What is your home's best selling point?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Location and price.

On first sight, the location is less attractive than the provincial capital, Pamplona. But that’s until you realize that:

  • price per square meter is about 1/4 what they ask for in bad locations in Pamplona
  • the town I’m in is a “civic center,” it has a lot of services including a public indoor pool and library (both less than 100yd from my house), high school, medical center…
  • yet it’s small enough and low-traffic enough for kids to play on the street
  • the buildings are all short (ground+3, tops), the climate is nice (cooler than in Pamplona), the views are stunning, the new boating center being set up by the local government is about 10’ away by car, and even if your job is in Pamplona you may get to it in less time than Pamplona’s inhabitants (it was the case for me, although the industrial area where I worked was on the other side of Pamplona)

Add that the previous owner was a carpenter by training (factory worker by trade) unable to stand still who replaced all the doors and windows and redid the hardwood floors and well, yeah, it was a good buy :smiley:

22

Where’d you move them? (A house actually needs some dead hookers- or at least one- in the foundation or else whose spirit is going to guard it against pimps?)
For me it’s the fact that it’s affordable but decent and a 45 second walk to a huge park.

23

I made a big mistake when choosing this house: it’s down a set of steps. Let other Dopers learn from my mistake.

24

snicker

You know, I feel like the house I’m just about moved out of now is the first place I’ve lived where I don’t have any negative association towards the place. Although the amount of time I’ve spent cleaning it up and cleaning it out is causing me to develop some. It’s amazing how much crap you can accumulate in the course of eight years (not to mention the previously accumulated crap you brought with you from the last move).

25

Lots of stuff:

15 minutes to the airport
5 minutes from rt 476
10 minutes from 95 (without traffic, of course)
Excellent school district
Quiet wooded lot
Brand-new kitchen (granite counters, large island, tile floors)
Brand-new Bolivian Rosewood hardwood floors
Diverse neighborhood
Safe neighborhood

26

Don’t be silly - my neighbors are NICE but my definition of “nice” means “do not actually need for me to interact with them” :slight_smile:

27

Hard to pick:
-quiet cul-de-sac
-great school system
-friendly neighbors with kids around our kids’ ages
-2 big decks
-large flat backyard
-property bordered on 2 sides by natural growth that goes a few hundred feet deep from our property line, with mature trees and a creek, so won’t be developed
-inside is pretty nice too with several recent renovations (roof, kitchen, bathrooms)

28

The best features? The bedrooms are decently sized for the area, and we have added in storage to them.

  1. The nicest feature is the 7 72 inch high windows in the front that let in a lot of light and make the house feel airy and bright.
29

The addition with it’s own front door, which when remodeled will be a 900 sg ft first floor in-law suite.

I can offer my parents a place to stay, as they get older, but we still all get to have our privacy.

30

Mine would have to be:

Hot tub on the deck

Large, double deck with half of the topside covered by roof space (and currently under attack by carpenter bees…they are SUCH fun to nail with a flyswatter, very satisfying whump sound badmintoning their plump little bodies into the ether)

Cul de sac street.

Non-traditional setup, whereby the house is assessed for property tax purposes as a 1BR ranch, when in fact almost all the basement is finished with the kids bedrooms downstairs.

Large, concrete-encased storage/work room. The tornado bunker. Concrete ceiling, floor and foundation walls there.

13" foundation walls.

4" PVC drain pipes throughout.

Overinsulated attic, walls, cedar siding, so very low utility bills (basement stays ice cold all year round, perfect for my man cave)

Quiet neighborhood near but not to close to Cincinnati.

A double lot, just over a half acre, so plenty of room for the dogs to run themselves silly.

Two car garage.

Cathedral ceilings.

Extended homeowner warranty, whereby we have already replaced a commode, the HVAC unit, one of our two hot water heaters, a leaking pipe and an outdoor spigot for a grand total of $200 in service calls.

House was built in 1996 by a guy that owned his own construction company and he built it to his specs…everything is oversized.

The price and terms…we bought it in late 2007 for $150,000 at 6% and are about to be at 4.25% when our refi goes through…and we put $30,000 down.

I love my house.

31

It’s on 3 acres overlooking a large body of water, with a large sandy beach and dunes making up the front yard, with another 65 acres of woods and fields and a small stream behind it.

Custom designed by an eccentric but competent architect, and built by local craftsmen, with 6000 square feet, which includes a guest wing ideal for hosting in-laws.

Paved (and plowed) town road that ends at the driveway.

Large population of deer, wild turkeys, pheasant, red fox, a breeding pair of bald eagles, two decent apple trees, tons of white birch and cedars.

Hot tub on the deck overlooking the lake, outside the master bedroom.

Two stone fireplaces, made by a local stonemason who specialized in fireplaces.

4 connecting local roads all have my ancestors’ surnames, including Mercotan Road.

32

Adopt me!

33

Take a number…

34

Views that still make my jaw drop after 17 years.

Passive solar. Windows windows windows. Floor to ceiling.

Two 14,000 foot peaks across the valley just a few miles away. The valley below had clouds in it this morning. I often drive through clouds.

If you like to ski - Breckenridge is 20 minutes away. Keystone, Copper, A-Basin, Vail a bit further.

35

I own a beautiful 70-year-old brick “Georgian” house with some really nice detailed brickwork, 2 woodburning fireplaces, plus a fairly new enclosed patio that I use as a greenhouse (and where the cats love to lie in the sun).

But the best selling point is the neighborhood. It’s an older middleclass/upper middleclass suburb with a wonderfully diverse population . . . there are a lot of ultra-orthodox Jews with huge families, a sizable black population, a very visible gay population, and lots of others. There’s an excellent school/library system and renowned performing arts venues. And big trees.

36

Probably its character and liveability.

Inner city apartments tend to be very uninteresting, with a focus on maximizing space. But somehow my husband and I managed to find a place that has two storeys, which is incredibly rare at our price point. And so much light! And a separate laundry. There are funny angles and nooks, high ceilings, the bedroom has a slanted wall which gives it an attic-bedroom feel, and there’s a large balcony. Above that balcony are six clotheslines, so we can line dry our washing with ease.

The location is pretty good too. Close to the central business district, universities, Melbourne’s biggest food market, cultural attractions, parks, and public transport. My husband and I have one car between us, it has a tiny 30 litre tank, and we fill it up maybe once every two or three months.

I fell in love with this place as soon as I saw it, and could have cried at the thought of it going to someone else because it was so perfect - everything we wanted, and some stuff we hadn’t even thought it was possible to have in an apartment. My husband promised me that he’d get it for me, and he did, and every room in it makes me happy (except the cat litter room, which is a powder room that you access through the laundry. But the concept of it makes me happy - you mean I get a separate room for the litter boxes? Hot damn.)

37

Location, I’d say. It’s five minutes’ walk from shops and public transport, and just across the harbour from the city.

38

Shaker Heights?

39

Location. It is a typical bland Phoenix apartment. However, the location is perfect. When my coworkers are spending hours on some freeway to some suburb that I’ve never heard of, I get home in a few minutes. Light rail in walking distance, put less than 1000 miles on the car I bought in Feb (and most of them were to spring training ballparks around the metro area), decent restaurants, some hiking, the D-backs, Suns, and just about everything I’d want.

40

We just sold it.

I don’t know why the guy liked it, but whatever it is that he liked about it, that was it. :wink: