House #1
25 Burch Dr. listed at $425,000 (Realtor was trying to play matchmaker)
Rough around the edges, been hurt before, but a cheap date
House #2
19 Burch listed at $517,800
Big, bold, motivated, a little awkward, but a pretty smooth operator
House #3
48 Burch listed at $519,900
Family-minded, motivated, with a touch of country
First thing we realized is even when buying a little house there is a big check to write. We were both taken aback by how expensive even small homes have become in Morris County. It made the jagged pill of our mortgage a bit easier to swallow when we realized we bought a property with two little homes a year ago for roughly the same price as the more expensive listings.
Second, buying for the sake of saving a few bucks to DIY isn't always the best idea. After seeing termite damage, two bathrooms that would need to be gutted, and smelling the musty basement of House #1, we realized we couldn't afford the face lift. House #2 had a large expansion, a gourmet kitchen, a huge lot in comparison and was listed at less than 100k more. I honestly think Bob Villa would have trouble making that money up if he went with House #1.
Third, the good sign for us as buyers was competition seems to be getting more fierce out there. Sure it is August and there is nothing but bad news about real estate out there but this was the first I saw people so quickly moving to action to drop their prices. House #2 chopped the price 10k after less than a month. House #3 cut his price twice in a matter of two months and will soon be listed at under 5. They also hired a realtor after initially going the FSBO route. The price drops were probably to compete with House #2 since its competitor in my opinion was a much better buy except for an upstairs bathroom that only a Hobbit could love.
At the end of the day, we lived, we learned but never loved. In the indelible song of Kermit the Frog in The Muppet Movie, "I hope that something better comes along."
