Columbia-Villages, Neighborhoods, Houses - Page 3

[danaalex]

i agree w/ the carroll county comment.

as for the townhouse/ apt thing, my sil and bil are in townhouse in columbia. brand new and they paid 380,000 for it. it's pretty small too. all of the cars were bmw and lexus. so, some money there, but it's on a main road and in one of the lesser desirable columbia zip codes.

they shop at the local moms and like it.

we left MD because of the safety issues. we ended up in mayberry LOL. NoVa, small town of 7000 people and no serious crime. vandalism is about the worst.

[Holiztic]

Originally Posted by danaalex

i agree w/ the carroll county comment.

as for the townhouse/ apt thing, my sil and bil are in townhouse in columbia. brand new and they paid 380,000 for it. it's pretty small too. all of the cars were bmw and lexus. so, some money there, but it's on a main road and in one of the lesser desirable columbia zip codes.

they shop at the local moms and like it.

we left MD because of the safety issues. we ended up in mayberry LOL. NoVa, small town of 7000 people and no serious crime. vandalism is about the worst.

Well, Carroll County might be nice, but we have a strict 30 minute commute limit for DH. I think even that is long! I wish he could walk to work and home again for lunch!

On a side note, I grew up in Sterling, VA (definitely not Mayberry!) but I am sure on the western side it is much nicer. Where are you, BTW?

So we are looking at 2 houses in Ellicott City tomorrow!!!!!!!! Not only EC, but 21042--in the Centennial area/school district!!!!!!!!!!!!! I never thought we'd be able to afford it. Too tired to go get the links, will post tomorrow evening after we see them!

[Mama Rana]

There's a house on Hidden Clearing in Columbia [near Jeffers Hill Elem.] that has been on the market for ages, because the house apparently needs some work. I think it's this one: http://www.realtor.com/search/listin...8821564&lsn=38

It's down the street from my friend's house, and it seems like a nice neighborhood.

[koofie]

Originally Posted by Mama Rana

There's a house on Hidden Clearing in Columbia [near Jeffers Hill Elem.] that has been on the market for ages, because the house apparently needs some work. I think it's this one: http://www.realtor.com/search/listin...8821564&lsn=38

It's down the street from my friend's house, and it seems like a nice neighborhood.

Oh that's my neighborhood! If it needs work, you should be able to get it for less than that if they can go lower.

[Mama Rana]

Originally Posted by koofie

Oh that's my neighborhood! If it needs work, you should be able to get it for less than that if they can go lower.

If it's the one I'm thinking, it's been on teh market for a year or so, so I dunno how much lower they'll go. But it does seem a bit high to me......

Holiztic, how were the EC houses?

[Holiztic]

Yeah, I've seen that listing and it is much too high for the work needed, no thanks!

So the EC house we were really excited about was put under contract about an hour before our scheduled tour!!!! Funny thing is that we liked it so much (from the listing) that I have been sweating it being sold for 2 days waiting for this tour. I was really bummed.

So we saw this today: http://www.redfin.com/MD/ELLICOTT-CI.../home/10012996 The last pics are best, after all the furniture and clutter was moved out and floors refinished.

We really liked it. Teeny tiny master bath and kitchen on the smallish side (not tiny at least) but the eat in part could have cabinets/counters to expand, if not expand through wall to dining area.

The lot is incredible and the street is gorgeous (the two ways are divided by a huge grass median with mature trees on both edges and grass in between, I kid you not the median is at least 40 feet across! the houses across the street are about 50 meters away!

Love the great room and the "family room" on the entry level would be a fabulous play room. The house is a strange split level where the front half of the house is 2 stories and the back half is the single "in between" story. So you walk in to a big foyer with the "family room"/playroom to your right and the laundry room to your left (doorway). The short, open stairs to the main level are straight ahead. 4 or 5 steps up and you are in the great room. I love the view from the great room up the stairs to the bedrooms.

So we can't give them 465 even if we wanted to as our 5% down won't be enough on that high of a loan. We also need some cash for closing, so our offer may not be to their liking, but it isn't a low ball, and in this market it might fly. We'll see!

[muttmom92]

Good luck on getting the Font Hill house! It looks great and the yard looks fabulous. It's a really nice area too. How long has it been on the market?

[Holiztic]

105 days

[homewithtwinsmama]

Boy are they being unrealistic in this market! My mother's house had sellers like that. I watched that house for year thinking how perfect it would be for her. When hers finally sold, they had just gotten a new agent and finally put the price down a lot. She went just a bit under that and got it! The good thing is that they had to adjust down so much that she is not in a position of having lost a ton of value in the bubble bursting. Unlike me who found out my loan to value now prohibits me from getting a refi to take advantage of the great low interest rates now. I am really ticked off this week!

Hope you can get it. What I could do with that size yard...sigh!

[Holiztic]

Well, the owners of the font hill house did not care for our offer, didn't even counter and it has since gone off the market (I assume under contract, probably why they didn't counter). No biggie, we were bit concerned about a few things (want 4 BRs and would like a real master bath, not a closet). Will seriously lament that yard for years to come, though. Oh well.

So we are going to check out the open house on this http://www.redfin.com/MD/COLUMBIA/62.../home/10164948 on Sunday, anyone know the area (not too far from you, Kelsi)?

Are the Stevens Forest issues likely to reach there?

Thanks!!!

[homewithtwinsmama]

Originally Posted by Holiztic

Well, the owners of the font hill house did not care for our offer, didn't even counter and it has since gone off the market (I assume under contract, probably why they didn't counter). No biggie, we were bit concerned about a few things (want 4 BRs and would like a real master bath, not a closet). Will seriously lament that yard for years to come, though. Oh well.

So we are going to check out the open house on this http://www.redfin.com/MD/COLUMBIA/62.../home/10164948 on Sunday, anyone know the area (not too far from you, Kelsi)?

Are the Stevens Forest issues likely to reach there?

Thanks!!!

That is a tiny yard. I still think its too high priced. I have a 4bd with bigger lot and I paid close to that before the bubble burst. The house on my street went down to 310K. Sure you don't want to buy and add on? One just went up on Gentle Folk as well. That isn't too far from my mother's house. I think you would be okay re Steven's Forest crime in that location. IS that a fake fireplace??? Weird!

[koofie]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

That is a tiny yard. I still think its too high priced. I have a 4bd with bigger lot and I paid close to that before the bubble burst. The house on my street went down to 310K. Sure you don't want to buy and add on? One just went up on Gentle Folk as well. That isn't too far from my mother's house. I think you would be okay re Steven's Forest crime in that location. IS that a fake fireplace??? Weird!

I keep losing my posts : Anyway, even though the lot is small, the open space behind may make it feel larger. Also, I think it is one of those houses where you need to visit to see if you like it - I've noticed the split levels often have small bedrooms imo, so that one of them is a glorified closet, but I don't think I've been in that floorplan. Let us know what you think!

[Holiztic]

So the tiny yard isn't too big a deal for exactly the reason Kelsi said, the open area is literally a continuation of the back yard, and while we can't put a play structure on it or anything, at least we don't have to mow it! And we could certainly kick a ball around or have a picnic.

The bedrooms do look a bit small, but that is one thing we are flexible on as we really believe bedrooms should be for beds/sleeping only and not TVS, computers, toys, etc. Playroom (the family room) is for toys when they're young and TV(maybe)/computer/books when they are older. As long as there is room for a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand we're good.

We drove by and thought the street/neighborhood was so-so. I think part of this was simply the gray morning. We'll check it out tomorrow and see. I think the price is pretty close, though. It is over 2100 sq feet, has nice wood floors in over half the house, a two car garage, finished basement, 2 (nice from what I can see) decks plus patio, updated kitchen and baths plus the "super bath" with vaulted ceiling and skylight. I always said I don't need a super bath, but I guess I won't mind if the house we want comes with it .

So we also like this house: http://www.redfin.com/MD/COLUMBIA/51.../home/10127270 but it is a short sale, which sounds like a huge headache. We might see how much they need for it NOT to be short (it was up for 449 until a few days ago and it was not short then). We would like to stay under 425, but that house is nice on a huge lot in a great neighborhood (from what I can tell). The houses ALL have half acre lots and it actually looks more like EC than Columbia.

We'll keep you all posted! Taking opinions as always.

[koofie]

I really like beaverbrook! I drove through there a few weeks ago when I was picking up some freecycled shoes for Ari. If the house was for sale for $450k and is now shortsaled for $425k, I'd say that the short sale should go through eventually... Check with their agent to see the specifics. Some short sales can be fairly quick (under 60 days to close) while others take forever. Find out how many morngages and if there are two plus, see if they are though the same bank. If they are through two separate banks, i'd think twice, but if it is though one bank, you are more likely not to have problems.

This is an old post, but useful for short sales: http://blog.franklyrealty.com/2008/05/top-10-q.html See if you can get some of your questions answered!

We actually bid on a short sale and got an answer in two weeks. The bank incited a bidding war between us and another buyer. The other buyer won and eventually it fell though. then the price dropped on our house and we bought it in ~3 weeks from our initial offer!

[Maidenwisdom]

Tomorrow there is an open house across the street from us in Catonsville. The listing price is 475K (this is down from 500K). The address is 6 Payson Ave. I can not say enought WONDERFUL things about this section of Catonsville and especially our street. It has a large fenced in back yard and we are walking distance to the best Co-op preschool ever.

[Holiztic]

thank you, but we saw that house a while ago (online only) and it is too big for us! it did seem like a nice neighborhood, though! thanks again for the heads up!

[homewithtwinsmama]

Originally Posted by Holiztic

So we also like this house: http://www.redfin.com/MD/COLUMBIA/51.../home/10127270 but it is a short sale, which sounds like a huge headache. We might see how much they need for it NOT to be short (it was up for 449 until a few days ago and it was not short then). We would like to stay under 425, but that house is nice on a huge lot in a great neighborhood (from what I can tell). The houses ALL have half acre lots and it actually looks more like EC than Columbia.

We'll keep you all posted! Taking opinions as always.

I really like this and with no CPRA you might even be in an unincorporated pocket where you don't have the same restrictive covenants like most of us (so you could keep bees -my latest fascination - or a couple chickens on that nice lot). It looks like a nice roomy house with a good floor plan too.

[Holiztic]

We saw them both today (light point pl and durham in beaverbrook). So we loved the style and floorplan of light point, but the neighborhood is only okay (not fabulous) and the house needs some cosmetic work, nothing that puts it in the "fixer upper" category, but the wood floors are in rough shape, the master bath needs a total gutting, the upper deck needs some boards replaced and the kitchen appliances are quite old and mix-matched. But there is also so much we loved about it. And the yard thing is not an issue, room for a small play structure on our lot and then direct access to that open area for playing ball, etc. Great view of the entire outdoor space from kitchen window, too! I love that the family room is totally viewable from the kitchen but without being wide open to it/living room (if, I mean when, toys get messy). We are considering making an offer, but lower than 425 due to the work needed. It is brand new on the market, they might not like lower, but we might try!

The beaverbrook house was nice. We know it is a better property in terms of neighborhood, lot, and even condition. But I (not so much DH) can't get over how "traditional" it is--it is not my style at all--stuff that's hard to change like shape and layout! I also don't like how open it is, I like open, but the main floor just seems like one big room with stairs in the middle. The upstairs is not very pleasant looking, but wood floors and paint might help. Way less windows than light point. Beyond all of this, the short sale thing could be an issue. If we can't pay (or are unwilling to pay) the amount needed to keep it from being short, then we are not interested, so we're going to call the listing agent tomorrow to see what that amount is. It was on the market at 449 for a long time I think, so it seems no one else thinks it worth that, not sure if we should even bother offering more than the 425 short price, as this might be overpriced.

More thinking, figuring to do!!

[koofie]

Well, I thought about the light point one and it is pretty close to the community garden - closer than I am, so that is a plus if you were interested in gardening! I'm trying to get a plot this year. thanks for keeping us informed. It's hard not to be house-hunting in a way... now I'm living vicariously though you!

[Holiztic]

Originally Posted by koofie

Well, I thought about the light point one and it is pretty close to the community garden - closer than I am, so that is a plus if you were interested in gardening! I'm trying to get a plot this year. thanks for keeping us informed. It's hard not to be house-hunting in a way... now I'm living vicariously though you!

I didn't even know there was one! Where is it? So by community garden I assume you mean a big garden where each person essentially rents a plot. So one could do organic gardening but their neighbor could be putting all kinds of junk on theirs? Not sure I'd like that!!

Feel free to live vicariously! I love house hunting and will miss it when we're done! DH said I should do be a real estate agent when/if I ever have a "career". Who knows, maybe I will.