House hunting part 2

[Robert M]

3d,

I looked at an apartment with one of my older brothers. He's trying a find a place local to you and I. The kitchen in your place is a dramatic improvement over the one I saw in the apartment. At least the cabinetry has handles! The kitchen in the other place had laminate, horribly painted cabinetry with no pulls (and it was clearly designed to have them) and was about 6'x8'. And they appeared to be asking top dollar for the place! Blech!

Robert

[DP]

3d wrote:
I'm with RobertM. A house like the one you looked at in a nice part of Long Island, NY with a good school district would cost upwards of a million. Doesn't matter if the bathroom works or not. As-is. A cool mil. It'll sell in 2 weeks.

You wanna see MY definition of a fixer upper?

The house I bought is in a top 5 school district of all of Long Island. Hold on to your hats... here's the kitchen when we bought it:




Notice the rickety home-made cabinets. Institutional green paint. Faux marble laminte countertops. And vinyl floor stick on tiles. And yes,, the fridge juts out into the doorway. You might ask, Why am I so close? Why don't I take a few steps back to get a better pic of the whole kitchen? Uhmmm.. I can't. My back is against the far wall. The kitchen is about 10x12 feet.

See, I wouldn't call this a fixer-upper because to me, an f-u isn't livable until repairs are done. This kitchen, while ugly and small, still works, right? You have water, a stove that works, a fridge, cabinets that work, etc. It's still livable... Hideous, but livable.

[mattkime]

how long has the place been on the market? if you're interested you might be able to wait them out. since they owned it as an investment they might be willing to cut the price quickly if it doesn't sell right away.

[davester]

Tacky? yes. Needing a little maintenance? sure. Crummy looking floor plan? I think so. Fixer upper? No way.

[Speedy]

I like the garage!

Build a new home.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

The pictures make it look okay except for the floor plan. What's your opinion of the work it needs that makes it a fixer upper?

[BernDog]

This house sounds like the one next door to us. Foreclosure due to divorce, then a burst pipe ruined most of the finishing in most of the house. Current owner bought it for a song.

Here's what it needed (either due to water damage or neglect):

Roof
Gutters
Windows (all)
Siding
Drywall (most of the house stripped down to studs)
Flooring (most of the house down to subfloor)
Insulation (why wouldn't you if the house was down to studs)
Foundation repair
New staircase
Odds and ends

Here's what the genius did:
Drywall (no insulation)
Flooring (expensive tile he did himself = pisspoor job)
Executive kitchen including high end appliances and granite (WTH not sell it bare with a kitchen allowance?)
New front stoop in tile (nothing wrong with the old one, very appropriate architecturally, new one is again pisspoor)
New staircase (due to code, there is now a landing at the bottom that prevents the front door from opening to more than 90 degrees...not his fault, but still)

What still needs to be done (but won't be):

Roof
Windows
Siding
Some finish work

Genius is asking $179,500 "firm". Who sells a house with a firm price? He had a realtor for about a year, but apparently dumped him because the house didn't move. Now FSBO. Ad in the paper and that's about it. In our market, he should be happy with $140k. Meantime, he sits on it, paying interest. For comparison, $140k is over median in our market.

[Bill in NC]

Looks like they repurposed a bathroom vanity for the kitchen sink.

3d wrote:
I'm with RobertM. A house like the one you looked at in a nice part of Long Island, NY with a good school district would cost upwards of a million. Doesn't matter if the bathroom works or not. As-is. A cool mil. It'll sell in 2 weeks.

You wanna see MY definition of a fixer upper?

The house I bought is in a top 5 school district of all of Long Island. Hold on to your hats... here's the kitchen when we bought it:



Notice the rickety home-made cabinets. Institutional green paint. Faux marble laminte countertops. And vinyl floor stick on tiles. And yes,, the fridge juts out into the doorway. You might ask, Why am I so close? Why don't I take a few steps back to get a better pic of the whole kitchen? Uhmmm.. I can't. My back is against the far wall. The kitchen is about 10x12 feet.

[Robert M]

DP,

One of my best friends uses the phrase "It's serviceable. Why spend the money?" when it comes to home improvements. The issue isn't that something is workable and livable. The issue is that serviceable isn't what I want and what I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to own and call home. For example...

The kitchen in the apartment my wife and I bought in 2012 is serviceable and it's livable. For now. The individual who designed the kitchen is a moron. The cabinetry is garbage. The layout is awful. The remaining appliances (range and over the range microwave) are mediocre at best and we _hate_ having an over the range microwave. The appliances are in the wrong locations. The models that were in it are mediocre at best. The only reason we didn't gut the kitchen before moving in is the expense.

Despite that, the kitchen is serviceable and it's going to be used until we have the money to gut it properly because serviceable isn't what we want in our home. FWIW, we've already replaced the fridge, dishwasher and washer and dryer. But, when we replaced them, we bought what we wanted knowing they'll be carried over into the new kitchen.

We will replace the kitchen in due time. It's just a matter of putting away the money for it. A kitchen around here is a $35 to $50K job.

Robert

[The UnDoug]

I don't think of a fixer upper as being unlivable until the work is done, just as a home that needs a lot of attention to really be decent/modern.