would you buy a house without a garage?
marjen
13 years ago
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camlan
13 years agothisishishouse
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Would you buy next door to a messy house?
Comments (27)Glad this surfaced or I would never have seen it - would appreciate suggestions on what to when it comes time for us to sell. We live next door to a messy house. It was a bit tired looking when we moved in but has steadily gone downhill - way down. It's not abandoned, not in foreclosure, we (and another adjacent neighbor) have tried working with the owners to find solutions but have had no success. We've lived here 22 years, the messy owners have been here quite a bit longer than that. They are elderly but that is not the reason for the mess and disrepair and it does not appear financial resources are a problem - money is spent in other areas that are known to us, but not on the home. There is obviously some degree of mental illness, but nothing that would warrant intervention by an agency. The city has known about this forever. Periodically we and the adjacent neighbor have pushed the city to take action and some issues do get addressed, minimally. But the messy neighbor is a retired lawyer and fights the city endlessly on code verbiage, finding other homes with similar 'violations' that have not been cited. As an example, he finds homes with parkway plantings that are technically against city ordinance as evidence that he should not be cited or fined. His example home will have a grass parkway with city planted trees and owner planted flowers in a bed around the trees. Messy neighbor's parkway has no grass, weeds and invasive ivy overgrowing the sidewalk, multiple owner planted trees that create safety issues seeing oncoming traffic on street and sidewalk. The city limbs up the trees when we complain, the owner plants more each spring and it goes round and round. He has the time and mental acuity to fight the city - it costs him nothing and *seems* to be somewhat of a game. The city has other places to spend money and will not push this as a result. There is no doubt in my mind it would cost a fortune, result in very negative press and PR and likely get nowhere if it actually ended up in court. We always thought we'd outlast them, they would move to a condo or retirement home of some sort and new owners would clean things up before we would need/want to sell. But that has not happened and we are planning to market our home in the near future. The housing market is what it is and we'd have to deal with that regardless, but this neighbor adds to the difficulty. Any ideas???...See MoreWould you show your house without a realtor?
Comments (26)I can surely understand this concept and appreciate it. In this area, however, it's a very typical situation and nobody really gets worked up about it. My listing agent is the only one who is busting her behind trying to move my house and she or one of her close associates are the only ones even motivated enough to show my house in this lousy market. She also knows my house a lot better than somebody having to go to her, so she can come to me. I figure if a buyer feels that strongly about having their own agent, then they wouldn't be knocking on my door looking, or would have already gotten their own agent. I also wouldn't hesitate to refer them to my agent as she has been upfront with me when she could've been otherwise. Even though each person ideally should have an agent not "caught in the middle" I wished she was directly between me and the seller when I used her to buy a property last. There were major communications breakdowns because she was dependent on another realtor to give her prompt and concise information in a timely manner. She ended up being at the listing agents mercy. I came really close to walking on that deal. I think had I been able to negotiate freely with the seller through an intermediary, both the seller and I would have come out ahead. They made a little more off a small purchase on that one, but I was willing to negotiate on a much larger one. Not after that frustration....See MoreWould you buy a sofa without seeing/trying it before?
Comments (15)There are many things we use on a daily basis they we would never hesitate to buy online to save money and time. Furniture is one of those categories that’s on a roll. Many areas in our country simply no longer offer quality furniture at the local level. With the unstable economy of the last decade many furniture stores have been forced to close and manufactures as well. Sometimes shopping local is just not an option. Shopping local is a good thing support your neighbors after all that’s how Americans feed and clothe their families but if you can’t find the quality, style and price you can afford then it’s time to look elsewhere. There are many good and great furniture stores online and many even offer free delivery throughout the US. In fact, many American made furniture manufactures have had no choice but to offer their products through these channels or they would also be facing closing their doors. Today we live in a society that makes many decisions based on what we read in reviews, use them to help you decide. As another post mentioned measure something you have now to find the comfort dimension that fits you and begin your search based on that. If you don’t see inside dimensions listed call the store and find them out. If they cannot be provided, then move on. There are customers for everything just as we have changed or way of banking. Who goes to the bank to make deposits? Its convenience and money saving to make deposits through our phone or online. Use the tools and resources you have at hand and enjoy your furniture shopping experience weather you venture out in search of or relax and do it in the privacy of your home. Feel comfortable with your decision. Trust your gut feeling. You have already sat in product by that manufacture and liked it no reason why any other product they offer should be different. Most better manufactures require you to special order so most all furniture shoppers never get to see their sofa in its entirety until it is actually delivered to their home. If you sit on a floor model, you like be sure when you place your order that you ask for the same seat cushion. But do realize that fabrics and leathers do sit differently so unless you cash and carry from the store it will sit slightly different until it has been used or has a chance to be “broke in”. We see by the continued growth of the huge catalog companies that offer furniture their business continues to grow and this would not be happening if folks did not put their trust in buying furniture site unseen....See MoreWould you buy a house that was rumored to be haunted?
Comments (176)I'm loving reading these stories...better than a book of haunted short stories! When we were house hunting, we went looking at a couple homes that were strange. One house was a foreclosure and empty so we were just looking around the outside by ourselves. It had a breezeway between the garage and the house and was unlocked so I opened the door and went in, as I entered the area, I heard blood curdling screaming which sounded like a group of people screaming. I quickly went out the back screen door being shaken by the screaming. Once out the back door, on the back porch was a dead black bird. I told my husband about the screaming and he was outside and heard absolutely NOTHING. There was no screaming outside...no noises of any people making any sounds could be heard outside. Needless to say, we got the heck out of dodge! Then we were looking at homes with our realtor and when I went inside of one home, I couldn't stay inside of the house. I just had to get out of there. I'd never felt that in a house tour before. I was like "NOPE, cross that one off the list". That house just totally creeped me out! We ended up buying a home across the street and a few homes down from that house. We love our home and it's a bright and cheery home. I even love going down in the basement and piddling around. The only thing here that's happened is every once in a while, we will smell cigarette smoke for a few minutes. Kind of feel like maybe the old man that used to own the home is coming to check on us...or maybe someone is smoking next door and the smell is coming in the house. Most likely...HA! I know some family members that have had real ghostly encounters and they are people that know would never make up stuff. They are also strong Christian people that live wholesome Christian lives. One person in particular is my sister, her husband is a Baptist Preacher and she's straight as an arrow. They lived in a country farm house for a while that was very old when the kids were young. They had chairs slide across the floor in the dining room. The kids had trinkets fly off of shelves across their bedroom. Like they were being thrown at them. My in laws rented a home for a year when they were between homes that they owned. This house had all sorts of weird stuff. The young toddler screaming at what seemed to be nothing but it appeared the child saw something that scared him. The dogs barked at imaginary things. TV would go on and off and change channels when they watched. Things would fly off of counters in the bathroom. They would hear people talking. The worst thing that happened though is during the night, their young son was thrown out of bed and the mattress was thrown on top of him, the clock radio started going with the radio blaring and would not shut off even after they unplugged it. They only stayed for as long as their lease as up. My sister in law blessed the house and put crosses up over all the entrances. It did help. I had spent a few nights in that house and did not feel or see or hear anything but that was after the crosses and blessing....See Morebrickeyee
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