Friday, July 15, 2016

Keep in mind your goal

Buying, shopping, looking , when you must watch your $, you had better remember your original goal.  I once made a salesman an offer on new Chevrolet  to which he replied condescendingly, "We had better look at some thing you can afford."  That hit me wrong and I forgot my original reason for being there which was to get a reasonable car with Air conditioning.
I said, "Son I can afford anything you  have on this lot. Look for me back in a few hours with the same car I am looking at, but from your competition."
A very immature thing, but I did it. I drove back with the same Caprice, parked it out front to show that salesman. I was too ignorant to know it didn't bother  most salesman their attitude is, you win some you lose some.

I have done better  since. There are times shoppers are looking for a certain thing, but in shopping find out that for a few $ more, they can have this. And you know what? Just for a little more we can have the deluxe, and it keeps on going if you are not careful.

As most know, we are looking for a home in Florida, so when the MH is out, we can winter in Florida and go back to a home in North Carolina for the summer.  We live simple. This motor home is about 320 sqft. We have no problem with small and compact. We also do not like payments, so we know the range in which we must stay to buy and repair.

When you see a great place that is $10,000 more if you are not careful you will say, hey, go for it. So realistic we want to spend less than $60,000 for a comfortable place to live, fish and enjoy a winter. We could handle a 1 BR 1 bath, but prefer the option of 2BR+ and 2 Baths.

The problem we find is that when we like it, all of a sudden someone else liked it SOONER, and there is a contract. We have settled on the ugliest house we have seen that we can afford. Kathi, our Realtor says, ours is the second offer, but they have not accepted either. So my mind goes into high gear. Maybe we should offer full price. So we are going to do that.  We will not know the results of our offer until later.

I have been doing some calculations and I am relatively sure by adding one wall we can have a functional 3BR 2 BAth home.
(What about some color, red or green shutters?)


Check the outside first. what about taking out the 3huge jalosie windows in front. They are very inefficient anyway. Replace them with 2 double pane and shutters. and add shutters to the window on the right.

If we get it I will explain how we will make the two joined bedrooms usable with privacy!

Now the ball is in the bank's court, so we wait.  If it doesn't go, there will be another.

Just an idea.
Nite shipslog.
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Car collection in Belmont, NC (Not mine!)

8 comments:

Lisa said...

I like it. Hmmm I can see this house with a large double door replacing the front windows that take you out on a porch. I cant wait to see how it goes. Color? Any color will look great! What ever home or style of fixup you and Sherry decide, Im sure its going to be great.

Love from up here
Lisa

I'm mostly known as 'MA' said...

Hope it works out for you. I figure it will if it's meant to be and if not there will be something better down the road. I know you could make any place the way you want it. Good to keep your goals in mind and not get off track.

betty said...

Good luck!! I hope it works out. It looks charming in the picture you posted. I hope the owner isn't hoping for a "bidding war" for the house; waiting for multiple offers and then saying something to the effect of "send in your best offer." We ran into that a lot here and usually knew the price we were going to stop at and if we didn't get the house, it was like you said, there's another one down the road.

What we learned was cash always wins so if someone made a cash offer no matter how "good" the other offers, they usually took the cash offer and putting down a big chunk of earnest money did the trick too.

You and Sherry are both rooted into your plan of what you want to spend, etc., so you will be wise in the days ahead as decisions are being made.

betty

Mevely317 said...

I'm so confused! How'd you make the front of the house look so different, Jack?
What a difference the shutters make! (Personally, I think a deep forest green is classier that red ... but that's jus' my feeble opinion.)

It's nice to 'hear' the excitement in your voice. :)

Unknown said...

Shutters are good, I think, but I've noticed that the houses in my neighborhood that are being updated are not having the shutters replaced. (Just FYI in case you want to be cutting edge on style, lol.) Color is good. Whatever Sherry wants! ;-)
What about a large bay window? I think that would look nice there. Is that the living room? Of course if you are in hurricane alley, so to speak, the two smaller windows might be the better choice.

Rick Watson said...

I feel good about this one Jack. Will you have a fenced in back yard for our dog when we visit :)

Paula said...

With your talent you can spruce it up if you think it needs it. Isn't it exciting to shop and buy a house?

TARYTERRE said...

New shutters new siding new front door. It all adds up quickly doesn't it?