Looking for housing (bah!)

Whew! Another scorcher today, up to 84!

Some may wonder what we are looking at in terms of housing here in the Portland area.  Here we are a couple of guys who just sold their house in DC and now have a pocket full of money.  Should be easy, right?  Not really.  There’s a lot on the market here, but we simply haven’t found the right fit yet.  I’ll talk about our experiences and efforts here just this once.  I could talk for hours about it, but I’d just start ranting and that can get really boring!

First, when marketing houses here, realtors don’t seem to have the same finesse as those in DC.  They are a little more laid back and casual.  I mean when you come in to photograph a house for sale, wouldn’t you want to make it as attractive as possible?  Not always the case.  In so many cases here it seems the photographer comes in and just starts snapping photos.  Whatever is there is there. 

 

I mean I know this is a picture of a foreclosed condo’s kitchen, but do they really need to show the Ajax cleanser and all the other cleaning stuff on the counter?  What are they trying to say . . . you really want to buy this condo, because it’s really, really clean?

So what can you get for your money here?  Well, here’s a great 6000+ square foot Greek Revival (John Calvin Stevens, 1905) in Portland that’s close to the center city.  Only $495K (really!). Must be a mess inside, but no it’s seems all renovated and updated for the photos.  Too bad though, it’s only 5 bedrooms and 3 baths.  Oh! and that marble flooring in the foyer . . . so slippery in the winter . . . and who’s going to work in that humongous kitchen, all that running back and forth.  Only kidding . . . sounds like a good deal, but like many houses on the market here, too much for John and me.  We want something a little closer to some natural areas.  Still, couldn’t you just see a Maine version of Rhett and Scarlett standing on that second floor porch?

Kidding aside we have seriously looked at places a bit more modest and with a lot less upkeep.  Here’s something we looked at in a complex, a little pretentiously named Hobstone in Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland.  No, we aren’t looking at a house with a three car garage.  It’s three condo units in one building.  It’s 3 bedroom, 2½ baths and about 1,800 square feet with an asking price of $270K.  The whole complex is 66 units arranged in the woods with rock outcroppings, walking trails and more.  The complex was designed in a style supposedly reminiscent of H. H. Richardson, hence the poor take off on his middle name, Hobson.  For a retired architect, this is enough to make me not want to live here.  Still, the surroundings are lovely and the layouts very accommodating.  This is the place where we made an offer, but then backed out of after home inspection, because so many little things wrong added up to a lot. 

Here’s another one that we were very interested in.  Isn’t this house cute as a button? It has a nice layout and cathedral ceilings, has four acres of really nice woods, and fit a lot of our criteria.  It’s 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and 1,600 square feet with an asking price of $330K.  It’s just down the road from the Hobstone complex and it is actually built on top a rock outcropping that continues through to the backyard.  In fact, the rock comes right through the basement.  Of course with the rock comes a little radon and water.  Because of all the rock in Maine, a lot of houses have radon.  It’s easy to remedy with a small fan and a pipe vent to the roof.  Water is another problem.  I guess it is just too much to ask for a dry basement in Maine.  It is inevitable that you will see some moisture, but what’s important is how it is handled.  Most people handle it with a French drain and a sump pump.  These folks just didn’t do anything other than say the problem was minor and only when it rains.  Well, a little investigation shows that appreciable rain was recorded in Portland last year on 113 days.  So the “minor” problem might actually occur 60 to 90 days a year.  Come on people, install a sump pump.  Another problem was the kitchen . . . a little small, a little unworkable with little chance for remedy without some major redo.  Very tantalizing to us, but we let it pass.

OK, that's enough boring stuff.  So we continue to look and you’ll probably not hear any more about real estate until we really get excited by something.  Today, however, we tried a new place for lobster rolls . . . now that’s something to talk about!  We've been to four so far, but we'll talk about that next time.