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we were just going to open houses. these weren't shown from a realtor. Either way, someone built that house and that that layout made sense. someone thought it's a good idea to put 3 bedrooms upstairs and the 1 full bathroom downstairs.
Couple of things that might help --
(*) maybe you're just looking in the wrong town or the wrong neighborhood. You might find place with an architecture more to your liking if you cast a wider net.
(*) after you have some experience looking at open houses having looked at listings, you develop a sense of what details to look for in the pictures. try to get a sense of the floor plan from the listing. GSMLS listings usually provide dimensions of each room. So scanning listings carefully can be a time saver.
I feel your pain! I could have written your post two years ago.
Not sure where you are looking exactly, but there is a lot of housing stock in NJ that was built in the 50s-70s that is just not very desirable to many buyers today. It was an unfortunate experiment in modernism that left us with all of these ranches, split levels, raised ranches, sugar maple splits, cape cods need I go on....
There are towns that have hardly anything BUT these houses. Even a lot of towns that are considered "very desirable" can fall into this category. We had to rule out whole towns once we realized that all the town had were these houses, because there was no way we were paying 600K for them.
These houses were built with small rooms, small windows, small hallways, low ceilings, boxy floor plans.
Don't get me wrong, they can be lovely with a renovation, especially if they have a nice lot and if you can get over the floor plan issues. But, a lot of them haven't been renovated either, at least since the 80s, so add that to the misery. As you said, maybe a lot of them should be torn down, or at least a lot cheaper. By the time you put in the money to make them somewhat what you want, you'd be up the creek in debt.
Sometimes an older house can often be more desirable. They'll usually have a high ceiling on the first floor at least and some character.
Good luck!
Last edited by luckyshoes; 10-19-2009 at 05:25 AM..
Something else to consider (which doesn't help matters in this case):
With older homes, there's a never-ending list of repairs, maintenance items, etc., that tend to consume large parts of your spare time (or large parts of your wallet). When we had our house in Woodbridge, which was the typical 1950's cape cod-style house, we were constantly fixing railings, replacing windows, repairing rotted trim, replacing wiring, fixing leaning fences, etc. Add to that the maintenance that's required on every house like lawn work, gutter cleaning, window washing, etc., and you can see where I'm going with this.
And let's not forget that these homes often have poor insulation in the walls and ceilings, single-pane windows, and inefficient heating/cooling systems. All of these items can be upgraded, of course, provided you've got the money and/or time. I really don't miss the days of spending $600 to fill the oil tank every 6 weeks to feed the 50 year old boiler.
I would look in Morris, Monmouth, Somerset Counties. You get alot better homes for that price range....forget those crapboxes in bergen, essex and union counties...they are way overpriced.
Have you thought about looking a little below your price range? You may find a great house with good bones that needs a lot of updating (velvet wallpaper and green shag carpet anyone??) But if you go in below your budget you can afford to update to suit your tastes.
We saw some real dumps at open houses. I think the dogs that are sitting on the market forever tend to have more open houses. They just put a new/inexperienced agent at the door with a sign in book.
Something else to consider (which doesn't help matters in this case):
With older homes, there's a never-ending list of repairs, maintenance items, etc., that tend to consume large parts of your spare time (or large parts of your wallet). When we had our house in Woodbridge, which was the typical 1950's cape cod-style house, we were constantly fixing railings, replacing windows, repairing rotted trim, replacing wiring, fixing leaning fences, etc.
What would you consider "older" ? I'm looking in West Orange, which is mostly '50s construction. It's a great area if you like ranches and splits (I do), not so good otherwise.
But the inventory in nearby towns is older still -- either 1920s or 19th century (especially Montclair)
Most houses in NJ are built by Guido Italian contractors for low quality work and max profit--it that regard they are similar to the Chinese. And yes the Chinese invented pasted--not u Guido dogs.
Most houses in NJ are built by Guido Italian contractors for low quality work and max profit--it that regard they are similar to the Chinese. And yes the Chinese invented pasted--not u Guido dogs.
This is one of the most ignorant things I've seen posted here.
And there's a lot of ignorance on this forum.
Good job.
And WTF is "pasted"?
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