House hunting and looking

Are they those metal casement windows? They are very problematic.

It may be hard to sell with terrible windows. But I wonder how much new windows would cost?

I don’t think they are metal - I’m guessing old wood windows. With rusty screens. A couple are the ones that are a small window and sort of tilt out with a chain . The woman who loved there rarely opened them because they were so rough. We actually installed an extra a window ac unit in her living room during a heat wave a few summers ago because we were so worried about her. :pensive:

Oh well, it’s out of our hands - as neighbors we just get to sit back and watch what happens!

When we bought our house in 1988, the three bedrooms (which are right next to each other in the same hall) had the same wallpaper and carpeting. I hated that. I put in different carpet in each room and the wall in all three are also different. They match their purpose - office, master bedroom, and teen bedroom (although the teen has been gone for many years).

While you want to be careful not to over-improve a house for the price point and prevailing market, you still want to put in quality materials. Quality materials can be found at various price points. No one wants to put inferior materials in a flip and end up with a catastrophic failure in the structure or materials that ignite and burn quickly in a fire. That’s why flipping is not meant to be done by weekend HGTV watchers. It’s also why there are inspectors who come and check the work along the way.

People who flip regularly for a living undoubtedly have relationships with vendors and can get materials at much better prices than the accountant who flips on the weekends for a hobby and dips into Home Depot to pay retail for his plumbing fixtures and cabinets.

2 Likes

D and SIL found a beautiful house a few months ago. Then they had a home inspector check it. Turned out the lovely family room has neither heating nor cooling. Neither of the 2 fireplaces work. It is cosmetically lovely, but many other big problems. The house was a flip.

They passed and bought another house.

I think this is what happens with flips. They go for what will look good to sell - curb appeal, cosmetic touches, and not what my be more structurally important.

My house is my taste (well my taste years ago when I did much of the changing), but we have not scrimped over the years on the stuff that I think matters. We are looking to sell soon. The first realtor who looked at it was commenting on the wallpaper and carpeting and lack of grey. He does a lot of flips in my town. The second one instead was looking at the amount of space, the recently updated HVAC units, the new roof etc. Guess who I want to work with when I decide to sell?

5 Likes

I just sold my house (under contract). I put the money into things a pre-inspector found and wanted to make sure that the house was structually sound. But all the complaints were (it needed updating). And no, we are not talking about really bad stuff, but I have tile in the kitchen and master bath, and “gasp” have carpeting upstairs. Yes, we conceded on price.
Down the street is a house that is fully upgraded with high end stuff. They are asking 50K more then what I asked. I bet its under contract by end of the weekend. What I observed is that people wants either

  1. no updates done, with price to match, but many times investors are coming in and taking the house to “flip”
  2. or fully updated with the “Greys”, hardwoods/laminate throughout, all systems new, and so on . then you can ask a high price.

Where we are moving , we got tired of the resale market, and are opting for new construction, after looking at probably 30 homes. There was one house we wanted for resale, but went under contract before we could get in. Im tired.

1 Like

My daughter and son-in-law purchased a 1960’s era house in a very desirable neighborhood that we knew needed extensive renos. The sellers did no maintenance and tried to DIY fix problems, like when the 2-story deck completely separated from the house, they tried to reattach it with a thick caulk. They employed the same engineering to the stone fireplace, which also had completely separated from the wall (it may have never been attached). My favorite was when my husband and kids took down the walls and it rained bugs!

They ended up having to take it down to the concrete foundation and walls but luckily my husband does this for a living, so it didn’t phase him. They bought it for low $300’s and un-remodeled homes in their neighborhood are currently selling in the $600-700’s with remodeled homes selling for $900’s & up. I think when all was said & done, they put about $70k into the remodel but it was a gut job. It was a good Covid shut down project - they did most of the work themselves.

6 Likes

Was the first frowning on the lack of grey? I’d say “bless you!” :slight_smile:

When we updated our house (a few years before selling) we painted in different shades of grey. But we chose a light beige carpet and dark brown stained floors. This was at the suggestion of a stager we hired. My sister (a professional designer) agreed with the choices. It turned out looking very modern but not cold.

I do like grey, but too much can be too much.

3 Likes

:100:. I have a couple of rooms painted gray too. But FOR ME it’s a turnoff for every room and floor to be exactly the same - even when a room because of the view or whatever - may SCREAM for something different in floor or lighting or paint!

Clearly some people like all the gray floors, walls, accents. It’s not for me. Or at least use some different shades of gray - and not on the floors! (But again, THAT’S ME!)

H and I were just doing our weekly sit down with Zillow where I show him anything new on the market as we are looking. Homes that I’m not texting the realtor to immediately get us in but homes that show us what’s out there and we learn from in terms of many things.

I prefer wood floors (old oak or pine or maple is :star_struck:!) but I can also appreciate a little carpet in some rooms. But NOT the dining room! Carpet in used dining rooms or bathrooms is ick to me!

4 Likes

Carpet in a bathroom is disgusting! I have only seen it once.

2 Likes

We’ve seen plenty of carpet in bathrooms here, sadly. Ugly and stupid, but as long as there are no restrictions on what can replace it, that was not a deterrent for us (some condo buildings have restrictions on replacing ANY carpets with hard surfaces, we found out - to mitigate potential noise issues for the neighbors).

We rescued our current house from being torn down. A developer would have squeezed at least two homes onto the lot. We are happy with just one. :laughing: We invested ungodly amounts in making this place ours; I documented some of these projects elsewhere in the forum. My first project was repainting of the master bedroom… the dark grey was just not my thing! We have plenty of grey to stare at here in the winter… so that paint had to go. :laughing:

6 Likes

Young friends (in the 20s) recently bought a 1950s/60s house. The bathroom in the basement has carpeting on the floor…and the walls and the ceiling :laughing:!

Soundproofing? :thinking:

1 Like

I recently looked at a flip house.
Cheap laminate gray floors throughout, laid at right angles to the rest of the house in the bedrooms. It surprised me how bad it looked to have the same floors laid differently butted against each other with no threshold. The stairs had different clashing treads, but it may have been a subfloor with plans to put the ugly cheap gray on later.
Two bathrooms, both with showers and no tub. One bath has a direct view to the toilet from the kitchen. Everything is basic big box stuff, but except for the layout they’re not bad.
One closet has a 12" wide door. What??
The entire house is painted in a slightly purple shade of light gray. It probably looked good on the chip.

I do wish them luck in selling.

3 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.