Gorgeous house. It would be hard for me to pass up, but then again, maybe the market will be better for buyers when you are closer to moving? I happen to have a talent for buying at the top of the market.

^What Arapaho Rd said!!!

Nuts, there is no such thing as covered parking on these old homes. The parking spaces are in an alley that runs behind the row. I don't know how i feel about parking. I can't imagine, esp with Uber, that we would use our car much. Keep one in the city and the rest in Maine (where we would build a garage, but not until we are residents so that we can get zoning for an apt over the garage).

Yes!! That is gorgeous. Transfer the money NOW!!!

Buy it!

Arapaho, we just got back from Maine, via Boston, last night. And DD just left for the Boston burbs this morning to visit her middle school pal who relocated there. I'm actually "working" today. If I can move around a volunteer obligation, maybe 2morrow!

You won't want to wait too long, decide it's for you, then find it went to someone else. It might be the one you'll always compare every other listing to, with regrets...the one that got away! It looks wonderful.

It's lovely! But I'm wondering, when it snows, what do you do with the snow on the terrace?

It's beautiful. Can't wait to hear how it looks in person.

Immediately - get moving. You know it won't last and it looks perfect.

So lovely!

But real estate is so crazy these days. One gal I was talking to said one property required a deposit before they would even show it to anyone!

It is crazy.

Can’t wait to hear how the showing went!😉

You had me at the doorway. It looks pristine. We’ll take it!

.....er, you and Mr. Mtn will take it 😊 But we will decorate it for you!

Wow, it is really gorgeous and looks like a perfect location. I hope you get to go check it out.

Gee although it is perfection, I am one who believes that, in love and real estate, timing is everything. so although i might still look at it I likely would wait until everything alined with my time schedule before leaping.

If I didn't need to buy, I'd wait out this market. Homes are personal, and, as a result of this pandemic, many people are assessing everything from their work-life balance to their retirement plans. Financially, the best time to buy has already passed until the dust settles. But if your heart is in it, the best time to buy is now.

Given the housing market in Mass, It think it's already too late. But the outside is beautiful...

You can stop looking, I already bought it because of this thread! LOL.

It has some charming qualities. The lack of windows in the main living spaces would be a deal breaker for me. The only light coming into the kitchen, DR and LR are from those patio doors, looking out to a sunken patio with a tall wooden fence. It looks to be a very dark space. Only the bedrooms are at street level.

Very pretty! Real estate that beautiful will only go up in value!

Czarina, Yup. Totally fair points, but they are simply a given if you want to live in an historic brownstone on the square in Boston's South End, which is our starting point. (or really any historic home in the city... they are all essentially row houses). All of these homes have windows to the front and back, that is it. You can get corner exposures in a modern high rise, but they usually don't have outdoor space or at least not very usable space (IME). Plus modern is not our first choice.

I've kind of learned the taxonomy of these brownstones. They are usually divided into 3 units, each 2 levels. . The only unit that gets a patio, a private street entrance with a garden, and off street parking, in the first level unit. All of those are things I'd prefer.

The top unit is almost always a walk up, and their outdoor space is a roof deck. Roof decks are seldom used, and, unlike a patio, do not add light to the unit. Your view is your view and that is it; with first level units you can curate the vegetation in your view, both when you enter your home, and in the courtyard. The middle unit sometimes is laid out with one large front to back room, which is nice, but they typically have no outdoor space; sometimes a puny deck off the back. This is why I like the first level.

The issue with the first level is that you essentially have street level, and a walk out basement level. Some people put the K and living areas on street level, and the BRs in the basement. The issue with that, though, is your K and dining area no longer access an outdoor space. Instead, the outdoor space is accessed through the MBR (awk). For that reason they usually put the K/greatroom on the basement level, so that it opens onto the terrace. One permutation I liked best was, the K and great room were at street level, and they had a small deck off the back (just enough for a small table and grill), with steps down to the garden terrace. The garden terrace was also accessed from the MBR.

Feathers, I never look at homes as an investment. I'd rather not go through the stress of a "seller's market," but otherwise I don't try to time anything so personal.

Roarah, I have owned three houses once before and it is a pain. So, yeah, the timing isn't good.

Well, it has not sold yet, LOL. Looking at comparables, DOM are usually counted in weeks and not hours for this niche. As of now it looks like we will go see it Friday, when my DD needs to be back in the area to meet with friends planning an overseas trip.

Are there photos of the kitchen and living areas?

While you're in Boston, this one also looks dreamy. .

.buy both--one for GW visitors

Jojo - you are hired. That one is very interesting and I never saw it. TBH after months of looking, i have set my filters at a higher price, and this one would not have made the cut. We will try to fit this one in too!

Just chiming in to say of course you should see it, and if it feels as right when you walk in as it does in the viewing, of course you should buy it.

I'm a big believer that real estate is like finding your true love: sometimes the timing isn't perfect, sometimes it takes some sacrifices and juggling of your life plans and it's always worth it in the end.

I also am a believer that 'just looking' at houses is about the same as when a couple decides to quit using birth control, but insists they aren't trying they are just going to see what happens....new babies and new houses is always what happens LOLOL!

Yes, Running, about babies and houses, exactly.

I saw the listing for my house online, no pictures, and knew it would be mine. Saw it that afternoon and wrote the offer in the living room. And this was the only house my Realtor got to show me.

The power of knowing what you want!

So, what happened?????????

All I can say, after having done it for years and years, is that outdoor alley parking not under cover is a huge negative in a cold climate. And as time goes on, you feel more and more negative about it, removing all the snow and ice and the toll it takes on your car. Remember that scene in Fargo where Frances McDormand's character has to spend ten minutes thawing out her car before she can go investigate a murder crime scene. And all those jokey scenes of people dealing with snow and ice. That will be your life, so plan accordingly.

Pink, that is my life! We live just outside boston and have never had a garage that was suitable for actually parking in. Eh, you get used to it.

We have alway had a garage but never use it for our cars! Most times we hire someone for snow removal.

You can always have someone on hand to shovel and they can do the car as well.

So funny the differences in areas. we have always had a garage and our cars stay in the garage.

That's my life too, and I am used to it, and I loathe it. YMMV. For ten years I had a viable garage to put my car in. I know some folks take that for granted, but many a time in the winter I felt a burst of gratitude and joy when pulling in and out of my garage in the winter. Speaking for me, (and just my .02) garages are now a deal breaker for me in a home. At the very least covered parking. But I have always lived in a northern climate. I suppose if it is just not available in urban Boston there are probably tips and tricks and I suppose if you can afford to live in Boston you can afford to pay for car snow removal . . .

In re parking. Initially, I assumed that these places had no parking at all or you had to roam around and look for a spot; or maybe that it was even like Bklyn, where you have to find a spot, and then move it to the other side of the street every few days, with is infamous Alternate Side of the Street Parking! So I was assuming that we would have to park in a garage. When I lived in NYC for ten years, I paid for a monthly garage.

However, this home has 2 spots, and the HOA covers snow removal, so I'd imagine you could just tip whoever does that to clean your car. Also, TBH, my DH is Mr. Chivalry so the task would never fall to me, and he likes doing that kind of stuff; as a native New Englander her thinks people who can't handle snow-- in shorts no less--are big sissies.

But, why do i need to do anything at all? In this snowy scenario, where am I going? It's not like I have daily commute or kids to drive to school. It's not like i cannot walk to everything or get things delivered? We get lots of snow where we live now and I relish it, in part because I don't commute in it anymore.

I grew up in a house in PA with a 2 car garage, and never once was there a car parked in it. So I well recall the procedures and annoyances of uncovered parking.

My friend used to live in Buffalo. They had an electric mat they put on the windshield to melt the snow, but what a nuisance!

Waiting to hear back from Mtn. Maybe they are busy signing an agreement of sale!

This is going to be a really long post so I am breaking it up into multiple posts for an optical illusion.

We ended up not being able to make it up for Friday's Open House because we were at the dealer trading in our behemoth soccer-mom car and getting a smaller crossover for the kids to use... and then the traffic was bad. So we decided to leave later, stay ON in Boston, get up for the 11am OH, and then get out by noon to get back home to CT where we had company arriving. So a little harried.

We had 4 OH on our list. The first OH I hated. Hated the K, hated the floors, and it felt dark. The second OH bowled me over. It was a WOW from when we set foot, and far surpassed the photos. My DH has never lived in an apartment, ever, and was not initially excited about even looking for this type of home, but as we left and were strolling down the street, he grabbed my arm, turned to me and said "let's make an offer, right now."

We made a list of pros and cons on the way home and the only real cons are 1)we aren't really ready to move and 2) gee those places are crazy expensive.

Here is why we loved it. First of all, as much as I think of these brownstones as cookie cutter (they are all lined up and appear cookie cutter) -- they are not. This one is superior in several respects. This one is unusually wide. For example, the living room is 23x25. This one has an unusually graceful, even elegant, entry for a street-level unit, most of which have a step down at the front door some 4 or 5 steps down (a function of the grade). For me, the curb appeal is off the charts, esp being on a lovely large (oval) square with a fountain). It is also larger than most, with 3BR and an office too. It has the nicest outdoor space I have seen, with a covered area, a nice decking floor, lighting, etc. Inside, the finishes are perfect and lovely. The home is very bright and sunny and in pristine condition. The only thing I would add is more greenery on the patio so more of it is visible from the LR instead or just when you are outside or from the windows above. Also, as much as I love white, it is 100% white except for the lovely wood floors. I mean 100% --- walls, K cabs, marble island (oh wait the perimeter is black countertop)

Wow.

Mtn, is the one you like the one you posted about initially?

I realized that the first OH we went to in this area was 2 years ago now, and that this was our 4th house-hunting-due-diligence trip to this neighborhood. So I feel pretty confident in my understanding of the market.

So my take is as follows. This was the nicest home we have seen, and it felt luxurious from the moment we entered (and before). But our budget has crept up over time, and so it was also the most expensive home we have looked at; no wonder it was so much nicer. My original goal was to spend "x" and this home cost about a 35% more that that.

So the places we have seen on our prior trips are not great comps, since they cost less. What I did was decide to look at neighborhood sales in the past 6 months or so, where the property sold for about where our new fave is listed (we never got to the other two OH!). In most cases, the comps were worse in some ways and better in others. Some I liked better, many i did not like at all.

But I realized a few things. One, not all of these brownstones were divided up the same way (ie 6 floors split into 3 2-floor units). There were some triplex units I really liked. But the biggest thing I realized was that the builder who reno'ed this unit did not leave any period details. Save for the entry, it could all be new construction. And the back garden, while gorgeous, is modern. For me, stylistically, that is a minus. Some other homes i saw still had the old fpl, ornate trims.

But that is the only big minus, and the place has a ton of pros.

The other thing I realized, is that, at our price point, over the last 6-9 months, there were 2 or 3 I'd have been happy to buy. So that is not too bad.

I think we could be very happy there, and it definitely sparks joy. I need to look into the logistics and economics of buying it and then renting it for a year. Honestly though, I would feel much better making this decision at time when we actually planned to move and had already sold our CT home. I hated having 3 homes last time we did this.

Indigo, yes. I planned to see 4 places, while we were there, for research purposes, but the one we loved was the one I posted about that we drove up to see.

Keep us posted. The right house will be there, even if the timing for this one makes you pass. If you rent it out, it will not be in the same condition as it is right now, so that should factor im both financially and love sparkingly .

I am glad you were able to view it. Such a dilemma to have! The right one will be there when you are ready.

One other thing I wanted to mention. It was a 3hr open house. We got there about 40 minutes after it started. When we got there, we stayed about 30+ minutes looking at the home and talking to the agent. No one else was there when we arrived and no one else came. Also, when we signed in, the sign in sheet was empty.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes to sell. As I mentioned earlier, the DOM for other homes i'd looked at it the area was mostly measured in weeks, a few cases months. So I don't think these properties trade in a matter of hours. Which is good, because I refuse to buy a home in a frenzy.

I bought my first house in a lightening fast sellers market in 2004, that famous "housing balloon." I looked at a lot of houses in the area so I knew what was out there, how much it was going for, and what I liked and did not like. Originally I did not want a row house, but my house was affordable so I thought I would take a look. I hadn't spent much time in urban row houses previously. I was prepared to be underwhelmed. I was surprised at how many of my boxes the place ticked. There are advantages to compactness. But also, I sensed solid construction and value for the dollar. Meaning I was paying for the solid bones that could be worked with to suit my style, which was not going to be a permanent feature anyway. The house hadn't been ruined or a lot of cheap stuff slapped on to it that would quickly wear out and become a maintenance problem. So even though I paid more than I wanted to, and more than I should have given the working class neighborhood, the house held most of its value. I didn't lose money. I think if you buy a solid, good house, and nothing weird and unforseen happens in the neighborhood, you can usually recoup most of your investment.

However, I would say that you need to vet the location almost as much as the house. For example, is it in a flood zone and you're just visiting on a dry day? What's the drainage situation around the house? Foundation issues? What's the trend in development in the area? What's the noise factor in the neighborhood, etc. What is happening socially and physically in the other houses around it. It takes a while to get a sense of these things and you have to be willing to take a hard look at them. I blinked a couple of years ago while relocating, because even though the house I looked at in the country was perfect and the road and area pretty nice, the property across the street looked unkempt and a tad scary. Who knows it could have been fine, but in a rural area, one target shooting, firecracker loving ORV driving loud music playing neighbor and you're sunk.

The price was too high. Let’s see what hapoens with a price drop.

TBH, i hope so, but based on comps i dont really think so. i just think the craziness is far more pronounced at other price points; at least that seems to be the case in the other markets i live in/follow. Knowing how I behave at auctions, id be in big trouble if i wanted something in a bidding war situation!

Did you select an agent?

Artemis, you are right about it being nice to move more at leisure!

Eld, I have been thoroughly unimpressed by these OH realtors. I know sometimes OH duty falls to junior folks, but the realtors I ran into were rarely able to answer my questions. The agent on this place was very knowledgeable and very much the soft-sell type. I don't want to hire him because then he will be showing me stuff and if I were ready, I would probably bid on this one. Better not to be tempted.

Hopefully I can find the discipline and self control to keep my eye on the market without buying. Meanwhile DH is still in fave of this one, given it is unusually large and the location he wants.