Zillow Blog

[HeyBub]

A web site devoted to real estate (and tips), home improvement, tax considerations, etc. It's worth a look for ideas and comparisons.

[Norminn]

Zillow was our main tool when we were looking for our house. With interior pix of most homes, it eliminated facing realtors to sort out the truly ugly, trashy stuff....never seen such ugly wallpaper in my life...one house had some version of red/green wallpaper in every room, different upper half and lower half with a border thrown in. It would have taken my remaining life expectancy to get rid of all the wallpaper.

Ended up with plain beige/vanilla, but for the mauve and gray in the kitchen. Cozy, good shape, nice neighborhood.

We didn't use the blog, just the search/notify stuff. The good homes in our area were moving quickly and if the realtor was slow in posting to Zillow, there was an offer already made.

[Ed Pawlowski]

So if two identical houses were offered and one had ugly wallpaper and one was bland, you'd choose the bland even if the price difference was huge?

Ugly can be a visual turn off, but you have to consider everything and maybe get a great deal after the painter/wallpaper guy is done.

[George]

That always cracks me up on the various "house hunter" shows. It always goes something like "well the price is really good but that purple paint in the bedroom just isn't going to work so we don't want this house..."

Buy the place for $25k less and hire someone for $1k to paint the room and be $24k ahead. Amazing how most people never use such simple financial reasoning.

[Hench]

Sometimes not all houses with ugly paint sell for less. In my neighborhood houses with upgrades and modern colours are put up for sale for quick, ie family has to move because of job or death etc. The houses that have pre 1990's kitchens and colours, those owners wait it out till the right buyer comes along.

Although I would say that for a lot neighbourhoods, your comments would be correct.

[Norminn]

Did I say that? The decor was so extreme I would not have wanted to live in it. Had it been a bargain, in terms of location, condition and price, I might have considered it. I do know how much work wallpaper removal entails, so it was an important factor. I helped my daughter, along with the rest of the family, remove a lot of wallpaper in her 1840 farmhouse; well worth it.

I've learned to see through ugly and have gotten some great bargains by refinishing furniture. The home we ended up with is in top-notch shape, well built and well maintained, and just about damn perfect for us. Changed out electric range for gas and there is now nothing I really need to change. The kitchen decor/wallpaper will go in due time.

[Norminn]

They really have a lot of nonsense discussions, just for scripting. We passed up one house that we loved in terms of space and decor. Old two story completely gutted and remodeled. Had we been younger, it would have been much more attractive. Healthy, but not getting any younger, and if we are a lot older, the two story might not have been so great.

[krw]

Paint is one thing but trashy wallpaper is a whole different kettle. I'm with nn on this one, no wallpaper (one room, I could probably look past one room).

[Frank]

Years ago, I tried my hand at real estate but I was a lousy salesman and it was a slumped, buyers market.

Its a buyers market today and with a lot to choose from the property should be perfect. Any realtor will tell you to sell your house, dress up the outside for a good first impression and make the insides vanilla and make sure everything is in good repair.

Most people don't want a fixer upper but when they do they expect to get if for far below normal market value.

[Doug]

Correct. People tho often use one excuse for another so what they tell you may not the actual reason.

And altho there are a lot of variables when buying a house, I found one variable to be always important.... location, location, location.

[krw]

Particularly since you have no idea what's under the paper. The last time I did it, there was nothing under it, except bare drywall. I could have torn out the sheetrock and re-rocked the bathroom in less time. No, I won't sign up to do a whole house. There are too many other choices.

Indeed.

[Doug]

Steve, is your charge of $25 to $100 an hour just for labor? Why the huge difference if it's just for labor?

[Doug]

Correct but that's not happening in todays' Houston market. Foreclosures not in good shape that were priced well in the 80s are not nowadays. It's much harder to find a true bargain here now because the banks know the Houston market is strong.

[Ed Pawlowski]

You'd not scrape and repaint (or pay to have it done) if you could save thousands?

I've only ever bought a couple of houses, but in both cases, we painted all the rooms except for maybe two before moving in. That way, it was years before we had to do a re-paint as part of normal maintenance and it was colors we liked from the start.

This house was 3 years old when we bought. Two rooms still have the original carpet, though one is due for an upgrade, probably to engineered hardwood.

[Ed Pawlowski]

No, you didn't say it. That is why I asked.

[Vic Smith]

It really depends on the age and type of wallpaper. The old stuff was almost impossible to remove without way too much labor and damaging the plaster or drywall. Newer stuff can come off easily. Vinyl in the "paper" and different glues. My wife has redone a couple rooms with no problems. Putty knife to wetted spot to start, then a sponge, and just a little work with the putty knife. All paper she had put up. She made sure it was easy to remove before she bought it. I told her I wouldn't remove it. She likes some of the wallpaper patterns. But it's not an "easy" job even with the newer stuff. She did our hallway a couple years ago and decided to use a pattern paint roller, and taped for stripes. Because she didn't want to eventually deal with removing paper.

[krw]

Nope. I learned my lesson. As I said, it would have been easier to re-rock the bathroom. ... and it wasn't all that big.

Paint isn't an issue. Wallpaper *is*. It's just not going to happen at any price.

Three years old and you're replacing carpets? Carpets aren't an issue for me, either. OTOH, I did replace carpets before selling our VT house.

[Robert Green]

Amen to that. My bathroom in a circa 1941 house had wallpaper that was very much like that anti-tamper tape that only comes off in tiny pieces. It apparently had bonded with the underlying plaster on a sub-atomic level. (-:

[gregz]

Been using Zillow looking at sales. The map makes it easy to see locations, with prices.

Looked at a few places from $5k to $30k. If the price is low, your going fix. A $20k commercial spot,and upper apartment was big, cheap, but nothing ready to go.

Greg

[bob haller]

90% of home buyers want ready to move in with neutral colors, and nothing to repair.

they will repaint once they have lived in the home for awhile.

most people here would likely prefer homes that need work, but we arent the general population:(