Buying a Place: The One That Got Away
Sep 11th, 2009 by Carlos
I’ve written a lot about the whole process M and I have been going through in our search to buy our first place.
The post on Wisebread had a bunch of differing opinions on what not to do. The post on this site was more of a confessional to get some stuff off my chest.
The whole process has been very stressful because you’re never sure if you’re doing the right thing, if you’re missing out on a great opportunity, or if you’re just starting to go crazy.
And that’s what the place we fell in love with was: a great opportunity. The neighborhood was nice, the location was really good, and the place was brand new. We still could’ve picked our finishes and all that other good stuff.
The model
The model we looked at was sweet—the rooms were a good size and the kitchen was nice and big. It was pretty much the standard size, look, and feel of all the places we had been looking at. The living/dining room wasn’t huge, but it was plenty for us. Then we were told that unit was already sold. The one on the third floor, however, wasn’t. As we walked upstairs, the guy showing us the place mentioned that it was “a little more expensive.”
Ummm….no. It was a LOT more expensive. I was skeptical from the get go.
We went upstairs to check out the top-floor unit, which wasn’t the same because it wasn’t finished like the model was. The walls were all roughed up and there was no furniture and no appliances.
The top-floor unit
Notice the lack of a balcony. The agent: “You have a double sink here and the big windows looking out into the tree-lined street—oh and the bedrooms are a little bit bigger, which is very nice.”
And I thought to myself, “We’re paying this much more for another sink, a couple of feet of space, and some trees? And no balcony???”
And then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. Something that threw me off. Take a closer look at the floorplan on the left. Closer. Over to the right:
That’s right…stairs.
“Where do those go?” I asked.
“Let’s go check it out,” the guy showing the place said with a smirk. He had done this before and he knew what was coming. So we go up the stairs and are greeted by this:
WOW
That’s right…a whole new room the size of the entire lower floor. All for us. This is what made this unit “a little more expensive.”
This made our heads spin. The $ per square foot plummeted and we had visions of all the things we could do in that huge space: a grand master suite, another living space, an office and a bedroom—on and on it went. People could stay with us without us having to tiptoe out into our living room.
We went home, crunched the numbers, and stressed out over this possibly being “the one.”
We didn’t buy it. Oddly enough, money wasn’t the main reason. It was the kitchen.
It’s weird. It’s a hallway. It’s right outside the bedrooms. It’s a wall.
For what we were paying, it just wasn’t worth it.
Not to say the decision was easy—the place was incredible and that extra space would’ve been awesome. But we also realized something about ourselves: we don’t need that much space. Not right now, anyway. We’d rather have a normal kitchen than all that space above. And for those of you thinking that we could tear some walls down and put a bathroom upstairs: it can’t be done. It’s against code.
So we said no, tried to put the place behind us, and carried on.
The hunt continues.
WC – Housing is like a stock. If you miss one, another always comes a long. Don’t worry, take your time, save lots of money and be happy renting in the mean time!
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