19 replies to this topic

[glitterbot]

OK, so, there is much debate here in casa us about where we should live. Matt and I want to buy a house and we have been looking for about a month. We are seeing that our options are not as fabulously awesome as we hoped. Right now we live at 15th st & Hatcher, on the edge of sunnyslope. We love it here, except for our POS neighbors and our crapshack that we live in. We would love to stay. BUT.... we have specific things that we need in a new place and haven't been able to afford anything around here with what we want.

1. ROOM. We need more square footage. I have a home based business that requires storing a lot of stuff at the house. Also, my mom works for me and when we are working a sale she stays with us, since she lives 2 hours out of town. So, basically we need a MINIMUM of 1450 square feet, 3 bedrooms/two bath. Right now we have about 950, with two bedrooms/one bath. We need SPACE and storage.

2. PARKING. We have three vehicles at our house, because I have an extended cargo van for my business. When my mom is here that makes four vehicles. If we found the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, we could put up with a carport but what we really want is a garage. An ideal situation would be a garage with an RV gate. We have an RV gate right now, and it allows me to pull the cargo van into the backyard when I am not using it.

3. We would really, really, really, really like to have a pool.

So far our options are, as we see it, are three.

*We can give up a pool, a garage, and the square footage we need and buy anywhere from 19th ave to 40th st, south of Cactus and North of McDowell. We could probably get a place in the upper range of our budget.

*We can buy a slightly smaller place, like between 1200-1400 sq ft, probably with a pool, and with a garage, somewhere NORTH of Greenway and SOUTH of the 101, between 7th ave and 40th st. This would be in the MID to Upper range of our budget.

*Or we can buy in South Mountain, and have everything we want. EAST of central is harder to get and more expensive. If we found a place there it would be top of budget. If we go further west, Laveen area, we can get everything we want (and then some) and still be at the bottom range of our budget.

Matt works downtown. Here is an example. We are looking at a place this weekend that is at 10st and Union Hills. It is a really pretty neighborhood, standard brick ranch house. From there, it would take matt 31 mins to go to work, or 45 in traffic. We also saw a place online at 51st ave south of baseline, standard two story new-build style house. From there it would take him 22 mins to get downtown. Both houses have about the same square footage, both have a pool, one is from 1983 and the other is from 2005. The house at Union Hills is $65,000 MORE than the one in Laveen.

Ideally we would love to live around Cactus, or around where we live now, but it does not look like it is going to be possible. Most places that come up in that area that meet our needs are about 15,000-20,000 over our budget. Matt worries that if we move to Laveen no one will want to come to our house ever, even though it is only twenty mins from downtown. We plan to live in whatever house we buy for at least ten years, I am sure.


WHERE SHOULD WE LIVE PEOPLE????


(Sorry this was so long.)

[unluckycharm]

ack, too many choices. seems like your main issue is space. if you bought a smaller place, is there room for maybe a storage shed to accomodate the space?

[Mary]

You know, you probably already have this information, but from my house at 42nd St, N of McDowell, it's like 10-12 minutes to 16th st. and 15-20 min. to downtown, and a lot of these houses have 3 br/2 ba and alley access to the back yard -- some already have a gate or garage back there. Though prices have plummeted, I realize it's still a desirable area for many and the homes with pools might be outside your price range.

Not just for Matt's work, but for what you might save on gas, time and inconvenience re: social life, living closer in might pay for itself. In any case, now is the time for first-time buyers. Buy this year, because the economy might pick up (a bad thing for ftb's) sooner than you think.

I remember giving up some of my dear wishes when I was shopping. It sounds like you're looking at your practical needs and that's great.

[Tony]

fatguy and i both live in the same neighborhood - just south of thomas between 40th and 44th street. properties are pretty big, and depending on which lot you get there are back alley entrances/garages and most of the homes seem to have separate buildings or detached garages/workshops. like every other neighborhood in phoenix, there's a lot for sale. not sure what your budget is, though. PM me if you want my address and you can google map it. or use zillow. have you looked at neighborhoods on zillow?

edit: also, i've heard laveen is shit town. my apologies to anyone living in laveen. but you know what's up.

[glitterbot]

Well, it is a shame, because it is already turning away from being a buyer's market. Resale homes in our price range are selling really fast. If we had started looking even six months ago we would be in better shape.

[mattm]

we live midtown/uptown 7th Street and Indian School and LOVE it... it is very Centralized as I work at the 101?Chaparral area and my ladyfriend works anywhere from the Biltmore to Chandler Fashion Square... very easy to get around and still some good deals... do you have a strong real estate agent... the dude we used is GREAT and works hard to get you what you want. The problem I am seeing is a lot of agents are not willing to work for the client, at least not work hard.

he got us exactly what we wanted in the price rage we wanted to stick in.. no hard sale!

I would be glad to refer...

[larah]

If you live in Laveen, we probably won't visit you.

[chadk]

there are a few houses for sale in our neighborhood (fairview place) but i have no idea how big or details. you can check the mls listings for our area if you are interested.

[glitterbot]

I mainly use phoenixmlssearch.com. From what I can see, the results are much more accurate and up-to-date than realtor.com, trulia, zillow, google, or any others I have tried.

I have 5 searches running all the time, with various parameters. I use zip code specific searches with cover the city, roughly from 30th ave to 40th st, 101 up north to mcdowell, then another search that covers 4 different south phoenix zips. I also check their "New on Market Today" feature about 20 times a day. This shows every new listing, anywhere in PHX, with any parameters, from 6mil dollar houses to ten thousand dollar houses.

I found a house today that I liked VERY much. It had everything we needed, rv gate, garage, storage buildings, pool, etc, but was very slightly smaller than I wanted. I totally didn't care; I really dug the house. Then the realtor find a clause in the MLS listing that says that no offers will be submitted to the seller until 6/21. Basically, he is trying to get a bunch of offers together and hunt for the "highest bidder." So frustrating, because the house is priced in our price range, but evidently the listing realtor is shooting for more.

BLERGH.

[Rial]

i used zip reality to look, it has cool interactive map, and then used my moms friend as realitor, i bid on like 4 houses before i got the one in sunnyslope, some really cool ones that slipped away. don't move to laveen, and north phoenix ie: 10 st and union hills, is boring, but my wife and i used to live up there and she worked downtown, it was fine.. go for east phoenix ish area.

[bob]

i love sunnyslope. maybe it's changed since the last time i was there, but i was really liked it over there. i've had good times on porches in sunnyslope. hey, porches

[glitterbot]

i used zip reality to look, it has cool interactive map, and then used my moms friend as realitor, i bid on like 4 houses before i got the one in sunnyslope, some really cool ones that slipped away. don't move to laveen, and north phoenix ie: 10 st and union hills, is boring, but my wife and i used to live up there and she worked downtown, it was fine.. go for east phoenix ish area.

haha, boring. MAN, that is what I am looking for. I have had enough of non-boring neighborhoods. I want my house to be located in a quiet place. I have had enough of neighbors who party in their front yard (at like 9 am) and yell drunkenly at me when I get my mail, neighbors with like 7 kids in one house running around screaming all day, neighbors who are freakin meth dealers or whatever (but at least that dude moved), etc etc etc. I want a neighborhood of people who keep their houses neat and are not loud. Is that too much to ask?

I would love to live in east phoenix. But the houses that have what we want, in the nicer/quieter neighborhoods, are usually $200,000 and up. Far out of our budget. A new house was just put on the mls today at 36st, North of Indian School, and it is $399,000. The house is only 1024 sq ft, 2 bed, 1 bath!

We are looking at the house on 10th & union hills again tomorrow. Matt hasn't seen it yet. if we like it, i guess we submit our offer and hope no one likes it better.... the pool needs to be resurfaced. Does anyone know how much that costs?

[Jacki O.]

.... the pool needs to be resurfaced. Does anyone know how much that costs?

i can recommend a really good company for pool resurfacing. I got mine resurfaced with plaster and retiled for about $3,000. they did it really quickly and really well.

my pool is huge so i guess it depends on the size and what type of resurfacing (plaster or pebbletec)

[glitterbot]

.... the pool needs to be resurfaced. Does anyone know how much that costs?

i can recommend a really good company for pool resurfacing. I got mine resurfaced with plaster and retiled for about $3,000. they did it really quickly and really well.

my pool is huge so i guess it depends on the size and what type of resurfacing (plaster or pebbletec)

sweet!! that is very good to know. I will be in touch if things get serious with this place.

[Rial]

the 101 and 51 can get you anywhere from north Phoenix, its just strip mall waste land and white trash country bars/bro "I never moved out of my parents house" dudes, but I suppose that is everywhere, the shopping plaza on 7th and Bell has a sunflower market and a target and all that crap. I lived in that area most of my life, so maybe that is why I am sick of it. The house I moved out of was on 7th ave and Union Hills and the owners paid $250 for it!

I want the spice of life that is Sunnyslope, my baby needs to learn Spanish anyway.

So I just moved from your ideal into your headache...uuuhhhmmmm.

At least North Phoenix isn't Laveen or Buckeye or Surprise.

Goodluck, it took me 6 months to find something close to what I wanted, and this shit seems to be heating up.