I know this is an odd question but...here goes (Juneau and: real estate, broker)

[Crossfire600]

The wife and I are looking at a homes in the Juneau area on the internet. We are trying to get an idea of what is available, how much the market demands etc.. What we have found is really odd and thought we would ask someone who might have an idea so here goes!

The websites we went to are the standard big agent sites like Re/Max. Now here is the really odd part that we can't figure out.

A lot of the homes we looked at online do not have a lot of pictures. Some only have pictures of the outside. Say 2-3 of the yard and the house. The outside pictures literally have garbage laying around in the yard! "stuff" like tires, old buckets, pieces of lumber all kinds of "stuff"

Some of the homes that do have pictures of the inside have unmade beds with clothes on them. "Stuff" laying all over the living room.. It's crazy! We are looking at the 2-3 pictures with "stuff" strewn all over and a price tag of $250,000 thinking what the $%^&.

Is there something I am missing here? If you want to sell your home wouldn't you make sure that it is nice and tidy, clean etc?

We are coming up for a week to look at homes and it makes it really difficult to determine which homes we want to look at when the pictures of the home may not represent the home accurately.

Is there some local ideology that we are missing here?

[DannyL]

boy are you in for a surprise.
I keep telling people never to buy or rent sight unseen.
Also, if you don't take it. Someone else will. It's common practice for a realtor to rent someone a house and expect them to clean/fix it back up.

[Xa'at]

You're looking at the cheapsie houses. Sorry.

To elaborate, you can find nice houses for that price but it's going to take some looking. Your best bet is to come up here and sit down with a real estate agent who can show you around. Looking for a place is hard enough when you're actually here, it's damn near impossible from long distance.
When are you coming up?

[HighlandLady]

I just recently went through the same ordeal...perusing thousands of listings online and wondering - do these people realize I really DON'T want to see their messes?? How hard is it really to stash the sink full of dirty dishes in the dishwasher?
And the photos can be often misleading. I agree...you really need to physically look at a home and area. I am thrilled we took a week to do so and have found a truly lovely home with the land we wanted and for a price we can afford. Make the effort and time to visit before buying!

[Barkingowl]

Maybe this site will be helpful...
DomuSwap - House Swapping and Permanent Real Estate Exchange

[Crossfire600]

Originally Posted by DannyL

boy are you in for a surprise.
I keep telling people never to buy or rent sight unseen.
Also, if you don't take it. Someone else will. It's common practice for a realtor to rent someone a house and expect them to clean/fix it back up.

Thats not going to happen here.. We are just trying to figure out which ones we want to look at when we come up for the week..

[HEINZRX]

Originally Posted by Crossfire600

The websites we went to are the standard big agent sites like Re/Max.

I look at Juneau real estate all the time. This site is a bit better than most agent-sponsored websites.

southeastalaskamls.com

My wife and I live in north Texas but are hoping to live in Juneau within the next 5 years. My mom was raised there and we have relatives there so we've been up several times and love the place.

We realize that real estate is not cheap in Juneau and that salaries don't seem to be correspondingly high. Right now we can both make more $$ than we could in Juneau so we're biding our time.

You might consider renting for 6 months to a year so you can really take your time looking for the right house/neighborhood.

Good luck.

Heinz

[Magoon]

We went up twice this summer after looking at thousands (really...) of houses on the net. Thought we had it all figured out...yeah, right.

I know I'm a broken record here, but some wonderful people from this forum saved our hides by telling us "do not buy anything till you have your feet on the property." So glad I listened to them.

Having said that, I found the same thing with regards to conventional 'neatness.' Once I got my head around it, it was fine, but I still look (looking for a cabin 'to be moved.') and get a little giggle when I see some of the interior mess. I just sort of 'delete' that and look at the rest.

We went up the first time with this list...in order of preference, and wow were we wrong. I remember a picture/description of a house, cabin, and 3,000 sq ft workshop that must have been composed by an artist. When we found it, we had the picture in one hand and still could not recognize it as being the property.

We didn't warm to areas we 'thought' we would like, and fell in love with areas we hadn't given a second thought to. No specific reason, it just had to 'feel right for us.'

I guess what I'm trying to say is: although the entire state is beautiful...there will be areas that, for some unknown reason, float *your* boat. For us--we knew we wanted enough land and the right location over the house because while we can always fix up a house, the location is permanent.

Just go up and look at every thing, drive everywhere, and talk to everyone. We spent about 2 hours in the Sutton store drinking coffee and talking with some super nice people :-) Oh...if I'd been 10 years younger, I'd have had that Sutton place.

Just imagine the dishes gone and the laundry away :-)

Deb

[cobolt]

I agree with the above posters. 250K is rather cheap for Juneau. Just wait until you get up there to look at houses. Don't trust anything on the internet. Don't set your heart on anything you see on the internet. Even in renting ads, I can't tell you how misleading the pictures are and the shock factor once you visit the home/apartment, and that is for the people who bother to hide their stuff!

[Xa'at]

I saw the cutest little condo on Douglas- waterfront. One bedroom, one bath, about 250K.
Here's some cute places...

JUNEAU ALASKA - JUNEAU Homes and Real Estate For Sale - Listing Details
JUNEAU ALASKA - JUNEAU Homes and Real Estate For Sale - Listing Details
JUNEAU ALASKA - JUNEAU Homes and Real Estate For Sale - Listing Details