Christopher and I ended up touring five homes thanks to Trulia and Zillow. The first home was a dud. The house was beautiful on the outside but needed a lot of work on the inside, especially the horribly outdated kitchen. The agent who gave us the tour was dating and moving in with the owner who was selling it. Guys, do yourselves a favor and find an agent who does not have ulterior motives.
Real estate agents not only help you find the home you want to buy, but also try to sell you the homes they have taken on as, for lack of a better word, their projects. They can serve as buying and selling agents. If you purchase a home that the real estate agent was trying to sell, they will make double their commission. While this is not always an issue, and in some cases can even be beneficial, the situation with the first home we looked at would have just been a mess.
We thanked the guy and walked away as fast as we could without causing suspicion away from the home. The house is still on the market.
The second home we toured ended up being the "one". But first let me tell you about the rest of the fails.
The third home we visited was actually a well-known historical home. I was really hoping this would be the "one", but the house needs major and I mean MAJOR renovations. The house is basically falling apart. The back door does not have a lock. The floors are coming up. The foundations are shaky. There is still damage from a fire that occurred 150 years ago.
There was also the issue of an (aspiring) historian living in this house. Would I be able to make the home my own or would I feel pressured to keep the home the way it was during the days of the original homeowners?
We passed on this one. The home is still for sale.
The fourth home we toured we thought was going to be the "one". Online it looked like the perfect house for us. This is why touring is so important!
The downstairs of the home was nice. The kitchen of this home as OK. It was not our favorite but it was something we could live with. The upstairs was awful. It was incredibly dark with very few windows. The home had been advertised as a three bedroom, but "two bedroom with a closet-sized room" would have been a more accurate description. Christopher could hardly stand up straight thanks to some slanted walls. The bathroom was a 1970's blue nightmare and would have required a lot of costly renovations.
We were incredibly disappointed and passed.
The second home, our dream home, the "one"- was the house we bought. The home has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garage, a laundry room, a mudroom, a great kitchen, plenty of storage, a bathtub and is on the Penobscot River- all of our wants and needs! The home was originally built in 1898 by what we assume was a wealthy family thanks to our second "servant's" stair and a space that would have served as a parlor room. The home was foreclosed upon a few years ago and was purchased by a construction company that completely renovated the place. The home has a lot of history but is in perfect condition- the best of both worlds. The house also qualified for the rural development loan.
We immediately fell in love with the home when we saw it, but did not want to be too hasty. We scheduled a second tour, hoping we would find some issues with the home. Our second tour made us fall more in love with the house. The day after our second tour, we put an offer on the house....
To find out what happened with our closing, tune in next time!
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