House
Since the vast majority of you read bychoice's journal, you already know that we've placed and won a bid on a house. (Yay!)
Craigslist is obnoxious for real estate searching. There's no obvious way to filter out mobile homes that will either have to be moved or are located in a park where you have to rent the space. There are the obnoxious people who don't post the price, or who post misleading prices, or post rentals, and there are plenty of listings for non-local property. (Lots of land available in Christmas Valley, BTW) Lastly, I have to agree with the several books on buying real estate I've read recently, which say that people trying to sell their property by themselves have a seriously overinflated opinion of its value.
On the other hand, google has a very nice property search. Just type an address, click on the maps link, and there should be a 'real estate near this address' link in the side bar. VERY helpful. As we say often around here, what did we do before google? (work harder)
We'd looked at a few lots we might've built on, but the day I found the house was the first time looking in earnest for an actual house. I essentially went around to every listed house under $125000 I could possibly find within riding distance of work and downtown. I'd looked at 11 houses before I saw the one we liked, and the difference was astounding. The others were all either crappy mobile homes, SERIOUSLY thrashed, or ones where people had started the process of renovation, but quit after the tearing parts off step. One house, listed at higher than the one we found, had no siding, few windows, and the entire exterior foundation had been removed, so only the pilings in the middle were left. Nice neighborhood, but still.... When I finally got around to seeing this one, it practically glowed in comparison. It seemed fairly obvious that unless there's something secretly very wrong with it, it's one of the best deals available right now.
The weird part about the house we found is what feels like a huge coincidence. The house I grew up in for the first 13 or so years of my life had two red-leaf maple trees out front and a lilac bush and a decorative cherry tree out back. The one we won the bid on? Two red-leaf maple trees out front, and a lilac bush and decorative cherry tree out back. They're even on the same relative side of the house!
Out back there are also plenty of blackberry vines to deal with, and a small but fruit producing apple tree. I'm really hoping that the home inspector doesn't turn up anything hugely wrong with the place (or miss something they should have turned up). Mostly, Hooray! House!
Craigslist is obnoxious for real estate searching. There's no obvious way to filter out mobile homes that will either have to be moved or are located in a park where you have to rent the space. There are the obnoxious people who don't post the price, or who post misleading prices, or post rentals, and there are plenty of listings for non-local property. (Lots of land available in Christmas Valley, BTW) Lastly, I have to agree with the several books on buying real estate I've read recently, which say that people trying to sell their property by themselves have a seriously overinflated opinion of its value.
On the other hand, google has a very nice property search. Just type an address, click on the maps link, and there should be a 'real estate near this address' link in the side bar. VERY helpful. As we say often around here, what did we do before google? (work harder)
We'd looked at a few lots we might've built on, but the day I found the house was the first time looking in earnest for an actual house. I essentially went around to every listed house under $125000 I could possibly find within riding distance of work and downtown. I'd looked at 11 houses before I saw the one we liked, and the difference was astounding. The others were all either crappy mobile homes, SERIOUSLY thrashed, or ones where people had started the process of renovation, but quit after the tearing parts off step. One house, listed at higher than the one we found, had no siding, few windows, and the entire exterior foundation had been removed, so only the pilings in the middle were left. Nice neighborhood, but still.... When I finally got around to seeing this one, it practically glowed in comparison. It seemed fairly obvious that unless there's something secretly very wrong with it, it's one of the best deals available right now.
The weird part about the house we found is what feels like a huge coincidence. The house I grew up in for the first 13 or so years of my life had two red-leaf maple trees out front and a lilac bush and a decorative cherry tree out back. The one we won the bid on? Two red-leaf maple trees out front, and a lilac bush and decorative cherry tree out back. They're even on the same relative side of the house!
Out back there are also plenty of blackberry vines to deal with, and a small but fruit producing apple tree. I'm really hoping that the home inspector doesn't turn up anything hugely wrong with the place (or miss something they should have turned up). Mostly, Hooray! House!