Not all cat owners let their cats have a free run of the house, just saying. People who do usually have some issues: psychological, financial, etc. Cats can destroy a house, for sure. But the worst damage done to homes I’ve seen was done by humans. Also, when we shopped for the current house, we passed a lovely home because the owners let their small dog use the living room as its toilet. Really?! They said the carpets needed to be replaced anyway… so they were giving generous “carpet allowance.” That house sat on the market for 4 months before selling for 35-40% below the asking price (which was high, but not outrageous for the neighborhood).
We have a Flintstones car port! We’ve discussed enclosing it, but feel like it would be too easy to become a source for more clutter and junk, and DH feels strongly about being able to actually park the cars in it. The majority of our style of house in the neighborhood have enclosed. Suspect we’ll let the next owner decide.
My agent is adament about needing a garage for resale, even though there is usually a car port and adequate parking. I would consider it mandatory in snow and cold areas, but most garages here end up as storage units.
We have always only had a carport. Many of our neighbors are similar, tho there are some with enclosed garages in our area as well. Having space to park TWO cars is more desirable than simply one car, but few have space to park more than two comfortably.
Garage style really depends on the market! In our neck of the woods, it is not uncommon to have 3-car garages. Our third garage door is taller than the other two. When I complained to the builder that I did not like the aesthetics of this design, he said, “Most buyers would appreciate the fact that they could keep a camper or a boat in their garage! I hope you reconsider.” Kept the door, never got anything bigger than a truck, but the third bay is big enough to park two cars in a tandem fashion.
Technically we have a one two car garage and one one car garage. I have studio space in one third, S18 has studio space in one third and the remaining one third is motorcycle parking, bikes, tools, and camping gear. It would never occur to me to actually put a car in a garage:-)
We are going to put our cars in the two car garage in our new house - as soon as we move in and unpack the boxes. Anything that doesn’t fit in the house (and everything we’re moving because DH can’t bear to get rid of it) is getting labeled “garage”. There’s tons of storage space in the garage so hopefully the cars will fit too. Although in San Diego I don’t mind leaving my old beater on the street.
DH would not have been happy with a car port; turned down a few houses for that reason. I think anyone moving from a cold or rainy climate will expect a garage.
In Southern California we often don’t have an attic or basement, so a garage is very important. We are one of the few who keep two cars in our “two car” garage.
I can only keep one car in my two car garage. First, work truck is too large to fit into the old garage and Second, half the garage is full of construction stuff. However, I am very proud of myself (well, really two guys did most of the work). Spent all day Saturday going through the garage and throwing out stuff that is busted or we are never going to use again, and organizing Everything! Just once I want to start a project where all of the plumbing stuff is actually in the ‘Plumbing’ box. We discovered, for example, that we have 22 loose tubes of caulk that had been thrown into every possible container!
This involved another trip to the dump just to get rid of stuff. And, now my back seat of the truck is full of loose ends that I am going to try to return to Home Depot. Not to mention 130 Estate Sale record albums that I threw into the back of the truck to try to drive around and donate somewhere. I placed an ad on Craigslist for those albums and only got one bite and then nothing more. I’m doomed to own these dang record albums for the rest of my life.
so far so good, the tenants there are all allergic to pets and they are not complaining.
I guess cat odor can be contained also, as a last resort, you can replace all wall board and the floor for about 40K, If it is economically feasible, if there is a will, there is a way. :))
Property #7
This property is in an area that I do not normally target, University City. But my agent keeps insisting that I go look at places in this area, she says there is a big demand. Smaller 3/2 1672sf for the older tract home neighborhood. Good bones, somewhat good condition but stuck in Grandma style with popcorn ceilings. Front yard is a hilarious setup of ‘zeroscape’ gravel design. It has been on the market for over 30 days, they’ve dropped the price about $50k. They have it priced at full market value but the house needs a lot of work. Owner has moved out to assisted living or something and the sale is to pay for her costs. I need to get it for at least 100k off the asking price, but maybe it might be good timing. You never know
Property #8
Adorable little house in the hills of La Mesa (but not the extremely desireable area). Only has 3bdrm 1 ba in 1300sq ft, which is small for the neighborhood. They have converted the garage into a nice separate 460sf guest house. But, once again, now there’s only a carport… no garage. I love the house and I could do a lot with it. It has a really large laundry area in back that can be used to add a master bath and large master closet. Landscape is really nice. This one says “Accepting All Offers” and they reduced the price 50k after only 10 days. Let’s see if they really are ‘Accepting All Offers’ !!
cb, tell us again what you have done to try to unload the vinyl albums. Nashville is such a hot market for vinyl (one of the few markets that is producing new vinyl for artists like Foo Fighters, country artists, etc.) that I Googled to see if there was a business that buys vinyl. Here’s the link I came up with: http://www.thegreatescapeonline.com/selltrade.php
Could be worth a contact, but who knows!
About 5 months ago I looked through our local Craigslist and contacted everyone (about 5 of them) that said ‘Albums Wanted’. They all said that my collection was Easy Listening and they were not interested. The vinyl collectors are looking for old rare Jazz and old rock and roll. Basically they are not interested in anything else. I’m guessing in Nashville they are looking for old country
At the Estate Sale three different guys came up and look at collection. They wanted to hand pick about 3 albums out and give me $15 for the three. At that point I held out for someone to buy the whole collection
Now I have it posted on local Craigslist and don’t really have anyone contacting me. Really not interested in trying to ship these 100+ albums anywhere
Check with ebay on vinyls. It is the best way. Just punch in the artist name and you will find the value of your album.
I ended up a group of vinyls in a house as well. After I looked up the albums in Ebay, they were all priced at $1 to $2 a piece, it is not worth selling, so I dumped them in the garbage. I have sold 1000’s items on ebay from 1998, I have come to the conclusion that if a collectible item is not worth more than $10, it is not worth the time and management to sell on ebay.
Maybe a local school would like the records as a donation? They might want to listen to it and play it?
Remember the old days when people would pitch softballs or baseballs at hanging records at fairs/carnivals? You only won the prize if you totally destroyed the hanging vinyl disk and had it fall off the string. Somehow people weren’t worried about flying disk fragments, which would seem to be a safety concern to me. Maybe some nonprofit might want the records for a game at a fair, etc.
People who do usually have some issues: psychological, financial, etc. Cats can destroy a house, for sure. But the worst damage done to homes I’ve seen was done by humans. Also, when we shopped for the current house, we passed a lovely home because the owners let their small dog use the living room as its toilet. Really?! They said the carpets needed to be replaced anyway… so they were giving generous “carpet allowance.” That house sat on the market for 4 months before selling for 35-40% below the asking price (which was high, but not outrageous for the neighborhood).