We've been looking for about 6 months. It's been a funny journey, we must have gone inside about 25-30 houses.
We started out in South Buffalo looking at single family homes. I grew up in South Buffalo, so I know the neighborhood is safe, the houses have character, and the people are friendly. I also know the housing prices are reasonable. But when we started looking we realized the prices were higher than I expected. We were looking for a good deal but nothing really got us excited.
Then we had this investment property brainstorm, we wanted to get a double in the Elmwood area, make money off rent, and get something more expensive. So we started looking at doubles around the West Side, and discovered the meaning of "structural problems" and "property taxes". We started going further and further west to try and find something under $100,000 that wasn't falling down. No luck, but we did bump into a friend of mine who had gotten a decent West Side house at the Buffalo tax auction for about $30,000. Sounded like a good plan, but we had to wait a month and a half before the auction. We liked some of the addresses on the auction list, but we couldn't get inside the houses without without breaking the law. One house on Cottage I went to inspect, took about 40 pictures, and the next week it was off the list, I guess the owner paid his taxes.
We slowly got tired of the auction idea, and the high prices on the West Side, so we started looking in South Buffalo again, with a more open mind this time. At first we were looking near Caz Park which is a great neighborhood, but houses up there are around $65 - $75,000, we wanted to see if we could get anything cheaper, and possibly avoid the mortgage thing entirely. We looked at all the houses between $30-$40,000, some were ok, but all of them needed updating. We aren't afraid to get our hands dirty, but we didn't want something that needed updates
before we could move in. Then we looked at houses between $40-$55,000....... That's when we found it.
It's in South Buffalo Near Tifft and South Park, All Natural Woodwork that has never been painted, 4 bedroom, full attic and basement, Nice Yard 36' x 140' lot, driveway, garage, 2 fireplaces, 1.5 bathrooms, leaded glass, pocket doors that slide easily, front porch, good Roof, efficient Furnace, and Water heater, dry basement, well insulated. This place is a steal, we got it for $46,000.
We like the location a lot too, The house is on Altruria St. which is a very well kept street, all single family homes, mostly owner occupied, lots of gardens and pride of ownership. Plus you're in the center of everything, the Botanical Gardens, the Beach, Tifft Nature Preserve, Caz Park, the Buffalo River, all of it is within a 20min walk. We like canoeing, and parks, that's what we spend our summers doing, so this will be great for us, though we will miss the restaurants around Elmwood. But we think it's a good trade off.
Living Room & Fireplace
Upstairs Bedroom, Fireplace #2
Dining Room, with a Window Seat! I love that stuff.
Good sized kitchen, the style is a little funky, but we can fix that over time.
Upstairs, I really like how it's not a hallway, it's a square space with doors all around you leading to 4 bedrooms the bathroom and the attic. I like the cabinet thing too.
Big open attic, the floor is insulated too, keeps the place pretty warm.
The Front Porch, this is currently enclosed but the original stuff is all there and it won't be hard to pop out the windows next summer.
Driveway, fenced in yard, the exterior needs some paint, but it has the original wood shingles and stuff which I like.
Yard and Garage, Partly shaded yard, but we can still grow a lot of veggies, the garage needs a little help but no big problems.
From the back, you can see there is a little landing off of an upstairs bedroom, not much now, but we can make it interesting. There are also those funky bilko doors that lead straight to the basement. Good for storing the canoe.
Remember that part where I said my feelings were mixed?
I forgot to mention I really like fusion ballot advocacy and their issues.
I have very mixed feelings about them.
They are a money raising machine. And by that I mean they raise money for their own operations, almost exclusively. In terms of actual, roll up the sleeves work, they don't do much. They did not make any phone calls, send over any canvassers, or even volunteer to help with mailings during that election I worked on over the summer. He was an endorsed candidate who has a near 100% voting record with them in a race against a machine who does not stand for their issues. This is the case with every single campaign I spoke to in Western New York. Maybe they work in other parts of the state, but they sure as hell don't here.
Heh, I voted an almost straight Working Families ticket. But not quite, because I'd been advising people not to vote a straight ticket. One of the candidates was endorsed by Democrats but not Working Families, so I voted for the Democrat (since the WF candidate hadn't bothered to answer the League of Women Voters' questions, so I figured they weren't serious. Hey, it was my only reliable resource.)
Amen