After leaving house #1, we drove roughly 7 miles to this house in Mason.
Again, like before- click through the photos for actual commentary about what the pictures are of.
Overall, I did not like this house. I LOVED the kitchen area, but the entire house felt cold, uninviting. It was like a house your parents would make you go to in order to see some obscure relative you don't know, but she's 96 years old, and the house smells like her, ya know?
It was very musty, it felt like a house that a 95 year old would have grown up in and loved. Lace curtains everywhere, none of the carpet has been updated since the 70's, though the foyer had been updated with the fake-wood flooring. The kitchen had something similiar, but I think it may actually have been real hard wood- I don't recall.
This house sported 1,835 sq ft. It was built in 1929. The walls and all the ceilings were plaster. There was a lot of settling in the house, so a lot of the ceilings had cracked plaster in it. I have my doubts that the electrical has been updated anytime within the last 20 years, or so. The carpeting was in decent shape, but in general, was atrocious.
I did not feel like I could live there. I didn't walk in, and love it. I walked in, liked it, then as I saw more and more of it, I disliked it more and more. It's the only house where I didn't re-tour it after the first time. I went through it once, saw the kitchen twice, and was ready to leave. With both of the other houses, I went through them several times, poked through all the rooms multiple times, and got the feel of the house. This one, the feeling was, Yuck.
The list price was $109,000.
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Comments: 26
This home is large, and old, but wasn't updated regularly, and it would need a LOT of upkeep. Money pit!
One thing I always wanted to do, is take an older home that was turned into apartments, and restore it- see where the floor plan originally laid it out, put the rooms back together, that sort of thing.
My aunt Kathy has a gorgeous old home. She moved in as a renter probably 20 years ago, renting out the top floor. It was a neat area- you had to walk through the bathroom to get to the bedroom because of how the space was changed around. Then, she bought the house, and moved into the downstairs area. It was neat down there- there's a stair case that goes up 3 steps, and dead ends into a wall, but I know that behind the wall, there's a completely different stair case that got built in it's place to go to the top floor apartment. She uses it as a plant stand, and it looks neat- but I'd just love to see how that staircase used to go, ya know?
This home was probably worth a LOT more even 2 years ago, but the property values just keep dropping in Michigan like a lead balloon.
6 years ago, if this same home was for sale, in the same condition, I bet it would have sold quickly for $140-150k.
Now, though, you can drive down any block and see at least 1-2 houses for sale. Most are bank owned from foreclosure, too.
All 4 of the houses we have toured so far have been empty, but only 1 (the first one I posted today) was a bank foreclosure.
The third one I'll post is listed as short sale- they need to get rid of the house as quickly as possible, and the bank is willing to take less than what is owed on it to recoup as much of their money as possible on it, but it is still owned privately. That house (our favorite in many ways) was listed in August 2007 at $129,900. 7 months later, it's already down to $114,900- dropping $15,000 in 7 months is a lot.
I'll post pictures of that one tomorrow- it was by far the most "ready to move into", and the largest, with 6 bedrooms. There is just no way it would have dropped so fast 6 or 7 years ago, not at that already low price.
With the housing market what it is in Michigan, it's an excellent time to buy, and a very very bad time to sell, because for every buyer in the state, there is something like 50 houses waiting.
And, the value is great- say we buy a house today at $115,000. In 5 years, say the property value is finally back up, and the house is now worth $140,000- that means if we sell it, we make quite a bit off it.
People who flip houses and would be willing to wait a few years could do VERY well for themselves in Michigan right now.
But, it's a gamble- the housing market might not raise again for 10-15 years. I think, though, with all of the interest rates lowering, that houses will start to gain value again in Michigan, instead of depreciating.
Heather.. I would run from this house... with its age.. i would have to have the place tested for LEAD.. lead poisoning in children is very bad and it does not take much... if there is some in the paint, it is in the ground around the house, the dust... LEAD is just as bad as mold...
and with a musty smell.. well, i can tell you that there is mold to be found in that place... i have asthma and musty places like that actually make me go into asthma attacks...
the water damage would concern me to as it looks like there was quite a bit of water coming...
Here's one near me that has a list price of $399,000:
Here's one that's somewhat similar in appearance to the one that you just looked at, although I think that it might be a duplex:
It has a list price of $750,000.
There are advantages to older homes, most of the homes here in Lakewood are older but also most of the have had a lot of work done. There are many, many foreclosed homes here in Lakewood. We're a suburb of Cleveland, OH. Lakewood is a nice little town, Cleveland sucks.
Our manufacturing base is gone and people are just walking away from their homes and letting the bank take them.
Our country is in a lot of trouble.
Good luck to you.
The price of 109,000 wow, homes that size start at triple or four times that depending on area, but yet prices have not come down.
And as in by you people are walking away from their homes, it is out of control here...