Wow!
That was a very interesting weekend! I hope I never see Glenn's blood pressure get that high, ever again.
On the other hand, it appears we put in a bid on a house yesterday. Just not the house we thought we'd be bidding on. If we get it, I'm certain this will all work out for the better!
Okay, so I promised more updates later. This is how the weekend went, in entirely too much detail. If you don’t like house details and silly dreaming mixed with a healthy bit of pragmatism, you probably don’t want to look behind the cut.
Drive up Saturday, spent time with Glenn and his family. Sunday we head out to Gothenburg to meet with our real estate agent.
The property for which we signed an offer last Friday is a 3 br, 2 bth house with a fenced back yard, 1 car garage, but on a main street (so no street parking), older part of town. Yard is small, maybe 50 feet by 120 feet at most. Power lines interfere with where one could plant trees, on the sunny side of the house. Currently split into 2 apartments, both occupied by the same family. Garage is needing to be torn down & replaced, not repairable.
So we arrive. The tenant and most of his family is still there, but they’re okay with us coming in and taking a look around. They’ve lived there for a month.
Glenn and the agent have been told by the seller or other agent that the lease is month-to-month. They’ve also been told that the lease wasn’t signed by the tenant, so it wasn’t enforceable. We were still prepared to give generous notice to the tenants (twice as much time as required by law), feeling it wasn’t fair or ethical for us to do otherwise.
Small house, low ceiling, feels cramped, especially the basement. Feels cramped because of the sheer overwhelming amount of stuff in it, as well as being on the smaller side. Found out that the total number people living in the house is 8; the husband, his wife, his sister, his teenaged son, and his four little girls.
Glenn and I came with a tape measure, because to fit certain items, this house was so small that some things would only fit in 1 or 2 places, in the entire house. We started measuring a room. The agent went back upstairs and chatted with the tenant.
About five minutes later, the agent comes downstairs and, out of earshot of the tenant and family, explains to us that there’s no way this house will be able to be owner-occupied this spring. The agent had been placing numerous calls to the other agent, asking if the paperwork had been signed on their part (was supposed to be signed Friday night). No answer. He hadn’t been able to get an answer from the other agent as to when the tenants might be moved out.
Turns out there’s a very good reason for that. Tenant is beginning the second month of a 12 month lease. - not month to month, and with no provision for early departure upon change of ownership. Nebraska law is very firm on this, and the tenant had showed our agent a copy of the lease while he was upstairs. Our agent said the lease looked complete, airtight, and legally binding. This house SHOULD have been shown only to potential investors - not to anyone looking to move into the house before January 2014.
We and our agent excused ourselves and departed to the next house we were viewing.
Glenn was livid. Seething. Not quite the angriest I’ve ever seen him, but close. He hates being lied to, he hates being deceived, and he hates wasting his time. This was all of that, and more. He felt he’d wasted the entire previous 2 weeks of footwork on his part, leading up to this. He’d had to call for favors at work, to get the time to see the bank, agent, and houses over his lunch period. He fell silent.
I explained that I was relieved we’d found out about this issue now, rather than a week or two before closing (the beginning of April). We hadn’t wasted that much time, and we were still looking at other property - the house we were going to see next had only recently listed on 7 Feb 2013. I explained that I was annoyed too, but I’d just as soon we not do business with an agent or seller so lacking in integrity as we’d found. And I explained that if worse came to worse, he’d just continue working out of the hotel room for 4 nights a week, and spend weekends at his mom’s house in Grand Island. We’d keep socking away money toward the down payment, and we’d continue looking - which is far better than agreeing to a bad deal with less-than-honest folks.
We decided right then and there that we were going to withdraw our offer on that house. A clause had been put into our contract indicating an acceptable tenant lease to the buyer, so we were free and clear to back out on that basis, without any penalty or problems.
Then we arrived at the next house, still a bit agitated but determined to move forward.
The neighborhood is nice, suburban in feel, newer, and with larger lots and larger houses. The neighbor next door is one of the doctors at the hospital where Glenn works. The neighbor on the other side is across the alley, and not visible behind his tall hedge.
We step into the vestibule. It looks like it could have once been a small porch. We step down into the 2 car attached garage, a later add-on to the house. It’s well built, with plenty of room for overhead storage. The agent explains to us that this house was originally built in 1915 and was located a bit outside of town. It served as the parsonage for a local church for many years. In the early 1970’s the church built a parsonage for the pastor that was next door to the church. So this house came up for sale, with the main stipulation that the new owner would move the house.
So the buyer built a basement foundation to the dimensions of the house. The house was moved to its new foundation and new position in town (north edge of town, where the newest houses were going up). The windows were replaced and the garage was added on. It appears the plumbing, wiring, and windows were all replaced at this time, too.
We stepped inside. The main room is the HUGE eat-in kitchen, newer flooring, with a smaller living room (14 x 18?) with a wide arched doorway. Two more doorways on the main floor revealed the smallest bedroom (maybe 12 x 16) and the cramped main bathroom. Window trim, baseboards, wood floor, wooden doors, hinges, doorknobs, and door trim all original to the house, and never refinished (the original shellac/varnish is alligatoring). One more fully original doorway led to upstairs, with the original steps and railing. (Railing will need redone, it’s not compliant with current code and it’s currently a little wobbly. We’ll see if we can save the original top rail, though; it’s in great condition.)
Upstairs revealed two good-sized bedrooms, and a tiny bedroom/nursery that had been converted to a very strangely configured half-bath (due to the way the dormers connect and intersect on the back of the house). The roof appeared to have about half its lifespan left. The half-bath is more than big enough to accommodate a bathtub, separate shower, sink, and toilet, provided we can figure out the best floorplan the dormers will accommodate.
We went back downstairs, to the kitchen. Not many cabinets, but plenty of room to redo when we have the money. The washer and dryer were in the kitchen, but could always be moved to the basement if I wanted to build a pantry. (Not likely; the W/D will stay as is, for now. The eventual kitchen remodel will make substantial use of pantry-type cabinets.)
The steps to the basement are very steep, but usable. The basement is unfinished, but stubbed out for a bathroom. The basement joists are high, though, giving at least an 8 foot clearance in the basement. When the plumbing and wiring were redone in 1972 - and whoever did the wiring, wired it all correctly, with a breaker box and additional subpanel. Moreover, the basement structurally was in very good condition, and the bottom of the house as it sits on the basement beams/joists also looks as if it was built right. The house is pretty much level, straight, and square - maybe 1/10th s wonky as my current house, in that respect, or less. The house was built right, and then it was moved correctly, and put on a good foundation. Wow! At this point, I’m pretty impressed with the ‘bones’ of the house.
Total square footage of the living area is more than twice that of the other house - just under 2900 square feet. Plus the unfinished basement. Room enough to breathe, feel open and inviting, and no need for tape meausures - there’s plenty of space to put everything we were concerned about.
We go back upstairs. There are new French doors installed, from the kitchen to the backyard, about 2.5 feet down - but no steps. We’ll have to remedy that. Glenn wants to add a deck right off; I’m okay with just steps until we get some other things taken care of first, and then we’ll be able to afford a sizeable, sturdy deck with low-maintenance materials. (The joys of compromise, ah yes.)
We go outside, and around the house. The garage is on slab, but that’s not a problem. There’s been no indication of movement between the basement and the slab; the ground is very sandy in this area, exactly the opposite of the heavy clay and rocks to which I’m accustomed. Out back, we note several places where we will need to add downspout extensions and correct grade, but it’s not a huge problem at all - just needs some scraping downward, or maybe even just rototilling and hoeing out might take care of it. The yard is bigger, about 85 x 150 feet.
The backyard has only one tree that might be worth salvaging, a lovely spruce. Planted exactly where I need to plant a big deciduous shade tree. Sigh. I will wait for at least six months before I make a decision, but if I need to plant a big tree, I’m not going to want to wait very long. The other big tree is dead, but far enough away from everything that we should be able to drop it just fine, and give away the firewood. The electrical service comes in over the alley, where I’m not planning to plant any trees.
There is no fence around the backyard; we’ll definitely want to put one in, probably black chain link for the Peppermonster. The west outside wall of the house shows hail damage, but none of the rest of the house does. Within 2 years, we’ll need to put on new siding, windows, trim & gutters.
There is no shortage of work or improvements to be done in this house, some in terms of function, but mostly in terms of aesthetics. But it calms me and makes me smile in a way the other house utterly failed to do. I really, really want us to get this house - and see how it looks in 10 years, vs. now, both inside and out.
Moreover… the comparable houses in the neighborhood are selling for 70k-130k more than we’re offering for this house. (We’re offering the full dollar amount being sought by the seller.) Barring any huge changes to the housing market, if we put in 30k-50k in repairs, updates, and improvements on this house, we’d get every single penny of that back (or more), if and when we sell this house. I can see us living in this house, until we’re ready to look at retirement (or until Glenn feels the need to work elsewhere, which is more likely). I could see us comfortably living here for at least 10 years.
I’m pretty sure that Glenn and I are up for the challenge. We’ve done harder work at our current house, which needs MUCH more work than the house on which we’ve made the offer. Funnily enough, some of the materials we’ve acquired to make as-yet undone renovations in our current house, will be quite usable in the other house.
(Oh, and if we move into this house in Gothenburg? I’m taking my current kitchen sink, and swapping it out for something more like the stainless steel sink that was originally in my kitchen.)
I’m already visualizing the stained glass panels to be hung in 3 of the windows… and the lean-to greenhouse on the south side of the house, ending at the west side of the house. And the generous back deck, with Jacuzzi tub for 6 (if we can afford it)… and perhaps a new foyer/entrance, more suitable for the house. Guess we’ll wait and see, on all of those!
So, in not so many words… yes, Glenn has put in an offer on a house in Gothenburg, just not on the one we’d expected. All in all, though, I think this will end up working out for the better - much, much better. Three cheers for serendipity!
On the other hand, it appears we put in a bid on a house yesterday. Just not the house we thought we'd be bidding on. If we get it, I'm certain this will all work out for the better!
Okay, so I promised more updates later. This is how the weekend went, in entirely too much detail. If you don’t like house details and silly dreaming mixed with a healthy bit of pragmatism, you probably don’t want to look behind the cut.
Drive up Saturday, spent time with Glenn and his family. Sunday we head out to Gothenburg to meet with our real estate agent.
The property for which we signed an offer last Friday is a 3 br, 2 bth house with a fenced back yard, 1 car garage, but on a main street (so no street parking), older part of town. Yard is small, maybe 50 feet by 120 feet at most. Power lines interfere with where one could plant trees, on the sunny side of the house. Currently split into 2 apartments, both occupied by the same family. Garage is needing to be torn down & replaced, not repairable.
So we arrive. The tenant and most of his family is still there, but they’re okay with us coming in and taking a look around. They’ve lived there for a month.
Glenn and the agent have been told by the seller or other agent that the lease is month-to-month. They’ve also been told that the lease wasn’t signed by the tenant, so it wasn’t enforceable. We were still prepared to give generous notice to the tenants (twice as much time as required by law), feeling it wasn’t fair or ethical for us to do otherwise.
Small house, low ceiling, feels cramped, especially the basement. Feels cramped because of the sheer overwhelming amount of stuff in it, as well as being on the smaller side. Found out that the total number people living in the house is 8; the husband, his wife, his sister, his teenaged son, and his four little girls.
Glenn and I came with a tape measure, because to fit certain items, this house was so small that some things would only fit in 1 or 2 places, in the entire house. We started measuring a room. The agent went back upstairs and chatted with the tenant.
About five minutes later, the agent comes downstairs and, out of earshot of the tenant and family, explains to us that there’s no way this house will be able to be owner-occupied this spring. The agent had been placing numerous calls to the other agent, asking if the paperwork had been signed on their part (was supposed to be signed Friday night). No answer. He hadn’t been able to get an answer from the other agent as to when the tenants might be moved out.
Turns out there’s a very good reason for that. Tenant is beginning the second month of a 12 month lease. - not month to month, and with no provision for early departure upon change of ownership. Nebraska law is very firm on this, and the tenant had showed our agent a copy of the lease while he was upstairs. Our agent said the lease looked complete, airtight, and legally binding. This house SHOULD have been shown only to potential investors - not to anyone looking to move into the house before January 2014.
We and our agent excused ourselves and departed to the next house we were viewing.
Glenn was livid. Seething. Not quite the angriest I’ve ever seen him, but close. He hates being lied to, he hates being deceived, and he hates wasting his time. This was all of that, and more. He felt he’d wasted the entire previous 2 weeks of footwork on his part, leading up to this. He’d had to call for favors at work, to get the time to see the bank, agent, and houses over his lunch period. He fell silent.
I explained that I was relieved we’d found out about this issue now, rather than a week or two before closing (the beginning of April). We hadn’t wasted that much time, and we were still looking at other property - the house we were going to see next had only recently listed on 7 Feb 2013. I explained that I was annoyed too, but I’d just as soon we not do business with an agent or seller so lacking in integrity as we’d found. And I explained that if worse came to worse, he’d just continue working out of the hotel room for 4 nights a week, and spend weekends at his mom’s house in Grand Island. We’d keep socking away money toward the down payment, and we’d continue looking - which is far better than agreeing to a bad deal with less-than-honest folks.
We decided right then and there that we were going to withdraw our offer on that house. A clause had been put into our contract indicating an acceptable tenant lease to the buyer, so we were free and clear to back out on that basis, without any penalty or problems.
Then we arrived at the next house, still a bit agitated but determined to move forward.
The neighborhood is nice, suburban in feel, newer, and with larger lots and larger houses. The neighbor next door is one of the doctors at the hospital where Glenn works. The neighbor on the other side is across the alley, and not visible behind his tall hedge.
We step into the vestibule. It looks like it could have once been a small porch. We step down into the 2 car attached garage, a later add-on to the house. It’s well built, with plenty of room for overhead storage. The agent explains to us that this house was originally built in 1915 and was located a bit outside of town. It served as the parsonage for a local church for many years. In the early 1970’s the church built a parsonage for the pastor that was next door to the church. So this house came up for sale, with the main stipulation that the new owner would move the house.
So the buyer built a basement foundation to the dimensions of the house. The house was moved to its new foundation and new position in town (north edge of town, where the newest houses were going up). The windows were replaced and the garage was added on. It appears the plumbing, wiring, and windows were all replaced at this time, too.
We stepped inside. The main room is the HUGE eat-in kitchen, newer flooring, with a smaller living room (14 x 18?) with a wide arched doorway. Two more doorways on the main floor revealed the smallest bedroom (maybe 12 x 16) and the cramped main bathroom. Window trim, baseboards, wood floor, wooden doors, hinges, doorknobs, and door trim all original to the house, and never refinished (the original shellac/varnish is alligatoring). One more fully original doorway led to upstairs, with the original steps and railing. (Railing will need redone, it’s not compliant with current code and it’s currently a little wobbly. We’ll see if we can save the original top rail, though; it’s in great condition.)
Upstairs revealed two good-sized bedrooms, and a tiny bedroom/nursery that had been converted to a very strangely configured half-bath (due to the way the dormers connect and intersect on the back of the house). The roof appeared to have about half its lifespan left. The half-bath is more than big enough to accommodate a bathtub, separate shower, sink, and toilet, provided we can figure out the best floorplan the dormers will accommodate.
We went back downstairs, to the kitchen. Not many cabinets, but plenty of room to redo when we have the money. The washer and dryer were in the kitchen, but could always be moved to the basement if I wanted to build a pantry. (Not likely; the W/D will stay as is, for now. The eventual kitchen remodel will make substantial use of pantry-type cabinets.)
The steps to the basement are very steep, but usable. The basement is unfinished, but stubbed out for a bathroom. The basement joists are high, though, giving at least an 8 foot clearance in the basement. When the plumbing and wiring were redone in 1972 - and whoever did the wiring, wired it all correctly, with a breaker box and additional subpanel. Moreover, the basement structurally was in very good condition, and the bottom of the house as it sits on the basement beams/joists also looks as if it was built right. The house is pretty much level, straight, and square - maybe 1/10th s wonky as my current house, in that respect, or less. The house was built right, and then it was moved correctly, and put on a good foundation. Wow! At this point, I’m pretty impressed with the ‘bones’ of the house.
Total square footage of the living area is more than twice that of the other house - just under 2900 square feet. Plus the unfinished basement. Room enough to breathe, feel open and inviting, and no need for tape meausures - there’s plenty of space to put everything we were concerned about.
We go back upstairs. There are new French doors installed, from the kitchen to the backyard, about 2.5 feet down - but no steps. We’ll have to remedy that. Glenn wants to add a deck right off; I’m okay with just steps until we get some other things taken care of first, and then we’ll be able to afford a sizeable, sturdy deck with low-maintenance materials. (The joys of compromise, ah yes.)
We go outside, and around the house. The garage is on slab, but that’s not a problem. There’s been no indication of movement between the basement and the slab; the ground is very sandy in this area, exactly the opposite of the heavy clay and rocks to which I’m accustomed. Out back, we note several places where we will need to add downspout extensions and correct grade, but it’s not a huge problem at all - just needs some scraping downward, or maybe even just rototilling and hoeing out might take care of it. The yard is bigger, about 85 x 150 feet.
The backyard has only one tree that might be worth salvaging, a lovely spruce. Planted exactly where I need to plant a big deciduous shade tree. Sigh. I will wait for at least six months before I make a decision, but if I need to plant a big tree, I’m not going to want to wait very long. The other big tree is dead, but far enough away from everything that we should be able to drop it just fine, and give away the firewood. The electrical service comes in over the alley, where I’m not planning to plant any trees.
There is no fence around the backyard; we’ll definitely want to put one in, probably black chain link for the Peppermonster. The west outside wall of the house shows hail damage, but none of the rest of the house does. Within 2 years, we’ll need to put on new siding, windows, trim & gutters.
There is no shortage of work or improvements to be done in this house, some in terms of function, but mostly in terms of aesthetics. But it calms me and makes me smile in a way the other house utterly failed to do. I really, really want us to get this house - and see how it looks in 10 years, vs. now, both inside and out.
Moreover… the comparable houses in the neighborhood are selling for 70k-130k more than we’re offering for this house. (We’re offering the full dollar amount being sought by the seller.) Barring any huge changes to the housing market, if we put in 30k-50k in repairs, updates, and improvements on this house, we’d get every single penny of that back (or more), if and when we sell this house. I can see us living in this house, until we’re ready to look at retirement (or until Glenn feels the need to work elsewhere, which is more likely). I could see us comfortably living here for at least 10 years.
I’m pretty sure that Glenn and I are up for the challenge. We’ve done harder work at our current house, which needs MUCH more work than the house on which we’ve made the offer. Funnily enough, some of the materials we’ve acquired to make as-yet undone renovations in our current house, will be quite usable in the other house.
(Oh, and if we move into this house in Gothenburg? I’m taking my current kitchen sink, and swapping it out for something more like the stainless steel sink that was originally in my kitchen.)
I’m already visualizing the stained glass panels to be hung in 3 of the windows… and the lean-to greenhouse on the south side of the house, ending at the west side of the house. And the generous back deck, with Jacuzzi tub for 6 (if we can afford it)… and perhaps a new foyer/entrance, more suitable for the house. Guess we’ll wait and see, on all of those!
So, in not so many words… yes, Glenn has put in an offer on a house in Gothenburg, just not on the one we’d expected. All in all, though, I think this will end up working out for the better - much, much better. Three cheers for serendipity!