Well, you know... maybe. We'll see. We're going to let it simmer over the weekend, and in the meantime we're going to meet with a mortgage officer at our bank, and just - you know - take it easy and think about it a lot.
This is the house.
Here is a picture of the front:
They even left the Christmas lights for us. Ha ha.
It's an older home (1969), but it's HUGE (2460ish sq ft) and our realtor says there's probably some room for negotiating in the price. It need a lot of updating (bathroom and kitchen, mostly) and the basement isn't finished (but there are two finished bedrooms - in severe need of carpet... ). So, I figure we'll probably end up putting about $20k of work into it before it's completely like we want it. Only about $10k (or less) of that work will need to be done before we move in). It has 5 bedrooms, and 3 bathrooms, with the potential for a 6th bedroom in the partially finished basement. It's on nearly a 1/4 of an acre (HUGE lot! Especially for the tiny lots for homes these days...) It's in a pretty good neighborhood (so my realtor says - we may need to do some more research on the neighborhood), and it's down the street from an elementary school (like, walk down the street past 2 other houses, then cross the not-busy-at-all street, and you're at the school. Great for home value). Most of the homes in the area are valued at around $200k (and that's right now, when the housing market has kind of crashed). The Zillow estimate for the home back at the height of the housing bubble was $250k! Whoa. Anyway, right now the Zillow estimate is around $200k.
We figure if we update the house, add the 6th bedroom, and take care of it, it will have great resale value, and we'll at least make back what we put into the house (which is really all we would be concerned about - this isn't an investment property - it will be 1st and foremost, our home!)
So, like I said, we're not 100% decided, and there is still a lot to think about and be done. Then on to appraisals, inspections, negotiations, etc etc etc... yikes! Good thing we have a great realtor.
oh, to buy a home. That sounds so nice. What needs updating about the kitchen? the photo looked pretty good at least.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite things are the huge yard and the many bedrooms. that's exactly what I want. I don't need big bedrooms, just 5 of them. but I do need a big yard.
keep us updated! This is exciting!
Thanks, Anna!! The kitchen needs a dishwasher, and probably a new sink (just to make it functional) but in order to put in a dishwasher, we'd have to move the cabinets around, so it would be more practical to just replace all the cabinets when we're installing a dishwasher (instead of putting in new cabinets, and then putting in new cabinets again later...) The cabinets in there are way old. And the counter top is like... linoleum. Weird. Gross.
ReplyDeleteWe're the same - we don't need big bedrooms - just big living spaces (living room, check; basement family room, check) and a big yard, check!
The only thing we don't like about this home is the location... way way north and way way west. We would like to be more south in the valley (toward Draper/Camp Williams) but this location is actually close to Bangerter, so commuting won't be too horrible, and it depends on where Russ decides to work.
Yahoo for being close to us!! It looks like a great house, even if it needs a little TLC! I'm excited for you guys! Let me know how things go!
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