House hunting, part X

Well, that was interesting - went to half a dozen places & had a look inside. Several we eliminated for insufficient privacy in the back yard (and no possibility of reasonably remedying that), one of which was otherwise spectacularly mouthwatering (and well above the others in price), two got eliminated because they were too small for the price (i.e. you are paying for the neighbourhood & local schools, which essentially we don't care about), and then ... there were two :)

One, Overby Court, was a revisit, and was as striking as the first time: and one, in Serenity, one street over from our rental home, is well, huge for the size, but not nearly as nicely finished. Serenity needs fencing to make the yard private, while Overby has a yard screened by bush and tall trees. Serenity is on a moderately busy street, while Overby is in a cul de sac .. but Overby's back fence is on a very busy main road, which produces a fairly large volume of noise at times.

Overby is definitely the better investment as an investment, but the extra space in Serenity is tempting - it has the same number of rooms, but they are all quite a bit larger, with a really huge lounge/dining/kitchen open area. Of course, there's just two of us, do we really need that much space, I ask myself. But then, Cat feels negative about the internal layout of Overby, too many internal walls that make the place feel more choppy (something I point out can be remedied, over time).

The agent is strongly urging Overby - and as far as I can tell, this is in our interest, her commission will be much the same either way - and I suspect that is the smart way to go: the idea of buying Serenity and refinishing it to a high standard is, I suspect, an unachievable goal - or rather, even then it will yield much less than it's cost, due to the busy-street syndrome.

Time to dither at high speed - I've suggested to Cat that she get Rob the builder to come and look at both and offer his advice on what problems might be expected, and I think she'll do that.

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Oh, one of the houses we visited, I found quite sad - it was very nicely done out indeed, and someone had poured their heart and soul into the gardening, which was just immaculate - but it was positioned in a dip in the ridgeline, so the decks/patios on all the surrounding properties (and they all had them) looked down into the back yard. The real issue was, it wasn't vacant - the guy who opened the door (somewhere in his 50s), took his old dog for a walk, while the wife sat outside on the back stoop, crying. Given the brand-new Harley parked in the drive, I would guess mid-life crisis + divorce, and it just felt a shame, after seeing how much love and attention had been lavished on both house and garden. Nothing to be done, of course, but I'm guessing that sort of reception is going to slow down the house sale quite a bit (and then I wonder if that isn't a ploy on the part of one or other ... getting too cynical I suppose).