One Door Closes and Another Opens
After 2 weeks of waiting, I finally heard back on my offer, but it was disappointing. The seller basically countered with the list price so I walked away from that deal. I definitely got enamored by the look of the house, but after crunching numbers and trying to get insurance and a mortgage I was kind of glad I could walk away from my offer. I would still consider the house, but would have to be significantly less than what they were asking.
Luckily there was another old house on the market I had my eye on. This house was on the market for months, but was priced out of my range. They recently slashed the price 30K and had an open house. In pictures, I wasn't too impressed with the house because I thought the ceilings were low.
Gambrel roof Victorian. Notice name plaque hanging above porch stairs. In the past, many owners named their homes.
A lot of the older homes have 2nd stories with low ceilings. Being 6 feet tall, it doesn't feel right with low ceilings so that is something that definitely crosses a potential house off my list. I'm not looking for McMansion level cathedral ceilings but something with a little clearance. When we checked the open house, it definitely showed to not trust pictures online. The ceilings were plenty high and the house was a gem. The house is a Victorian with a gambrel style roof. Inside needed work, but pretty much all the original stuff was there and in good shape.
The open house was also nice because we could meet with the owner and chat with him about the history of the house and get his perspective on the renovations he had made. I always find it weird that during a real estate transaction the 2 parties can't communicate directly with each other. This is such a major purchase and you have to take information 2nd hand from realtors - it's playing a game of telephone.
Prerequisite stained glass window in entry hall.
The seller said the house went back to 1900 and was one of the original houses on Juniper Ave. He had the original keys in the butler's pantry and the house even had a name, which was a trend back in the early days of Wildwood. After heading home I immediately put in an offer.
Lots of nice built-ins.
