<p>Had a look at the Zillow site for the area of our vacation home in SC and it is nowhere near accurate. I’m not sure where their numbers come from but I hope that not many people are relying on them.</p>
<p>Sorry about your grandparents’ house, ararab. The last time I was in the area where I grew up, I went around and took lots of photos of the homes of family and friends. Some had changed but much was the same. I’m happy to have them. </p>
<p>I’m not sure why people describe every large house as a McMansion. Most of the large homes in our area and in most that we’re familiar with, are custom built with many distinguishing and unique features. Nothing cookie cutter or ‘mcmansion’ about them. Is it just because it’s large that people make the negative comments?</p>
<p>Mcmansion is referred to a large house built on a postage stamp lot. Its a morden time creation where buildable land is scarece. In cal. suburbs, we call a 3500 sf signle family detached home with a 5000 sf lot Mcmansion, definition will be different in different locations. In the city urban area where high rise is the norm, we cannot call anything mcmansion.</p>
<p>It might be from a home owner’s point of view, because your knowledge is limited to the adjacent area MLS(retail) sales. Zillow’s information(or misinformation) comes from everywhere, including MLS and county records, bulk sales, auction sales, pre-foreclosure assessments, BPO’s, fix-uppers, new homes, remodeled flippers, good areas, bad areas… When everything is accounted for, using their algorithm, that is how they valuate.</p>
<p>In a bulk sale, the valuation could be tricky, because the buyer or the seller could assign values to houses because of tax reasons.</p>
<p>If you place credence in government assessments, this may be definitive. According to the report, new home construction in CT fell 19% last year.</p>
<p>Arabrab, that is not that horrid. There are so many which are much, much worse. </p>
<p>What I don’t understand is who, in this day and age, wants to heat/cool and maintain such a big house? Does one really need eight bathrooms, six bedrooms. 2 offices, two family rooms and a home theater?</p>
<p>We have a very large house, actually two, because our vacation home is also large. We have a large family, immediate and extended, and enjoy having the space to accomodate all of them when necessary, which happily is often. It’s true that no one needs a large house but if you want to talk about only having what is truly needed, we should all be living in a small apartment. The reality is that things don’t work that way.</p>
<p>Wilton used to (and perhaps still does) have two acre minimum lot sizes, so my grandparents’ home was on a full two acres – but the flat, buildable land was a very small plot, with a steep hillside right behind, and a ravine between the porch and the garage, which is why my reaction was McMansion. I wonder if the builder was surprised to unearth old washing machines, stoves, and all the other junk grandpa buried in the ravines and in the hillside? I also found the new house to be a rather poor design, with little or no curb appeal – though unless they did some real magic with the lot, the front door is only about 18 feet from the edge of the road, which wasn’t paved until sometime in the past 10 years, and was only barely wide enough for two cars to pass when it was dirt. I would guess that when it was paved it might have taken a bit more of the front yard, which was tiny to start with. (Funny story: my grandmother entered contests – all kinds of contests – one of which was 25-words-or-less on “Why I like Ragu.” The twist was that this contest allowed you to name your own prize. She won. Her chosen prize? A sit down lawnmower. For their front lawn which was perhaps 12’ x 20’. The hillside was way too steep to mow. We never did figure out why the heck she asked for that.)</p>
<p>Right now I have inspectors crawling all over my house. I decided (based on someone’s good advice on this thread, I think) to have a “seller’s inspection” performed before the house goes on the market, so we can address anything significant. I’m nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers right now. What if they find significant things??? :eek:</p>
<p>VeryHappy, Does your seller’s inspection also include a termite inspection? Might be a good idea to have one and then do all the section 1 work in advance.</p>
<p>Alwaysamom, so true…do we need 7000 sf( finished basement included), likely don’t NEED it, but love the space…i always love comments by those who admonish families with large homes,mostly by ise who can’t afford them anyway…i always wonder why the negativity ;)</p>