I’m not sure they were specifically looking for an updated house. They have looked at a lot of houses that are still in original condition. I think it was the wife who begged him to see it. If I had a husband with a “car collection” (probably junk cars that are going to get fixed up any day now) I would be facing the reality that husband is not going to be available for any weekend warrior renovation projects 
Yes, I haven’t measured exactly but I think someone could get a 3 car garage or carport sideways but I’m not sure if there is enough turning radius to park sideways
Plenty of land on raised side of yard but it would be more expensive. But I’ve dealt with these type of buyers before and just cannot worry about it. They are going to keep searching for the big garage house.
cb, if they are interested in a house in original condition, maybe they just wanted to see your house to get ideas and see the possibilities.
Honestly, I can’t believe these people have the money for this house and don’t grab it! Bigger garage? What a doofus.
Sometimes buyers just grab onto something to use as an excuse why they don’t like the house. You never know. Onward and upward… can’t hold my breath. Need to bust our butts to get ready for final photos and get out to market.
Today my agent is creating a flyer with some of the prelim photos and that will go out in an email blast (still not in MLS) as ‘Coming Soon’. But I don’t want any showings until I can get the powder room and top floor buttoned up a bit so we don’t look like such a construction zone. And, we are tired of cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. When you have construction going on not even one person can walk on the wood floors without making footprints of dust and it is impossible to keep the floors clean looking.
There’s no hope for back yard at this point. I think one of our key drawbacks right now is our garage and basement are a total mess, although I tasked one of the guys to get them somewhat cleaned up for the Sunday showing. But we have a hilarious issue in workshop area… painters just went to town spraying the black doors and our ceiling and walls have black overspray everywhere. Not going to waste time repainting workshop just yet until we get all the doors installed.
I need to get to the point that we are not creating drywall dust, sanding dust and dirt dust. An issue I have to get cleaned up this week is that we have a big pile of dirt in the back next to the driveway that was caused by all the grading of the foundation and driveway. Instead of hauling it away, we think we can transfer it to areas of the yard and under the big deck without causing drainage or grade issues. Either have to do it with wheelbarrows or we do it with a small bobcat. My concrete guys have volunteered to do it for the cost of $200 for their bobcat… labor free. Once we can get that pile of dirt moved we should be done with dirt dust coming through everywhere.
And then I have to go next door and give the guy some money to wash his windows. The east side of his house is a mess from the dirt we have moved around and I need to do the right thing and give him a coupon for window washing or something.
This is the other house the garage buyers viewed yesterday
4453 Orchard 92107
Although the house is chopped up and probably does not show well, it does have a big garage in the back and small garage in front
Wow, that house is so 80s, even the furniture.
It is closer to the beach and has a few good views but the most impressive thing is that giant garage with it’s kitchen-like cabinets. Too bad it doesn’t have a flat roof that could double as a party deck.
The buyers who came twice are leaning towards Novara because of 4 car garage, they can renovate to their taste and walking distance to Sunset Cliffs surf spots.
The sophisticated buyers thought master bedroom and closet were too small. And they did not like the vintage style design (probably want contemporary)
Both agents felt the house is priced right based on all the other houses they are viewing. We have a big decision on price today
I wouldn’t be surprised if the wife wants a nice house, and the husband mostly wants a huge garage. She was probably hoping he would relent.
I agree with Consolation. Well, if they get that house with the mega garage, they certainly know a good general contractor with a fabulous team… For a fee, she can get their house brought up to today’s standards. 
That Novara house is really a dump. And a small dump with small rooms in the middle of what looks like dust bowl, at that. The Orchard house looks infinitely better.
Well, that’s very very good news.
We are holding off on sending out the email because we have to get the price just right and there is no turning back after this email goes out.
I have a call in to a couple of lical agents I know. They are not going to be happy with me asking for pricing advice because they didn’t get the listing. I’m going to pay them a flat fee to stop by for a bit and give me their gut feel. Hope someone returns my call:)
I just cannot afford to leave money on the table. I can always go down but I cannot go up in price later. And I want to be as close as possible in the beginning because I get personally embarrassed when we have to drop the price. My agent doesn’t understand this logic but my opinion is that it looks desperate to keep lowering the price. It’s called “chasing the market”. But the home is so different and special I dont want to blow it by pricing too low because of comparables down the street.
The homes on this cul de sac are really lovely. I wish one of them had sold recently to have a comparison.
What is the price range you are considering?
I did like the view on that Orchard house.
I just spent hours researching a certain fact I wanted to contemplate. I went all the way back in history to look at any houses that sold in the canyon / cul de sac area where we are located. There are really only 5 homes that are uniquely situated privately on the canyon. Two or three of these homes are lovely with huge lots and a lot of privacy.
I found their sale price and then searched everything in the neighborhood that sold in the same time period (2000, 2008 and 2013). It took a long time and the whole thing is a crapshoot, but I can see a pattern that they sold a little higher than the surrounding area because of the uniqueness of the lots. It is really hard to pin a price because these neighborhoods and homes are each so different.
We have set our price and the flyer will be going out tonight and tomorrow morning. As soon as I know the flyers are out I will post pricing and maybe try to find a way to post to a flyer.
I loaded some photos of some progress today. Just paid $1,400 just for the walnut and riser material for the stairs. Yikes!!
Pictures are terrific. Honestly, I can’t see the roof tile color difference.
Get RID of those posters! They are awful!! Your agent has given you great advice overall…but these posters…um…no. Awful!
Pantry is great!
Hopefully everything was watertight for the rains this time!
Good question. We sent our SAP (smallest available person) crawling through every attic area with the headlamp on and we are dry and watertight. I always like it when we have rains after completion because it helps us find any issues that need to be addressed, including drainage around the property.