Uripides

Thai anyone?

Well, we've got another bid on a house and it was accepted. L and I have dubbed this house the "Thai" house as its previous owners are Thai.

Map to House

And due to popular demand - PHOTOS

Now we love Thai food and Thai culture but these people's sense of design is something to behold. It’s as if they threw every obnoxious color possible together and then added someone yelling and screaming at you and decided to remodel a house. I’m not sure that even describes how weird this house is.

But, and I mean but the house is in a perfect neighborhood and it has sooo much potential to be a great house. Since L and I did such a bang up job on our first house (and through some convincing by our realtor) we think we can redo this house and have it be absolutely wonderful!

We can't wait until we actually close on this house and get out of our current house!

I now consider myself almost an expert in house hunting. Therefore, I thought I would share with you a little about my experience in "searching" for a house. There are many sites that list homes but there is a little secret to not wasting time looking at houses that are dumps. I recommend using these websites in combination to help reduce time and sanity!

My algorithm is austinhomesearch.com + Yahoo! Real estate + Google maps + Zillow.com = all the information you need on a house

Austinhomesearch.com
Its awesome because you see houses that are in “active” state. This means if a house has a contract on it then it wont show up. MSN, Yahoo and all the rest show you all listings but you don’t want to waste your time looking at houses that are under contract.

Yahoo! Real estate
Its good because they show pics that sometimes austinhomesearch.com doesn’t! also, their maps are slick!

Google Maps
For obvious reasons. I’ve found that their pics are a little outdated compared to Yahoo! But the interface is easier to use.

Zillow.com
Ahhhh zillow.com, what would I have done without my Zillow. Zillow.com is an online real estate service dedicated to helping you get an edge in real estate by providing you with valuable tools and information.

This is a freaking awesome site. if you don’t know about it and you’re looking to buy a house I cant recommend this site more!! It shows you the lot, the tax assessment and has three views to look at an address.

Birds eye
Map view
Birds Eye + Map view

I could spend about 5 pages describing all these features but the best one is the Birds Eye + Map view. It shows you the location in isometric view and the grid of the plot. This way you can see the house from North, South, East and West in one screen and the other shows you what the lot looks like. It’s completely amazing.

So, there you have it. Use these tools when looking for a house and you will know more than your Realtor!


Almost forgot!

Random Link of the Day

This guy is good at YO-YOs

BONUS! Germans Who Say Nice Things

Labels: House Hunter