Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Our house sold! + house hunting adventures

Great news!! After just 9 days on the market, our house is sold!  I never, ever thought it would sell so fast and am really sad to see it go but so relieved to be able to get on with our new life in Boston.



Speaking of Boston, we only have two months of temporary corporate housing so the search for a new home is in full swing.  We've already seen about 10 houses and spent all day yesterday doing the open house thing.  Let me just tell you...it is downright depressing what $600K gets you in this market. 

Would you believe THIS was one of the best homes we saw for $598K??? It's 1,800 sq ft (including the attic) and is 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths.

 
 
So far I was thinking ok, not terrible. Outdated for sure but nothing some elbow grease and a whole lot of white paint can't fix.  But then we went into the kitchen.  Let me assure you, this is the best photo ever taken of the kitchen...like ever. 

 
 
Here's my own photo of the same room.
 
 

In case you're wondering what that chic wall treatment is, I took a close up shot for you.  Yes, someone actually thought this was a good idea.

 

 This room was right off the kitchen.  I actually loved the size and thought it could make a great playroom.  Just needs lots of white paint and the floors were gross.

Upstairs there were 3 bedrooms.  They were small but got some nice light.  This is the master.
  
 
It has two small closets (that's 1 more than most of the masters we've seen).  Conveniently a chimney ran right through one of them though.
 
 

The other two rooms.

 
 
The one and only full bath in the house.  Again, this is a fantastic real estate photo of the room.  

 
Here's my photo...wouldn't want you to miss those floors!

 

The attic had a good bit of finished space, even if it did feel like wood paneling hell up there.  Wood paneling on the ceiling?  I mean really?
 
And the basement had this small, finished room.  Beside the fact that the ceilings were super low and it only had one tiny window, it was actually an ok room (maybe a craft room?
 
The only new thing in the whole house was the deck....which overlooked absolutely nothing. 

 
Here is Mr. H+F standing in the only yard space this house has.  A small patch of grass between the house and garage. 

 

On the bright side, it actually has a garage!  We've seen lots of houses with no garage, no room for a garage and only driveway space for one car.  
 

So why is this teeny house selling for $600K?  Well it sits right smack on the line that separates Boston and its not-so-desirable public schools from neighboring Brookline and its stellar public schools.  Literally...on the line.  This sign is directly across the street from the house.  


Would you believe I would actually consider buying this house?  Yes it needs lots of updating, but that's not my issue.  My issue is that at $600K there is no budget for updating.  So that fabulous 70s kitchen with its green and yellow sponge painted walls will be mine for many years to come.  :( 

And before you assume (as I did) that a house in need of so many updates surely can't go for the full $600K, our realtor informed us that this house would most likely receive multiple offers and end up going for OVER asking price.  The traffic we saw at the open house would certainly seem to support that. 

*sigh*...so there you have it.  Lots more searching to be done I'm sure.  I'll keep you posted on the highlights.












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