Last weekend, while Kim was catching up on 15 or so hours of sleep, I was poking around on the Internet looking for houses in White Bear Lake to reduce the large amount of commuting I do daily.
I found what seemed to be the perfect house. 2275 Birch St is a 1569 square foot home with a fenced in back yard, 2.5 miles from work, and what looks to be a nice neighborhood with a middle school right down the block.
We made an appointment to see the home today and Kim and I made the 33 mile drive up there. I took some photos outside and immediately noticed some minor damage and wear and tear to the outside of the house. Nothing too terrible but certainly worth noting.
We went inside and met the realtor. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know much about the home and Kim and I had come prepared with the previous sale data and tax info provided by Ramsey County. At first glance the house looks too good to be true. Purchased at $265k less than 3 years ago and now listed at under $225k.
The second I walked into the house I knew that this wouldn’t be getting any offer from us. The most I would have offered after seeing the online listing was $205k (the area is not $225k worthy IMHO) but after seeing the horrible condition that the previous owners (possibly foreclosed on?) had left it, I wouldn’t have offered more than 175k.
There were, what appeared to be, hammer marks in the downstairs bathroom all over the wall. The sinks in all parts of the house were dirty and nasty and would require replacements. The hardwood floors would need to be resurfaced. The carpets would need to be replaced. Tons of spackle and paint would need to be done in every single room. Most of the “closets” were strange little cubbyholes that would need to be redesigned.
The basement was half finished and would need a complete clean up. The unfinished section included a half completed sauna that was missing the hardware to warm up the tiny area. Obviously that would either have to be completed or be torn out (I’d tear it out).
The yard looked nice but I didn’t even bother to look into the detached 1.5 car garage (the realtor had parked her Volvo station wagon in front of it and it was already taking up more than 1/2 the garage area).
I was disappointed. This house could have made my commute less than 4 minutes. I could either bike or walk to work daily and Kim could have use of the one car we own. I could even have co-workers come and pick me up on poor weather days.
Oh well, the search continues :)
See all the pictures from today here (camera).
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