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Old 01-24-2007, 04:21 PM
 
Location: Springfield MO for now :(
393 posts, read 1,730,875 times
Reputation: 268

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Have begun to look for property in the area, and have found out several issues to be aware of while looking. Would like to pass this on to the other lookers out there. School districts. In Spfld, only Glendale HS and Kickapoo HS seem to be the most desirable (better scores, less problems). The towns immediately surrounding have more desired schools also. Like Rogersville, Nixa, Ozark, Strafford, and Republic. For some reason, (I don't have the answer here) the northern and western towns are not rated as highly. Urban sprawl and traffic is definitely here, but not to the extent yet of other cities of the same size. Lots and lots of subdivisions. Lots of folks looking for that "mini-farm" but close to town and jobs. Both have begun to cause prices to start to become higher. They are by no means as high as say CA or FL or NY, but they are noticibly higher than when we left the midwest 4 years ago. In looking for a house with some character, we were shown houses in great disrepair and neglect. Folks with the attitude, well if I'm gonna sell, it I'm not putting any more effort/money into it. And it shows. Very disappointing. When you get into what is overvalued IMO, like past 300K, then you enter the luxury market here. So those that come with that kind of money will have no problem finding either huge house or property. If one really wants to get away from it all and is retiring, then moving farther out and to a smaller town is an option. But houses in those towns tend to stay on the market much, much, longer. They are easy to buy, but harder to sell depending on distance from Springfield. Boils down to job availability. But on the plus side, virtually no crime or drugs and it's absolutely gorgeous country. I just wanted to post my input on house hunting here as a newcomer to the area. We are here to stay, and love the area so please don't think any of this information was meant to be negative, just reality. There appear to be lots of folks looking to move here, and thought some of this might be helpful. We have been here 2 months, now and look forward to finding our next home here. Oh, also, in some of the sprawled areas, even though the houses may be nice in the subdivisions, they are one after another, and getting to the store may be a drive. It's farmland that was subdivided farther and farther out of town. And I mean in the surrounding towns also, not just Springfield. I think I have put on 5000 miles on my car just traveling around the area looking for just the right place for us, so we have seen lots and lots of different places. Oh well, I guess we will know the streets when the weather breaks for yard sales!!!
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Old 01-27-2007, 02:11 PM
 
184 posts, read 1,208,894 times
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Be sure you check the addresses for sex offenders living nearby:
http://www.greenecountymo.org/Soffend/list.php (broken link)
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Old 02-04-2007, 11:24 AM
 
Location: New Orleans, LA
1,843 posts, read 3,920,286 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshine girl View Post
In looking for a house with some character, we were shown houses in great disrepair and neglect. Folks with the attitude, well if I'm gonna sell, it I'm not putting any more effort/money into it. And it shows. Very disappointing. !
Thank you so much for relating your experiences (which I read carefully, though I didn't quote everything above). This is very helpful. I am planning to retire to Springfield in a few years, and I am looking forward to the house hunting. I'll probably want a 1500-2000 square foot house built in the 50's or 60's, south of Sunshine but inside the city limits.

I can understand your aggravation concerning the state of some houses, though I can also certainly understand why people wouldn't want to spend a lot fixing up a house for resale, when the prices are so low. I don't mind painting, updating, or perhaps having it re-roofed, but I'm hoping to find a house that does not need a great deal of repair other than that. I have seen photos of a lot of great houses of that sort online, though photos don't tell me if the water heater is out or the A/C is broken. I guess I should expect to do some searching once I arrive there.
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Old 02-04-2007, 12:35 PM
 
Location: Springfield, Missouri
2,815 posts, read 12,958,121 times
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You're right Sunshinegirl! I came to Springfield in June of 2005 and began looking immediately. I was shocked by how filthy some houses were. People had homes for sale strewn with dirty clothing all over the floors, dirty dishes lying around (not just the kitchen!), dirty carpets, dirty kitchens, dirty bathrooms...even dog dukey on some floors.
I was really disgusted by quite a few homes. I also hate...no... I HATE most wallpaper and don't understand how people can have such bad taste.
Oh...and most realtors I encountered here SUCKED! Very unprofessional. It's like they had a choice between running a McDonald's Drive-Thru or getting a realtor's license. The professionalism was non-existent after the first day.
I was a cash buyer...I had cash in my pocket to buy a house under $300K. Yet if I wasn't impressed with a dirty house or didn't like the log cabin look or wasn't impressed with the first two or three houses I was shown, the realtors lost interest!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just didn't understand it and it caught me broadside as everywhere I've ever looked for a home before, California and Nevada, the realtors were superb, organized, had a string of homes to show me, had already run interference to make sure the homes were still on the market, knew where they were, and had already gotten a look at them to know what to emphasize. In Missouri, or in Springfield, they didn't give a damn and had no preparation outside of knowing one or two that they'd been trying to sell for months.
And it wasn't like this real estate market in Springfield was hopping either. I eventually dropped all realtors out of disgust and got onto the SpringfieldMOMLS myself to look. That's how I found the home I bought.
I found a beauty and the realtor representing me when I bought it turned out to be the professional I hadn't seen before. If you want her name and contact info, contact me directly and I'll give it to you privately. I finally out of 7 realtors found one who was superb.
And, I love my house!! It was worth the wait and exposure to those toxic dumps most people had on the market!
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Old 02-04-2007, 01:37 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas, NV
76 posts, read 392,974 times
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So far the houses that I've seen online have been clean and the yards looked well maintained. But that's in pictures, I'm hoping that I don't run across the same situation as you MoMark, that would gross me out to see dirty dishes and dirty clothes laying around. I will let you know what I find when I visit there soon.
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Old 02-04-2007, 02:46 PM
 
1,174 posts, read 6,924,472 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MoMark View Post
I also hate...no... I HATE most wallpaper and don't understand how people can have such bad taste.
Hahahahahaha . . . That hits close to home. I soooooooooo agree with you about the wallpaper.

So far my searchng has been confined to the MLS system. I've got about 25 houses saved in my list that I will bring to the Realtor when we settle down there. Although it's hard to tell much from photos, the one thing that's caught my eye has been the wallpaper in some of the houses. OMG, there's been some FUGLY stuff on the walls!

I also have one house in the list that seems rather cluttered. It might even be some of the stuff you described. Geeeze, if I was the Realtor I'd insist that they pick up the junk before I took the MLS/Internet photos. There's nothing like turning people away before they even entered the door.

As long as the junk isn't "doody," there's nothing like a bit of sweat that can't fix things . . . as long as the price is right. Therein lies the rub. The problem comes when the dirty people think their house still should get top dollar when the buyer will need to spend thousands and hours to fix the problems. Oh well, there's always another house down the road if it comes to that.
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Old 02-04-2007, 03:16 PM
 
Location: New Orleans, LA
1,843 posts, read 3,920,286 times
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Something like wallpaper I can take care of during my first year or two in the house (and besides, I actually do like wallpaper if it is tastefully done! LOL). I am expecting to re-do some or all of the paint/wallpaper and carpets, and hopefully the sellers would take their dirty dishes, clutter, and mess with them when they go. Still, it's hard to visualize a house's potential if you are distracted by filth, dirty diapers, clutter, and so on. I must admit that my current house in New Orleans was SPOTLESS when I bought it and was "staged". I don't expect that in Springfield. It's not common here, either.

I have noticed some pretty terrible decorating taste in some of the houses on the MLS system. (The same is true here in New Orleans, by the way! Tasteless people are everywhere). On the other hand, I have budgeted for some redecorating. I hate red walls, which seem to be very popular, but I'm sure that with a primer coat I can cover a red wall with paint of a more neutral color.
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Old 02-04-2007, 04:20 PM
 
Location: Springfield, Missouri
2,815 posts, read 12,958,121 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA2SGF View Post
Something like wallpaper I can take care of during my first year or two in the house (and besides, I actually do like wallpaper if it is tastefully done! LOL). I am expecting to re-do some or all of the paint/wallpaper and carpets, and hopefully the sellers would take their dirty dishes, clutter, and mess with them when they go. Still, it's hard to visualize a house's potential if you are distracted by filth, dirty diapers, clutter, and so on. I must admit that my current house in New Orleans was SPOTLESS when I bought it and was "staged". I don't expect that in Springfield. It's not common here, either.

I have noticed some pretty terrible decorating taste in some of the houses on the MLS system. (The same is true here in New Orleans, by the way! Tasteless people are everywhere). On the other hand, I have budgeted for some redecorating. I hate red walls, which seem to be very popular, but I'm sure that with a primer coat I can cover a red wall with paint of a more neutral color.
I agree with you! The house I ended up buying was empty and spotless when I found it. Thank the Lord. It had been purchased only a couple of months before by an elderly couple from Arkansas who had planned to live here, so they put on a new roof, new water heater, new painting, new carpet, and fixed it up beautifully. They actually had great taste.... something that is a bit lacking in southwest Missouri I'm afraid.. Here the 1980's is alive with reanimated Laura Ashley wannabees who think fake ivy and flowers and cutesy wallpaper is just La Bomba. (gag)
I did use wallpaper again, but I used it to create a wainscoting in my dining room. It originally had a chandelier that looked like a bunch of bottles tied together upside down that had fused and melted in a nuclear test as well as dark red and roses wallpaper and thick dusty sheers...talk about "FUGLY".... The Arkansas couple hadn't tackled that room yet. They had a death in the family and had to sell and go back to Arkansas and I had found out through sneaky methods how much they had paid for the house, so I knew what was reasonable. I also took into account what they'd done to improve it, which was a lot.
Here's my dining room for example. In some cases wallpaper CAN work! I put in the chair rail before the wallpaper and had the drapes custom made. The chandelier is a Waterford I bought directly from Waterford, Ireland as they don't sell them in this part of Missouri and that's what I wanted. I don't have a before pic unfortunately.
During:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r199/MoMark/26Feb.jpg (broken link)
The new wallpaper is a wheat pattern in gold/yellow, but discreet:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r199/MoMark/WallpaperDR.jpg (broken link)
New drapes custom made by a seamstress in Springfield:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r199/MoMark/DiningRoomNewDrapes-1.jpg (broken link)
Dining room after (look Ma, no Ozark tackiness!!! ):

You just have to change things to how you want them to be and visualize things under the tacky wallpaper and "country" look!
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Old 02-04-2007, 05:35 PM
 
Location: New Orleans, LA
1,843 posts, read 3,920,286 times
Reputation: 3366
Very nice, MoMark!!
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Old 02-04-2007, 08:38 PM
 
Location: 55 Miles East of Sanity :D
791 posts, read 1,813,965 times
Reputation: 812
Lightbulb MoMark's House Pix

Hey MoMark, Yours is a very beautiful home! I can't remember the post, but you'd posted a pic of your house...I think. Beautiful Brick in a beautiful setting. If ya REALLY wanna blow their minds, post that pic again. I know I was green with envy when I saw it.

Hubby & I are also looking for a mini-farm, preferrably an older style home, fixer ok. Or....something like you've got too. Looks like we're gonna have alot of competition, huh?

Sunshine Girl,
Thanks for the great post. Very informative and helpful to those of us planning to move to MO. Although my husband was in MO many years ago, I've never been there, so having someones personal/honest perspective on things, is of great value. Thank you for sharing.

Boof
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