House Hunters

As most of you know, we have been renting since we moved back to NC. We have spent the last few months looking at houses and have narrowed our search down to three, including the one we are renting. So, now it is time to play House Hunters goes to North Carolina.

House #1

House #1 is a 1650 square foot house on a .5 acre corner lot. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It has an additional 1400 square feet of unfinished space upstairs. If we purchase this house we are going to have the builder finish an additional 1100 square feet upstairs to include a bedroom, a bathroom, an office and a large bonus room for a total of ~2800 square feet- 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, an office and a bonus room. This is the most afforfable of the three.

Things we like about this house: The wrap-around porch. It has a a great yard. It has the potential to be a really large house with a HUGE bonus room. It is the most affordable. We don't have to move!

Things we don't like about this house: It has a very open floorplan and no foyer- you walk right into the living room. It is on a corner lot by the road. We are not crazy about the neighborhood/neighbors. There are currently houses being built next to and across from this house that will total ~1600 square feet. We have to finish it and are not crazy about the builder! If we finish this house we will have the biggest, most expensive house in the neighborhood and that is never a good things for investment purposes or resale.

House #2

House #2 is a ~2500 square foot house on .75 acres with 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, an office and a decent sized bonus room. This house includes several upgrades from the first house like granite and a tiled master bath but is more expensive than the first.

Things we like about this house: The neighborhood. The kitchen and master bath are beautiful, it has a large open porch and a nice screened-in porch, it has the best yard of the three and faces a horse pasture in the back. It also has a huge laundry/mud room off of the garage that we really like. It is move-in ready.

Things we don't like about this house: It is three stories which means a lot of stairs and the bonus room is on the third floor which is kind of far away from the kids if I am on the bottom floor. It doesn't have much of a backyard because it backs up to a horse pasture-almost the entire yard is to the side of the house. It doesn't have a lot of storage space or a spare bedroom like the other two.

House # 3

House # 3 is a ~2700 square foot house on .5 acres with 4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, a formal living room and a small bonus room. Again, it has many upgrades from the first house but is the most expensive of the three.

Things we like about this house: The neighborhood. The overall look/curb appeal-Southern Plantation style. The side entry into the house. It is on a cul-de-sac, the balcony off of the master bedroom and the screened-in porch. I would use the formal living room for my office so it would still have 4 bedrooms. It has a lot of storage space.

Things we don't like about this house: The price! It has a small bonus room, the back yard is kind of sloped, the stove is in the center island. This house needs several things in order to be move-in ready, i.e. the floors need a final coat of poly, the screen porch has not been finished, it needs a new HVAC system because the previous one was stolen...but the builder has agreed to complete all of these as part of the purchase).

We have contacted the builders of each of these and have their best offer in hand -So, which one did we choose?

House #1- the largest and most affordable?

House #2- the three story with the great yard?

House #3- the Southern Plantation budget buster?

Take the poll to the right! We'll announce which house we chose on Sunday!