beagles,
The house you called amazing.
That is one you should buy.

Agree-the amazing house!

The amazing house.

And please, if you change your mind, do not buy the other house and cut down 300+ fruit trees. For the love of Mother Nature, just keep looking!

Would you have any interest in purchasing both, bring the not-so-great house up to speed and flip it? If not, it would make me nervous to buy next to the not so nice one and I'd probably keep looking. You clearly aren't excited about house #1 and it sounds like you'd be settling with that one. You don't want to settle.

butterfly4u and cyn427, the possible foreclosure next door would not deter you?

allison0704, there is a company that comes and removes the trees. I don't believe they would be cut down but rather transplanted.

funnygirl, it's not feasible for us to buy and rehab. We already own 2 houses, this will be our third. We don't want the headache. Besides, it's not so much that the house needs to be fixed up, the only issues I'm really aware of are that the trim needs to be painted and the lawn is too long. I'm more worried about it being in default and what happens if it is foreclosed and no one buys it and it goes into disrepair.

beagles are you leaving the gorgeous house you recently built???

The foreclosure could be an issue but that's not a given. Do some digging and see if you can find out more about that situation. If the rest of the area is solid, it's an aberration and shouldn't be a long term issue for you.

It sounds like the long-term value of the so-so house is more assured because of its surroundings and location. That makes it the better financial choice. However, if you don't mind taking a risk, then I would go with the amazing house, understanding that the foreclosure house could be an issue for a while and could lower your property's value if it slides into disrepair.

dlm2000, no definitely not! This is a winter house.
It is a small subdivision w/ just 5 houses, so it is not like there's a huge number of homes at issue. Unfortunately, this one happens to be really close to the one we'd be buying, that's the cause for concern. I'll ask my realtor to look more into it and see what she can find out.

Fun2BHere we hope to be here for the next 60+ years or so, so I'm not worried about resale. We bought a winter house in Dec 2012, sold it b/c I didn't like the neighborhood after we moved in and now we're getting another one. I don't wan to go through this again and hope not to be selling any time for a long time.

Seems like the consensus is to take a chance on the amazing house...

I agree, with most of the ladies, to go with the amazing house.

One has a lake view and the other one doesn't. Decision settled.

I can see why you're concerned about the house in default - but look at it this way - no matter which house you purchased there's no guarantee that in the future you might find yourself in a similar situation. Who can predict what circumstances another neighbor might find themselves in.

We have a vacation home in the mountains in a private development. There is a home that is in serious disrepair. No one has lived in it for over 5 years. The town is unable to do anything about it because the owner always pays his taxes at the last possible minute. The owners are in the midst of a nasty divorce and the husband would rather let this house fall down before putting another penny into it. They haven't paid their Homeowner's Association dues and the only recourse the board has is to place a lien on the property.

My vote is the 'amazing' house.

This post was edited by maire_cate on Sun, Oct 5, 14 at 16:10

Definitely the amazing house.

I remember one RE agent said you should never own the most or least expensive home in the neighborhood.

And cutting down 300 trees would be horrible...for the trees and the environment, as well as the budget.

Further, what I've seen happen with foreclosures is the house will go through a temporary terrible state, and then someone will buy it and flip it so it will go from bad to wonderful. If it's on the garage side of your house, it shouldn't be an issue.

From your description, the amazing house has so much going for it...don't let a small distraction keep you from it.

I wouldn't worry too much about the foreclosure. Chances are someone will buy it for a discounted price and put the extra money into fixing it up after that. Also, unless that appears to be a pattern in the neighborhood (frequent foreclosures), you won't be looking at it that much anyway since it is on the. Garage side of your house.

If it is indeed a nice and safe neighborhood, I would go for it. Also, I am not at all a fan of gated communities, but that is just me.

it seems the amazing house has a lot going for it. But breaking it down, the first house seems to fit your lifestyle better.
You are all about your beagles. How great to have walking paths practically outside your door?
Restaurants close by is a big plus as well.

Thanks for all the help.
I've made an offer on the amazing house and it was accepted.
I am flying out tomorrow, we'll go through inspection and hopefully soon I'll be posting for decorating advice!

Thanks ellendi.
I agree the walking path outside the door would have been lovely. I do have that in my PA house, so I figure six months of the year they'll have amazing walking (woods, streams, etc) and the other half of the year, they will have to walk in a neighborhood but will have a fenced yard to play in (which they have not ever had).

In the "amazing' house, we'll be 10 miles from downtown tampa so hopefully we'll find new restaurants we like. (We lived in the St. Pete/Clearwater area before... so I'll be farther from the restaurants we liked in the past, but that just means discovering new places)

We'll see if inspections, etc. go OK. I'm always nervous about this process!

Wishing you the best Beagles. I'm excited for you.

I agree with the amazing house. Better that It is under foreclosure than just sitting neglected. I have a neglected across the street and it is a pain. If the amazing house neighborhood seems to attract decent people, you will be okay. Neighbors are always a crap shoot.

I bought the ugly house in a great location. My neighbors are all wonderful but the house is a lot of work. I think IâÂÂm going to die. But, if I donâÂÂt I will love being able to walk or bike to so many nice places and one of my favorite restaurants is just a little over a mile down the road. Best of luck! WhatâÂÂs meant to be will happen?

Hey, jterrilynn, you've given me a good idea. Maybe I can convince a GW-er to buy the foreclosure house, LOL. Then, I could trust it would be fixed up nicely and I'd have a nice neighbor to discuss decorating and go furniture shopping with!!

dedtired, that's the thing w/ neighbors! I have really great neighbors in PA, and had not-very-good neighbors in my old FL house. There are just five houses in this new neighborhood and the listing specifically mentions "great neighbors" so hopefully everyone is nice.

Welcome to Tampa! Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the area.

(Let me know when you are ready for a list of good restaurants.)

ML

Congratulations! Hope it all goes smoothly and you find that you have marvelous neighbors!

Good luck with your new home, Beagles!

Thanks mtnrdredux.
Now we just wait for inspection.
Here is my (hopefully) new view:

This post was edited by beaglesdoitbetter on Sat, Dec 20, 14 at 0:47

With that room and view, was there really a question?

Good Luck! Can't wait to see more pics. Any chance there are some renovation or decorating projects that you'll need help with in the future? If so, you know where to come.

Thanks. I will post more pics once the house is mine, don't want to post too much yet :) Although it is a corporate relocation so they've already done lots of inspections on the house so there should be no surprises.

I will have a decorating question about furniture arranging w/ a corner fireplace soon :) No renovation needed to this house, thank goodness!

I have a corner fireplace - good luck.

Although it is one of the reasons we loved the house when we first saw it. It is, corner to corner, 6 ' across and 10' high of Squamish rock. I love it but it has been a bane of furniture arrangement.

Here is the room in the new house w/ the corner fireplace (from listing pics) I don't like the way they have the furniture arranged currently b/c it blocks the fireplace totally. It is going to be awkward a little to put the TV somewhere b/c of all the windows.

This post was edited by beaglesdoitbetter on Sat, Dec 20, 14 at 0:48

No renovations huh. If it was my house and it isn;t and if you were to ask, which you aren't - I would imagine, contemplate, think about, throw out the idea of closing up the windows above the fireplace and make it a bit more of a feature. The windows look squished compared to what is above and the fireplace looks squished as well.
However (to myself) not my house!

Having said that - those windows are stunning and all the trees look gorgeous. The light must be amazing.

I agree about the arrangement of the furniture blocking the fireplace. Not the best. I don;t know much about tv placements but can they be placed on a lower stand and still be comfortable for tv watching? It would be nice to beable to clear the window. But once you are in all sorts of ideas will come to you.

I thought about that. And also about possibly having built-ins extend out from the fireplace. We just did so much remodeling in our first FL house and are now undertaking a massive landscape project in PA (construction of screen porch built into the mountain, an additional 640 square feet of patio, outdoor kitchen and 2 streams coming down off the top of the mountain). I don't know if we're up for more renovations. Maybe in a year or so!

(When we're up for renovations again, I want to take cabinets out of the laundry room and make a dog room and I also want to add some built-ins and maybe an outdoor kitchen. So, I guess perhaps I lied about NO renovations, LOL).

Neat house! I might pivot the fpl and face it outdoors, and reclaim some of the wallspace.

But, I agree, one project at a time.