Husband is out to lunch and then we are going house hunting with the realtor. It really is boiling down to “fixer-upper in an established neighborhood like Bountiful or Sugarhouse,” or “newer home in a more cookie-cutter neighborhood like Daybreak.” Despite being against it for years, I do really like the sanctuary feel of Daybreak, and the fact that I can afford a garage. But the commute would be a pain, so we’ll see. I’m open minded to pretty much anything.
But here’s my beef.
Why is it so hard for realtors to post pictures that actually make sense on home listings? Congratulations, you posted 30 pictures, but they are all out of focus. Or you took no actual pictures of the kitchen, master bathroom, or master closet. Save us both some time here. My favorite is when one feature of the house has been redone, like hardwood floors. So there are 10 pictures of hardwood floors up close. And nothing else.
And be specific. I hate that “charming” really means small. And “Victorian” probably just means old. “Need some Love” is the worst because you know if a realtor is willing to put that in the listing, it’s a dump. I love it when I see “needs new roof.” That gives me clarity. I can know about how much that can cost. When I see “needs attention,” I have no point of reference for really how much love this home is going to need. I’m willing to give a little love and attention, I’m not willing to go full-out remodel. An extra 15 minutes of commute time is worth it to me to not have project.
Let’s talk about how two of the newer home developments we’ve looked at have the master suite at the back of the house, and the kids rooms at the front. Have I read too many news stories? It just seems like instant kidnapping. Or that my 4-year-old will wander out and get hit by a car while I am in the master suite completely unaware the munchkin is awake. I know, child proofing exists, but still. It creeps me out.
End rant. I do love our realtor. She’s a gem. And really patient.
I am becoming very talented at pinning home-related things to Pinterest. I got that part down.
Oh and p.s. the bar exam is over! Huzzah! Victory of the week. And I didn’t even take the test.
Original photo sources: yellow door, bedroom, dining
Once, I was looking at houses online and there were about 4 pictures that were nothing but a toilet. “well, that’s a perk,” I thought, sarcastically. “A toilet is definitely on the must-have list.”
They have professional home stagers, why not professional home photographers?
Anyway, luck to you on the hunt. I hope you pick Daybreak so we can lunch and dinner and stuff. And carpool to work, even!!
LOVE the blue bedroom.
And as for the master suites at the back of the house… maybe they figure adults need more peace and quiet than kids? Or it’s a retreat to keep building your marriage once there is a child in the nursery?
Looking at the houses was the best part of the process. We only had to look at 8 before finding “ours”! We fell in love and bought it after a little bidding war
We are now moving on April 16th 
Good luck with your search!!!
We just bought our first home and it was TOTALLY different than what I thought we were looking for. It was only the 4th house we looked at and it was outside our target area. We thought we would buy something we could fix up and make our own and after crunching some numbers bought a house that a realtor had just bought and flipped, completely fixed up. But it’s SO nice to walk into a finished, nice house instead of a project. And we LOVE our neighborhood now so I’m glad we looked outside our original area. I’m not saying that’s what you should do, just saying keep an open mind and GOOD LUCK! How fun for you guys! I can’t wait to see pics! Love you girl!
Oh and I agree with you on the whole picture thing. Our house had 8 pictures online. FOUR were of the back yard and NONE of the bedrooms or bathrooms. Awesome marketing there people.
Ugh! I know what you mean!!! Home listings are such a pain! How hard is it to go take photos of the inside of a house? 100% honest, if a listing only has a photo of the outside of a house, it’s off my list. That’s just a red flag that the house is so bad you didn’t even want to show photos of it. Maybe that’s not the case, but that’s how I interpret it. My biggest pet peeve is when they random photos of areas in the neighborhood. I saw several listings that included photos of the nearby shopping center, village hall or train station. NO, I want to see this HOUSE, not what’s nearby! grrr! Also, when they have several photos of the same room from different angles, but show no other rooms. Another red flag. Good luck to you! House hunting can be so fun yet so frustrating!
There are professional home photographers – entire agencies with photographers across the U.S. – but realtors and/or home sellers rarely shell out for them. My in-laws realtor paid for one when they sold their house a few years ago and the photog spent a few hours staging and taking pictures of their house. The pictures really were impressive, they got a lot people in to look at the place specifically mentioning the pictures. Sadly, too many realtors take their own pictures on crappy digital cameras and end up with only a small handful of irrelevant pictures that feature massive window glare and – my favorite – their own reflection in the mirrors. Good luck!
Yes, I totally remember this! We looked at a ton of houses before we chose ours. We still would love to have you over for dinner sometime!
Man, I wrote my comment and then the site crashed and I don’t think it posted. What I was going to say is that I totally agree about the pictures. We are getting ready to put our condo on the market and as I look at the listings for comparables and potential houses to buy some of the pictures just make me laugh. Something we are definitely going to try to work on is getting lots of good, relevant, pictures. I also noticed that the aspect ratio on the MLS is almost square so I think that sometimes the pictures is actually good but then it is cropped down so you only get to see 50% of what the person actually took. At least that is my theory at the moment.
Also, I know that you’ve already gotten lots of feedback on the location debate. But I have to say that now that we have gotten a taste of living in Murray and living less than 15 minutes from anything from Draper to Bountiful I don’t think we will ever be able to live somewhere out west. We LOVE it here. I also am very wary of the HOA in Daybreak. It is such a large community, they have so many great parks and amenity, but I think it is going to be a nightmare in coming years as things start to break down and need replacing. I’m sure they are not saving for the future and I’ve also heard that Rio Tinto subsidizes some of the HOA fees (I’m not sure if that is true). I love the look and feel of day break and what you can get for your money, but having been on our HOA board and understanding what it takes to run a property well I just foresee some ugly things happening there in the future.
I definitely understand how you feel about the realtor photos… it was so frustrating to me when we were looking too!
Please paint your front door yellow!