Today on Ellen there was a clip about her favourite house listing ‘misleading’ phrases that are commonly seen when people are trying to sell homes with interesting ‘features’. Here are a few of the descriptions and illustrative photos to show what we have encountered ourselves when house hunting.
Side Note: These photos aren’t of the exact house or ‘feature’ but they are perfect replicas for the actuals. Sorry…we didn’t have a smart phone back in the day so we don’t have photo evidence of every second of our lives going back that far. We will do better going forward. (#oversharingourlives)
New Roof
Yes believe it or not one house we looked at actually stated it had a new roof while in real life there was a giant blue tarp covering an area that had obviously been leaking, and shingles that looked older than me. Not a new roof…not since 1980!
New roof…or new tarp?!? This is not a new roof people!
Fully Fenced
On of my favourites. I have seen this one so many times it makes me laugh. Fully fenced in many listings apparently means at one point it was fully fenced, perhaps around the same time it had a new roof, but now the fence is in reality in various stages of disrepair and almost non-existent.
- Fully fenced yet falling down. This wouldn’t keep an elephant in a yard never mind a dog or child.
- New fence, uh….sure that 1 8 foot section beside the section that looks like swiss cheese!
- 2 posts and some barbed + chicken wire doesn’t equal fully fenced.
Good Bones / Has Potential / Needs TLC
While most people might run and hide when they see these descriptions in a real estate listing, we actually get a little excited. Most of the homes we look at either have this description in the listing or should have it, or have something equally awesome. At Sitka Studios, we love the homes that are in need of a little (or a lot) of love. Here is a selection of awesome moments of our current purchase which fits all of these descriptions.
- Behind the fridge…ugh.
- Look what the previous owners left us…gunky dust bunnies
- Basement laundry
- Basement old laundry?
- Bathtub
- Wired for…?
- This is NOT how you insulate
- MLS Photos: Before we bought the house
- MLS Photos: Before we bought the house
- Behind the toilet
- The leaking washer rescue hack