4 ms·

i noticed that real estate listings for residential SFH's in my area almost never show pictures of the garage. which is weird, because that's basically there's

i noticed that real estate listings for residential SFH's in my area almost never show pictures of the garage. which is weird, because that's basically there's only two reasons i'd want to buy a suburban house - for work space in the garage, and the backyard. everything else can be redone pretty easily. maybe not cheaply, but pretty easily. you can't really make new land or add a 2-3 car garage for 25 grand. where/how many outlets? is there a giant vertical beam in the middle or something? horizontal beam for hoisting/hanging things? is it insulated? finished? rafter space? flooring? cabinets? suitable for a mini split AC? what kind of water heater are we talking about? vent holes near the eaves? is the electrical panel a dangerous antique? so many questions... i guess not many people agree with me. luckily i can still just use my parents garage when i want to do some project work, but that's still 30 minutes away. and interest rates are probably not coming down any time soon, so oh well.

Retric 3y ago
It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop because home prices are generally based on affordability. You refinance when interest rates drop and actually save money, but your stuck paying a giant low interest loan with little recourse.
- antisthenes 3y ago
  > It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop The current situation shows that there are caveats to this strategy. For example, rates are high, but prices are still lagging (they will drop eventually, when people begin to realize no one wants to buy their overpriced house with a 7% rate) Also, rates could stay high longer than the average person stays in a house.
  - Retric 3y ago
    Prices near me have dropped quite a bit especially if you include inflation in your comparisons. Though home prices are very local and your income isn’t guaranteed to keep up with inflation.
karaterobot 3y ago
FWIW, I bet a lot of times the garage is packed with moving boxes and furniture, and that's why they don't include photos of it in the listing. If you don't time everything just right, you can have an empty, staged house but not have anywhere to put your stuff before the moving van shows up. I didn't take any pictures of my last house's garage, because the realtor was so aggressive about scheduling the photos that there just wasn't time to get on a moving company's calendar.
DavidPeiffer 3y ago
Real estate photos are notoriously awful for understanding relative size and layout of everything. I do wonder if that's intentional so you reach out to a Realtor® to view the property? Garages tend to be the box storage location for things that aren't used for staging, which is probably why they aren't in photos. Matterport offers 3d virtual tours which I've found to be awesome when searching for property. More than once it saved us driving across town because it was easy to tell the layout wasn't what we'd want. One regional For Sale by Owner group has the 3d tour as part of their basic package, which always made me lean towards viewing those when looking online, though I've never seen a garage.
- ghaff 3y ago
  When I was house shopping a very long time ago, the amount of time I wasted driving to look at properties and not even stopping was just staggering.
  - DavidPeiffer 3y ago
    Between Google Street view and satellite photos and 3d virtual tours, I would probably be 90% confident that a house layout would work for us. Maybe 15% from listing photos that are often taken with a lens that makes rooms look bigger than they are.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      My house hunting wasn't quite pre-Web but it was before Google Streetview/Google Maps/etc. so it was pretty just the listing service printout and you hit deal-breakers a significant majority of the time pretty quickly as soon as you drove there.
otikik 3y ago
I think in your case I would invest in optimizing how you get to your parent's house. Maybe working from a place nearby, if you can work remotely. Or moving to a different apartment which has good connection via train. Maybe there's a road that you have not explored. Or maybe even just getting a better car.

Retric 3y ago

It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop because home prices are generally based on affordability. You refinance when interest rates drop and actually save money, but your stuck paying a giant low interest loan with little recourse.

antisthenes 3y ago
> It’s generally better to buy when interest rates are high than to wait for them to drop The current situation shows that there are caveats to this strategy. For example, rates are high, but prices are still lagging (they will drop eventually, when people begin to realize no one wants to buy their overpriced house with a 7% rate) Also, rates could stay high longer than the average person stays in a house.
- Retric 3y ago
  Prices near me have dropped quite a bit especially if you include inflation in your comparisons. Though home prices are very local and your income isn’t guaranteed to keep up with inflation.

karaterobot 3y ago

FWIW, I bet a lot of times the garage is packed with moving boxes and furniture, and that's why they don't include photos of it in the listing. If you don't time everything just right, you can have an empty, staged house but not have anywhere to put your stuff before the moving van shows up. I didn't take any pictures of my last house's garage, because the realtor was so aggressive about scheduling the photos that there just wasn't time to get on a moving company's calendar.

DavidPeiffer 3y ago

Real estate photos are notoriously awful for understanding relative size and layout of everything. I do wonder if that's intentional so you reach out to a Realtor® to view the property? Garages tend to be the box storage location for things that aren't used for staging, which is probably why they aren't in photos. Matterport offers 3d virtual tours which I've found to be awesome when searching for property. More than once it saved us driving across town because it was easy to tell the layout wasn't what we'd want. One regional For Sale by Owner group has the 3d tour as part of their basic package, which always made me lean towards viewing those when looking online, though I've never seen a garage.

ghaff 3y ago
When I was house shopping a very long time ago, the amount of time I wasted driving to look at properties and not even stopping was just staggering.
- DavidPeiffer 3y ago
  Between Google Street view and satellite photos and 3d virtual tours, I would probably be 90% confident that a house layout would work for us. Maybe 15% from listing photos that are often taken with a lens that makes rooms look bigger than they are.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    My house hunting wasn't quite pre-Web but it was before Google Streetview/Google Maps/etc. so it was pretty just the listing service printout and you hit deal-breakers a significant majority of the time pretty quickly as soon as you drove there.

otikik 3y ago

I think in your case I would invest in optimizing how you get to your parent's house. Maybe working from a place nearby, if you can work remotely. Or moving to a different apartment which has good connection via train. Maybe there's a road that you have not explored. Or maybe even just getting a better car.