Round 2 in Hello from Open Diary

At the time I started my new job, I had found two houses in the area that I really liked. I had a hard time deciding between them, but I eventually decided to make an offer on house #1 (the one that’s really close to work and has an awesome kitchen). I made a lowball offer of $25k less than the asking price. The sellers made a counter-offer of $5k less than the asking price. I made raised my offer by $5k ($20k less than the asking price), and the sellers rejected it without making another counter-offer. So, that house is probably out (although it has been on the market for more than a year, so I’m guessing that if I decide I’m willing to pay what the sellers are asking, it will still be available for a while).

In the mean time, another house came on the market. It is located on the same street as house #2. This is a much closer comparison. One of the biggest factors in the decision between the first two houses was location, but house #3 is just a few doors down from house #2, so location is no longer a factor. House #2 started out with an asking price of $30k less than house #1, and it was just reduced by another $2k. House #3 is listed at $5k more than house #2, but it includes the washer, dryer, and refrigerator, which house #2 does not, so that effectively reduces the difference in price.

It seems to me like house #3 is better on paper for various reasons detailed below, but I like house #2 better. The problem is that house #2 is very nicely decorated and staged, and I don’t want to be unduly influenced by that. I’m afraid that if I buy that house, once the sellers take all their stuff and I put my crap inside, I will be disappointed because it will no longer be like the pictures.

House #2: 3 bed, 2 bath, 1442 square feet, built in 2004
Price: Same as what I paid for my current house

More pictures

Pros:

• The kitchen is about 33% bigger than the kitchen in house #3 (about a 1.5 feet longer and 1.5 feet wider).
• It has beautiful landscaping and better curb appeal than house #3.
• The master bathroom is bigger (about 1 foot longer).
• I like the floor plan better.

• It is about 300 square feet smaller than house #3, but then again, it should be perfectly adequate for my needs. The garage is on the small side, and it would be a tight fit for two cars (but then again, I only have one car).
• The kitchen appliances are pretty basic, and the washer, dryer, and refrigerator are not included, so I would have to buy those appliances. This could, however, be an advantage because I will get to pick the exact appliances I want.
• The house is situated on a hill, and there is a crawl space, which I find weird because I have literally never seen a crawl space before I looked at this house. My research tells me that I will need to have a vapor barrier installed in the crawl space because the current owners have not done anything with it. I have no idea how much this will cost.
• I hate the chocolate brown paint in the master bedroom and I would probably feel compelled to paint it before I move in.
• The kitchen floor is vinyl and the bedrooms are carpeted (house #3 has laminate wood floors in these rooms).
• I’m not sure if the landscaping is a pro or a con because it would probably require some amount of effort and/or money for upkeep. I’m used to my HOA taking care of the landscaping.

House #3:

3 bed, 2 bath, 1728 square feet, built in 2005
Price: $5k more than house #2

More pictures

Pros:

• It is supposedly almost 300 square feet bigger than house #2.
• All the appliances are included, so I wouldn’t have to buy a washer, dryer, and refrigerator (this could also be a disadvantage, though, because I would have to live with the appliances the sellers picked).
• The kitchen appliances are nicer than those in house #2. They are stainless steel, and the stove is a flat-top. The kitchen also has a lovely tile backsplash, and there is a large pantry.
• The floors are all laminate wood, except in the bathrooms and laundry room (which have vinyl) and the sunroom (which has carpet). I actually prefer carpet in the bedrooms, but people are in love with wood floors these days, so that might be good for resale value. I’m pretty sure the house includes large area rugs for the living room and all three bedrooms, so that’s sort of the best of both worlds.
• It has a central vacuum system. I don’t know much about that, but one of my aunts has one and loves it so much that she would never buy a house without one.
• It has two extra spaces the other house doesn’t have: a sunroom and a breakfast room (separate from the dining room).
• The garage is bigger (about 2 feet longer and 2 feet wider), and there is a work room with sink and a storage closet off the side of the garage. There is also a storage shed in the back yard, but it was locked so I don’t know how good the condition is.
• It has three skylights.
• I don’t hate any of the paint, so it is completely move-in ready. I wouldn’t have to change anything before moving in.
• The lot is almost level, so the back yard is more useable, and it’s a corner lot, so it’s bigger.

• Although I like the idea of having a sunroom and a breakfast room, I’m not crazy about the floor plan. The dining room seems kind of cramped because of the way it is walled in on 3 sides. The breakfast room is actually slightly bigger than the formal dining room! The presence of the breakfast room also makes the kitchen smaller than it could have been. I wish they hadn’t put up the wall between the kitchen and breakfast room, and just made it a large, eat-in kitchen instead.
• One of the bedrooms has wallpaper, which I don’t hate (but my sister thinks it’s hideous), but it makes it more difficult to change the wall color and could affect resale. Also, there is a possibility that the paint in the master bedroom was applied on top of wallpaper.
• The bathrooms are very small, and the master doesn’t even have a tub, just a shower. Of course, I don’t take many baths (and if I wanted to, I suppose I could use the other bathroom).
• I’m not sure how accurate the square footage in the listing is. The listing shows 1728 square feet, but the public records only show it as being 1488 square feet. The bedrooms are only slightly bigger than in house #2 (23 more square feet total for all 3 bedrooms), and the bathrooms, kitchen, dining room, and laundry room are all smaller. Based on the measurements I took, it’s not adding up.
• The closet in the foyer is practically useless because the bottom half is taken up by the HVAC return.
• I don’t know if the corner lot is a pro or a con. It has more privacy from the neighbors, since the only neighbor has a privacy fence, but the back yard is visible from the street. The large lot may be more expensive to mow, but maybe not, since it is level and the landscaping looks very low-maintenance.