Buying A House: C or D?

This house belongs to some friends of a friend who are making a career-related exit of Ann Arbor. I'm curious how much of this house's charm is in the furnishing and details and how much is in the house itself.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/705-Madison-Pl_Ann-Arbor_MI_48103_M41457-81517

they've done a great job with furnishings but that is a gorgeous house on its own. i like it more than the columbus one upthread. i went to grad school in ann arbor and would not have guessed that housing is so cheap to buy there.

Yeah I think the house alone is pretty nice, furnishings or not.

My wife went to Michigan and we still know a number of people who live in Ann Arbor, and it's definitely on the list of like 10 places we might consider moving to someday. I'm always shocked at how reasonable housing is when I check out houses there; it seemed so expensive when I had moved there from super brokae-ass Upper Michigan. But compared to where I live now - which is not really that close to Seattle their real estate prices sort of set the norm - it seems super cheap for what you get.

I can imagine that house looks a bit rougher and dated without the furnishings.

The little covered area in back looks new at least. I would do something similar to my house, but the architecture styles would clash and not in a good way.

As firmly anti-Medway as I am, Rochester looks like it has the potential to be nicer than its neighbours.

This property has effectively gone already but I don't know where else you are likely to get well-presented Victorian terraces within 35 minutes of London for a similar price:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-52477610.html

The way the country is going Medway towns are likely to be the nu-Dalston #tomorrowspredictionstoday #dontknowckittillyoutriedit

There is definitely scope for a "new Brighton" at least. I am not sure where else relatively young people are meant to go.

Apparently Ramsgate is the place where art people have been going for the past couple of years.

sv tracing the john harris grand tour through the ukip marginals

Is there anything to do in Camden, NY? Because this sumbitch is only $105K.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/32-Church-St_Camden_NY_13316_M41032-40625

http://p.rdcpix.com/v01/la09d4045-m1xd-w640_h480_q80.jpg

I bet you could get it for free.

Only catch - YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS HAVE TO SPEND A NIGHT ALONE IN IT FIRST.

My guess is there are some big plumbing/electric/mold? problems with it. Ghosts schmosts.

that is one of my dream houses!

that is awful it looks like fishmouth ffs

Almost-realistic dream home is for sale about three miles away, and we are totally not in a position to buy it right now. Frustration.

Going to see a house in Rochester this weekend as part of my ongoing tour of the South-East's angriest white communities.

didn't you just move, Nick?

Just = 2 and a half years ago!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/new-homes-for-sale/property-52744853.html?premiumA=true btw

Same time as us (which is probably why I remember) and we still haven't sorted everything out yet!

That seems like a fantastic price, although i'm basing that on big city prices. My Northey lived right around there and his rent didn't seem that cheap. Weirdly I have the same bed as in the picture.

xp the kitchen and bath in that house are from outer space. nice!

Rydon! Every time I go anywhere near Rydon I think of:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IHpkFOwSEk

Rochester is much nicer than I remember. Definitely geared towards tourism so possibly more outward-looking than Chatham / Gillingham. I only heard one argument about whether the Golly is "just racist because people have made it racist" in the first hour. Saw a pretty nice three-bed terrace for £180k, which seems very cheap less than an hour from London.

UCA has one of its campuses there, so there are a certain amount of ~art students~.

I am selling a house: dud dud dud dud dud

at least right now we have renters so we don't have to deal with preparing it for visits

since we are leaving the country we also get to sell all our stuff! that part isn't so dud since most of what we've acquired isn't worth having

I know this is a stubborn case of depression speaking. But right now I fear my condo will suddenly turn into a massive money pit/liability magnet. Therefore, dud.

I appear to have viewed a house, had an offer accepted and arranged a mortgage in four days. It has all been such a blur i can barely remember what the place looks like. I think it was nice though. It's a small Victorian two-bed terraced in a very nice town within commuting distance of London.

Hooray!

A house down the street from us in North Oakland sold for $250K over the asking price. That's been going on in SF for a while but to see it here is just like WTF. Then as it turns out the buyers already owned a house around the corner- they just 'loved this one so much'... and I'm sitting here wondering jesus christ how much money do you people have, and if you have it why do you choose to live in this JUST OK neighborhood?

so gross

so so so so gross

a QUARTER MILLION over asking price, fuck

All I can say is that we got very, very lucky 4 years ago, although it hasn't always felt that way. But seeing the housing horizon just implode from an affordability perspective has shifted my thinking tremendously. Our 2011 money would barely afford deep east oakland or maybe richmond now. And as for all my colleagues who had great rent deals in the city...they're moving to San Leandro.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2921-Livingston-Ave_Fort-Worth_TX_76110_M76143-54808?row=1

this house is still on the market over three months, worse houses have sold in the same price range, makes me wonder what horrors can't be seen from real estate photos.

Debating what to do - I'm aggressively selling off excess crap and saving a lot (not smoking and avoiding bars because of that is excellent for my checking account), so in a month or two I'll either be in a position to make a real down payment on a house (nearly 20% of something in the $125-140k range) or pay off all my debts (credit card, student loans). The latter is probably smarter but I'd have to start all over again saving?

Say you made an offer and got the place- would you be able to afford monthly student loan minimums and and decent size CC payments? I'd say the credit card debt is more vital to pay off than student loans, but that's just my experience. As long as you don't have to put the loans into perpetual deferment & just pay CC minimum payments, I'd say go for the place.

Yeah, the credit cards/etc. would continue getting paid down at the rate I have been (a mortgage under $125k would mean I'm paying less overall than rent), it's more a "gee, I could owe no one on Earth anything!" feeling if I go that route.

I was in the place before I bought a house, for about a whole year even. Having a house is better!

the place=that place

so jeal of people for whom buying a house is an option.

I live in southern california I will never own a house

tbh 90% of the homeowners I know (including myself) live in small boring towns for job reasons where having your own private affordable domain comes at the expense of art / theater / exciting new restaurants / diversity / museums / touring bands / and all other big city amenities.

congrats ShariVari. It's mental that buying a house is the biggest purchase of your like yet you probably spend longer looking at a new pair of jeans before buying.

Fort Worth has a million people so it isn't quite on the small boring town side (though it's not super exciting tbh) but it is 120F four months out of the year.

this house is still on the market over three months, worse houses have sold in the same price range, makes me wonder what horrors can't be seen from real estate photos.

Here's what that house looked like at this time last year. It was foreclosed on and rehabbed. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but you would definitely want a very very good inspector to look it over thoroughly to make sure the rehabbers did a quality job as it obviously was not well maintained prior to the foreclosure. Looks fine cosmetically but a lot of serious issues could be hidden.

Layout seems a bit odd too, with that wall right up against the front door and the bedroom off the kitchen. Thinking it might've originally been a two bedroom.

http://scoot.net/gallery/bbs/livingston.jpg

I wouldn't even think of buying a home if I had any credit card debt.

xp to sparkle motion: i live on the border of oakland/emeryville, near the old emeryville high school, and a house one street over just sold for something like 750k. it was a cute house but still. every year that goes by, the idea of ever owning a house just gets more and more unlikely.

I drive through holby hills in beverly hills all the time on my way back from work and get to see 20m houses sold, bought, torn down, and replaced with something even more opulent. its rough.

ugh holmby

just1ne I lived in emeryville for like 6 weeks... 750k is crazy!