Greetings, oh followers of this blog. If there are any of you left, given my post-nuptual slacking (2.5 months and counting -- woo hoo!) I am happy to report that my days are no longer consumed by finding affordable venues, caterers, et al. Oh no, children -- I've moved on. Evolved, even.
Now, my days are consumed with weathering the slings & arrows of entry-level Los Angeles real estate. Let the celebration begin!
Things I've learned thus far: when a listing describes the square-footage of a property as "tax assessor's data lists X", what they mean is "previous owners added onto this house without a) permits, b) taste, c) a moment's thought to how said addition would affect the property's resale value, or d) any shred of understanding as to how actual humans reasonably use their homes -- you know, for living in, and such."
Also, the favored building materials of the Great Unwashed are (in no particular order):
*stucco! because those 1910-built Craftsman homes look better without all that pesky wood
Or even better, a look I've dubbed "WTF-Chic"
*ceramic tile! on the floors/walls/anywhere you shouldn't have to clean or maintain ever again
(living room)
(bedroom)*concrete! because we're not cheap, we're green -- you can't argue with 6000 square feet of concrete in leiu of anything that needs water, now, can you?
So far, we've put in offers on 2 places. The first one we didn't get ... we're in "back-up position". Which basically means we're hoping that by Saturday the other people's loan falls through. No schadenfreude here, folks!
And the second one ... well, the second one features ceramic tile throughout (in every. damn. room.), and concrete covering at least 80% of the lot. Also, the previous tenants absconded with the air conditioning unit, which should only cost $3-4000 to replace. And we've offered $14K over the asking price. We couldn't be more excited!
(all pics are knicked from public real estate websites ... if that turns out to be not-so-legal, I'll take 'em down)
2 comments:
um, shouldn't it be a buyers market?
and I hate stucco too, but trust me, you both don't strike me as the 'lets pull off this board because it's infested with termites and replace it ourselves' type. <- been there done that - it's gross.
Also - tile is a godsend. Come see my original 1951 hardwood floors, they aren't pretty. they aren't clean, and they sure aren't washable like Tile because everytime you get it wet, it swells, buckles and rolls.
but you do have to have some sort of yard that isn't New York'd to death... that I agree.
Yay for 2.5 months!
Ya-hoo! Let the bidding wars commence! We were in a similar position exactly a year ago (fortunately, took up the housing project *before* the wedding project): had put offers in on two places - lost out to a cash offer (wtf! who has that kind of cash!) on one); outbid on another. For the house we rilly rilly wanted, we did the inspection first (here's $500 for whatever), and made the offer without contingencies and several thousand over asking.
Fingers crossed for you! Craftsman bungalows rock!
["pubvor": one who only eats food at bars, aka my sister-in-law, formerly]
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