So I saw a Chevy commercial last night that perfectly describes the adventure my husband and I had Sunday morning during an outing with our realtor. I'm sure you've seen it - it's the one where a very pregnant wife and her husband are looking for an apartment. They're at the first place and say the Kitchen is too small. Then they get in their sporty looking car and go to 3 or 4 other places - one smells like sea bass, one has some flooding, one is super close to the building next door, and so on and so forth until they wind up back at the first place and say "It's perfect. I love the kitchen." lol!
We started out at this house in Howell, NJ - 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, fireplace in the living room, rocking chair front porch, master suite with a private balcony, on almost an acre of land! Initial down side is that the house is a short sale, which we're kinda leery about, and its a good 45 minute commute for both of us. But it just seemed so awesome we couldn't pass up taking a look at it. So at 9am my husband and I pulled up in front of the house. You first walk in to the kitchen/dining room ... they were great, hardwood floors, updated appliances, lots of storage, full bath off of the kitchen (which I thought was a little odd) and an entrance to one of the bedrooms (which we didn't get to see because the seller's dog was in there). Ok on to the living room ... needed a paint job, fireplace needed some cleaning up, two big closets on either side of the living room - one of which held the washer/dryer (strange!!), water stains on the ceiling (red flag?!), but hardwood floors, 4 ceiling fans, huge ceilings, two sliding doors on either side of the fireplace leading to the humungous backyard. So we walk upstairs into a very wide hallway. We check out the first bedroom - good size - until my husband points out that there's no closet! Hmmm strange. Ok on to the master - very big, awesome master bath with jacuzzi tub and separate shower, private balcony looked nice but needed to be cleaned, also no closet (what the heck?!). Same thing with the 4th bedroom - no closets!! I don't get it. Who builds a house with no closets?! And there was a weird little mini room, roughly 3' by 7' next to the master. The owners were using it as storage cause what else could you use it for?! Overall not bad - minus the weird lack of closets and potential water damage in the ceiling it was an ok house.
So after the Howell house we moved on to Freehold ... that's where the adventure really started! We saw three houses in Freehold ... each more ridiculous then the last.
The first house we arrived at was suppose to be vacant ... but there were toys in the front yard and a pile of work shoes on the porch. Our realtor knocked but no one answered, so she used her magic key thing and opened the door, she said Hello a few times but no one replied so we stepped in. The house was clearly being occupied - there was furniture, pictures on the wall, and food in the kitchen. We got halfway through the hallway into the kitchen when we heard the TV come on upstairs ... that's when we decided we weren't in the mood to get shot at and got the heck outta there!!
The next house was also vacant (this one really was though) and bank owned. The first thing we noticed when we pulled up was the lack of off-street parking. We make our way on to the porch, noticing the chipped paint on the banisters and the holes in the floorboard. Our realtor opened the door and BAM we get smacked in the face with the smell of cat pee. Yes that's right ... cat pee ... we had opened the door to a cat hoarder's house!! We made our way into what I'm assuming was a dining room before I couldn't take it anymore and we ran out of there. Before we got in our car I took one more quick look at the house ... thinking I'd recognize it from an episode of Hoarders. Matt Paxton if your reading this let me know if you ever went to a house on Institute Rd. in Freehold!!
Alright so on to the last and finale house of the day. I was pretty excited about the this one - it was in a really pretty neighborhood and it had this awesome Victorian style feel to it. We pull up and it's clearly been neglected for some time. The wrap around porch and shutters needed a paint job and the railing needed some fixing up. We walk in and noticed these gorgeous wide-plank wood floors that were in pretty good condition! We then made our way into the living room with a gorgeous marble fireplace, then on to the dining room - also with a marble fireplace. So far so good. Out of the dining room into the kitchen ... and I spoke too soon ... the ceiling was coming down and there was fiberglass and insulation everywhere. We took a quick peak outside onto the nice sized deck over looking .. the garage! There was no yard whatsoever! We made our way back down the hall and (even though we weren't going to buy the house) upstairs to take a quick peak at the bedrooms. Three pretty good sized bedrooms, one more marble fireplace, and a full bath - complete with one of those awesome claw feet bathtubs! It was a shame the previous owner had let the house get like that. You could really imagine how awesome it was back in the day. But this would have been too much work for us and a back yard is on my need list!
So after seeing those three houses the Howell house started looking pretty darn good again! lol! This was only the second time we've been out and despite the craziness that ensued we had a pretty good time! We now know that when a listing says, "needs some TLC", it means it needs more then just painting and updating, Vacant doesn't necessarily mean vacant, and closets are not standard in every house! You live and learn.
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