I’ve been getting the home-owner ache lately. A bunch of people I know are in the process of buying houses, condos or renovating and its like hanging a carrot in front of my face. Not that I don’t appreciate where we are now. Its beautiful out in the country, our rent is relatively low compared to the market, the dogs have a built in “Uncle John” who plays with them during the day and will take care of them in the event we need a night out, and if something happens to the plumbing, we don’t have to pay to fix it.
But, there is something to be said about owning your own home. The freedom of parking where you want, to paint your walls, to dance naked in the living room without fear the landlord is stopping by to fix a lightbulb...
Our goal is to start actively looking in the fall, because we'll have a better idea as to where we'll be econimically and educationally. And, I’ve been pretty good about not looking. I deleted my Realtor.com bookmark to avoid temptation, I quickly pass the real estate sections of the newspaper, and I use all the will power I have to not pick up real estate magazines like Upstate House and Doorways (which is doubly hard, because one of the free distribution points is in my companies lobby).
Last week, I had a relapse. I was fed up with renting and having to essentially give someone else money to pay their mortgage, and countless other little things that have picking at my sanity. I snapped. I seamlessly went from my online class to realtor.com and put in all the information that interested me. I rationalized it to think that I was doing research on the market in the area we think we might move to. Within seconds there were over 10 pages of listings. Fixer-uppers, move in conditions and land! I was amazed at all of our options! A few years ago I would have gotten 1 page of tare downs or trailers! There looks like there's a lot of potential out there for the next Gilday Manor.
One in particular caught my eye, and I even emailed the listing to the Husband. It had 1.5 acres of land, beautiful hardwood wood floors, and built in 1900 with lots of period character I’m a sucker for. But, after further investigation it turned out that there was only parking for 2 cars on the side of a busy road, and the way the plot was laid out there was no way to cut in and add a driveway. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to have a house in the country, there better be a driveway for my car. It’s just a deal breaker for me.
Maybe the next time I snap and pop online to realtor.com “the house” will be there waiting. With the driveway and a fenced in yard. Oh..… and a fireplace…. and hardwood floors… and a garage… and….. a tree house! .... and studio space..... blue stone patio.... a popcorn machine....
1 comment:
If my somewhat brief (so far) tenure in real estate has taught me anything, it's that if there's enough land there's always options. 1.5 acres is a lot of land.
Check the local set-back regulations, there may still be an option for a driveway. Hell, even if the house position makes it unlikely to conform to the rules, you might be able to swing it with a variance of some sort...
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