Lucky #21?

The contract I had with my buyer’s agent expired last February. After having her supposedly working for me for over a year and half (almost 2 years), I am still a renter. Out of the 15+ houses she showed me, only TWO were suggested by her. Both of those TWO happened to be listed by her agency. Do you see a problem with this?

Needless to say, I decided to get myself a new buyer’s agent. She’s an older lady who’s been in the real estate business for a long time. I told her my grievances about the other realtor. I figured it’d be good for her to know, and if she had a problem with me or my “issues” then she could tell me to take a hike. LOL

On my lunch hour we looked at 48 properties that matched the criteria I was looking for. For the most part, anyway. I narrowed it down to 7 properties that I wanted to see. The new buyer’s agent showed me 4 out of the 7 last week. Out of the 4, there was one I really liked.

It’s located on the outskirts of town on a fairly large lot with a nice view. Neighboring homes aren’t right “on top” of it. Across the road is the golf course. The lot is covered with trees. The neighbors aren’t too close and a very nice golf course is across the street.

From the front, the house looks pretty “Plain Jane”. The real curb appeal is the back where a balcony comes off the dining room that has a large patio door. The balcony runs 2/3 the length of the house. The 2-stall garage is under part of the house and you’d never know it was there unless you drove around to the back. The walkway up to the back doors is flagstone and flanked by flowerbeds (that are overgrown right now). There is plenty of parking space, with shaded yard in both the front and back.

The house is approximately 1400 sq feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths. When you walk to the basement, there is an efficiency kitchen and two additional finished rooms. The garage is heated and to the front of it is a sectioned off workshop. What really struck me as interesting is that the home is very retro (70’s) -- Like walking back in time and I found it to be very cool. It’s an older home and when it was built, I could tell they spared no expense. There is a lot of closet space and storage areas. The main bathroom has double sinks, lights, and medicine cabinets. The Both the living room and dining room are ample size, with the dining room overlooking the backyard. There’s even a built-in area off the main hallway that was used for sewing. It has doors so all you have to do is close it up. There are things that would need to be changed such as carpet wallpaper, paint, etc. These are things that wouldn't need to be changed right away. Overall, I really like the floor plan, the architectural features, and the yard. I could see myself living there, and I can see the possibilities it has.

I have a suspicion that the electrical service into the home is only 60amp and will need to be upgraded to 200amp. It has electric hot-water baseboard heat (which I have found out is good), but I think the furnace may need to be replaced in the near future. Even though the roof looks good, there are 3 layers on it that will require a complete tear off when it is re-roofed.

It’s listed at assessed value and “as is” condition which means the sellers won’t be doing any repairs in conjunction with the sale. Taking into consideration the location and the values of surrounding properties, I’m pretty sure that if I bought it and invested $5-10K over time that I would make a profit if I ever wanted to sell it.

I took S to look at the outside last weekend and he thinks I should put a bid on it. We have an appointment to see the inside on Tuesday. I have worked up a long list of questions I need answered. Most definitely would want a sale contingent upon an electrical inspection, furnace inspection, well & septic inspection.

So could House #21 be the lucky one? Time will tell...