House Hunters: Buying in the USA

[laredhead]

She kept insisting that they did not need a yard.  They have small children so I would think she would want a place for them to play outside.  No mention of nearby parks or other places where the kids could go to play on swings or other playground equipment.  

The house they bought suited their wish list, but it sure did look like a place that had been modified by many previous owners to each one's desires. 

[Ohwell]

Watching that Hawaii episode, my heart kind of broke for them, considering what's happening now.  I don't know where they live in relation to the volcanoes, but the air is foul now.  

[biakbiak]

11 minutes ago, Ohwell said:

Watching that Hawaii episode, my heart kind of broke for them, considering what's happening now.  I don't know where they live in relation to the volcanoes, but the air is foul now.  

They were in Honolulu which is on Oahu so they aren’t effected.

[Ohwell]

14 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

They were in Honolulu which is on Oahu so they aren’t effected.

Yes, but I was wondering if they might be affected by the air quality.  

[biakbiak]

Just now, Ohwell said:

Yes, but I was wondering if they might be affected by the air quality.  

Oahu is fine. 

[Ohwell]

Fine for now.  That's good.

[Thumper]

Tonight's episode with the couple buying in St. Petersburg, Florida. I thought they were quirky and cute!

[ByaNose]

1 hour ago, Thumper said:

Tonight's episode with the couple buying in St. Petersburg, Florida. I thought they were quirky and cute!

I thought he was weird and she was less so. It’s nice that you can buy a reasonably priced house in Florida. It wasn’t a mansion but they seemed happy. It was also refreshing to hear that his career (drumming) isn’t always stable or guaranteed income. Usually, everyone has money growing out the wazoo on HH.

[Pickles]

Florida couple. They had such similar glasses and really looked alike.

[AlleC17]

On 5/30/2018 at 8:13 AM, Ohwell said:

Fine for now.  That's good.

We on Oahu are not affected by the volcano, which is far away.  We do get vog.  We always get vog when the wind comes the 'wrong' way.  Most people on the Big Island are perfectly fine.  It is just a small area in the rift zone that is affected.  That being said, it is very devastating to those communities.  My friends property now has a 30-40 foot wall of lava on it.  :-(

The first two homes the hawaii couple viewed were in Ewa Beach, and the last one in Mililani.  I do think that typically, Mililani is more expensive than Ewa,

[juliet73]

I just watched the episode with the Atlanta flight attendant buying her first home. On a super vain level... she wore so much eye make up! I was so distracted by all the frosted eye shadow that I wasn't paying attention to anything house related. I did think it was odd at the end when she emphasizes having a FAUX fur rug laying on her bedroom floor. 

 

Hawaii wife thought the covered patio outside was wasted space? Say what? I don't know how any space outdoors in Hawaii could be considered wasted. 

[LittleIggy]

35 minutes ago, juliet73 said:

I just watched the episode with the Atlanta flight attendant buying her first home. On a super vain level... she wore so much eye make up! I was so distracted by all the frosted eye shadow that I wasn't paying attention to anything house related. I did think it was odd at the end when she emphasizes having a FAUX fur rug laying on her bedroom floor. 

 

 

I was also distracted by Morticia the real estate agent! ?

Re the couple in Chesapeake, VA: Wow, Marcus really is handy with the renovations. That kitchen was great! I couldn’t believe the house with a different flooring in just about every room. That tile was fugly.

[Empress1]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I was also distracted by Morticia the real estate agent! ?

Re the couple in Chesapeake, VA: Wow, Marcus really is handy with the renovations. That kitchen was great! I couldn’t believe the house with a different flooring in just about every room. That tile was fugly.

I thought "Oh, it looks great in there!" when they showed the finished kitchen. Hold onto Marcus!

[Lady J]

11 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

I was also distracted by Morticia the real estate agent! ?

Re the couple in Chesapeake, VA: Wow, Marcus really is handy with the renovations. That kitchen was great! I couldn’t believe the house with a different flooring in just about every room. That tile was fugly.

What's was the deal with the agent's teeth ??

[msmarjoribanks]

On 5/30/2018 at 9:31 PM, Thumper said:

Tonight's episode with the couple buying in St. Petersburg, Florida. I thought they were quirky and cute!

Yay, I finally saw a show that others are talking about.

I liked the couple.   Mostly I liked how they were realistic about the fact that their budget meant they might have to compromise some and while they wanted a bunch of stuff they weren't obnoxious about the fact that it wasn't easy to find a place that met all their desires.   And they realized they could live with something less desirable for a while and then remodel/add on a bit later. That they had quirky and less cookie-cutter likes in some ways was fun too. I was surprised by the house they chose, but am wondering if the new studio they were building had actually been started already, as there seemed to be a detached building in the back yard they weren't discussing -- I wondered if I'd seen it wrong and it was the (attached) garage, but it didn't seem so. I didn't care enough to look back to check, though.

It is interesting to see different markets and prices, and refreshing to see one where $200K was described as "so much money!" for a house.

The one I saw before this one was St Paul, MN -- guy wanted to live by the hockey rink and make the back yard into an ice rink, and pretended to lie down in the showers.  I thought I saw discussion of it earlier (when I was still just lurking), but couldn't find it.  Anyway, that one bugged me a bit because I thought the guy was actively trying to be a House Hunters character. (I liked the wife, though, and they seemed happy.)  They took the house I preferred, and although the hockey proximity was all they discussed I suspect there was more to the location.

[Gothish520]

On 5/29/2018 at 9:13 AM, Kohola3 said:

Oh, I didn't mean them, I just meant people in general.  I know that when I was trying to buy out my cousins for the property on which our family cottage stood, they thought it was worth 4 times for which it was appraised. One cousin insisted on two more appraisals before he believed it.  Lots of wonderful memories but it doesn't translate to property values!

That's why we got our house for such a great price - 1963 split-level, built by the family that was selling it. Lots of sentimental value, so they overpriced it and came down twice, I think, before it popped up on our radar, after being on the market for quite a while. They had hit their rock-bottom though, and wouldn't budge when we offered less. But, they did take care of a list of repairs quite readily.

[LittleIggy]

Chicago couple: The dog was adorable, not so much the couple. Hubby annoyed me with his “nobody can have lived here before” shit. Wonder how he deals with hotels.

[Pickles]

Chicago couple. It would be hard to buy in the city. So expensive! That first place was nice, but HOA fees were $1300 a month! The place they chose was okay, but seemed so small and boxy to me. Only two bedrooms. I can certainly see why they chose it--HOA was only $130 or something like that, but the wife was already talking about moving in a couple of years. Would you really buy and then sell that quickly again? 

[doodlebug]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Chicago couple. It would be hard to buy in the city. So expensive! That first place was nice, but HOA fees were $1300 a month! The place they chose was okay, but seemed so small and boxy to me. Only two bedrooms. I can certainly see why they chose it--HOA was only $130 or something like that, but the wife was already talking about moving in a couple of years. Would you really buy and then sell that quickly again? 

Apparently, they would, which is a good thing because  the husband seems unaware that oven cleaners are available and it isn't necessary to buy a new oven if the old one gets dirty.  He seemed to have some really significant hangups about living in places that had been previously occupied; he also talked about not liking to use showers that other people had used.  Do they never stay in hotels?  Go to the gym?  Weird guy.

The other reason they are going to want to move in a couple years is because the apartment they chose was very obviously constructed on the cheap.  Those kitchen cabinets were builder's grade pressed cardboard and are going to be falling apart in a couple years.  Just shows how incredibly overpriced the housing market is in Chicago.  They'd better hope that real estate prices continue to rise there because the poor quality of the construction is going to to cause everything to start to look shabby in short order.  

Edited June 2, 2018 by doodlebug

[Pickles]

Doodlebug--I noticed those cheap cabinets too! Seems like they would have been better off going out to the suburbs. He would have a farther commute, but she worked from home. Of course, then they would have been in the thick of city life. 

Would NOT have been in the thick of city life.

[laredhead]

Yes, the Chicago husband had a hangup about unused appliances and showers.  Maybe he has a phobia about germs.  The place they chose was obviously just a postponement of an eventual move to a single family house.  I laughed because the wife was still into walking to restaurants, bars, etc., but I muttered under my breath that they won't be doing nearly as much as that after the baby arrives.  The house in the suburbs might become more attractive to her when the baby begins to walk and a yard can be a great playground.

I wish the agent would have elaborated on what a $1300/month condo fees provides.  If the producers would stop giving recaps at the beginning of each segment, there would be time for things like that.   

[msmarjoribanks]

The "yuck, someone used it before" thing was really weird.

I get told all the time that Chicago is super reasonable compared to many big cities, but of course it depends on what you want (and neighborhood) and what you are comparing it to.  (Last conversation was with someone from Seattle, so yeah.) Brand new construction is going to be more (and agreed about the cabinets), and even with slightly older (which they weren't interested in, I guess) you are going to pay for having the newest, trendiest kitchen design, which is what the wife wanted. You are also going to pay for things like a private roof deck and parking, which wasn't mentioned at all (the final place probably had garage parking, maybe 2 car, middle place might not have had parking).

$1300 in a high rise likely includes utilities, plus the cost of the doorman, elevator, so on. In the other buildings it includes common maintenance only, and their utilities would not have been included. Second one was higher than the third because it was vintage, and of course it was bigger. 

Agree that they should talk about what it provides, and I was at least glad the husband said at the end that the supposedly "highest" price was really the lowest when they added in the HOA.

Buying for a couple of years seems pretty risky given transaction costs, costs of moving, etc., but with brand new construction selling sooner (I'd say in 5 or less) is more likely to preserve the value. One thing I hate about new construction (just as a personal thing, I get why it's popular) is that there's a built in depreciation.   

[LittleIggy]

For $1300/month, they better bring me breakfast in bed and do my laundry! ?

[CruiseDiva]

When snooty husband stuck his nose in the air about the "dirty" oven I noticed that the oven wasn't actually dirty--the racks were simply discolored. They get that way if you leave them in place when you run the "self cleaning" function  of your oven. I know that from first hand experience.

[ByaNose]

On 6/2/2018 at 11:05 AM, Pickles said:

Doodlebug--I noticed those cheap cabinets too! Seems like they would have been better off going out to the suburbs. He would have a farther commute, but she worked from home. Of course, then they would have been in the thick of city life. 

Would NOT have been in the thick of city life.

I was kind of amazed how cheap those cabinets looked. First off, it was an expensive place. Secondly, it’s 2018 and not 1978. When they just installed? Thirdly, the wife was hoping the husband would allow her to fix it up since she caved. Jeez! It sounds like she married a real winner there. Yikes!!!

BTW! If he said it smelled new one more time I was going to hurl. 

Edited June 4, 2018 by ByaNose

[msmarjoribanks]

On 5/23/2018 at 1:39 AM, KAOS Agent said:

For whatever reason, they decided that the husband wanting to live within walking distance of the X was super interesting and kooky when it was really obvious to anyone familiar with the area that they were looking in that specific location because she was a student at the U of MN and her area of study has their classes on the St Paul campus. They took it way too far with the need to nap in the shower and the whole wifi thing and he came off as a total ass, but I suspect he isn't that bad in real life. At least he was cheerful about it all and not rude and condescending unlike some people on this show.

Yes!  I just wrote about this show and knew there were other comments about it somewhere.  My strong suspicion was that there was more to the location (it seemed more downtown) than the hockey thing, and the other two houses seemed quite inconvenient for commuting potentially.  Of course that wasn't quirky enough, so they had to go on about the hockey thing.

And I'd forgotten to comment on the wifi thing, which was super weird and seemed like part of the husband's efforts to be a HH personality (I actually think he seemed probably fine in real life, and I think his wife finds him funny, but he wasn't as amusing as a character as he thought -- not believable).  

[msmarjoribanks]

On 5/25/2018 at 9:16 AM, Kiki620 said:

The Naperville episode last night confused me.  Maybe there were things that weren't conveyed well, such as location of the homes or the true size of the home that they ultimately chose.  But why oh why did they not just stay in what appeared to be their superior current home and upgrade it, instead of electing to basically downgrade and then rehab that house?  The house they chose was plain ugly, on the inside and especially the outside.  I thought maybe they were hiding a financial need to downgrade, but then their reno budget was something absolutely ridiculous like $250k. 

I have a family member in produce sales so I know it can provide a nice living.  But add a stay-at-home Mom, four kids and the cost of living in Naperville to the mix and I was surprised at their high budget. 

Yeah, I was coming here to say something similar and knew it had been talked about.

Apparently their real budget was something like $650K or $700K, since they went with a $425K house (originally $410K) with $250K in planned upgrades.  So why not say that and look at houses based on that budget (the others were, but were presented as way over budget, especially the last), and then explain why they chose the rehab one (or even, gasp!, look at others they would rehab, since that's what they decided to do).  Also, more clarity about what they would get by moving vs. their other house would be nice -- I'm sure there were issues with the other place not addressed (some reason they couldn't add on or rehab it -- they did allude to a lack of lot size), but they didn't address it.

Also, more discussion of specific locations (vs Naperville) might have been nice.  Were they all basically in the same place and just different based on size and style and amenities?  Or were they in distinctly different areas?  (I've been to Naperville since I live in Chicago, but have managed to know very little about it. It's probably not actually full of identical (and equally desirable) subdivisions as it seems in my head.  I'm sure some areas are better for various things and it does exist in two different counties.)

That third house was ridiculously huge (and so not my style). It made me think (in contrast) of a cottage I looked at when looking recently -- 4 upstairs bedrooms (all pretty small) with one bathroom, one other bathroom downstairs. Two of the bedrooms had a jack and jill closet, and yet the family selling (father was retiring, kids all grown up) had raised 4 girls there. Most of the HHers would faint at that prospect.

[Pickles]

The nurse in San Antonio last night. She chose the house without a garage which the realtor noted could be a problem when the nurse decided to sell. The nurse said that a garage meant nothing to her. I guess because she has never had one? Wouldn't it be nice to get your car out of the Texas heat? And have a place to store a mower, lawn equipment, etc? A garage is also nice to have when it is raining and you need to unload groceries. No garage would have been a deal breaker for me. At least she had nowhere to build a pool! Omg. I think she was clueless about the money required to build a pool and then the maintenance costs. 

[laredhead]

Pickles, I thought the same thing about the lack of a garage and the buyer's attitude about not needing one.  Living in an apartment is totally different than living in a single family house with a yard.  She might be planning on hiring a lawn service to cut the yard which would eliminate having to have storage space for a mower and other lawn care equipment, but when you live in a house, things just accumulate and need to be stored somewhere.  She was shown "working" in the back yard, so maybe she bought a small storage shed outside to store potting soil, gardening tools, etc.  I live in south Louisiana and don't have a garage or a carport, and if I were buying my house today it would be a deal breaker.  As I have gotten older and 15 years of having my car sit in the open, pine sap and leaves dropping on it seasonally, and running to and fro in rainy weather (and a few tropical storms and hurricanes), makes me want covered parking more than ever.  Unfortunately, it's expensive to construct and it would be a problem making even a one-car structure fit where it needs to be.   Aside from the unattractive curb appeal of that house where it was obvious the garage had been converted to living space, there was also that busy street next to the house.   

Once again, one of my buyer pet peeves occurred when she was shown an 1,100 sf house and then complained about the size of the rooms.  When she said she wanted to buy a 3 bedroom 2 bath house and the realtor's first choice to show was a 2 bedroom 1 bath house, I would have refused to set foot inside.  Yes, I know this is all scripted, the house probably wasn't for sale, and the realtor is trying to get exposure for houses, but get real.  What buyer would really consider that if they had said they wanted something very different?  I was thinking don't waste my time by showing this.  Surely they could have found another 3/2 to show.    

Edited June 5, 2018 by laredhead
Correct a typo

[Kohola3]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

No garage would have been a deal breaker for me.

I think it's what you are used to.  Neither of my homes has had a garage and I live in northern Michigan.  I have managed very nicely and it would not be a deal breaker for me.  There are work arounds.

[doodlebug]

23 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

I think it's what you are used to.  Neither of my homes has had a garage and I live in northern Michigan.  I have managed very nicely and it would not be a deal breaker for me.  There are work arounds.

True, but I think it matters where you're looking.  In many cities and suburbs, the vast majority of homes have a garage.  Therefore, people buying in those areas are going to expect a garage and, if you don't have one, a potential buyer might cross your place off the list of possibilities.  The realtor said as much when she said that, while the buyer herself didn't want a garage, it could be very important to prospective buyers when she wants to sell the house someday.  Where I live, 99% of the homes have a garage.  A home without a garage is probably going to sit on the market a lot longer than those that have one.

Edited June 6, 2018 by doodlebug

[msmarjoribanks]

I wonder if it's hard to find the decoy houses, as it always seems weird when they go with one that the person obviously won't pick (way out of the price range, 2/1 vs. 3/2 (assuming they could afford a 3/2), completely wrong neighborhood, stuff like that). Plus, when they've shown searches in areas I know I often think there are better options available (the couple of times I've seen them show houses in Oak Park I recall being befuddled by the house chosen to show, and those were both decoys).

One thing that drives me crazy is when they show a house exactly where the person wants it, but a bit small/without all the amenities for at the top end of budget or over and then a house that's FAR below budget and huge with more than the person even asked for (something like 5 bed, 4 bath, an acre of land) that's far from the desired location.  I always wonder if they couldn't find some compromise (which of course is the benefit in real life of looking at more than 3 places).

No garage with a house would be an issue for resale here, but you'd also get it cheaper, and could add one.  If I didn't want one (I did, though) I'd buy one without if I were planning to keep the place long term.

[LittleIggy]

St. Louis: What is a “Sunday Fun Day Car”? ? I liked all three of those houses. My fave was the first. The little doors in the walls of the master in the house mansion they got reminded me of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” where the little evil creatures came out at night. ?Those guys bought a mansion for what I’ve seen people on other episodes buy a mundane fixer upper in California or Boston.

[MsTree]

4 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

What is a “Sunday Fun Day Car”?

He was annoying as hell saying it over & over again...but my guess is a vintage car and/or one that you only take for a leisurely drive once a week on a Sunday (aka Sunday drivers). UGH!

[Empress1]

8 hours ago, LittleIggy said:

St. Louis: What is a “Sunday Fun Day Car”? ? I liked all three of those houses. My fave was the first. The little doors in the walls of the master in the house mansion they got reminded me of “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” where the little evil creatures came out at night. ?Those guys bought a mansion for what I’ve seen people on other episodes buy a mundane fixer upper in California or Boston.

My favorite was the first too. Sunday Funday husband was really annoying though. And yeah, that historic 5000-square-foot house cost almost the same as the 1600-square-foot house with laminate flooring next to a freeway in Orange County a few episodes ago. 

[AZ Curls]

I wanted to punch Sunday Funday husband in the face if he said it one more time. I feel like Modern Mid Century husband (that 2nd house was soooo not Mod Mid Century btw) was the one bringing in the money but Sunday Funday husband was insisting they get what he wants. I mean are etiquette classes really still a thing?! 

[doodlebug]

6 hours ago, MsTree said:

He was annoying as hell saying it over & over again...but my guess is a vintage car and/or one that you only take for a leisurely drive once a week on a Sunday (aka Sunday drivers). UGH!

He thought he was far more clever than he actually was.  And what the heck is it that he does for a living?  He's a professional etiquette expert?  What is that and how many dinner parties can St Louis possibly support?  I think the 'fun day' car is a convertible or a classic car of some sort.

What exactly were the little doors for in the bedroom in the third house?  Do the servants hide in there and jump out when they ring a bell?  I hate to appear dumb, but I have no idea.  However, as far as I am concerned the rooms in that house, especially the master bedroom and living room, were way too big for practical living.  When you've got to run out and buy extraneous furniture to fill the space, you've got too much house.

25 minutes ago, AZ Curls said:

I wanted to punch Sunday Funday husband in the face if he said it one more time. I feel like Modern Mid Century husband (that 2nd house was soooo not Mod Mid Century btw) was the one bringing in the money but Sunday Funday husband was insisting they get what he wants. I mean are etiquette classes really still a thing?! 

I was stunned when the realtor and the guy's mother kept insisting it was mid-century because it was build in the mid 1900's.  That's not the definition of mid-century, fools!  My house was build in 1940 which means it is mid-century, too, by their logic.  By anyone else' logic, my house is a colonial.

[Empress1]

1 hour ago, AZ Curls said:

I wanted to punch Sunday Funday husband in the face if he said it one more time. I feel like Modern Mid Century husband (that 2nd house was soooo not Mod Mid Century btw) was the one bringing in the money but Sunday Funday husband was insisting they get what he wants. I mean are etiquette classes really still a thing?! 

Given that Sunday Funday husband was spending his days decorating the house and flying to Atlanta to buy a table (I am certain they have tables in St. Louis), I agree with you. I'd guess the etiquette classes were a hobby, not a business.

I liked that Mid-Century Modern Husband pointed out that they didn't know enough people in St. Louis to be doing all the entertaining that Sunday Funday Husband wanted to do ... but of course they bought the giant house anyway.

[LittleIggy]

The house they bought would make a great B&B.

What is a “mid-century modern”?

[irisheyes]

I loved the house they bought!  They got a gorgeous, fully restored mansion for $150K under budget!  I knew when they were looking at it that it was the one they bought as soon as I spotted the stacked bricks in the back yard right by where they were talking about putting a garage. Who knows, maybe they’ll decide they want a bunch of kids to fill up the space. ?

[chessiegal]

13 minutes ago, LittleIggy said:

The house they bought would make a great B&B.

What is a “mid-century modern”?

Mid-Century Modern

It is an architectural design movement.

Edited June 6, 2018 by chessiegal

[Kohola3]

I grew up in a house built in 1950 filled with Danish modern furniture.  Trust me, these were not warm and fuzzy places.  All that sharp angled wood - bruised galore!

[Thumper]

9 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

I grew up in a house built in 1950 filled with Danish modern furniture.  Trust me, these were not warm and fuzzy places.  All that sharp angled wood - bruised galore!

I'm with you on that.  The MCM decor (not the homes) looks uncomfortable to me. 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Thumper

[LittleIggy]

On 3/23/2018 at 2:43 PM, hisbunkie said:

Also, they have been together one year?  Nothing said regarding being married. He's a young Sgt. in the Air Force with two children living in another state. She's a registered nurse. She is probably out earning him 2-3x's, yet he seems to want to be in total control.  I just found him annoying. Dude you can only afford $200k, deal with the reality. 

Also a former military wife here.  Primary concern is usually resale. You cannot predict what the housing market will be doing when it's your time to move/sell.  It become costly. Sometimes you make money, sometimes you write a check at the closing. 

I just saw this episode and totally disliked the husband. Yes, he was controlling. Probably why he is 26 years old and divorced (with two kids!). Except for the kitchen they both liked, she didn’t get anything she wanted. It was all about his exercise space. Don’t they have gyms on base?

[msmarjoribanks]

6 hours ago, irisheyes said:

I loved the house they bought!  They got a gorgeous, fully restored mansion for $150K under budget!  I knew when they were looking at it that it was the one they bought as soon as I spotted the stacked bricks in the back yard right by where they were talking about putting a garage. Who knows, maybe they’ll decide they want a bunch of kids to fill up the space. ?

I liked it too, although I agreed with the guy who thought it was going to be a money pit with all the stuff they wanted to do and furnishing it and so on.  Although I think he came around to the idea that it would be fun for them, and I bet it will be.  I wouldn't want something that huge but I'd love to get a cool old vintage mansion that actually is in decent shape for those prices, wow.  Did a quick search of redfin for St. Louis, and it looks like that is the market, at least in some areas, and not areas that appear to be problematic.

Second house wasn't MCM, but I'm not sure Ted (was that his name?) really wanted MCM vs. some kind of mid-century house that felt comfortable (which really seemed to be his thing) and had a lot of windows (the one thing that was at all MCM-ish that he mentioned).  Personally, I had no clue what MCM was 'til I started watching Restored and now I can appreciate the style when well done, but I think it's kind of trendy now and gets used incorrectly (even apart from my theory that HHs tells them to pick a style from certain key words and go on about it). Around here anyway it seems that every furniture place is about about MCM style (even though houses generally aren't remotely MCM, at least not in the city or most of the 'burbs I know), and I've noticed it being trendy on Houzz and so on too.

That Tad didn't go see the middle house on the show seemed like a tip off that they weren't picking it.

I have to admit that overdone as Justin's shtick was I liked them and thought they would be fun.  

[sheetmoss]

On 6/5/2018 at 10:07 PM, LittleIggy said:

St. Louis: What is a “Sunday Fun Day Car”? ?

I think he was talking about a Smart Car

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Fortwo

The etiquette  hubby, I kept thinking about Damian in Mean Girls - Janis: That's Damian, he's almost too gay to function

Oh, yes 2nd house was built in the 50's - but that's totally not what people mean when they want MCM.  That house was more Cape Cod-ish

Edited June 7, 2018 by sheetmoss

[laredhead]

The small doors in the master bedroom of the St. Louis house were for storage spaces under the eaves.  My in-laws house in Pennsylvania had 3 in their bedroom.  They stored small boxes of things in the ones they had.

If anyone on this forum is from St. Louis, perhaps you can chime in about the location of the house.  That looked like commercial establishments across the busy street.  The first house was in a quiet neighborhood.  I was wondering if this house was in a good area, but if it isn't then they paid a lot of $$ for it.  I liked the first house better, but knew they would not buy it because it was furnished and 9 times out of 10 the chosen house is vacant.    

[msmarjoribanks]

I found the place they bought -- seems to be in a neighborhood called Compton Heights, not too far from Lafayette Square, which is where I was seeing some other similar houses in my quick redfin search.  The first one is still for sale, looks like it's in DeBaliviere Place. The busy street was Grand Blvd. (I will repeat my usual plea that it would actually be interesting for me if they talked about the neighborhoods and how they differ when that's a difference that affects housing prices, and just because I think it's an interesting thing to hear about when looking at cities I don't know.)

https://www.redfin.com/MO/St-Louis/3555-Longfellow-Blvd-63104/home/93691143

https://www.redfin.com/MO/St-Louis/50-Waterman-Pl-63112/home/93724355

[laredhead]

Thank you, Msmarjori for the links.  The Redfin link won't let me open it, but if you Google the address a link to Zillow pops up and there are about 70 pix of the house with much more detail than we could see on the show.  There are also pictures of the basement which is huge.  I liked seeing the house as it was furnished by the previous owners.  Looks like they used the large front room as a living area, while the buyers are planning to use it as a dining room with a super long table.  It is an incredible house.  These guys must have some serious $$.  The upkeep and utility costs are going to be steep.     

[BTBAM310]

On 6/5/2018 at 12:27 PM, msmarjoribanks said:

I wonder if it's hard to find the decoy houses, as it always seems weird when they go with one that the person obviously won't pick (way out of the price range, 2/1 vs. 3/2 (assuming they could afford a 3/2), completely wrong neighborhood, stuff like that). Plus, when they've shown searches in areas I know I often think there are better options available (the couple of times I've seen them show houses in Oak Park I recall being befuddled by the house chosen to show, and those were both decoys).

One thing that drives me crazy is when they show a house exactly where the person wants it, but a bit small/without all the amenities for at the top end of budget or over and then a house that's FAR below budget and huge with more than the person even asked for (something like 5 bed, 4 bath, an acre of land) that's far from the desired location.  I always wonder if they couldn't find some compromise (which of course is the benefit in real life of looking at more than 3 places).

No garage with a house would be an issue for resale here, but you'd also get it cheaper, and could add one.  If I didn't want one (I did, though) I'd buy one without if I were planning to keep the place long term.

The thing that drives me nuts is when they show a house that is lived in, which means they obviously won't pick it - especially when two of the three are that way. Is it really that hard to find empty houses? Or do they just put no effort into it because they know they cater to an audience that is mostly too dumb to figure out that the house has already been purchased and this is all a sham? What percentage of people who watch don't know how the show works? There are a lot of stupid people out there, so I'm guessing it's pretty high.