am excited?
Also, I am being reviewed for one of my performances ( last night) by a major newspaper tomorrow so send good thoughts for that too. The thing was in a huge hall but for some reason VERY poorly run and I dont know really what the reviewer is going to say exactly. It was a tough circumstance even though I was proud of myself.
Aw screw it - save all of your good thoughts for the house, screw the review!
Can you tell I am excited?



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Aw screw it - save all of your good thoughts for the house, screw the review! Can you tell I am excited?
LOL!!!
I've been in your shoes and I'm sure I will be there again one day!
Turns out my real estate agent is a peach and isnt charging anything because we just started looking yesterday and she wants me to send her clients. UNLESS the deal falls through and then she will be charging for anything else we find her regular rate I assume ( she didnt say this but that seems only right). She is our agent not the sellers so she is on our side. We havent signed anything with her yet because we just started looking. We have been tracking the houses in this area for two months so I had a pretty good handle on what we wanted and she said she could see we are set on what we like. I mean we have seen only a few houses really but I have been in homes in that area and I have a clear idea of what would work for us both short and long term.
I found a comp in that same area that is the same price and the basement is finished already and it is more modernized so I am totally bringing that up in my reasoning behind my offer. He shouldnt get his full price based on this and maybe he is old and stubborn but we will find out soon enough. I would consider placing an offer on that other house as well but the truth is I am more excited to use that house and its price as leverage to get him to see reason since I would STILL rather live in his house even with the basement undone. The vintage touches and original woodwork/stainglass stuff claw foot tub etc is so charming and old world and the other house has none of that even though it is very impeccably done in an upscale ikea minimal way which we would be fine with. So we will see.....if he starts getting to difficult I will consider the other one and look for others as well using the agent for all she is worth. But my heart is still beating for the house we saw yesterday and I think my offer is fair and worth responding to. It gives me some money left over for emergencies and leaves my father out of it so we would be doing it all on our own which would make us feel good.
My father offered to help us today and we were ready to go in all on our own. He offered to gift us 20000 to help bid so now I have to decide whether I want to take that or whether I think the house is worth that extra 20000 which I have doubts about. Decisions decisions...
review is out - not one word about me in it...some complaints on others in the quintet and an apparent crush on the cellist since the reviewer is a former cellist but that's it! I am fine with that since I held it together but it was rough conditions that nigh and the management was horrible. I feel badly for the others but I was spared Im sure because I was trying to be the glue for us. very small review no harm done!
What a nice gesture from your dad. I wonder if you stick to your guns and get the house for your offer (the one you and SYB can afford without the 20,000 from your dad, then you could graciously accept his gift anyway into an account set aside for renovations?
Look out for my next post though. KARMA BUS HAS ROLLED IN. It has been a busy cellphone day over here.
She is our agent not the sellers so she is on our side.
Umm... maybe not.
I know she isn't taking a commission on this sale, but both agents (buyer and seller) technically work for the seller.
I agree - I noticed this when I sold my last house - that they work together to keep the buyer happy and wanting to buy. "keep it smooth so it goes through"
I do like your idea for City to use - regarding the reason why she wants to buy it - something like - this house would be wonderful and very inspiring for my classical violin music. Buying and selling a house becomes a very emotion driven transaction - they show this all the time on "sell this house" - one of my favorite HGTV shows.
Congratulations City! For
1. finding a place that you and the BF love
2.making an offer based on reason, not how much you have fallen in love with this house.
Stick to your offer. I've bought and sold homes. Soonee is right, both agents are paid a commission out of the sale price from the seller. The agents can and do adjust their commission if the deal is close but will fail because both buyer and seller are set, stubbornly set, on a specific dollar figure. Sellers rarely accept your first offer. I always offer at least 5%-10% less than I am willing to pay for a piece of property in my first offer. then I have room to come up.
I too just love the character of old Victorian homes. Lived in one in Columbus OH and again in San Francisco. Love all the ornate woodwork, high ceilings, and oh those cool built-ins. The lack of closet space is always a problem, but you learn to keep things simple, plus you can slowly add great antique storage pieces.
if you found this one, surely there will be another should this one not work out. KEEP LOOKING. Let the agent think you are not in love with this property to the point you will do anything to get it.
Good luck,
QB
Thanks girls! You all give such great advice and there is such a wealth of experience on here.
I didnt make the offer yet because we decided we would like to see it again tomorrow morning now that I have read the disclosure statement. There isnt much bad on there but the range is not working properly and it alerted me to the absence of a dishwasher which I hadnt thought about. They dont seem to know the age of the roof or the heating and it is fairly antiquated in its use of radiators and window unit ACs. I know there needs to be work done on the front stoop and that would need to be done right away. So tomorrow we go over with a calculator and figure out whether it is livable even if we get bad luck in the first few months. Also apparently someone offered a bid of 10000 more than I was planning on and he rejected it in the last week and then has regretted it ever since. So I need to figure out whether they had asked for closing help in that bid ( we asked for full closing help) and then do some number crunching. I just wasnt QUITE ready to put a number down with the new info. I am showing a new side of myself today - cautious. Mom would be so proud!!
Thanks again for all of your ideas!!
Hi City,
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