All I can say is I feel you. All of it. We move from a $$$$$ market largely because we were never going to be able to afford a house there. The three houses I've seriously considered this week all sold within 24 hours with multiple offers.
Amazingly enough those small rooms would be used as bedrooms in London. Easily. Typically for young children or babies. We just don't have the space for large bedrooms or even what some would consider "small" bedrooms and there are definitely NOT walk-in closets in most houses (unless you are paying for multi-million dollar houses. As long as you can fit a small single bed in a room, it's a bedroom.
I get the frustration in a hot market. this house is doable. there is enough space for the 3 of you and down the road you could take down the wall and do other things.
or you can rent longer and save up more money. I know you know this but home ownership is always going to end up costing more than renting. no sense in putting yourself in a stressful position.
@angryharpy H and I were going to kill each other during our house search. We ended up compromising and going out a little father than we originally wanted( still in the city) Over 10 years later, everything around us is hot and my phone is ringing nonstop with strangers trying to buy my house. You may either have to compromise location a bit or size of home. I wasn't willing to compromise the style, size, or features of my house. Again over 10 years later people still love my home, so there is my 2 cents. Oh and before anyone asks, we weren't nearly as fancy when we bought out home. Our household income was maybe 1/3 of what it is now.
Amazingly enough those small rooms would be used as bedrooms in London. Easily. Typically for young children or babies. We just don't have the space for large bedrooms or even what some would consider "small" bedrooms and there are definitely NOT walk-in closets in most houses (unless you are paying for multi-million dollar houses. As long as you can fit a small single bed in a room, it's a bedroom.
The thing that gets me us that it's listed as 1500 sq feet. Where is that going since the bedrooms are so small?
Amazingly enough those small rooms would be used as bedrooms in London. Easily. Typically for young children or babies. We just don't have the space for large bedrooms or even what some would consider "small" bedrooms and there are definitely NOT walk-in closets in most houses (unless you are paying for multi-million dollar houses. As long as you can fit a small single bed in a room, it's a bedroom.
The thing that gets me us that it's listed as 1500 sq feet. Where is that going since the bedrooms are so small?
if you add up all the listed rooms you end up with 838 SF. Doesn't include bathrooms, closets or hallways, but uhhh...half the house is bathroom/closet/hallway? that seems REALLY unlikely. So they're counting the unfinished basement.
Post by wesleycrusher on May 2, 2018 8:25:34 GMT -5
wawa thanks for doing the math...for some reason I thought that unfinished basements were usually not included in sq footage of a house (I know it wasn't in ours when we bought it, so maybe that's where I got that idea?)
wawa thanks for doing the math...for some reason I thought that unfinished basements were usually not included in sq footage of a house (I know it wasn't in ours when we bought it, so maybe that's where I got that idea?)
that was definitely the case when we bought our house. only the finished portion of our basement went into the SF that our lender used in the appraisal. maybe it varies regionally?
wawa thanks for doing the math...for some reason I thought that unfinished basements were usually not included in sq footage of a house (I know it wasn't in ours when we bought it, so maybe that's where I got that idea?)
that was definitely the case when we bought our house. only the finished portion of our basement went into the SF that our lender used in the appraisal. maybe it varies regionally?
I think some realtors try to flex the numbers to make the property more desirable and make it show up in real estate listings (where the user is searching by minimum square footage or something.) I looked at every listing within a hundred mile radius for three years and there were definitely a few realtors who liked to play with numbers when it came to square footage, bathrooms, and bedrooms. Listing a full bath when it was a half bath in the garage, listing unfinished basement and attic square footage, listing a tiny office with no closet as a bedroom, etc.
House hunting is exhausting, and even more so when realtors cant even be honest about shit or take pictures to save their life. Good luck harpy!
wawa thanks for doing the math...for some reason I thought that unfinished basements were usually not included in sq footage of a house (I know it wasn't in ours when we bought it, so maybe that's where I got that idea?)
that was definitely the case when we bought our house. only the finished portion of our basement went into the SF that our lender used in the appraisal. maybe it varies regionally?
Yeah, finished basements are not included here in the total square feet.
Whether we could make it work or not is irrelevant anyway because they just accepted an offer. Man, someone really wants to sleep in a closet!
I get the frustration of others saying how cheap the market is in your area. It is all relative; to a degree. People in HHCL make more money than some in a LCOL. That is just facts. But, as to whether or not it is enough higher income in those city to afford housing? Problem not and not even close. But the point being there is a differential between earnings. My position across the country is incredibly different but in all cases is still not enough income to afford housing across the states. Income has not increased with the real estate or food market.
Let people flame the fuck out of me, but I get it angryharpy and am sorry. I hope you find something soon.
Post by downtoearth on May 2, 2018 10:45:59 GMT -5
@angryharpy , man despite the difference in selling prices/COL/location/etc., the real estate market is brutal right now for anyone trying to buy. Keep sending us those links to keep us entertained.
ETA: And from CO to MT the listings were really different. In CO they don't include unfinished basements or any basement bedroom without an egress window - so you would see in CO "Great upgraded bungalow with 2 bed, 1.5 bath and a bonus room in the finished part of the basement" The bonus room was really a bedroom that didn't have an egress window and upgraded meant what I expected - things like new appliances, new cabinets, new tile in upgraded bathrooms, granite countertops, finished wood floors. But then I started looking in MT and they would count every inch in the square foot, every room in the basement as a bedroom (even without a closet or egress windows) and upgraded meant it was clean and had been upgraded sometime in the 90's.
Keep sending us those links to keep us entertained.
Will do!
I knew people were weird, but I'm not sure I realized HOW WEIRD until I started house hunting.
People are weird. It often inspires me to look at local listings... I just saw a 2-bedroom, but almost 2000 sq ft log cabin on 20 acres with no power, water, or sewer for $220k and when you zoom out on the location you get a place called "Weed, MT" as the address, which I guess is 35 min from me. Why the house only has two bedrooms, but a full shop and garage under and a huge living space is beyond me... but the pictures make me laugh b/c it looks like they have a giant gun cabinet, a dresser, and a lot of power tools and that is it.
Beyond the mess of a wall-less shower. I hate them because your steam escapes and you get cold. I even get annoyed with my H when he opens the bathroom door when I shower. Stop letting my steam escape!!!
The house we really really wanted but lost had a tub room. Not a bathroom. Just like an office-type room with a giant jetted tub and nothing else.
I have seen at least 2 houses with no door between the master bedroom and master bathroom. One of those could have had a door added. The other not only didn't have a door, but it didn't have a wall and instead had a couch facing the bathroom. One house we looked at had at least 6 pieces of taxidermy in the laundry room. The last house we looked at had a kitchen island with the sink on one side and the dishwasher on the other so that you had to walk around the island to load the dishwasher. The first house we looked at had an abomination of a kitchen. It had a bathroom sink in the kitchen and full sized dishwasher on wheels that you would move over to the sink to load and hook up to the water.
You can see why the tub room was NBD to us.
I saw a house someone was flipping. He basically came in, painted the interior (obviously failed to put any new insulation on the third floor, though), put down new carpet (?) and gutted the kitchen and a bathroom. The kitchen was horrifying. My mouth was hanging open the whole time. Totally generic, builder basic components, but the kicker was that the only sink was one of those sinks people usually put in a wet bar, AND it was in a corner/on a diagonal, so it was actually hard to stand in front of it. I was just so, so angry after touring that house. It was a pretty cool Victorian, otherwise.
Post by wesleycrusher on May 2, 2018 11:57:29 GMT -5
I do think a lot of things listed in this thread are not outside the norm, especially for houses that are older or in the city. Like 6 ft wide bedrooms, portable dishwashers, bathrooms in the basement, or 1.5 baths. I get that they may not work for you (general you) personally and that's totally fine, but I don't find any of it to be weird. (this leads into other thoughts on societal pressure and housing which is not the topic at hand)
@angryharpy It sounds very frustrating in your market now and I wish you good luck!
wawa thanks for doing the math...for some reason I thought that unfinished basements were usually not included in sq footage of a house (I know it wasn't in ours when we bought it, so maybe that's where I got that idea?)
that was definitely the case when we bought our house. only the finished portion of our basement went into the SF that our lender used in the appraisal. maybe it varies regionally?
Yes it definitely does. While technically I don't think you're "supposed" to count unfinished space anywhere per MLS rules, every listing in Seattle includes it.
So you might see a 1600 sf 2 bed/1 bath house but that's because it's 800 finished sf with an unfinished basement. And often times the basement isn't even finish-able.
This house has a lot of potential, but it will require work to fix the floor plan. You have time to do this since you don't need the bedroom right away.
I mean, my family of 5 lives in a 1400 sq foot house and does just fine. Our master is 12x13 (I think) and it works. We choose to have our girls share a room and it allowed us to use the smaller 4th bedroom as a playroom/tv room for the kids. This works really well because the bedrooms have a lot less stuff in them and the size isn't an issue. Making use of vertical space has been really helpful in terms of organization and storage.
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Shopping for houses has made me realize how fucking weird this city is.
It's not just there.
Whenever we have threads on here about housing "must haves" I'm always blow away by how many non-negotiables in other parts of the country are hard to find around here unless you are buying at the top of the market.