I bought my house because there was a double murder there

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by bjl584

Houses close to airports, powerlines, highways, and other public works projects. There is a whole section of homes on one side of my town with depressed values because it is a proposed route of a highway.

When we were house hunting, there was one house that we really liked, actually more than the one we bought in many ways, but the electric towers were just past the property line of the backyard. We didn't buy because of that.

[MonkeyMama]

It's kind of interesting because I have always lived next to an airport and next to a freeway. ALWAYS. Though admittedly, not in a "100% in the flight path all day and night" kind of home. Though, even if I was, I don't think I'd notice. You really just get used to it. Home prices are higher though because of the convenience factor.

Anyway, I can think of several instances where some of the usual "cheaper home" indications don't work where we live. We are surrounded by several more desirable/popular areas, and so choosing to live farther out would actually cost more. Though, I was thinking living further from a metro hub would usually save some money on the cost of housing.

When we bought our first home we had a dynamite realtor. We got our first home considerably cheaper than average. I mean, it was literally put an offer the second the house goes on the market and compete with 100 offers. We were bracing ourselves for the process and not sure we would really be able to go through with it. So we find this home that has been sitting for 6 months. It was GORGEOUS! To make a long story short, the selling realtor was terrible. TERRIBLE. This has become our unintended buying MO over the years. We bought the home - no competing offers! I mean, that was like a miracle. We put an offer on another home a few years back and their realtor was TERRIBLE. We keep finding these gems that are completely unnoticed in HOT real estate markets. (& you don't know how close we were to walking away from that home sitting 6 months - had to be something so terribly wrong with it! Right??? For reference, when we sold it, it took 5 minutes to sell it. )

Our current home was bought from a builder. Again, there were lottery processes and new homes were very expensive, right? We lucked onto this little known builder. They just didn't have the name brand, and were significantly cheaper. No lottery to contend with. What was interesting is there were several builders in the neighborhood, but they all hired the same contractors. I mean, I don't believe for a second that some of these homes are of far superior quality to our no-name builder. The quality is obviously very comparable, to me. As with most everything, we just weren't interested in the expensive name brands.

So, those are my experiences. Maybe we are lucky, but we tend to ask a lot of questions and be very logical. So, maybe we looked at some cheap houses that we weren't happy with the reasons they were cheap. But the reasons above we could certainly live with.

[jadet]

Works well if it doesn't bother you

[PetMom]

Houses that have had meth labs in them - leave hideous chemicals.

Houses with mold problems that cost a fortune to truly get rid of - do not attempt a do it yourself on this issue.

Radon houses.

Houses that have a gas well about to be drilled within the minimum amount of feet.

Houses out in the pristine country that have an intensive pig farm built near them.

The home has liens by several previous owners.

All of the above are easy to sneak by the buyer or you find out and go to court to sue.

A good inspector, checking the home's past history, and the zoning laws is a good idea.

In the op's post as long as the real estate agent or the seller (if a for sale by owner) tells them of the situation and it is noted in contract then that is the only thing that needs to be done.

[photo]

Originally Posted by BuckyBadger

For a truly long term plan, you should consider actually KILLING all of the people who live in your dream house. A triple or quadruple murder would be best. Make sure the deed is done in a particularly gruesome and news-worthy manner. Then just sit back and twiddle your thumbs until your dream house comes on the market at half it's proper value.

Savings galore!

You took the words right outta my mouth.

[YLTL_Dan]

It's amazing how turned off people get with a house for sale that's not necessarily in bad shape, but is just dirty. The only way we could get into the location we wanted was to find one of these houses.

The previous owners had a dog and the carpet reflected the fact. The house was full of cosmetic issues (gross carpet, paint, decorations, etc), and we were willing to put the work into fixing it up. We ripped the carpet up and found beautiful original pine floors (around 100 years old). We're nearly complete with the renovation and should get a great return for our money.

[hulegu3]

I think it is kind of creepy. If someone was just murdered there then what happens if the person come back!