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House hunting
We had a pretty full weekend. Saturday we went to see "Letters from Iwo Jima," which was very good, though we didn't know it was all in Japanese! (Not that this was a problem, except that we were sitting in a row behind a guy with a big head, and we had to move b/c his noggin blocked the subtitles.) It's funny, after watching so much anime, I feel like I should understand Japanese by osmosis or something.
Sunday we had our first trip out with our realtor. She's a very nice lady who is a friend of our mortgage broker, and our mortgage broker is husband's aunt's sister, so there's a good bit of reason to keep everything as friendly as possible for both them and us! We had a list of about eight homes to visit in various parts of Somerset County - a couple townhouses, a couple regular houses, and one duplex. Each had its ups and downs, and husband and I disagreed over one particular townhouse (he liked it, but I felt the kitchen was inadequate and it was cramped) but at least we did like the same house the best!
The first thing that we learned is that our landlords are generally considered the local slumlords. XD They own a section of a neighboring town and rent out a large percentage of the houses, and they don't bother checking up on the tenants to make sure things are maintained. Lord knows I've seen them once in six years, but husband and I are unusual in that when something breaks in the house, we fix it. At $900/month, we didn't want to get their attention any more than was necessary! (Maybe we shouldn't have worried.) In any case, they're guilty of "stacking" units, which is to say that too many people are allowed to live in the same house. The town has since enacted an ordinance that lets them stop this practice, so maybe we're looking to move at the right time.
The prices have come down a notch in our area, which is good. One house in Bernardsville was put on the market at 600K, and as of this morning, the price had dropped to 450K. It's a shame that husband didn't like the house better, because it's GINORMOUS and it's in a very nice town. Unfortunately, it's on a busy road, it's right across from the fire station, and his S2000 would weep tears of blood on the driveway.
The townhouses were... okay, for the most part. Not my first choice, but we wanted an idea in case that's all we could get. Our realtor warned that certain developments had crappier construction than others, which we already knew for one development in particular that we visited. In one of them, the owners had a scented candle in almost every room, and the smell was so overpowering that we got out of there as fast as we possibly could.
The duplex we visited seemed okay, but it was such a goddamned trash pit that we could hardly give it a fair shake. The owner had piles of laundry and junk all over, and she was cooking a very onion-and-garlicky dinner when we arrived. The place had obviously been poorly kept-up - there were marks on all the walls, the front stoop was in disrepair, and a bad staining job had left splatters of red stain on the outside walls and walk. Our realtor wasn't pleased with the whole deal, and she assured us that if we were interested in that development, she'd find another unit that was more representative of the area.
The first house we visited ended up being our favorite. I'm not usually a fan of ranch houses, but some relatives have very nice ranches, so we decided to have a squint. The house is at the end of the road and backs up onto conservation land, with a small stream running in the back yard. While we were there, I kept getting distracted by the bright red cardinals that were hunting and pecking outside ("Look! Birdies!") It had a basement, and attic, four bedrooms, and a nice kitchen and family room. The downside is that the town where it's located is somewhat off the beaten path, and our commute has the potential to be crummy. Husband says he's going to give it a shot this week, and my officemate said it's not as bad as it looks.
Either way, we're sure we have more looking to do before an offer is on the table. It would be so nice to get into a place before the summer so that we don't have to spend another summer in the buzz of the air conditioners.
Sunday we had our first trip out with our realtor. She's a very nice lady who is a friend of our mortgage broker, and our mortgage broker is husband's aunt's sister, so there's a good bit of reason to keep everything as friendly as possible for both them and us! We had a list of about eight homes to visit in various parts of Somerset County - a couple townhouses, a couple regular houses, and one duplex. Each had its ups and downs, and husband and I disagreed over one particular townhouse (he liked it, but I felt the kitchen was inadequate and it was cramped) but at least we did like the same house the best!
The first thing that we learned is that our landlords are generally considered the local slumlords. XD They own a section of a neighboring town and rent out a large percentage of the houses, and they don't bother checking up on the tenants to make sure things are maintained. Lord knows I've seen them once in six years, but husband and I are unusual in that when something breaks in the house, we fix it. At $900/month, we didn't want to get their attention any more than was necessary! (Maybe we shouldn't have worried.) In any case, they're guilty of "stacking" units, which is to say that too many people are allowed to live in the same house. The town has since enacted an ordinance that lets them stop this practice, so maybe we're looking to move at the right time.
The prices have come down a notch in our area, which is good. One house in Bernardsville was put on the market at 600K, and as of this morning, the price had dropped to 450K. It's a shame that husband didn't like the house better, because it's GINORMOUS and it's in a very nice town. Unfortunately, it's on a busy road, it's right across from the fire station, and his S2000 would weep tears of blood on the driveway.
The townhouses were... okay, for the most part. Not my first choice, but we wanted an idea in case that's all we could get. Our realtor warned that certain developments had crappier construction than others, which we already knew for one development in particular that we visited. In one of them, the owners had a scented candle in almost every room, and the smell was so overpowering that we got out of there as fast as we possibly could.
The duplex we visited seemed okay, but it was such a goddamned trash pit that we could hardly give it a fair shake. The owner had piles of laundry and junk all over, and she was cooking a very onion-and-garlicky dinner when we arrived. The place had obviously been poorly kept-up - there were marks on all the walls, the front stoop was in disrepair, and a bad staining job had left splatters of red stain on the outside walls and walk. Our realtor wasn't pleased with the whole deal, and she assured us that if we were interested in that development, she'd find another unit that was more representative of the area.
The first house we visited ended up being our favorite. I'm not usually a fan of ranch houses, but some relatives have very nice ranches, so we decided to have a squint. The house is at the end of the road and backs up onto conservation land, with a small stream running in the back yard. While we were there, I kept getting distracted by the bright red cardinals that were hunting and pecking outside ("Look! Birdies!") It had a basement, and attic, four bedrooms, and a nice kitchen and family room. The downside is that the town where it's located is somewhat off the beaten path, and our commute has the potential to be crummy. Husband says he's going to give it a shot this week, and my officemate said it's not as bad as it looks.
Either way, we're sure we have more looking to do before an offer is on the table. It would be so nice to get into a place before the summer so that we don't have to spend another summer in the buzz of the air conditioners.
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