Somebody stop me

[barbarienne]

Dear F'list:

Please remind me why it is a bad idea to think about buying a gigantic mansion in a bad neighborhood.

The badness of the neighborhood should be evident by the idea that I can afford the asking price of the giant mansion.

(And no, I'm not looking in earnest. I'm just looking so I keep remembering to save money.)

ETA: maradydd, it's a bad

Comments

[mkhobson]

It's not the badness of the neighborhood that I would warn against; it's the gigantic-ness of the mansion. Speaking as one who once aspired to own a gigantic historic mansion, and who rather ended up in a tiny historic bungalow, I can say that, given the HUGE amounts of work involved in just keeping the tiny historic bungalow from falling down, I can't imagine trying to keep up something bigger.

Unless you have a huge crew of willing family and friends who love to spend their weekends doing glamorous things like fixing foundations and replacing dry rot.

[mkhobson]

You know, looking back at your post, I see that, for some reason, I assumed the mansion was old. It may be one of those new McMansions. If so, disregard my last post. :-)

[barbarienne]

Oh, no, it's 110 years old. It's wonderful!

But yes, this "upkeep" business is crazy.

[sartorias]

Has that building been kept up? It might be a money pit, and if safety is an issue in the neighborhood, it sounds like major tension ahead.

[maradydd]

If the house is on sale, there'll be records of maintenance and whatnot that are worth at least looking at to determine whether it's a giant money pit.

[shadefell]

What you need to do is persuade all your friends to also buy buildings in the bad neighborhood, turning it into a good neighborhood full of awesome people.

Sadly, there are neighborhoods in Chicago where my friends and I could, in theory, do just that.

Or buy the mansion and then move it. BECAUSE MOVING A HOUSE IS TOTALLY CHEAP AND EASY, YOU KNOW.

[maradydd]

See, I don't see what's necessarily wrong about moving into a "bad" neighborhood -- it depends on what about the neighborhood makes it bad. Is there a lot of crime, or is it just run-down? If there's a lot of crime, what kind of crime? I've lived in a neighborhood that was considered "high-crime" because it was frequented by a lot of streetwalkers, and most people thought of it as a "bad neighborhood" because you really couldn't drive through it late at night without being solicited, but it was actually a really quiet place to live and convenient to a lot of nice things

[hominysnark]

The drug dealer who lived next door to me for a time was the neatest, quietest neighbor I've ever had.

[shadefell]

The one who lived next door to me was incredibly loud and threatened to kill people, outside, at the top of his lungs, at 3am. Constantly. In great detail. I keep hearing about tidy, quiet drug dealing neighbors and frankly I'm a bit jealous. My drug dealing neighbors have all been borderline retarded.

[kefiraahava]

What everyone else said about it being a bad idea because of not not being able to afford upkeep and maintenance (especially if it's a historic house rather than a modern McMansion) and the level of home security system needed to live in some semblance of peace and quiet.

[maradydd]

It's Pennsylvania. She can own a gun.

[kefiraahava]

Yes, I know she can. Once upon a time I was a Pennsylvania resident who lived in and visited bad major city neighborhoods. I dealt with both attempted muggings and attempted home invasion. Not fun.

I've been visiting more lately and some of the neighborhoods I was living in/visiting haven't changed all that much. Others have gotten much safer. But depending on where Barbarienne's looking at, even gun ownership and her being personally physically imposing wouldn't necessarily help with the peace and quiet factor.

*shrug* Mileage varies, but it's not something I'd want to do given my previous experiences.

[retrobabble]

I'm thinking the bad neighbors'd have more to fear if barbarienne moved in and they didn't shape up. Just saying. ;)