-do all houses in KC area have basements? stairs? (Kansas City: apartment, rental homes)

[gohogs2012]

hello, i have a naive question.. possibly relocating to overland park /lenexa area.
looking at rentals on craigslist.. I don't want a house with stairs... does such a thing exist? or do all houses have basements/stairs bc of tornadoes?

[Versatile]

Just look for a true ranch without a basement.

[lovekcmo]

If you move to KC -you should look for something with a basement because eventually in time-you or the next person will need to go underground because of tornados.

[Okey Dokie]

There are very few homes in Kansas City without basements. If you don't want or are unable to negotiate basement stairs, just don't go down there. Plenty of one story homes with utilities on the first floor.

If you end up buying a house, a lack of a basement will be a serious drawback if you ever go to sell.

[Disco Inferno]

Most, if not all, houses in KC have basements. It was a MAJOR shock when I moved to New Mexico that the houses here don't have basements.

[lifelongMOgal]

Suggest the OP expands his/her search beyond Craigslist to a rental agency who can help search specifically for a rental on a slab foundation. There are some newer ones near 111th & Pflumm. In the older areas in Overland Park and Lenexa, rental homes specifically as opposed to an an apartment, or condo, are more likely to be the split level floor plan. Personally, I would never live here without a basement but that is up to the OP.

[MOKAN]

Originally Posted by gohogs2012

hello, i have a naive question.. possibly relocating to overland park /lenexa area.
looking at rentals on craigslist.. I don't want a house with stairs... does such a thing exist? or do all houses have basements/stairs bc of tornadoes?

A lot of the smaller 1950's ranches have no basements. They're small though, typically about 1000 sq ft and either 2 or 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and usually a 1-car garage. That would put you in central to northern Overland Park or several adjoining communities. You could also look for "patio homes" and "villas" for rent.

[aragx6]

You've gotten good advice from the previous posters. Why don't you want stairs? You don't ever have to go to your basement except in the case of an emergency.

[RjRobb2]

I couldnt imagine not having a house without a baseball or having an upstairs. Why would you want such a thing? The basement is my favorite part of any house.

[jason87x]

Basements are a way of life here. There are some older ranch houses in north JoCo and such that only have a crawl space, but by and large most places will have a basement. In most newer homes, the developers make sure to have a nice finished walk-out basement. Usually the hills are there to do this, and if not, I've been told developers will actually sculpt the hills manually to be able to have just about every house have a walk-out basement.

These basements are often mostly finished and add a TON of space to an already large house. I have a friend with kids here with an entirely finished basement. Most of the hanging out happens down there, and the space includes a bar, TV and game room, and three bedrooms. It of course also increases square feet by 50%, making for a total of over 6000 square feet.

Most teenagers around here insist their bedroom be in the basement, even if there are four nice bedrooms on the top level. It makes mischief a lot easier, with special back doors able to sneak out/in and is a good buffer against noise, as the parents will be one or two levels above rather than right next door. For parents this is good too because it means their kids won't be in their face all the time (Okay, good for the typical lax-ish parents that would buy these kinds of homes to begin wtih... not really minding that their kids are smoking and drinking lol).

Not everyone needs this much space of course, but what this means to you the homebuyer is that you can buy a much smaller house compared to what you might see in southern states, finish the basement if not already done and make it like a much larger house.

However basements can suck big time if they aren't finished, have low 7ft ceilings, have tons of insects, and/or have foundation issues. A slab obviously means none of this will happen, but you have to go south to Texas to find ranches on slab without stairs. This has to do with frost line of course, around here it's probably around 4-5 feet, meaning the extra 2-4 feet digging is not a big deal.