They Could Be Contenders

Oh no, now we have more houses to choose from! I guess quite a few people waited until after Memorial Day to put their homes on the market. So here are three more possibilities while we wait to see if our back-up offer on Adams moves to 1st.

Contender #1 is on Parry St up above the downtown renewal project, and was built 1912. It's kind of blah right now with the aluminum siding, skimpy porch hardware, and unfinished basement. Inside the house is 3088 sq. ft. half up, half down, with 3 beds and 2 full baths. Situated on a .17 acre lot with a 1 car garage and $99,000 price tag, there's definitely room to play with.

Contender #2 is on Adams (another one!) just behind the LDS Pioneer Church (nice grounds) above 22nd. Built in 1907 with very charming brick exterior and windows, it has 1765 sq.ft., 4 beds, 1 full bath, an upper half story, and a partial unfinished basement. The asking price is $100,000 and there is a 2 car garage on this .17 acre lot, which looks fully fenced

Contender #3 is the most likely to prove hard to resist, it is located on 7th in N. Ogden, has a nifty stone exterior, and a .38 acre lot. Built 1918, with 1820 sq.ft. half up, half down, it has a fully finished basement, 5 beds (make one a study), 1 full bath, a 2 car deep garage, air conditioning (ahhh), awesome mountain views and a fully fenced HUGE backyard. It is also the most expensive, they want $122,500 and will probably get it. Nice area, big lot, nice house with mostly original windows/doors/trim, and only been on the market for 2 days. My realtor is putting a PO together as I type, so that she can call me from the house if it looks as nice or better than the lovely Adams bungalow that we are currently waiting in line for. Cue suspence!

Still Waiting

Well, as most of you have figured out by now, we are not in our dream fixer house. And unfortunately for us, that isn't going to change any time soon. The house is back on the market, and we are once again looking for the perfect home to rehab. It just got to be too much of a hassle turning the other cheek to those darn sellers, and so we had to cancel the contract. Although I don't believe they've changed agents and the house is still not being truthfully represented as an "as-is short sale", they are still trying to make that 11th hour sale before the lender forecloses on them. At which point it will probably go back on the market with a few improvements and a slightly higher price tag. Rather than wait, we've moved on in our search and identified a few likely prospects. Some with more potential than others, but all within our price range and and target area. First on our list is a very rough diamond indeed:

This house is 3500+ square feet AND located in a historic district, with old-time charm and only a few houses from the Eccles Mansion. It's also at the top of our price range ($130k)) and needs extensive work, which could make it a lot to bite off. The current owner is an architect in charge of rehabbing a number of historic downtown homes, and has already done quite a bit of work on this one. We are submitting an offer, but are hesitant to commit to loving this house yet as it may prove more than we can tackle. Also the style is very conflicted Victorian/bungalow, it was built in 1896 but had major remodeling c. 1920. Again, lots of work to do before we'd see improvement. R is very nervous about owning/rehabbing a home this large in an area where you have to get permission for any exterior work. Some smaller, less expensive homes we're looking into:

This house built c. 1899 is only .3 miles from the previous house, and has a 5th of an acre lot. We love the lines of the house and the original windows & FP, but the street behind the house is a main thoroughfare with lots of businesses. We do worry about the noise and location with this one, although it's turn-key condition and $90k price tag might make up for it.

This one is in between the historic districts, built in 1878 and has a pretty nice neighborhood. It obviously needs some gussying up externally, still sturdy and large enough for us. It is at the small end at 1650 sq. ft., but fairly inexpensive for the up and coming area ($105k). One thing to note: none of these new prospects have garages or carports, so we'd either have to be ok with parking outdoors all the time, or have enough lot and budget left to build our own garage.