For the past 3 weeks or so I have been house hunting. It all started with a house I liked and wanted to go see, well the realtor owned the house so he insisted that I get pre-approved for a loan before I could see the house. So I jumped through some hoops and got pre-approved by not 1 but 3 different agencies, if you are going to do something you should do it right ;). Needless to say I hated the house, it was 1000sqft but as soon as you walked into any room in the house you were pretty much halfway out of said room meaning tiny tiny rooms. Since I had been pre-approved and saving up for a down payment I figured I already started this house hunting process I might as well finish it. So I began looking for other houses and calling up the realtors and looking at said houses after work. I had been trying to resist getting a buyers agent because I didn't think I really needed one and well I'm stubborn and like to do things on my own. Well, last week a realtor cornered me as I was walking through a house and was aggressive in trying to get me to allow her to be my buyers agent so that made me think "maybe I do need a buyer's agent" and then last Sunday I made an appointment to go see a house and the realtor asked if I would like to see some of his other listings in the area I figured why not, until I found out that the listings were like $10,000 out of my budget. He might have thought he could trick me into falling in love with a more expensive house, but he didn't realize that I am SO much smarter than him. I called him back and told him the one house would be fine and I didn't need to see any others. After those two incidents I decided to contact a friend of my moms who is a realtor for over 30 years and could be my buyers agent.
After combing through about 80 listings we decided to go see 9 houses this past Saturday and let me tell you some of those house were scary. I'm talking warped floors, carpet hiding warped floors, dungeon like rooms in the basement, etc. When I was telling my Grandma about each house I kept ending it with "but that wasn't even the worst one" because I would then remember another one that was worst.
The first house we saw had a front yard that had had an almost 90 degree angle, the only thing you can do with that is try not to kill yourself mowing it and put up a retaining wall, which of course can be expensive. The living room had this awful 80's mirrored tile on the wall, the kitchen never left the 60's in a bad way and the bedrooms were so small that I would have to put my bed in one and make the other into my dressing room. Oh and there was a room in the basement that looked like a serial killer lived in it. It also needed way to much work, I know that for my budget which isn't a bad one I might have to get one that needs a little love, but there is a BIG difference between a little love and a whole hell of a lot of love.
The next house had mega warped floors and the scariest bathroom i have ever seen in a house, it was so bad I took a photo.
It looked worst then a public restroom in a public park. I laugh at this photo every time I see it, mostly because I can't believe this exists. Needless to say I let that house go.
The next house had puke green shag carpet going up the stairs to the second floor and huge cracks in the walls because the whole left wall of the house was detaching from the rest of the house, um get me out of here now, before we die.
The next house had asbestos tiles and my buyers agent jokingly said "if you paint them you'll be fine, just don't pull them out" of course all I could see was the little girl in American Horror Story saying "you're going to die in this house." So the death trap house was a no.
The next house I actually really liked, it had all the good things about South City houses, beautiful multicolored brick house with recent tuck-pointing, beautiful hardwood floors, glass blocks in the bathroom window, and stained glass windows. The only work it needed besides painting was the front stained glass window needed to be replaced because it was letting water in, so there was a little water damage under the window (the inspector can tell me if it is worst than it looks, hopefully not) and the concrete stairs on the porch needed to either be redone or patched. Oh and it needed a little sanding and painting on the windows and trim outside. This house is currently #1 on my list, if I can get the house awesome if I can't then it wasn't meant to be. I'm trying to not totally fall in love with any house because you never know what will happen.
The next house the hardwood floors looked like they spilled beach everywhere, the bathroom was awful 80's gross, and so was the fireplace. Oh and in the bedroom of this "vacant" house was a blowup mattress and an alarm clock so who know if someone is still living there. Finally the finale was the second bedroom was in the basement. Basically, they built a room randomly in the middle of the basement it was platformed up (probably because the basement still leaks) awful blue carpet, oh and the ceiling in this "bedroom" was about an inch taller than me, I'm 5'5'' and Sasquatch is 6'2''. Sorry to say that house was a hell no, mostly because they also covered up the stained glass windows to create a closet and of course to hide the mega water damage in the corner.
The rest of the houses were not as bad as the ones mentioned above, so I won't really go into detail, but none of them I really liked.
My grandparents were out of town until Saturday night so they could go with me to see the houses and since my grandpa has dubbed himself my "personal buyers agent" (My grandpa has bought many houses before for the housing corp. to fix up and resell so I trust his judgement) I took him over to the house I did like on Saturday to show him the outside and to look in the windows. My grandpa really liked the the house and told me to put an offer down, once I hear back from Fred my buyer's agent to make sure there isn't anything that would prevent me from getting the house. So fingers crossed.
Love,
RobbinZombie
