General

Noid wrote:

I really don't know. I don't see them going down to half again -- we just never get back that far. But I think they will eventually come down more. Lumber prices have come down, but they are still quoting crazy pricing for that. And, in my area, at least, I feel like a ton of construction places got busy and are slowly getting less busy. Hopefully, that causes some more competitive pricing.

Just looked at, by far, the craziest house ever. I honestly don't hate it. LOTS of work/updating, but if we could get it for what the bank paid ($422k) and drop $200k into it, it'd be worth it.

https://apps.realtor.com/mUAZ/hagtri9f

MrBean wrote:

Nice. That place looks like an escape room setting. I love it.

MrBean wrote:

Wow, that is pretty cool. I feel like you'd have to at least keep the crazy design going up the stairs and on the fireplace, I love that. I'm not sure if 200k would be enough to fix it up or not though. Very unique and cool property, are you guys thinking of throwing in an offer?

some rooms just need paint.. it looks like a house you'd see in an 80's comedy movie..

sa330206 wrote:

The stairs are amazingly cool in person. That wall is insane.

The $200k we are thinking would take care of the master bathroom, knock down the wall between kitchen and second living room, revamp the kitchen all together, and hopefully carpet.

There's so much that the pics don't show too. The house is big.

We don't think they'll take $425 but think we may throw it out there. We'll hire someone to come help determine approximate costs for major remodeling efforts to see what we can afford vs do later/on our own.

shadyfozzie wrote:

Yah, quite a bit we'd be OK with for now with just some wallpaper removal and paint.

Feeb wrote:

Haha this made my wife laugh, she's like... He's not wrong.

Anyone got any particular sites they trust more in finding houses/apartments for rent? Obviously for the price of 1 bedroom/1 bath apartments I've been seeing, I should be able to rent a house for that much. Might even be able to avoid having to meet credit check requirements, etc that way also.

We're on our 4th round of negotiations... I am excited but fearful, we're gonna win this crazy house!

MrBean wrote:

That backyard is really nice with the gazebo.. I don't like the tub only bathroom though...
which room is gonna be your murder room?? lol

shadyfozzie wrote:

That tub room, is the master bath. We'd be redoing that whole bathroom.

Haha murder room in the basement fersure. Half the basement isn't in the pics. There's a workroom and a massive unfinished area that'll be perfect for a Theatre and pinball.

Welp, Holy crap... We said yes. Talked bank down to $480k - from $600k (pushed for $450, but bank bought for $422k and paid off over $30k on back taxes). They came back as "best and final" so... We said yes.

We have the inspection as a safety net to bail if needed. We're estimating $150-$200k for the bigger efforts that I'll be paying for. Most of the other projects, I'll do myself and recruit friends.

If we do it right, the house should be worth high 7's, possible 8s. So assuming nothing scary in the inspection, it's a worthwhile investment. Just a LOT of work to do!

This thing is just nuts...

https://apps.realtor.com/mUAZ/hagtri9f

I did residency on Cleve mass road at metropolitan vet hospital. Right around the corner from there.

I know the buyer of my old house. He’s been busy redoing the entire place. I’m going to take a tour when he’s done and see how different it looks.

Congrats man! Hope it ends up being a decision you look back on with great pride for years to come.

InSANE house, @MrBean! I know you've been looking and looking for y'all's dream house and this...well, this is a dream come true! The only nitpick I could find is that it's connected to an HOA and HOA's suck and are of the devil. But, again, that aside, freakin' a•maz•ing. P.S. What the heck do you and the missus do for a living to afford that much square footage?! Color me impressed!

@Noid - thanks! The HOA is just a neighborhood (16 homes) block party fund, from what we've learned. Small neighborhood, but really nice. Only downside is they're all (minus one or two) original owners from early 80s, so not many kids (we spotted one). Hoping the old generation moves on as they're probably empty nesters.

Dream house will be next house once the kids move on (only 20ish years to go, haha) as I'd want a beach home! This checks many boxes, but not all (really wanted more land and a pond). Still, there is A lot not pictured, this get us close enough and we have lots of options for future projects. True dream home would cost much much more that we'll never be able to afford unless I get my crap together!

My wife does auditing for a major bank, and I work at Microsoft focused on Customer Success, Project Management and Sales. We both grew up in borderline poverty, crazy low income families/neighborhoods, never thought we'd equate to much.

We've done well for ourselves (I still don't have a degree). Yet we should have been walking into this with more in the bank, but doing well enough that this is very manageable (still sucks to more than double current mortgage). Just hoping the damn mortgage rates come down in the next couple years as I'll refi into a 15.

Still not a done deal though. Need the inspection (possible concern with septic) and my initial quotes to ensure this isn't a money pit (don't think so).

@MrBean Congrats! House looks great. I know this has been a long time coming for you so I’m sure you guys are ecstatic. Did you ever figure out your car situation?

Staraang wrote:

Thanks! It's gonna look vastly different with all new walls, carpets, and multiple renovations we have planned.

Car? Nope. Especially if the house comes through, no way gonna take the negative equity hit for now. So, gonna rock the Wrangler with all 3 kiddos for a bit!

That's awesome, @MrBean! Congrats!

So, little side story. Met the neighbor, got lots of background on the former owner of this house. Lots to it, but ... later in life, dude got into gambling. Guess he owed a bunch of people money, and he had lots of back taxes on the house. Towards the end, they said he started getting really paranoid about people coming after him and he started to become a recluse.

Anyway, with as crazy as the house is, I am so confident there's hidden treasure somewhere in the house. There's so many hidden compartments, EVERYWHERE. There's legit storage, inside of storage. We haven't even discovered all of it yet. There's so much more crazyness to this house not in the pictures.

Last night, we went back. The display case at the bottom of the basement, legit has a hidden room behind it! If you push in the right side, of the middle cabinet, it swings open. Behind, there's like a 15x15 room back there. I didn't dig in yet, but there's a handful of old/random boxes ... may be something of worth, who knows. I question if when the bank bought it, anyone knew about it as there's literally nothing else in the house.

image

Be wary of booby traps.

bill wrote:

Haha, "that's what I said!"

Make sure to drink only from the wooden chalice, not the gold.

My question is who (Mr Bean or Mrs Bean) gets to do all the dusting, cleaning etc required for a 4,866 sqft house ? Lots of work for Mom and Dad with several young children.

p.s. Congrats on the house. Please post new pics after all the renovations.

langev wrote:
The answer was there in the question all along

benstylus wrote:

Haha, this!

Roombas.

ha, well, that's interesting ... brother in law found a local news article about the house: https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/07/01/unicorn-roo...

Have also been finding out more about the art in the house. Local guy, supposedly pretty big in the art world. He's 84. Already message his company/family, want to learn more about the history of the relationship with the former owner of this house and the art itself.

Inspection is on Friday, high probability we're moving forward.

Crazy

@MrBean Just looked at the pictures of the house. Beautiful. Seriously really nice. And all that art going on. Very cool. Love it.

In that room that has the unicorn, what is that thing on the floor that looks transparent? A glass bed? The picture was a little blurry so I couldn't tell.

And the front door, is that carved wood?

All that design, so cool. Each room having a different art style.

And you even have an outdoor gazebo.

I hope your family treasures/loves that house. Really looks like one a kind. (I'm actually nodding my head right now impressed)

Way better article - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bath-township-home-...

Will reply later nonamesleft.

Son of a dog!

Just finished inspection. There's a solid $150k-$200k in renovation and repair on the exterior (stucko). Basically have to take it all down and replace, and can't do vinyl. Water damage galore. That and the grading is completely fudgeed, caused a fair amount of water moisture to the basement foundation. Oh and an attic full of mold.

May be more foundational damage, but without pulling the wood panels, unknown. Window frames are falling apart. Deck needs to be pulled. And other misc stuff. Just feels like a sink hole of constant money needs.

All fixable, but costly. Gonna push on the bank to drop $180k, but no way they will, as they'll lose their asses on buying it from auction.

Ugh, pretty sure we're never moving.

Sorry to hear it. It's a cool house but I'd run away far and quickly. Water/moisture issues are not only costly but you also have to consider the probability of black mold. If you stick with it, I strongly recommend you have professional air quality testing. Especially considering the young children

Sorry to hear that, man. What a bummer.

That area the home is in is pretty low / flood prone if IRC. I remember it flooded really badly that way when we had reservations at Lanning’s back in the day - the whole mall area was flooded. Never got that lannings. Water everywhere up there.

Ah, really sorry to hear that. It really is a unique house.

Dang. Here's hoping the bank will be reasonable.

What's absolutely bonkers... Is that the vast majority of all the problems, would have been avoided by basic gutter maintenence! They spent a fortune on the house but gave up on paying someone to clear the gutters probably 5ish years ago or so. The gutters overflowing resulted in the water getting behind the walls, eating away at the grading, moisture in the basement, fudging up the windows... Just crazy.

Any luck negotiating a better price based on the findings or did you have to walk?

sa330206 wrote:

Sadly, they declined and had us sign a mutual release so we got our earnest money back. They relosted back to $600k, which is insane because no one will buy at that price point.

Super bummed.

Negotiating with banks sucks. Sorry it didn't work out for y'all I think you definitely dodged a bullet though. No matter how much time and money I would have put into fixing a house with issues like that, I would forever be worried that there were things we missed that would become big problems later due to water damage.

Sorry to hear that. I am glad you were able to get back your earnest money. That sure was a cool house, but with all the damage you described you probably dodged a bullet. I hope you find something else soon!

I can definitely relate to the "dodge a bullet" aspect of this, but this place seemed really special too. Places like that are rare and can have this effect on your life that a more generic home could never have. Your life would be a bit like a piece of art, or something. Some places have character. But, I suppose they say that about places that cause their owners a lot of trouble too. When I was younger, I might have gone for a place like that, but at this point I don't want to deal with the trouble.

Exactly. I have done some "fixer uppers" in my time. When I was younger, it was fun. Now that I'm older, never again!

So, sucks for it to not work out, but hopefully for the best. Something else will come.

Another pretty Kick-Ass house just not in a city that we're interested in

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1340-Mockingbir...

I like that one even better!

MrBean wrote:

Geez, I'm gonna move to Ohio, these houses are insane for the $$$... I wanna move there...
Love the random xmas tree pic with jesus lol..

MrBean wrote:

Not sure I've ever seen a property with two HOA fees??

Pretty common for newer communities that are part of master plan communities. There will be an HOA for the housing complex and an HOA for the larger community. This is done to ensure the master plan community has funds for things like landscaping in common areas along major rodes and community parks that aren't governed by the city. Then the housing complexes have their fees for maintenence of their smaller neighborhood.

That gives me feudal Japan vibes... still, it'd definitely be something I'd want as a dream home... although my dream home is a mansion or castle.

I don't think owning my own home is going to be possible with how things are right now and my current age (not to mention am single, no family prospects).

I dig the house, and the nature preserve behind it. Sadly, the wife isn't feeling it... And it's not a school district/area we're wanting to pursue.

We're never moving, haha.

Put in a bid on a house tonight ... not our favorite overall house, but has potential. The neighborhood is insane with a TON of young kids, which is probably the single most important aspect for us.

We should know tomorrow.

Nervous we may actually get it. We're so not ready to get this place ready.

Good luck.

I can't believe they sold my old house so high. (I sold it to a cash buyer to avoid repairs). I have no regrets, especially since there's things the buyer didn't fix before selling. For example it needed a new roof on the house, garage and shed. Cash buyer did a quick patch job and moved on.

This is the listing. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7820-W-Bradley-...

The listing agent had loads of listing errors too. For example, there's no egress window in the basement so technically they weren't supposed to add that square footage in. It would have been 1450sqft otherwise. It's an old house. The basement was tiled and it was asbestos tile. They tiled over it. Some of those mature trees are dying and could fall on the house.