Still preliminary house hunting, though housing costs are inching up in our target neighborhoods so we’re expanding our search a bit. Would still prefer southern Iowa, but some of the things I’ve seen in parts of Illinois made my jaw drop.
Case in point:
As usual, click on the thumbnails to enlarge your view. Trust me on this one, you’re gonna want to see full size. I’ll wait.
Are you back? Good. That house – mansion? – is on the order of 3400sf, 4 stories. It’s in a college town, looks to be a decent area. I dig into everything – flood risk, noise factors, city/town size, crime rate, all the various demographics, even proximity to the New Madrid Fault Line.
This house – which looks to be in damned good condition overall – is listed for $129,000. No, I didn’t move a decimal point or drop a zero. Click this link to check it out for yourself.
Unlike the other places I’ve shown, this one is most definitely not on our want-to-buy list, because it’s four stories and thirty-four-frigging-hundred square feet. Nuh-uh, nope, nyet, nay. I can barely totter around our little place, and on wheelchair days – just no. So Dangerspouse – this one’s all yours. Though I know you’ll want to expand and update the hell out of the kitchen. Have at it, kid. It would make an amazing B&B, if you’re so inclined.
G is officially on board now with moving. We’re discussing the logistics. Plans entail purchasing a modest-sized trailer and taking along the things it would be too expensive or impractical to replace: computers, televisions, tools, clothing, etc. On the other hand, would make no sense to move most of our furniture cross-country. And it would cost us less to buy a trailer outright than to rent a U-Haul.
This comes from experience… sort of. One of our friends moved to Minnesota last fall and did precisely what I just described. G helped him find a deal on a trailer, helped load it, helped him sell his stuff before moving, etc. I’ve driven pulling a trailer before, so that part doesn’t intimidate me. Heck, I drove a big rig once. (Not because I wanted to be Smokey or the Bandit, mind you, but my ex was 150% bastard who signed me up for more garbage than you can imagine, Sorry, didn’t mean to veer down that bumpy historic road…)
Having a trailer when we get there also means we can buy furniture and/or materials locally and haul it ourselves, saving time and money. When done, we flip the trailer. Knowing G, he’ll sell it for a profit.
There are reasons this move is still on the back burner for the moment, but we’re all focused on wrapping things up here so we can get on with it. I don’t know if we’re talking three years, next year, or sooner. It’s kind of the domino system – if this, then this-this-this, which in turn means this. Once the first hurdle topples, the rest may move pretty quickly.
To quote John Denver: some days are diamonds… some days are stone.
Now that the idea has been planted, I expect it will not take long for you to make a decision. Moving during the warmer months i.e. Spring, early summer would be an advantage too. Good luck in your search.
Actually our ideal move would probably be October-ish. You do NOT want to move here in summer, trust me. Even when our move would (hopefully) be just the basics. On the flipside – I don’t want to move in there in January, either, nor in spring when it’s storm season. So autumn is our tentative target. Only question at this point is, which year?
WOOOOOOO! Well slap my trailer and forward my mail to the Prairie State, Martha! That really is some bargain – thanks for the tip. And yeah, the kitchen would be my first (and maybe only) project. But holy corn cobs, Batman! A house like that on that much property would START at 500k here, easy. And taxes are probably lower there, too. And is that a massive shed up against the fence in the back yard?! I could store all my bodies there! Finally!
Shame you’re as mobile as a quadriplegic on Quaaludes, babe. But I guess since you can’t take advantage of it, someone actually worthy might as well. So…thanks!
🙂
A house like that, here, would be upwards of a million – probably well north of that, truth be told. I looked, based on six beds, that number of square feet, etc. The plain Jane, ranch-houses-on-steroids in that realm are going for about 700K. Anything I found remotely close to this one in presence was at 1.5 million and up.
For comparison, this was one of the cheaper options I found in Arizona, and the closest I found in the general style/feel. Everything else was crazy modern, and nothing here can touch the style of the place in Indy. This one’s in a smallish town, in the mountains:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1496-Eagle-Ridge-Rd_Prescott_AZ_86301_M25772-51796
It’s obviously in better condition, but again – no historic value, just a house on a hill.