Don't Believe All You See

Sorry for the absence, gang. This house-hunting business is exhausting. We've spend the last two weeks obsessing over a house that was very close to what we want...but no cigar, for the money.

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about photos of houses and the frustration of seeing a house photo that looks gorgeous, only to find out on arrival that there's something big wrong that's not seen there. This first hit us 10 years ago, when searching for our current house--the beautiful yellow farmhouse that looked so great in the photo was (literally) nine feet from the D.C. beltway.

Like we wouldn't notice that.

It borders on deception and always leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, why not just be honest about it? Some people might not mind that, but for those who do, the visit wastes at least their time and probably their Realtors' time.

Here are real examples of houses we've looked at in the past 8 weeks:

Pretty, yes? This is the latest temptation. First off, the listing says it's a four-bedroom house. Not so much. Three bedrooms plus a finished attic that I guess could conceivably have a bed in it, but isn't really a bedroom. But the kicker with the photo seen here is that this house sits atop a very steep hill. 20 slate steps from street to front door, to be exact. But here, it looks nice and flat and perfect. Deal-killer for those who are older or even slightly handicapped. Why not just show it?

Another:

Beautiful. 1912 farmhouse. But what you don't see is the right side of this lot, which has been sold to a developer and on which there will be something huge and dwarfing. And you also don't see that the rear addition to the house is quite literally falling off, or that the foundation has massive cracks and crumbling. Visit and see. Waste your time. Join me.

Nice old brick colonial. Wooded, lots of parking, slightly overgrown. Again, it's what you don't see. In this case, that'd be Connecticut Avenue, which is a six-lane, 55 mph road, that is six feet (yes, I measured) from the back door of this house. Seriously, trip going outside and you're roadkill.

Frustrating doesn't begin to cover it. Show the warts, brokers out there. Stop pretending we won't see then when we arrive. Save me some of my precious time. I'm begging.