Thursday, October 16, 2008

house hunting

Christian and I have been house hunting in New Jersey for months now! Let me tell you, we are exhausted! We've stumbled across two final homes that we are trying to weigh the pros and cons on.

The first house is an older home with lots of character, but needs a lot of work! It is a four bedroom home, but only has one bath. The kitchen needs a complete overhaul. Every room in the house needs the floors to be sanded and refinished. All the windows need to be replaced, and the basement needs to be worked on because in a corner water comes in creating a mold problem. The positives, its in an area with a great school system. Its an easy commute to the office for Christian and I. The lot size is huge!!!! (60x207) And it's somewhat in our price range.



The second house is just over the town's boarder so its not in the same school district that we wanted. The taxes are VERY high, and although the backyard is pretty it doesn't have a big grassy area for kids to play in. The pros to this house, it is a three unit home. There is the main house that Christian and I would live in has three bedrooms and two full baths. Then it has a "mother-in-law" suite above the garage with one bedroom, one bath and a private entrance that we would rent out. Finally the the entire basement has already been converted into a private office space with 9 rooms. Obviously Christian would move his practice there and we would save money by not paying rent for the space we're in now. The main house doesn't need much work.






(above: in-law suite)


Christian is a little worried about how moving his practice 3 miles will affect his patients, and the taxes are scary for this house. The first house needs so much work and because its an older home who knows what complications we may run into while working on the house. We have some time to think about each as they've both been on the market for quite some time. We'll keep you posted.

4 comments:

Economic Analyst said...

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I would NOT be buying a house! There will be a blog on why you should NOT be buying, shortly.

Oreste said...

Hello Taryn, a salute from Rome. Ciao

Zijuzijazijana said...

I would like to leave my comment here.I'm talking from my own experience of someone who lost entire business and more going into one of deals which looked a lot like this house which needs so much work.Today there is so many houses for sale that you may find something close to the old location to keep patients in the same area and at the same time find something you really want and need,no reason to jump right into it,I think neither one is what you will be happy with and what you really need.

spideybrian said...

I don't know you but I just happened to stumble on your blog. My wife and I just bought a house last year.
I'd take the 2nd house. The last thing you want to do is to spend all of your free time and money fixing up the 1st house. Big bonus on the rental apartment too. It will help out with your payments. Just make sure you can trust the person and have a good contract with all who rent, even if it is a friend. It's just a good "just in case" back up if anything happens. Also, I'm sure you know, but it's a buyers market. You can talk the seller down because I'm sure he/she is desparate to sell. If you're religious, pray about it to see which one would be the best fit. That helps out too.