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Recently I am interested in a house. But the backyard seems to be very steep.
What is the potential drawback of this? Thanks!
My house has a steep backyard, and one problem is during heavy rains (we had one a couple of weeks ago), there are are heavy water flows from adjacent properties which funnel through paths on my property and wash out some of the decorative wood chips & mulch we have out. THere's a lit of piping to keep this from happening, but unfortunately it happens in a couple of places. It only happened during the really heavy rainfall we had a couple of weeks ago, not the other moderately heavy rainfalls we've had.
Then there are the obvious problems, like harder to do any planting or gardening, and harder to throw a ball around.
Recently I am interested in a house. But the backyard seems to be very steep.
What is the potential drawback of this? Thanks!
How steep is steep? Is it so steep as to prevent using the yard at all? Will lawn maintenance be difficult?
Potential drawback of a steep lot could be resale potential. If the lot condition is a concern for you, it may very well be a concern to potential buyers in the future. Level lots are very desirable.
I had a yard like this in my last home and was VERY glad to get rid of it:
1) Rain runoff can cause additional flooding, yard damage. Overtime the runoff carved / eroded into the yard.
2) Mowing was a nightmare. Too steep to push a mower by hand and a riding mower was too dangerous to flip. Also, on the part I was able to mow over some of it was soo steep that the riding mower's breaks couldn't stop it / slow it down coming off the slope!
3) It could also be hard to re-sell the house as the slope could be a deterrent to people moving in due to the challenges mentioned above.
That also makes it an asset for purchase purposes, because you should be able to get it for less.
Yes, but if you're selling in a market like the current one I've found that the importance of imperfections gets exaggerated because there's so much to choose from (i.e., in a buyer's market you might take a bigger hit to entice someone who has so much to choose from to overlook your property's flaw). I agree with you, though.
Yes, but if you're selling in a market like the current one I've found that the importance of imperfections gets exaggerated because there's so much to choose from (i.e., in a buyer's market you might take a bigger hit to entice someone who has so much to choose from to overlook your property's flaw). I agree with you, though.
Nail hit firmly on head. Don't ever underestimate the importance of the lot. I learned from personal experience that although you may buy the property cheaper, not only will you need to sell for less but a good majority of buyers will simply dismiss the property over a lot issue much quicker than other issues with a home, most of which can be changed/fixed. You can do pretty much anything you want to a house, but the lot is the lot.
I had a yard like this in my last home and was VERY glad to get rid of it:
1) Rain runoff can cause additional flooding, yard damage. Overtime the runoff carved / eroded into the yard.
2) Mowing was a nightmare. Too steep to push a mower by hand and a riding mower was too dangerous to flip. Also, on the part I was able to mow over some of it was soo steep that the riding mower's breaks couldn't stop it / slow it down coming off the slope!
3) It could also be hard to re-sell the house as the slope could be a deterrent to people moving in due to the challenges mentioned above.
One important thing that your post raises is just how steep it is. My yard is steep, but I mowed it (once, first time I ever mowed a lawn! How exciting...) without much problem.
My advice is, if you like the house, don't mind the backyard, and can get it at a fair price, do it. Don't get all hung up on resale, because the most important thing is whether you like it, not whether other prospective purchasers will like it.
If you will not need use of the backyard ( such as kids playing) and plan on this home being a long term investment, and you make sure that all the required grading and runoffs are done properly than I don't think its a big deal.
If you have kids or plan on having kids and there is no other flat property for them to play then that is a huge drawback......also if you aren't buying it for the longhaul I would reconsider.....just as others have mentioned.....there are so many homes for sale and that I would think the competition would be tuff and actually in my experience when we were just looking at homes in Clayton we walked away from many beautiful homes that offered no back yard and or a yard that dropped off into no where land......
I just dont understand why the builders dont work the land better before the ybuild on the sites......I know people are buying those homes but I'm sure more would sell if they were flatter w./more use....
Just my opinion.....
good luck with your decision
-Suzanne
Last edited by JimnSue; 07-16-2008 at 11:25 AM..
Reason: omg I can't type today....:-)
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