House Hunting Saga....Part 2

So our agent(the daughter of the agents we went to see houses in Texas with), is licensed in Louisiana so we began an earnest house hunt around where my daughter lives in LA.  

We calculated that without having the funds from selling our house in PA, we had about $200K in liquid savings to put toward a house down in Louisiana.  That amount would include any closing costs, etc. and we would NOT buy something that meant we needed a mortgage.(Haven't had one of those since the mid 2000's when we paid off that house in PA.)

So our agent took us around to houses on the market that met our general requirements.  They were all over the map in terms of size, condition of house, land size and price.  Plus this was mid September in Louisiana and only two of the houses were currently occupied so two houses meant we were sweating out asses off! 8-)

The first house we saw was out in the country in a town called Benton, a 35 min. drive from out daughter's house.  Nice area but in the middle of nowhere.  It was a manufactured home, older(20 years?)but had been maintained well.  They had a strange shed next to it and the carport they were disassembling and taking with them when they moved.  The house sat on 2 acres but it was situated at a strange angle on the land.  Part of the land was across a creek too with no access to it other than jumping there or building a small bridge(which we would have had to do).  The house was 1,800 sq, ft,, 23 years old and they had priced it at $185K.  Other than the land strangeness and no garage it was acceptable until....until we were walking around the property and we heard someone playing a drum set rather loudly in the middle of a work day.  Hubs didn't notice it at first(he's one of those folks who don't notice stuff sometimes. lol)until I brought it to his attention.  So we told the agent we'd keep it on the list as a possibility for now but we wanted to see other properties.
*  Later the agent let us know that the drummer was a neighbor young adult who was in a local band that played gigs and practiced in his parents barn or pole building near the house we were considering, according to the homeowner of the house we had been looking at.  That fact put a big NO on this house since we like the quietness of the area but having that sort of noise(pretty loud since it was at least 2 acres away)on a regular basis was a deal killer.  It looks like it sold 28 Nov.

The next property was in the same little town, 3 bedroom, 2.5 baths manufactured home, 1,760 sq. ft. and 16 years old, on 1.6 acres for an asking price of $199,900.  It was vacant and supposedly had been updated(new vinyl plank flooring, carpeting, new kitchen counters and paint throughout.  The layout was weird, the counters(which were formica not an upgrade)and stove in the kitchen seemed higher than normal(not good for a short person lol).  It also had a wood burning fireplace which strikes me as strange this far South. The best thing about this house was the 1,200 sq. ft. shop/garage that was included.  It had a high ceiling with 2 10 ft. rollup bay doors and electricity.  Obviously someone had run a repair shop out of it or such.

I found this penny in the shop/garage but this wasn't the house for us.  I think the shop was nicer than the house. :-)  This house sold Dec. 30th and from the photos still on the listing it looks like they did a bit more work to it.  https://www.zillow.com/homes/220-Cypress-Lake-Cir-Benton,-LA-71006_rb/109807057_zpid/?mmlb=g,29
I hope they carted off the burn pile outside the back door too that was there when we saw it.  We've found out that many homes here for sale have these piles of debris on the properties where folks burn their trash(and sometimes try to burn things you can't like plastic!lol)when they are not in the city proper and don't have city garbage pick-up service.

The last house we saw that day was a possibility but with issues.  It was a MCM home(stick built in 1955).  It was a lot closer to daughter's house plus near shopping north of town.  Sq. Footage of 2,132 but on not quite .50 of an acre.  The house was a dream! with all the mid-century modern charm and was well maintained.  It had 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths a large backyard flagstone patio/veranda that the house wrapped around and lots of windows.  A small living room and a large den which you could have done a lot with.  The asking price was $185K.  I fell in love with this one except for the lack of property.  You could reach out and touch the house next door in the backyard.  It was in an older subdivision.  The backyard slopped downward and had 2 sheds on it and a few very tall dead trees at the back of the property.  It would have cost a lot to have those trees taken down.  This is tornado country and those trees were a hazard waiting to happen.  I was so torn on this one.  It was on the market because the husband was stationed at the local Air Force base and was being transferred out of the area  so they were looking for a quick sale.

Here is the listing for when those owners had bought this house with photos.......

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/767-Livingston-Ave-Shreveport-LA-71107/51381697_zpid/?

This house was definitely on the list even without the land we wanted.

The last house we saw that day was nearby, another stick built one from 1990.  It was 1,663 sq. ft. with 3 bedrooms//2 baths on over 1 acre.  The listing said it had a new roof and new water heater, both in the last 2 years and the home needed updating and had appraised  $50K higher than the asking price of $195K.

As we approached the house I noticed it sat in a depression(a low spot)on the land.  There was a house near the driveway on the right of the house so the house wasn't anywhere near the middle of the lot.  The large front yard slopped down from the road and the house was vacant.  There was at least one pecan tree on the lot as I saw this walking up to the front door.....

A pecan tree on the property was a plus in my book.  But that didn't make up for the house.  There was a notice from the sewage/water company that the utilities should NOT be turned on as the people who owned the house has NOT paid their utility bills for gosh knows how long!  Once we got into the house you could see it hadn't been updated inside since the 1970's(avocado appliances much?!)and the place smelled of must and mold.  It was a hard NO!  Nonetheless it still sold 18 Nov. I suppose they cleaned it up and paid their utility bills to get this one sold.  Goodbye pecan tree.............sigh.

That was our first day of looking.  More to follow........

Sluggy

The House Hunting Saga-Part 1

Not the house we bought. lolz

So Hubs and I were in no hurry to buy a house in Louisiana since we had an open ended invite to stay with daughter and son in-law at their house plus our house in Pennsylvania had just gone on the market and wasn't sold yet so no big pool of house money yet to put towards the new abode.

But I happened to be browsing on Zillow a couple of days after we arrived here and saw a house that met most if not all our criteria.  It was a well-maintained brick stick-built home of about 1800 sq. ft. on over an acre in a rural setting in East Texas.  From the photos you could tell it was an "estate" situation-someone had died who had lived there many years(the furnishings were circa 1970's)and the inheritors just wanted it sold for the $$$.  It was listed for $159,900 which was a great price for this house!

Zillow put me in touch with a licensed realtor in E. Texas and he attempted to contact the listing agent for a viewing.  While we waited for said agent to get back to us the realtor said he's take us to see some other houses(what the heck!  we had nothing else to do)in Texas.  We saw exactly 2 houses with he and his wife(also a realtor).  Both were overpriced for their condition(in the low 200's but had many condition issues we'd have to pay $$$ to fix and make the houses livable).  They were also more than an hour from daughter's place.  Later we found out that this area was one that was in demand due to the schools so houses there were going for over-inflated money even in poor condition.  We also did a drive by of a house we saw online but couldn't get a showing for that day and ruled that one out as well.  This realtor also kept pushing us to see a house well outside our price range(this one was $280K)and a distance from LA.  I think he was the listing agent for it and the seller was desperate to sell and wanted ANY offer.  We declined to see it as it was too expensive and too big and two stories.  Then he said his daughter was an agent licensed in Louisiana(he was only licensed in TX)and offered to hook us up with her, which we said ok to.

Now let's back up and add that about a week after we left PA the housing market in that area basically crashed when the FED raised interest rates .75%(They have raised rates yet again as I type this.)  Even though there was a limited number of homes in our town in PA for sale and about 5 what you'd call comparables to our home, nothing was selling.  The "your house is going to sell quickly" spiel turned into "you should be prepared to drop your asking price soon" one. sigh.

Hubs and I had figured we'd wait until our house(which we were assured would sell quickly for close to asking price)sold and then begin the new house hunt in earnest with the check for the sale of our house tucked into our account so it could fund the new house purchase.  But with the market freezing up and us getting tired of sleeping on inflatable beds(yes troll, I can fit my massive body on an air mattress without blowing it out!)our plan soon changed.

So the new plan was to regroup, go through our finances and to see how much we could afford to spend without the PA house proceeds on a new abode in LA.

Our requirements were 3 bedrooms(so we could have some separate spaces for ourselves), one floor(because I have a bum knee and climbing stairs as you age isn't fun or practical at some point). 2 bathrooms(1 ensuite with the master bedroom and a guest bath), possibly 2 living areas(as we had 2 sofas), on at least an acre of land so we didn't have to be in close proximity to potentially bad neighbors.  A dining room was not a consideration.....had one of those in PA and barely used it except for Holidays so room in the kitchen for a table would suffice.  A garage would be nice as well but we knew many homes in this area only had a car port.  

So we figured out how much we could afford to yank out of various non-retirement accounts and then contacted the realtor in Louisiana to begin looking around for a new house.

More to follow.....

Sluggy