forgotten_aria

( A very long two days, but long story short, we've bought a house in North Reading. )

The first open house was January 29th. 20 days from first seeing the house to closing.

And now the real work begins.

I'm considering going to an open house of a house I've already seen twice. The house basically meets our check list but it doesn't thrill me and the price is still kind of high. There is also a mild concern because the house is perched on the edge of a pond. The back of the house is only about 6ft from the retaining wall which is clearly no longer plumb. There are also multiple foundation cracks. Now, since I'm not an expert I have no clue how much or little to worry about these things, so the question I'm asking anyone reading is:

What things should I look for to try to become more or less worried with this problem?

One cool thing is that I first saw the house about 5 months ago, so if this is a fast moving thing, I'll be able to tell, but I'm betting it's not. The big question is this 13 years of ground movement or 5?

So if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it, or if anyone is bored enough to come along and take a look and be a sounding board... unlikely, I know.

Josam

First he realtor told me I couldn't' take pictures without the home owner's permission, but they let me take select pictures anyway. How many open houses have I been too and it's never been a problem. Nice solid house, very large. I'm still worried about the half stair case to the living room. My knees were having a bad day today and I dreaded walking up them. The realtor, bored, followed me around the entire time, which made me feel rushed and put me off my game. Couldn't really see anything wrong with the house. It had SO much first floor closet space, which was glorious (they were using it as three pantries plus the front hall closet.) Monstrous retaining wall, but it seemed in good condition for now. I could very clearly hear the Montvale ave traffic which was a big issue. I don't know if it was louder because of the rain. If I go back to the house, I should see what it sounds like from the living room window.

old mill

Sadly this house is further out than is ideal. I loved it. I felt so much like I'd left the city. The $1k a year home owner's association worries me a little but the realtor said it was for plowing and maintaining the private road that the houses were on. It had the most perfect setting and master bedroom suite with a reading nook. The open house was mobbed, so I suspect it was priced to sell and will go for more than the asking. It didn't feel too big or too small. But again. I was off my game because there were so many people there and I wanted to hate the house.

I kind of liked this house. It's far too costly, but also weird in ways that I think are good for me and bad for most people. The backyard, for instance isn't just near the pond, it IS the pond. The master bed being only 3 stairs from the first floor would be nice on my bad knees, things like that. The master bed also being nearly windowless would be good for G. Two large hall closets and another two micro-hall closets!

It didn't scream "I am your house" but I liked it. I'm also not sure about the noise from the high school and elementry school, so I will have to research this further if it gets serious.

I think I will definitly be keep an eye on this one and hope all it's weirdnesses makes the price drop enough for it to make sense.

( notes on the houses and things I'm trying to figure out )

So I'm left feeling that what I want isn't what will make me happy. I need to find a way to get my head straight about all this or just give up on a new house.

EDIT: after a long talk with my mother while she reviewed the photos, we found a list of issues with hall house, so it's much easier to give up now.

I did a drive by of the malden house, and it was fine, the neighborhood was quiet, but I didn't feel calm. It was up on top a hill, with short trees. It felt exposed and stark. Also, when I returned the commerical size of malden, the people didn't look happy and the business didn't look fresh. Driving back I thought about it, and I came to two conclusions.

I want to live somewhere pretty and calm. That doesn't mean that it has to be in the middle of nowhere. I find Somerville pretty, and mostly calm (it could be calmer.)

I think I want to live near 93/95 because I'm comfortable with the places those arteries take me. I also don't hate somerville and I think if I lived off the end of 1 I would feel very cut off from the places I'm used to.

Since this is the "forever" house, I'm more than allowed to be picky, even if it's on gut reactions. It does mean the likelyhood of use finding it this cycle gets lower, but only time will tell and it's been pushing us to work on our clutter and our house. I think it's also been forcing us to think about our finances and retirement goals. So it's all good.

The rumor mill gave us a vague, "people are getting screwed by redfin" today, but searching the internet I can't find any horror stories. Anyone heard anything?

Google maps has failed me. It told me a route was 17 minutes when it was closer to 32 minutes in light traffic. This makes the house search thing impossible if I can't trust the route calculations. Even better would be one that could calculated with traffic at a certain time of day.

Does anyone have a favorite route calculator that seems to be accurate on times?

The agent phoned and canceled our viewing for today, since the offer ball was already rolling on the house and we couldn't commit to offering today (though all I said was we couldn't offer until my husband had seen the house, which should have encouraged the viewing, but whatever.) So no house yet, which is fine. We'll be better off buying a house in March and this house didn't cry perfection to me.

I was looking forward to G seeing it, since then I could have had a check that we were on the same page, but he's just as happy not seeing it, so it all works out.