The Hunt

My wife and I went thru a similar situation when buying our first house. We found some brand new split levels that were very under-priced and a great deal, especially for a first-house budget. But the neighborhood was no where near what I would call safe, pleasant, friendly, or comforting. My wife hesitated for a while because the houses were so nice for the money, but I never thought twice about it. I couldn't take waking up in the middle of the night always wondering if someone had just broken into my house.

We settled on a 30 year old, smaller, less fancy house in a great little quiet neighborhood filled with a bunch of retired old people. We couldn't be happier. :)

Todd, I know that exact feeling. My fiance and I were choosing between houses, and there was this one house in downtown McKinney, that was absolutly GREAT! Brand new, great land, but next door was one of those houses, with tarps hanging in the windows, chickens strewn about out back, etc... we had to decide against it, and moved into another house in a cookie cutter neighborhood (i love the house). Good thing we did too, as we found out just 6 months after, it was still on the market, and the value had fallen by nearly half...

when it comes to buying a house, remember De Niro in Ronin: "If there is any doubt, there is no doubt."

I feel for you. My wife and I spend a bit of time last winter looking for a decent house in our price range in Minneapolis...she kept finding these strange houses in not so good parts of decent neighborhoods.

In the end I went by myself and found a nice solid house in a pretty good neighborhood in Saint Paul that had almost everything we wanted. Had to pretty much gut the interior (gotta love that late '70s decorating, you know, the kind that really LOVED paneling), but it's really been nice to us, and we love being here.

Although I do have to say, if you have to think about it, then it isn't the right house. It's the right house when you walk into it and immediately think, unbidden, "this is it!". Never seems to be otherwise.

Good luck!

Todd,

You made the right decision. My wife and I had been looking for over a year here in So California until we found the right place...great neighborhood, decent house that could be fixed to our liking. Things are so expensive here and when we first started looking, we found another fixer for $425,000...but it was next to one of those houses...8 cars in the driveway (some up on blocks, chickens out back, junkyard backyard, etc...even though it was one block from a multi-million dollar neighborhood. But we passed...and we're glad we did.

The real estate market here in Brisbane was going nuts last year. House prices had literally doubled in the last 12 months and we were right in the middle of it trying to buy a home. There was enormous pressure to buy before you couldn't afford to anymore but my wife kept saying "No, this isn't the one. There will always be another house"
In the end she was right. A house is property, but it also has to be a home.

Todd: Plenty of nice houses with nice, safe neighbors up here in the 'burbs. Four or five for sale on my street alone.

I know - I'd rather be in-town, too.

With a couple of friends and family in that area, I have one friend who is living in a nice place near Jonesboro and a family member who got a hell of a house in Canton. While it's not midtown, it's a nice green neighborhood. Another friend moved to a place between Macon and Atlanta and got an acre and a half of land with a nice house for about $120k. It's not like living in the city, but it's a good tradeoff.

Todd, you made the right decision. An abandoned house, or even one that looks abandoned, can impact your ability to get homeowners insurance at reasonable rates. Many insurance companies treat such eyesores as a mark against your home.

Their rationale? Abandoned houses burn, they attract those squatter crackheads who may damage your property, etc.

While I doubt it would have prevented you from getting insurance, it almost certainly would have made your insurance more expensive.

You just reminded me, I need to one of my dying cars off the blocks. :)

A friend of mine bought a rundown century old row house in Baltimore about 6 months ago. While we all attempted to persuade him to not buy a property across the street from a crack den in the ghetto, he went ahead with the purchase anyway. Needless to say, in the time I have spent there I’ve seen quite a bit of gunfire and smashed windows in broad daylight. Not a safe place to live to say the least. The neighborhoods is definitely in transition. Lots of young people buying up the properties and renovating them. But it takes a real special person to live in an environment like that. You got be honest with yourself when you’re looking to buy in a neighborhood like Grant Park or East Atlanta or my friends spot in Balto. You made the right choice Todd. Living next to squatters and crack addicts is probably not your best option for living accomodations.

Check out Oakhurst. Please wait a week or so though as I'm looking there as well.... :)

Grant Park has pretty much leveled off at 300k. There are some great deals in Oakhurst and East Point (which is a bit more 'transitional'). Hang in there - I've been looking for a few months.

Very good point Chris - I never considered the home insurance angle before. Makes perfect sense, especially since the two houses were right next to one another. A fire in the flop house would have easily spread over to ours.

You definately have to have a frontier attitude to buy a property in a situation like that. My wife and I purchased a 3400sq ft. 17 room brick house built in 1907 on a lot that is 175 by 100 in the heart of a city about 30 miles from Detroit for $20,000.00 We have completely re-done it to our satisfaction and put in several gardens. I ave also purchased the house in back to use as my glass studio for 14,000.00. However, in the past 15 years, waiting for gentrification we have witnessed, 5 murders one year, shootings, countless drug houses, arsons, $2,000.00 a year home owner insurance payments, auto insurance out of sight. 2 German Shepherds that walk the yard daily and pack a pistol while outside aftr dark. The work we did on the house was written up in the paper, but was it all worth it, I don,t know. Frankly I am ready to throw in the towel. The bad years seem to go in cycles and this spring seems to forbode a bad summer. Oh well enough for now, but we have had quite an adventure.

Ah man... I hear ya Todd. I LIVED in Grant park almost ten years ago.....

I rented a duplex with several friends because is was dirt cheap.... Little did we know the people directly across the street from us WERE DISTILLING CORN LIQUOR IN THIER HOUSE. hahaha! It gave our street all sorts of unsavory human traffic at all hours from hoods that were actually WORSE than GP.( confederate homes, parts of Ormwood etc..) Those folks must have made a mint bootlegging that shit.

THE ONLY reason we didn't have our house broken into is becuase one of us was always home. They could never figure out a schedule.

Trying to go to sleep with the sound of automatic gunfire was pretty tough too....

My partner and I had what was in some ways the opposite experience. Found a house, loved it, spent the ride home talking about what we could do with it and how we would live in it (with her mother, to boot), and then three days later the owner decided to take the house off the market.

It’s been hard to warm up to any houses since then, but we’re still trying

Grant Park has come a long way in 10 years. I recently moved into a new house in East Atlanta, another transitional neighborhood not too far from GP. I don't know much about the Grant Park Neighbors Association, but the East Atlanta Community Association members are very vocal about calling the city's Land Use and Zoning offices about abandoned and/or misused properties. It definitely makes a difference. There's a hosue across the street from mine that was abandoned but has been bought and renovated and is for sale, and the other abandonded house across the other street is in the same process. But in the end, its a personal decision about what you're comfortable with. I feel safe and have no problems walking around the neighborhood at night.

Best of luck with the hunt Todd, A and I just bought a house in Miami's Little Havana (such a stretch for a gringo like me) and had real concerns until we started walking around...it's only been a week but the new 'hood is definitely growing on us. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you guys.

I'm having problems displaying your style sheet - maybe because I'm running safari on OSX?