Why have you chosen that property?

[T. Damon]

^^^
Sounds sweet! Congratulations.

My unsolicited advice is to live in it awhile and let the house speak to you a bit before you make any big changes or renovations, the house will let you know what you should do after you've experienced it for a while haha.

I hope your closing goes smoothly and you find yourself in a great place for the summer and beyond.

[plaidmom]

Originally Posted by T. Damon

Then your house has the rare quality of evoking a bit of joy in your heart every time you see and enter it.

I still get that feeling every morning when I make my coffee in my sun-filled kitchen or when I am sitting in the living room at sunset, watching the lightbeams dance through the stained glass.

The heck with practicality, I like having a little cottage and garden which often causes folks to slow down or stop when driving or walking by and point and comment- and it also happens to be in a neighborhood that has held its value better than almost any other in the city.

We get that too. Plus the first time any visitor walks into our entryway and then into the living room they say "wow". Out loud. Every time. It still makes my heart beat just a little bit faster. It's a LOT of work, but I still think we made the right decision.

[fallingwater]

When my husband was relocated I looked at homes online from afar. There was one house that just struck me as "the one." Whatever reason my realtor was a dip and didnt want to show it to me. I had done enough research on my own and with the advice from this forum to know that particular area was the best in terms of schools, crime and so forth. I finally got to look at the house and fell in love. I knew the house was the one. The sellers were a pain in the neck and refused to lower the price. I bid 5k less than asking. They wanted full price or nothing. I was broken hearted.

So we moved on and I couldnt find another house I liked as much but eventually bid on another 3 months later. Well the deal fell through and I got very discouraged. The next day the realtor called me and said the sellers of the house I loved called her to see if we were still interested. Apparently they realized they were idiots for refusing our bid the first time. I now live in the house I feel in love with. I just think it was meant to be.

I still feel a little awe when I pull in the drive.

[Sheepie2000]

Our house is not unique (but I love it anyway). There are a number of the same model here. We had an offer on one, which we withdrew, when this one became available a few streets over. Same model. We chose this one because the neighborhood was better for us. More families with small children and closer to the school. So it was location, location, location, but not location in regards to monetary value, but location in regards to personal value.

[lifelongMOgal]

Location, extra features, potential up keep costs.

Fifteen years ago when I purchased my current house I was literally torn between two that set side by side and were offered at a similar price. One had a main floor casual family room and the other had a large 4th bedroom upstairs that could easily have been converted to a office/tv room. It was lovely and had a huge oak tree out front. The day I made my decision was a rainy one and the basement of the house I describe had a slight leak in one corner of the basement while the other did not. I noticed the lovely 70+ yr. old oak tree leaned slightly toward the house and could pose a problem when it needed trimming or in a storm.

I bought the house next door, enjoy the shade and view of the lovely tree without having to maintain it. The current owner has had limbs go through the roof/attic/ceiling at quite a repair expense and has unsucessfully attempted to solve a wet basement problem to great expense. The house I bought next door sits about 2.5 ft. higher and thus my rainwater from my house runs downhill toward the other.

Sometimes it just comes down to a "gut feeling" and you only find out years down the road if your decision was the right one in the long run. Suggest taking a hard look and making a list of pro's/cons with your business face on and emotions tucked away. Which house makes better sense all in all? Good luck!

[kinkytoes]

I wanted a house on a lot with at least 2 acres that was close to my job. Since the houses had to be in my price range, I finally narrowed it down to two.

Well-Built House
----------------
My current house won over the other one because it was better-landscaped and built. The roofing, the awesome covered deck, the office addition etc were done "top-notch." My realtor is also a wonderful guy who used to be a contractor himself and he was as impressed as I was. He was also familiar with the contractor's work and spoke highly of the company.


Potential for Income
---------------------
The owner also did an addition to the house and extended the basement and GRADED the area around the house to create a fully-finished professional office space that is separated from the house. Since money is tight nowadays, if I want to rent the space, I don't have to do any extra licensing etc., I can fairly easily rent it as a residential or office space. The possibility of extra-income provided a big incentive.


Mucho Extra Space
-------------------
Until I hit a big financial problem and am forced to lease it, I enjoy having an office that's not in my living space. The downstairs office used to house a business and it has built in storage space for my landlord-related papers, a room for my fax machine, computers etc. It's actually the same size as the rest of the house. AND it seems that is was completely re-done. There's extra parking, extra bathroom and kitchen etc.

I think the carpet's even new. And not the cheap stuff either. As a landlord I know from cheap carpet. Anyway, I could hug them. The entire space was repainted and the carpet is a greyish neutral. *love

Since I now I have a real office, I turned one of the actual bedrooms into a walk-in closet. I now have space to display my shoes and clothes. I am happy. For what I could afford to spend, I think I got a great place.

Landscaping
------------
I can't imagine living in a house without a pretty garden. My mom also has a BEAUTIFUL garden, so boy was I happy to see that I didn't have to start from scratch with my house.

The house had stairs and paths built into the property and flowerbeds etc professionally prepared. The beds weren't fully planted, but I could see the potential. Whoever did the concrete work and carpentry did a quality job.

Now I get to just enjoy planting along the paths.

I'd like to send the previous owner a Thank-you for taking such great care of the property, but whenever I see my realtor (I consider him a friend, anyway) I tell him how much I ADORE the house!

The other House was Fugly
--------------------------
The "competitor" was in the same neighborhood and had a bigger lot, but the interior of the house was HIDEOUS and cheaply and badly built. Cheap not-quite-wood paneling, the deck was rotten, the ceiling was low.


Anyway, there was inexpensive wallpaper on the few walls that had somehow escaped the artificial wood, and the bathroom had a vanity that was "homemade" from a tacky dime-store gold mirror and an enormous yellow whirlpool tub that looked like he had gotten it from another house. The doors to the bathroom and bedrooms were bifold closet doors instead of actual doors. Gag.

I couldn't believe someone lived there.

The point isn't so much that it was ick-tacular, but that I didn't want to spend time or money fixing up a house. It would have cost me about 80K to right the wrongs in that place.