How To Decipher Some Real Estate Terms.
How To Decipher Some Real Estate Terms.
Let's be real about real estate for a second. Real estate agents are there to buy and sell homes. Whether it's a real dump or a dream home, a house needs a homeowner.
Hyping up a house is part of the sale, but all prospective buyers should know how to sift through red flag after red flag. The best place to start is in the listing description. Let's go and take a look at some real estate euphemism that can drive a buyer up a wall.
Quaint.
It's minuscule.
The same goes for cozy, or charming. That means you'll be squeezing between the back of a chair and the wall to get from the living room to the kitchen.
Quaint is a cute word, it adds this easy of apple pies, soft couches, and warm sweaters. It's a very useful descriptor for real estate listings and, if you're on a budget, it can be good news too. Just don't be surprised when you show up to the open house and they're only letting six people in at a time.
Full of possibilities.
You can romanticize paint rollers and stained old t-shirts if you want, the listing agent surely will, but 'full of possibilities' usually means that you're going to need a few cans of elbow grease to get the house in working order.
The seller probably couldn't do the repairs on the property in due time or is being forced to sell. This can happen for a few reasons like not being able to afford the mortgage anymore or other problems that make it financially stressful to live in the house.
Before you go further with a property like that it's important to be aware of all the possible issues with the house. Just hoping that a fixer-upper can become your dream home is not going to be enough to deal with hidden problems, roof problems, and a terrible location.
While house hunting, if you see something advertised as a "handyman special," you're better off looking the other way unless the house's price is as low as the likely cracks in the foundation.
It's complicated to judge the fair market value of properties that need a lot of work but it's not impossible. Saving money on the initial purchase can be alluring, especially in the current market conditions, but if you're not careful you'll quickly need to sort through an email inbox full of quotations to fix the flooding basement.
FROG (Finished room over garage).
A FROG is not a kitchen, a living room, or a bedroom. Most named rooms need to be fit for purpose when they're listed.
While most people could use a finished room over a garage as a bedroom or as some sort of family room, a real estate agent cannot call it a bedroom - even with their fingers crossed behind their backs.
Given that they're over garages, these rooms can have strange proportions which make them better suited as some sort of storage space or as a makeshift rumpus room.
Still, this doesn't always mean bad things. That bonus room can be used as a home office, an extra bedroom, or something different. You can ask for your agent to get you photos of the room, or better yet you could have a walk around it during an open house or private showing.
Up and coming.
A classic.
Usually referring to the neighbourhood, this tends to speak to the community that lives in the area. You could end up with a pretty area with a community yard that the neighbourhood children use to learn about gardening, or you could also end up in an area where crime rates are the only things that are going up.
It's really a case of knowing the city and understanding why the neighbourhood is defined the way it is. Is there an economic rising tide that promises that the area at the moment is a good investment or did the agent just use a buzzword supposed to calm your fears to expedite a sale?
If you get the chance to, talking to local homeowners will give you some great perspective about where the house is located. If you're interested and want to gain some knowledge about the difference between the truth and the reputation of a neighbourhood then nothing will beat driving around the area at different times.
It's important not to let obsolete ideas about an area obscure your vision but at the same time keep in mind that agents are there to sell and buy houses. Don't fall for the hype or tainted preconceptions.
Full of character.
The house is 'interesting'.
Everyone has their quirks but the previous owner of a house full of character might have had too many quirks.
There's no shame in loving clowns, for example, but having an open house where people can just walk in to find a room dedicated to the history of clowns complete with walls decorated with props, specialized built-in furniture, and more is going to make the house have to sell.
Sure, you can save a lot on the sale price if you're willing to deal with all the, possibly cursed, clown memorabilia but will the savings be worth it?
It can get weird fast. Themed houses, windows in strange places, 'interesting' floor plans.
Is there an upside for this one? Well, yes and no. You can definitely have some things in common with the previous owner like a love of outdoor kitchens and floor-to-ceiling windows onto a pool - but these features will be advertised as such.
The house could also have non-conventional but genuinely useful different architectural properties that, for example, diffuse the light of the setting sun throughout the home.
Soon enough in your house hunt, you'll learn how much the best parts of those three little words scale positively with a big budget and scale in horrifying ways with a small budget.
Original.
One of the biggest traps there are.
Having a home untouched by decades of style fads can be alluring but it could also mean that nobody thought it was worth updating the home.
Original flooring can be worn out and tired, original appliances can be 'charming' in the same way being stuck in traffic is charming, and the original HVAC system is probably missing the last two letters.
This isn't to paint all older homes in a bad light but once you set foot through the door, you should have an arsenal of questions ready to fire. You don't want to be in the middle of winter and get surprised by the fact that the chimney is completely clogged with soot - not to mention that that's very dangerous.
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