Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've been looking through the Realtor.com site and out of curiosity have done many searches, from roughly the Plymouth area down to the New Bern area, of houses in the sub-50k range. I'm little shocked at how many there are. Now I realize these aren't going to top shelf houses, but are there in fact any areas like these that are... reasonable in terms of the quality of the area? I tend to like older homes in a fixer-upper state.
The reason I'm poking around at such wildly inexpensive properties is that I'm just getting rolling now with my own from-home business, location is not an issue regarding the job market. I'd like to keep expenses to a bare minimum and give my home business a chance to breathe and get established.
Unless your a peanut farmer or livestock rancher, there's really NO draw to living out there. It's intolerably hot/humid in the summer, you're too far inland for sea breezes, mosquitoes abound from April-September, it's a long way to get anywhere, there's no local job market, no colleges. It's a very economically depressed area of the state.
The wide open spaces between tiny towns are pretty, though...
Sounds pretty dreadful from what you've said! The other spot I was looking at was Greenville... still not too far from the water but it looks to be better developed. Still see $45k houses there, which is just a little incomprehensible to me, living on Long Island!
Status:
"48 years in MD, 18 in NC"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Greenville, NC
2,309 posts, read 6,103,251 times
Reputation: 1430
You get what you pay for in Greenville. You're right, it is developing nicely and there are some very upscale neighborhoods here. Tons of shopping and probably some of the same stuff you're used to seeing on LI. The people are nice but not usually in a big hurry to get anything done. The closest salt water is 30 miles away in Washington.
I'll be honest with you... You probably won't like a $45k house. They're usually in pretty poor neighborhoods and need an awful lot of work. The $100k to $200k market has some excellant buys in it however. They've built a lot of new homes lately and the pre-owned market is a little depressed due to it.
I bought a 30 year old, all brick, 1600 sq ft rancher on 1.3 acres with a 32X32 garage outside of Greenville for $121k.
Truth be told I'd actually prefer a small, old, commercial building that is or could be zoned for residential / commercial. As I mentioned I work from home and have compressors, plaster, paint and wood work around me so the idea of a one or two story, turn of the century, very empty building would appeal to me.
Status:
"48 years in MD, 18 in NC"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Greenville, NC
2,309 posts, read 6,103,251 times
Reputation: 1430
You will find those in abundance everywhere in east NC. The downtowns of literally every small town is filled with empty commercial buildings. There is some empty commercial in Greenville but it will be new and a little pricey.
Two towns of note that are really trying to lift themselves up and become better places to live are Ayden and Grifton. Both towns are working very hard to get money (Fed and state) to make their downtowns more appealing to both residents and commercial.
I really do need to take some trips down to this area... I appreciate your tips on Ayden and Grifton. I should know better but listings like this really tend to catch my eye. It's very near ECU and in my (admittedly) limited experience with college towns, they're generally reasonable places.
Status:
"48 years in MD, 18 in NC"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Greenville, NC
2,309 posts, read 6,103,251 times
Reputation: 1430
You'll have to tell me what the listing was for or the address. Realtor.com said it couldn't find the listing.
I guess I don't really know what it actually means when people speak of a college town. How is it any different than any other town? The only difference I've seen is a lot of cheap help for retailers but other than that it seems like anyplace else I've ever lived.
Status:
"48 years in MD, 18 in NC"
(set 12 days ago)
Location: Greenville, NC
2,309 posts, read 6,103,251 times
Reputation: 1430
I hate it when they come in and clear cut the Long Leaf Pine like that. I know we need lumber for the nation but do they have to leave all of the stumps and stuff when they're done? Eastern NC used to be covered in Pine and it's almost all gone now and is being replaced by garbage trees.
jcubbin: "poking around at such wildly inexpensive properties"...
That's not crazy at all. I always, always put in like ZERO for a starting price to search on realtor.com. Sometimes I've gotten huge surprises (pleasant) of what there is out there. In regards to fixer-uppers, I'm just too scared to tackle a major fixer. But for you...that's another story.
I've seen several commercial spaces that were below $100K but were usually one level and in depressed downtown areas or outskirts of downtown. For instance, there are several one-level commercial props for sale (can buy one or several as a bundle) in downtown Burlington. (I know, I know, you mentioned the Plymouth area.)
Like RichardMartin said, unless you really, really don't mind 1) living in rural-ville or 2) having one ugly, hideous, dilapidated or tiny house, anything you see in the $50K or below range will most likely be grueling.
Your post caught my eye because I'm the leader of cheap housing. I've been told I'm crazy for trying to locate such a property but I know it can be done. I will laugh at the naysayers as they sit in their whopper expensive McMansions cooling rooms they never sit in while I fixed up an artsy ole farmhouse with 15 acres surrounding me.
I look forward to hearing what you settled on.
Regaring Greenville...Funny, I just ventured out there this past week and haven't made a decision yet. It was weird...I didn't hate it but I didn't really like it either. Gosh, Raleigh really spoils a person aesthetically.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
