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Fri 4 Aug, 2006 03:16 pm
I fell in love with a house in Concord, MA last year. The asking price was $600,000. It was 100 years old, structurally sound, with decent systems. There were technically seven rooms and unfinished attic and two baths, contained in 1800 sq ft on a 11,000 sq ft lot. No garage.
I liked it because it did not have the dreaded marble counters and a jacuzzi.
It was the right size and the architecture was fine.
Last week, I looked at two houses on 4,762 sq ft lots.
Both had marble counters and poorly designed kitchens.
One was $565,000. It had five rooms. Three tiny bedrooms were upstairs but no bath!!!!
The other was $583,000. It also had three bedrooms up and one ugly bath. Downstairs were kitchen, dining, living and laundry rooms, along with a very awkward breakfast nook.
I could not understand why these houses were almost as much as the other one!
I agree with Osso...Location, location, location.
My mothers house is an 1800 sq ft home, on a 30,000 sq ft lot...very well built, not quite 50 years old. It's value is less than 100,000, even though it is practically brand new, inside and out.
When they list a house they run comps, searching for what equivalent places sold for in that particular neighborhood. (Excuse me if you already know this). Within a neighborhood specific location can matter..., and within a city, neighborhhod can matter, within a region..., and so on.
No, all three houses are in the same neighborhood: location is not an issue.
The real difference seemed to be the ugly marble counters in the kitchen.
Consider, one of those houses did not have a bathroom on the floor on which the bedrooms were located. The couple put their rehab dollars into marble counters and converted a garage-like structure into an office.
BBB
Anyone planning to replace their asphalt-fiberglass shingle roof will be in for world class sticker shock.
With oil pricing racing upward, roofing material, which is oil-based, will be double and triple the cost of a couple of years ago.
BBB
One of the morning magazine shows did an analysis of the cost of replacing a roof recently. I liked the new synthetic material that looks like slate, but is much lighter in weight and lasts longer than standard shingles.
Am going tin. I've had issues with parts of my roof due to poor construction (part is not sloped enough) and I'd like to fix it once and for all. Tin isn't cheap but done right it ought to last forever and look good.
Oh and personally I like granite countertops. I've got the old standard stuff with a wood edge and wished I had spent more for the good stuff. It scratches, can burn, and I have to maintain the wood edge. I'll do it right in the new bathroom
BLK -- I dislike fads and I think granite and other stone tops will vanish the way stained glass windows on upper cabinet doors did. I also like kitchens to blend with the period of the house. For instance, I wanted to buy (and hope somehow I can), a house built just at the beginning of the 20th C. With that style, you can have simple wood cabinets with latches that reach to the ceiling or Hoosier-style or Arts and Crafts cabinets. Counter tops could be honed stone, but not the glitzy sort we use today. I would have preferred the simple, white painted wood to the ceiling, with one bank of cabinets with butcher block and the other bank with stainless steel.
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