Well, we've done it...put money down on a house here in Spokane.
We've been looking at houses in Spokane online for quite a few months and had three areas narrowed down (all 55+ mobile home parks). When we got to town on Wednesday, we checked out two of the parks and immediately ruled out one of them because we didn't like the location. We checked out the third park on Thursday and finally narrowed our search down to two houses...one in each location...based on the information and pictures online.
We contacted a realtor, one recommended to us by our friend, Mary Doran, and we were shown the two houses yesterday (Saturday). We were really disappointed in one of the houses...the master bedroom was very small, barely wide enough for a queen-size bed, and the other "bedroom" at the other end of the house was a jumbled-up mess (now I know why there were no pictures of the bedrooms on the web). Besides, there were a lot of little things that would have needed to be done to it and had some features we didn't like (aside from the bedrooms), such as the plastic panels at the top of the kitchen cabinets near the ceiling that hid the lights.
The other house, however, was a gem, even though it was older by 20 years or so. The owner had recently updated the entire house, inside and out...spent way more than he's getting out of it, but it is in pretty much pristine shape.
We made an offer, and he's countered our offer, so we'll go in to sign papers at the realtor's office (probably tomorrow) and start the process of getting an inspection done and whatever else we need to do. Closing is slated for the end of the month.
We've been looking at houses in Spokane online for quite a few months and had three areas narrowed down (all 55+ mobile home parks). When we got to town on Wednesday, we checked out two of the parks and immediately ruled out one of them because we didn't like the location. We checked out the third park on Thursday and finally narrowed our search down to two houses...one in each location...based on the information and pictures online.
We contacted a realtor, one recommended to us by our friend, Mary Doran, and we were shown the two houses yesterday (Saturday). We were really disappointed in one of the houses...the master bedroom was very small, barely wide enough for a queen-size bed, and the other "bedroom" at the other end of the house was a jumbled-up mess (now I know why there were no pictures of the bedrooms on the web). Besides, there were a lot of little things that would have needed to be done to it and had some features we didn't like (aside from the bedrooms), such as the plastic panels at the top of the kitchen cabinets near the ceiling that hid the lights.
The other house, however, was a gem, even though it was older by 20 years or so. The owner had recently updated the entire house, inside and out...spent way more than he's getting out of it, but it is in pretty much pristine shape.
We made an offer, and he's countered our offer, so we'll go in to sign papers at the realtor's office (probably tomorrow) and start the process of getting an inspection done and whatever else we need to do. Closing is slated for the end of the month.
posted by Earl and Linda at
Sunday, April 11, 2010
2 Comments:
Just wondering why you chose Spokane instead of Coeur d'Alene? The taxes and regulations are lots better. Are you going to use this as a summer base?
Good luck!
Judy Wms.
I don't know about regulations, but Idaho has an income tax, Washington doesn't. Idaho also taxes food, Washington doesn't. There is a difference in sales tax between the two locations, but I don't think the higher sales tax in Spokane would equal or exceed the income tax we'd pay in Idaho.
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