Day 102

We went back up towards Austin today to look at 5 houses. Three of the houses were non-starters. One was too small, too old, and had the master upstairs. The second was a nice enough house, it just didn't thrill us. It was also priced $90,000 more than its appraised value. The third we didn't go into. It was on a 10 acre lot, but for some reason they placed the house backing up to a relatively busy road. It sounded like you were living next to an arterial.

The first house that we saw was interesting. It was an old house that had been fully remodeled. They had done a good job. The house is on 5 acres that have been fenced and cross fenced. There is a somewhat beat up tack house and small greenhouse. It also has some interesting landscaping in the back yard including a small pond/stream feature that needs rebuilding. The downside is that the lot is flat and relatively treeless. There isn't any privacy.

The last house was interesting. It's small, but nicely laid out inside. It has a 30 x 40 out building that contains a garage/workshop and a 3 room apartment kind of thing. The apartment isn't finished particularly well and has no windows. There's also a couple of other storage shed type buildings and a place to park a trailer with water and power (no sewer). The whole place is fenced with an electric gate. The downside is that the kitchen has laminate and the master bath has a shower/tub combo. It's also a little overpriced.

We also went back to see the front runner from our last trip. It really isn't built well. Everywhere you look you can see cheap materials or shoddy workmanship. You can't beat the view from the deck though and it's really quiet.

We figure that either house would take about $8,000 to $10,000 of work to make it the house that we would want. Tomorrow is decision time. We will make an offer on one, and maybe both, houses.