I can't believe the conditions of some of the homes....

I am AMAZED at the pictures on here of the conditions some of the sellers houses were in while 'showing'! OLD FOOD on the table/stove? Dirty dishes piled high? Naked children running around? What is WRONG with people? I can understand clutter, but for crissakes, CLEAN UP a bit, put some clothes on your kid! Don't they WANT to sell their house?

I guess we just got lucky, but when FI and I looked at homes (we saw about 15) to possibly buy, they were all very clean, and in only ONE the homeowner was actually home.

Julz33 - I can't imagine the looks you and DH must have shared while looking at the house you later bought. You've done a wonderful job so far cleaning it up. I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

Amy

When we first started looking it was hard to look past that stuff. Unfortunately most of the houses in our range were like this. A few of the cleaner ones had major problems ( like a crack in the foundation, mold in the basement). We had to image the house empty and look for potential. I am glad we got this house because we got a great deal. A cleaner one on our block is seling for $30K more, one just sold around the block for $50K more... when we are done with our work we will have a house just as nice and BRAND NEW with spending less money

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Posted by julz33


When we first started looking it was hard to look past that stuff. Unfortunately most of the houses in our range were like this. A few of the cleaner ones had major problems ( like a crack in the foundation, mold in the basement). We had to image the house empty and look for potential. I am glad we got this house because we got a great deal. A cleaner one on our block is seling for $30K more, one just sold around the block for $50K more... when we are done with our work we will have a house just as nice and BRAND NEW with spending less money

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Same with the house DH and I bought. It wasn't in the best condition but it was all cosmetic. There were no problems with our inspection either. Everything was in great condition except for the cosmetic stuff, like painting the entire inside of the house and getting the hard wood floors sanded. The houses that looked really great were about $30,000-50,000 more so we were actually able to afford this house b/c of this.

We did all the painting and stuff ourselves and now the house looks like the other houses goiing for more.

I believe these houses are actully better to buy as long as there is no heating/plumbing/electrical/roof problems because you actually have equity as soon as you buy.

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Posted by LIBrideinBWI

I am AMAZED at the pictures on here of the conditions some of the sellers houses were in while 'showing'! OLD FOOD on the table/stove? Dirty dishes piled high? Naked children running around? What is WRONG with people? I can understand clutter, but for crissakes, CLEAN UP a bit, put some clothes on your kid! Don't they WANT to sell their house?

Amy

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That's the thing - how can they not realize that dirty dishes and odd smells affect the speed at which their house sells? Is the market THAT hot that people can overlook that?

At TWO houses we looked at, we literally had to hold our shirts over our noses b/c the houses reeked so badly.

ETA: At the very least, don't you think you should put away your giant bottle of anal lube???

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Posted by TwoBugs

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Posted by LIBrideinBWI

I am AMAZED at the pictures on here of the conditions some of the sellers houses were in while 'showing'! OLD FOOD on the table/stove? Dirty dishes piled high? Naked children running around? What is WRONG with people? I can understand clutter, but for crissakes, CLEAN UP a bit, put some clothes on your kid! Don't they WANT to sell their house?

Amy

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That's the thing - how can they not realize that dirty dishes and odd smells affect the speed at which their house sells? Is the market THAT hot that people can overlook that?

At TWO houses we looked at, we literally had to hold our shirts over our noses b/c the houses reeked so badly.

ETA: At the very least, don't you think you should put away your giant bottle of anal lube???

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OMG!!!!

Maybe they thought it was a selling feature??

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Posted by christy

I was so discouraged when looking at houses that I gave up and bought a condo. I am hoping for better luck the next time around.

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Me too!

I went into one house with my agent and it looked like a winner on-line and when we walked in holy cow. We didnt know if we were going ot throw up or what there were like 6 women in the house, there were beds on every floor in every room the 'master bedroom' had a china closet in it with china in half and clothing in the other half. There were people sleeping in some of the beds with blankets over their heads. The smell forget about it then the best part of the whole thing was I walked into the bathroom and one of the woman had just taken a shower well there was enough hair on the shower wall to make a wig out of it. The agent didnt see it and I called her back in there to see she almost threw up there was literally a clump of hair that was at least 2 feet long stuck to the wall of the shower. They took us into the other 3 apts with more beds on the floors and people sleeping in them at 3 in the afternoon and one 'apt' had a stove no sink and dirty pots and pans piled up in the bath tub.
The best part was this house was in Wantagh and wantagh school and they were asking about $470,000 for it