I have been looking at homes, mainly online. Matt and I have gone to look at two with a realator now, and one we just drove out to see for ourselves. We haven't found anything perfect yet. The one was 99K and it was WAY WAY too small!! Matt pointed out that there wouldnt even be a way for him to pull any one of his vehicles into the so called garrage. It had an overhang that was no more than 11 feet high and the overhang was held up by a metel pole. The inside of the home wasn't in that bad of condidion, considering that it was about 60 years old, if I am remembering correctly. The property needed a lot of fixing up, but the realator did say that we could get that house for a steal most likely. Once we were inside of the home, we knew that it wouldn't work for us. Matt is 6 foot and almost 4 inches tall, and his poor head was hitting the ceiling in most places in the house. The ceiling in the upper level was high, because there was a tiny loft. The hallway was the tightest squeeze you could imagine to get through, I guess either of us would be gaining any weight, and now I somehow understand how really fat people do get trapped in their homes. Just kidding. So we were off to the next house, which had a WONDERFUL location. I truely loved this home, but it wasn't in the best condition either. It was a Circa home, which I've always dreamed of living in. Located in Summit Point, on Hawthorne Rd. It was the last house all the way at the end of the street, and it was right next to hundreds of acres of open fields with a lil driveway cutting through it and on the edge of the property line were a row of apple trees. From the outside this entire thing looked too good to be true. We got into the house, and the rooms were GREAT BIG. I love older homes for this reason. My favotite things about the home were the double staircases and the "sleeping porch" they call it. It was off of one of the bed rooms, you walk through the bathroom which was off of the bedroom, and there was the little sleeping porch. Matt said that I can have those things put into a new home if we decide to go that route. The wall paper in all of the rooms of that house was peeling off. I didnt think that much of that set back, but there was only one tiny fireplace in the one living room/libary. Which that little thing definiately wouldnt have been enough heat or even leave a dent on the huge old house. It was gas heated, and gas is just too expencive. We would have to invest in some other heat source. The big fireplace in the kitchen was blocked off with cement. Which that was a major set back. I guess in the older homes it is hard to find them with the working fireplaces. I am not sure what the deal is about that, but I guess I could do some reasearch and find out? Maybe my grandfather would know. The other major set back was that matt said he went through the house and tried to flick on some of the lights here and there and he said that most of them didnt even work. Which hinted to him that there must be some really significant wireing and electrical problem, which I could also learn more about if I were to talk to someone who knows more than I do. I really loved the location of the home, and its lay out. The four bedrooms were just amazing. The back yard was fenced so that we could have big dogs. There were those draw backs though, which we had to say for now at least that its going to be a NO for that house. I am really hopeing to be able to find a home that offers the same things that I like, minus some of the things that we didn't so much like. And I am just going to believe that with a little patience and a lot of research and looking around, the perfect home will be found for us.
This whole process has made me kinda consider making some kind of investment business out of homes like this. Just think if we were able to do all that work ourselves, and we knew what to do. Then we could fix the problems that we didnt really like about the home and then turn it around and sell it for a LOT MORE than what we paid for it. I am not sure how all that works, but again, with some research I might really be able to make something like that work.
I also understand that Matt and I prob. wont be buying the house which we will live in forever. Hopefull if we buy at the right time, and then sell at the right time, we would have made enough money out of the home to be able to pu towards something better. I am not really looking for my dream home at this point. I am mainly looking for the bargin houses, that with a lot of time and work and some small investment money that we put into it that we could turn around then end up with a really cute home to live in, as well as hopefully make a little when we go to sell it.
Sounds to me like the home owners dream. But I do know a lot of people in my family, as well as friends of mine who were able to do this. I know that the market isnt that good right now for selling, but it sure is for buying. So with that in mind, and the fact that Matt and I aren't married and we don't have kids yet, we are able to live in conditions that wouldn't work if we did. We can also afford to be flexible and move and choose different areas, instead of just trying to stay in a certain school zone or something.