Our house is officially up for sale. You can see the listing here: http://www.utahrealestate.com/951682. We have had a few showings and are receiving positive feedback from agents so far- good news.Last weekend Ian and I started searching for our next home. We are looking for something larger with a larger yard and ideally in the same area we are in now. On Saturday our real estate agent took us out and showed us 8 homes that we were interested in. We learned very quickly that you can't judge a house by it's listing. Real estate agents are expert spin doctors. They can make an ugly kitchen appear charming and can construct a "truthful" sentence about the deplorable condition the bathroom is in that leaves you unaware that an outhouse would be preferable to the indoor facilities.
Here are a few red flags that we have picked up on:
- "Needs a little TLC, but great potential" Translation: I hope you have somewhere else to stay while you work day and night to make this house livable.
- "Kitchen updated in the 80's" Translation: The only remodeling worth mentioning happened over 20 years ago.
- "Great as an investment" Translation: This house is one broken pipe from being condemned. Good luck. If you survive the remodel you might be able to break even by re-selling it.
- "Occupy existing structure or build new" Translation: "Structure" can mean so many things, why do you judge?
yay! Good luck with both buying and selling!
ReplyDeleteMay I also recommend to check the water pressure in faucets and the shower head, and open and shut the windows a few times, and check if the appliances leak before your final offer? Just a handful of things we wish we'd done before closing. :) Oh, the things we'll know better next time...
p.s. I've tried to leave comments on your last several posts, but the comment box would always erase them. :( Just recently found out that firefox is to blame. Sorry you never got any of my witty remarks. Lesson learned for future posts... I'll comment through Safari from now on. :)
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