I knew it was Detroit before I flipped to the third photograph. I could not believe the houses that were just walked away from - all shapes, sizes and stages of disrepair. Shame.

Detroit hurts my heart.

Word. Hopefully it's only temporary and this dark time will provide an opportunity for amazing renewal in the coming decades. Sadly, Michigan is not really known for forward thinking any more.

I know. It's the really old ones that get me :(

Yes :(

I read something a little while back about a couple of groups that were trying to do somethings in Detroit. It was something along the lines of just closing down subdivision that had a high rate of abandonment and turning them back into rural/agricultural land. It was an interesting concept that, at least on paper, seemed viable.

I dunno. 40 years of being fucked over by shady Mayors and police is a long time. It's hard for me to see hope when the people in power are the people who created the problem.

Plus, honestly, any solution that federal/state government would probably come up with would likely end up displacing many of the people who live there now - and I don't want to see that.

Anyway. Off to work.

To be fair, Chicago was an amazingly corrupt city for much of the 20th century. You could certainly argue that it still is and I wouldn't bet on a dog in that fight, but with the right alignment things can improve. I'll still hope.

So since it's my very special thread of real estate randomness, I get to tell you random real estate stories!

I've had a number of buyers ask me if they really need to do a home inspection and my answer is always yes. Inspections are paid for by the home buyer. Often buyers are trying to keep their out of pocket costs as low as possible so while they may try to get away without one, I don't recommend it. Up until this week, my advice has always been theoretical but now I have a real, live story of why home inspections are so important!

A few weeks ago, a nice couple came through the ugly wallpaper house during one of my Sunday open houses and, hypnotized by my amazing powers of persuasion, decided that I should help them find the home of their dreams! A few days later, we found one they liked, submitted an offer and the offer was accepted. The next step is a home inspection.

They didn't ask if an inspection was needed because the house had been built in 1945 and could have had some issues. Little did we know the amount of those issues!

A normal inspection on a home of this size takes about 3 hours. The inspector goes through all of the major systems of the house, takes pictures, points out things to the buyers, makes sure stuff works like it should, etc. This inspection took twice that long and the majority of the problems were things that couldn't be seen just by walking through the house.

There were major issues with the electrical systems, the foundation, and water in the crawl space. He found significant damage from termites and carpenter ants. He found old asbestos tiles in the attic, live electrical wires behind the stove in the kitchen and plumbing problems in the downstairs bathroom. Everywhere he looked, that we wouldn't have, there was a problem.

Needless to say, they will not be purchasing this house. The $350 they spent on the inspection may have just saved them tens of thousands of dollars in future repairs.

This is my current dream house. Clicky Clicky

http://dist-cache.windermere.com/pic...ev=2&bg=FFFFFF

I havent used Realtors in many moons but I've bought and sold many properties. My place in Adirondacks, the suggested listing from the one Realtor I did contact was a lot lower then what I got.

anyhow, when i decided to sell my place in Florida it was with 18 acres and unique property. I cant tell you how many were all over it. After 4-6 months of contracts people couldnt get loans for I decided to only do pre-approval, which worked but in the end they decided (the bank) they didnt want to risk rural property that size in the everglades. To make a long story short I finally just said CASH. You must have and prove you have the cash. I was sick of spending so much time showing and giving tours. A guy comes in and buys it cash.

The place I have now I found myself and did seller financing for the first few years then refinanced. In todays real-estate market I would search for seller offers. Get lots of pics, ask the right questions, locate the county GIS maps and reports, see what the value is, taxes, zoning and any permits that had been issued. Compare properties next to it and close by. This is easy to do once you know where you're looking.

Buy a place that is structurally sound. Hire companies that do nothing but inspect. What are they called again? brain clutter. It's like 200 bucks but if you get to the point of offer you'll want this for sure. Then take your time fixing it up and building equity, if thats possible today.

lol- ok final tip, always buy something you know you can afford worse case scenario. Don't rely on two incomes to pay for a house.

I'm still semi-casually looking. There are three within walking distance of my work that I think look interesting/promising.

0.60 miles from work - I really dig that it has a loft bedroom

0.22 miles from work - I kinda hate corner lots, though

0.20 miles from work - this is my favourite of the 3. LOVE the kitchen!

I'd love to tell some stories about the houses that Jack and I viewed while looking for a house in California. :)

I'll start with a little blurb about a house that was completely FULL of trash, dirty diapers, broken glass, and rotting food and the yard has FOUR broken down cars, a chicken coop, and about 100 mounds of trash piled all over the place.

It was built in the 70s, was next to an abandoned lot full of garbage, at the end of an industrial complex, and 2 blocks from railroad tracks.

They wanted over $400,000. :|

God, how much does a NICE house cost in California??

My parents bought their house from the bank, the previous owners has been foreclosed on. I guess the previous owners had been renting it out or something - because there is NO way that people who actually owned the house would treat it like that.

They had a tonne of work to do. There were dirty needles and human feces on the floor, huge holes in the wall, graffiti, etc. Trash everywhere. They had to get these biohazard-ish suits to wear when they went in to clean it up. They got it for next to nothing, though - and since they did all the work themselves they didn't really have to put THAT much money into it. New flooring, drywall, and paint was really all that it needed. Well - that and removing of all the gross stuff.

My dad must really love my mom. My mother wanted that house for 10 years before they bought it - it was down the street from where me and my sister went to school and every time she went by she'd slow down and stare at it. When the house started to go to hell she'd rant for hours about "how could anybody treat that nice house so badly?" I guess when they found out it was for sale though the bank they went and looked at it and my dad was like "oh HELL to the no" but eventually gave it because it was mom's dream home.

It's actually a wicked cute house. Brick bungalow in an older neighborhood. Lots of trees. Too big for my tastes, though.

A word about Detroit
 

I live in Michigan. Granted, I don't live in Detroit, but I spend a lot of time there for work and for fun. I live 90 minutes to the west of the city, to be honest.

Ask most Michiganians about Detroit and you will get a lot of different reactions. Mostly, though, you will hear "it's not that bad."

Yes, a lot of asshat mayors in recent years (with the possible exception of Dennis Archer). A lot of police corruption, true.

And while there are entire sections of the city that are all but abandoned, there are also amazing, amazing parts of the city:

1. The Cultural Center District. The DIA is one of the best art museums in the country. And the African-American History Museum is superb. Not to mention the Max, home of the Detroit Symphony.

2. The Stadium District -- Comerica Park (home of the Detroit Tigers) and Ford Field (home of the hapless Detroit Lions) have spurred a strong resurgence in bars, restaurants, etc. I think there will be more good things to come.

3. Campus Martius Park -- an extraordinary public space in the heart of downtown, with the nearby Compuware Building, which has to be one of the most amazing high-tech office buildings I've ever been in. Campus Martius was recently named the top urban park in the US.

4. The Riverfront -- a lot of hard work has gone in to keeping the Detroit Riverfront PUBLIC, and not pimped out to office buildings and other private development. I'm very proud to have a small role in this through the William G. Milliken State Park, Michigan's first urban state park -- a 31-acre oasis in an urban setting, which is now connected to Eastern Market (another amazing Detroit institution) by the DeQuindre Cut, an amazing walking/jogging/biking trail that connects to sectors of the city. Oh, and by the way? The Detroit River is cleaner than ever thanks to a lot of cooperative environmental remediation. There are now people canoeing, kayaking and fishing on the river all the time. There is a healthy, diverse fishery in the river.

5. Mexicantown -- a buzzing neighborhood filled with great, authentic restaurants, bakeries and shops.

6. There is a thriving arts and music scene in Detroit. There are amazing bookstores. And most of the suburbs offer something cool as well.

I like Detroit. Yeah, it has that gritty feel to it, but the people are real, the food is diverse and good (some of the best Middle Eastern food in the country). There are more than 100 languages spoken in the city, indicative of its multi-culturalism. Don't write it off just yet. Detroit has lots of wounds to heal that go back to the race riots in the 1960s (if not further), but it is not quite down for the count.

Proud Michiganian,
Jake

wtf?
 

I absolutely agree that inspections are essential; unfortunately, although I had one done, it didn't tell me what I needed to know. If the inspector could have looked behind the walls, he would have seen exposed electrical wires, cut beams, and all sorts of things that he would have warned me about. He couldn't see that stuff, however, and found some minor issues with the house I was buying, and so I moved ahead.

Four years later, during bathroom renovations, the beginnings of the problem became evident, when the ceiling was taken out and the beams up to the main joist were exposed -- and they'd been cut, then sistered with 2x4s. Under the shower pan was an exposed outlet. (Yes, an outlet, in the floor, under a shower. Go figure.)

Long story short, a builder who I've known for years came over, pulled some walls down and recommended that I get my kids out of the house if we had more than two inches of snow, because the roof was completely unstable. We planned a "remodel" which really was a complete rebuild, and seven weeks later, knocked the house to the ground.

What. A. Disaster. In taking down the house, we found things that were horrifying, and frankly, it's amazing the house didn't go up in flames prior to the demolition. Frayed, barely connected electrical wires running through the walls. Beams that were cut and didn't reach the joists they should have been attached to. No subflooring at all in the living and dining rooms -- just hardwood laid on beams, over a crawl space. (No wonder it was impossible to keep the house warm in the winter!!) The front wall of the house wasn't attached to anything at all -- literally, it was just sitting on the dirt... but that fact was hidden by the front porch. The list goes on and on...

I'm lucky... I now have a very safe, comfortable home, and nothing awful happened to my family. And of course, I can't blame the home inspector, as he clearly stated that he couldn't guarantee anything he couldn't visually inspect. So yeah, absolutely get a home inspection -- I wouldn't buy a house without one. But beware... there may be hidden issues you don't have any way of knowing about!!

Real estate porn for old house lovers:

http://www.historicproperties.com/

DIY
 

DIY cabin in the woods, for the low, low price of 57K. Only 130 square ft. but it has a little patio. Check out the slides.
And it's only about 6 hours from Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland!


http://img4.sunset.com/i/2010/08/cab...-l.jpg?400:400

The only house on there in Denver is in my neighborhood. Less than a mile, right down the street from me. I pass it regularly. It's lovely but I don't think they'll get their asking price. They really over-improved for the neighborhood. Some of the details in the house are utterly stunning - but really the sort of thing you do only if money is no object and more often if you plan to stay in a house forever.

Holy cow, the old Loeb School in Charlevoix, MI is on there for $259K, which is an utter steal for that part of Michigan. That's where the rich and famous hang out and play, including John and Patsy Ramsey, of JonBenet fame.

Just went and looked at it... soooo cool. I fall in love daily with different houses on this site!!

Ohhhh, wow. My cousin just messaged me on Facebook to tell me that our grandmother's fabulous old home is on the market. My grandmother died about 6 years ago, and hadn't lived in the house for about 10 years prior to that... but I have such incredible memories of spending time in this home as I was growing up...

*sigh*

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...3_M63918-21816

http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetail...Key=1838005521

If you look passed the awful paneling in the kitchen (and I think that paneling actually looks kinda cool if you paint it), passed the industrial superthin shitty carpet, the lack of stove, and the fact that I'm pretty sure this house is a foreclosure...and this house has wicked potential.

It's cute. And the price is very good. I kind of reminds me of the ugly wallpaper house but probably just because they both have the same white siding on the outside and may have been built around the same time. Do all the houses in that area have the same white siding or just the one's you like? Or just the one's that Shana sells because her current listings all kinda looked the same?

The notice posted on the front window says "foreclosure" to me even though I can't read it.

Stoves can be easy to find for cheap. Pull that icky carpet out and lay down some laminate. Paint. Poof.

All of the houses in the neighborhood that I want to live in (called "the tree streets" - cherry, elm, pine...you get the picture) have that same siding. Except sometimes it is blue or yellow. :) That's actually the very specific style of house that I like, that size and from that era. Which is why I'm always posting houses that look almost exactly like that.

Yeah, the white notice in the window TOTALLY screams foreclosure.

When the listing first went up it was 7k more than what it's listed at now. Those fuckers want to sell and they want to sell badly.

I find out some time next week if I get to keep the full-time position that I'm in. If I get to keep it, I'll probably be starting the process cuz I really like the idea of that house. If I don't get to keep full-time then I'll stay in this stupid apartment with no outside space for the time being.

A few years ago, I was working hard to save money for a down payment on a place in Seattle. Got pre-qualified for a loan and even spent a few weekends with a realtor looking at condos. But the First Home Buyers loan I was expecting (it was a house key loan) fell through and I basically gave up. It's the primary reason I don't have a car right now--I was trying to save for the down payment and knew I wouldn't be able to afford the car after buying a place and paying for a mortgage. Anyway, my question is this and it really has nothing to do with everything I just said, but I'm random tonight and this is a special thread of real estate randomness so I'll ask anyway: my parents think it's crazy for a single person to want to own a house, but I don't want to live in a condo. I want land and a teeny tiny little house in the middle of nature. Do you think that's possible? Or just plain stupid.

:stillheart:

cara
who is way too hyped up on sugar and is queen of run-on sentences at the moment.

I don't think it's crazy or silly and I think it's very possible. I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone else right now - with interest rates as low as they are, it's crazy and silly not to buy right now if you can.

As for the house vs condo thing, condo sales right now are hard and I don't see that changing any time soon, so it would be very easy to buy a condo but probably very difficult to resell a condo in the future. You have a much better chance of getting your money back out of a house than you do back out of a condo. Not to mention, with single family home prices as low as they are, why share walls if you don't have to!

We were talking about interest rates the other day (well, as we do most everyday because they are still freakishly low) and my lender sent me some info about how it can take as little as $44,000 of annual household income to qualify for a $250,000 mortgage. If you're even thinking about thinking about buying at some point in the future, it's a good time.

Thanks, Gayla! Just gotta get my confidence back under me and back on track savings-wise. This whole moving to Tacoma thing has really rattled me in a way I wasn't expecting.

:stillheart:

-its very interesting to me seems alot of us are looking for a home -even in this economy and because of it. i have been looking for a home for a year and a half. i have not found anything yet. i have about 3 or 4 areas im looking-cali and pacific northwest example. my experience with agents has been terrible. and i swear if i see one more house with purple carpet im gonna puke. its difficult when ur like me -somewhat hanicapped and have certain things are a must i guess. good luck to us all.

If the economy wasn't what it was I probably wouldn't be looking at all. Houses just are not selling at the moment (at least not where I live) and it's brought the prices down considerably. Even houses that would have gone for 130 this time last year are now listing at 110.

Hey Cara,

I've been a single mom most of my adult life, and I've owned my own little houses with a little yard kinda place for most of it as well. I say absolutely go for it if you want to and can. There's no reason why a single woman shouldn't own a house.

Heck, with the market what it is, I just closed on a short sale in Florida. The process was a total 7 month long nightmare, but the end result was great.

Good luck to you!

Plus I got nosey and looked at listings in Tacoma, and there's like a huge spread in terms of price. I bet you could find something adorable in the neighborhood you want that would be comparable in monthly cost to whatever it is you're paying in rent right now. :)

you rock! :) i don't like Tacoma. my lease is up in 1.5 years, but if i buy a place before then, i won't need to worry about a bad rental history from bailing on my lease. i will move back to Seattle or down to Portland or to my dream city of Port Townsend before buying a house or living in Tacoma again. even though i love my apartment and neighborhood. ;)

:stillheart:

Agreed! :)

For those on the go...
 

I think it's just the cutest! :D

http://lovelylisting.files.wordpress...g?w=500&h=2229

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile..._6468105_n.jpg

Could you imagine trying to sleep next door to theses guys? :|

I have to.