Overall I think it went well. We saw 10 houses from $90,000 down to $40,000 and were excited about 3. The total time we spent was probably 3 hours, but it felt like less than that. Our realtor was able to point out a few things that we didn't really think of and we both learned a lot about looking for a home.
No Diamonds in the Rough
First, if you are looking for a house in the $40,000 range in Royal Oak, Ferndale or Berkley good luck. The houses that we looked at for that price were old rental units, sometimes split into a two-family home. They had not been taken care of very well and had obvious structural shortcomings. One of the homes had a hardwood floor in the kitchen that was so slanted that when my fiance put her chapstick on the ground it rolled all the way to the wall. There were cracks in the walls of these houses and they needed a lot of work done inside and out. We would love to spend this much on a home that needs minor repairs and we are not going to give up on finding one for this price but it has proved as tough as I thought it would be.
Mid-Majors (in honor of the tournament)
Next, we looked at a few homes in the $70,000 price range. These houses needed some inside and outside repairs but nothing major. This was also the price range that the 3 houses we liked were in.
The first house that we liked was located on Maplehurst in Ferndale. This is just north of the Woodward Ave. and 9 mile intersection, which is the heart of downtown Ferndale. The house is not impressive from the outside. We had actually driven by this house before and dismissed it based on the front. But on the inside it was a totally different story. The house had been completely redone... from the floors to the counters to an added on living room and new paint the house was great on the inside. We were also excited about the back yard. It stretched pretty far back giving us room to do gardening or put in a pool later down the road. Plus it had a two garage, something we are looking for now but hadn't thought of before this trip out.
There was one draw back. The bedrooms. Now we don't think we need a huge master suite for a bedroom but this house was seriously lacking in the bedroom space. There were two TINY rooms that would barely fit the bed we have now (a queen size). And we are thinking of upgrading to a king size, but not in this house.
The second house that we liked was located in a similar area in Ferndale on Beaufield. We call it the Granny because of the decorations inside and the 1950's bright pink gas stove that greeted us as we walked in the side door. This house was again not very impressive on the outside but on the inside the house boasted large living rooms and bedrooms, including a Florida room, which is a separate room attached to the house by a sliding door through one of the other rooms. The two rooms could be used as one bedroom together or a bedroom connected to an office. Also, the house had an upstairs bedroom.
The best part of Granny's house was the basement. Finished basement with a wet bar... enough said. I told my fiance that one requirement I had was guy's room where my friends and I could go and be guys and do guy things without disturbing my future wife and her nice house. My fiance would of course be welcome in the guy's room, but the decorating is up to me.
One drawback to this house was the kitchen. It was outdated and also very small. We would have to do new cabinets and counters and also install a dishwasher.
The third house we liked was closer to downtown Ferndale. Located on Leroy St. it was a mere 50 yards to downtown. It looked great on the outside but was small inside. The bedrooms were small and did not have much closet space (also something to look out for). Apparently most of the older homes in the Ferndale area don't have closet space for the average person. I don't know why this is but maybe people back then put their clothes in drawers and not closets... who knows? This house also featured a wacky upstairs. No rooms but a huge open room that took up the entire top floor. The only problem was that the ceiling was A shaped and I wasn't able to stand up straight even in the middle of the room. Most likely this would be a good storage space for all our junk.
Over priced and unimpressive
The last category of houses we looked at were in the $90,000 price range and had mostly been redone on the inside and did not require any outside work or were on the high end of square footage. So we thought that these would be the ones that we would be drooling over. But we were not impressed. Yes, there was evidence of updates inside the houses and yes they looked good on the outside but not for the price tag. In one home in particular they had redone the kitchen and the bathroom, but the other rooms did not match the updates and the juxtaposition was unattractive. Plus with the high price tag we would not have any extra money we are planning on using to update the way we want. Our realtor warned us that sometimes houses like these are bought by realtors or investors in order to update and then sell quickly for a profit. This process is called "flipping" and may not be the best option for a first time home buyer. Since only two rooms in this house were updated it is possible that whoever was flipping this house ran out of money before being able to get to the other rooms.
Lessons learned
We learned a lot on Friday and I wanted to sum it up in this last section.
1. Look at the inside of the house... even if you don't like the outside.
2. Consider closet space and cupboard space. We hadn't before.
3. Look in the basement. Check the furnace and when it was made. Make sure you check for water or puddles in the basement. Also check for possible guy rooms and wet bars!
4. Check the bathrooms - Many of the houses we looked at said they had 1.5 bathrooms, but the second toilet was in the corner of the basement totally out of the way.
5. Look at the ceilings. Check for water stains, leaks or cracks, don't just look at the size of the rooms
6. Take a realtor with you. They can point out things that you might be overlooking.
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