I’ve talked before about wanting to downsize. With the impact that COVID has had on the speaking industry, that desire has grown. So much so, that today I called a realtor and looked at a house I saw on Zillow.
This house is in a great neighborhood and has mature trees on a large lot. The asking price is a bit more than $100k less than I hope to get for where I live now. I can’t tell you how close I came to making an offer! But 12-hours later, those two things just mentioned are the only real attributes I can even think of.
The kitchen is TINY and has no dishwasher. All the windows are single pane and there’s also a sliding glass door that would have to go. Every shrub surrounding the house is overgrown and would need removed. The outside is partly ugly brick and partly blue wood siding that would require paint.
One room in the tri-level house has had water standing at some point. There are some rooms with dark wood paneling and drop ceilings. All the light fixtures are 1960/70ish. The carpets are bright colors and the kitchen has linoleum. And… get this… the attached garage has no direct entrance into the house. I’d have to drop a minimum of $40k.
Yes, the house would work — and yes, when finished it might be worth more than what I would have invested. But that’s a maybe also dependent upon the housing market. This one time I didn’t make an impulsive decision is probably a good thing.
I’ll just keep looking… and be happy that Zillow and Realtor dot com don’t charge per click.