So, the GF and I are looking for a new house- I've just WAY outgrown my current place's garage and am looking for a bigger one (or a place with the space and setup to build one), and my GF's place is WAY too small overall. Yesterday was our second day of going out and looking at houses and looked at 5 houses. We were supposed to go see 6, but one was put under contract between when we give the list of places we were interested in and when we actually went out.
The first place was listed for the most money- but upon arriving found that it was a) a short-sale house and b) the previous occupants had not only taken all of the appliances with them, but had also ripped out what likely was a fairly nice built-in grill out on the patio. There was rat poison out, and apparently a small lizard had gotten into it and died in the middle of the living room. This house was the one that my GF had most been interested in, but was almost immediately turned off to it due to the condition and the lizard. For my part, I'd known there was very little chance it would work- and I had come prepared this time out by bringing along an ultrasonic measuring device so I would in a minute or so point out the exact dimensions of the garage and compare that to my current one. Being able to say, "Despite them calling it a two-car garage, this one is the same width and only 2 feet deeper than my house's garage is," is much more effective and harder to argue with than, "This garage is too small." Given it was a relatively new house, I expected this though- I have yet to see a house built in this century with a built-in garage that was actually remotely big enough.
The second house was to our surprise actually the best of this crop, and the only one to survive being viewed in person and remain on our list of considerations. It was also one of the only places where I felt like the sellers had actually put a good bit of effort into fixing the place up to sell- almost every other house we've looked at has failed in this respect. A bit smaller than I might like, but laid out well and with some rather nice features. No basement unfortunately, as I really like basements. Garage-wise, it had the most potential- the garage was fairly large (20x25), but was also detached and constructed in such a way that it would likely be comparatively easy to either enlarge it, raise the roof enough to fit a lift, or both. GF loved that the deck was accessed via the master suite, and has designs to put in a hot tub on the deck if we end up with this place. Price was a bit higher than I think I'd want to pay for the size of the house, but I'd probably not lowball them too much if my place sells for a decent amount since even at the asking price mine should sell for enough to bring in the 20% down payment on it.
Third house was a bit of a let-down after the second- it was the one I was the most interested in, but ultimately it just ended up being too much for us to think we'd want to deal with both in regards to the house itself and the yard (which included a pond...). Realtor laughed for a good while at the GF's comment, "This house would be perfect for a family with 8 kids- and we are NOT going to have 8 kids...". Garage was not too bad- bigger than mine and large enough to rate a 2-car description, but not as big as the previous one and since it was attached much harder to modify. The house and yard had some nice aspects to them, but with a cost that was up at the top end of what we've been looking at and not enough things that really grabbed us. You don't see many places with like 13-14 foot ceilings in the BASEMENT though...
Fourth house was a considerable disappointment- the seller (or their agent...) obviously has a wildly different thought on what constitutes 'move-in ready' than what we think. For example, being halfway through replacing cabinets definitely is NOT 'move-in ready'. Nor is having a number of brand-new windows installed, but having very noticeable unaddressed water damage on the frames above said windows. The place was HUGE though, and with like 6 bedrooms. We walked out of it saying that it was the perfect house- if you were looking to start a small fraternity or a university dormitory. Garage was pretty much worthless too- what little of it there was had been converted into a workshop with lots of wooden shelves in the middle.
Final house had some good potential- but just didn't ring either of our bells. Didn't show very well since the previous occupants (presumably owners) were seemingly halfway through moving out and there was not only random furniture but clothes, boxes, and lots of other random personal effects. If nothing else it made me all the more glad I'd gone the route of moving everything not being used to stage the house into storage. Overall it wasn't a bad place- it had a good bit of room (very similar style and layout to my house, but larger), the garage wasn't bad- but attached and thus harder to modify/enlarge, and had more smaller rooms vs. fewer, larger rooms like my house has and that we both prefer.
So, the house hunt continues. It can't really END yet anyway since I don't plan to buy a place until my current house is sold, but we've also not found anything that has really lit us on fire about it yet either...
