Greetings from Iowa - Part Deux
Posted: Thu Aug 14, 2008 2:57 pm
So, with my vehicle (an SUV) packed to the gills with boxes, suitcases, plants and the dog, we are off to Iowa. We stayed one night in Louisville, KY before reaching our Extended stay hotel in Iowa. I had booked the hotel for a month as we had no house to move into figuring we would just look for one when we got there. We figured that we would spend a couple of weeks looking for a house and another couple of weeks to close once we found one. We had been doing some footwork online and once we decided that we were actually going to go through with the move, had contacted a local Des Moines R/E agent who was sending us listings based on information we had given her regarding the type of house we would be looking for. So, we were not totally going into this blindly. Once we got settled, we arranged to meet the agent a couple of days after we got there to start our house hunting. What we did not realize was this agent was a rather elderly lady who was not able to get around very well and we only managed to see a few houses the day we met her. So, after the first day, we decided to find an agent that would be able to take us to 10 - 12 houses per day, rather than only 3 or 4. While we did not mind staying at the hotel and were pretty much taking our time finding just the right place, we did not want the process to take forever. We felt badly about switching agents like that after all the things the kind lady had done for us. But, things happen.
So, Lady G went looking in books, newspapers and magazines for a new agent. Finally, she decided to look, of all places, in the phone book and found a guy that looked to be able to meet our needs. We contacted him and set up an appointment to meet him, discuss what we were looking for and see what he could do for us. The first day we saw, perhaps, eight
places based on our criteria. Most were not bad but were lacking in one or more requirements. Our basic requirements were that the place had to have a good sized master bedroom, a decent sized basement (didn't
have to be finished), wood floors, a three-car garage (many houses here have them) a decent sized kitchen, at least .25 acre (we did not want to be sitting right on top of our neighbors) and a nice view in the back yard something akin to the place we had in S.C. I also had to have amenities such as a Post Office and UPS Store (or similar) within reasonable driving distance for my business. While we felt that these were not really stringent requirements, we found that most of the houses that met them were out of our price range. It seems that Iowa homes, for whatever reason, are a bit more pricey that they are in S.C. I suppose that has to do with the fact that nearly all houses here are built with basements which add quite a bit to the builder's cost.
After about 4 days of looking at houses, we had seen about 40 houses and had narrowed the field down to our top three choices. We were ready to start the offer process. One thing; here in Iowa they have a rather archaic method of doing title searches so it usually takes 20 to 30 days before you can close. This produced a collective groan from us as we figured two weeks for closing and were getting a bit claustrophobic in the one-room hotel we were staying at. Another thing about the hotel. After 2 days there, the air-conditioner in our room broke down. This would not have, ordinarily, been a problem to fix but it happened on the weekend and, for
some reason, their handyman/mechanic does not work on the weekend. So we had the option of waiting until Monday or changing rooms. After having unpacked and set up shop in the first room, we decided to move to another room which, again, produced a collective groan as we had unpacked about 20 boxes and suitcases worth of stuff which now had to be moved to another room. Even the dog was groaning now. But, I will also say that all the hotel employees bent over backward to help make our stay an enjoyable one. It wasn't the Ritz Carlton by any stretch but I would not hesitate to recommend the place if you were looking for a cost-conscious place to stay for a month or so.
Back to our decision. We decided to submit an offer on one of the houses.
The three places we selected were somewhat similar in size and price per sq. ft. but each had it's own little positives. The first one was a neat little place that sat on top of hill and looked down on a somewhat busy road. It had a larger kitchen, a large basement and a larger back yard than the other two places. The second place had a full, insulated but not studded, basement, overlooked a pond in the backyard and, as a bonus, came with a 42" plasma TV mounted over the fireplace. The third place also had a full basement but it was completely studded and ready for finishing. We termed these places "The Hill House", "The Pond House" and "The Pond Lookalike House" since its layout was very similar to The Pond House.
Lady G decided that she liked The Hill House best and I pushed for The Pond House. She had always told me that she wanted to live in a house on the lake and I explained that, for now, this was as close as we were going to get. This place came as close to having all the requirements we wanted. The house was also only about 5 minutes away from all the convenience stores (Walmart, Lowe's, Target, etc.) as well as the P.O. and UPS Stores. So, this looked to be as good a place as we would find for the money we wanted to spend. Actually, the house was priced a bit more than we wanted to spend but after calculating it out, it really wouldn't cost that much more per month that we were spending.
Another thing about houses in Iowa. The R/E taxes are, what I consider, very high. I don't understand why either. It's not as though this is a major US city. Perhaps one day I will find out. The city of Des Moines also offers what they call a tax abatement. Meaning that in certain areas they offer full rebate of your R/E taxes for 5 years. Unfortunately, we did not find anything that we liked in those areas so we did not qualify for the abatement.
I will continue with Part III later.
So, Lady G went looking in books, newspapers and magazines for a new agent. Finally, she decided to look, of all places, in the phone book and found a guy that looked to be able to meet our needs. We contacted him and set up an appointment to meet him, discuss what we were looking for and see what he could do for us. The first day we saw, perhaps, eight
places based on our criteria. Most were not bad but were lacking in one or more requirements. Our basic requirements were that the place had to have a good sized master bedroom, a decent sized basement (didn't
have to be finished), wood floors, a three-car garage (many houses here have them) a decent sized kitchen, at least .25 acre (we did not want to be sitting right on top of our neighbors) and a nice view in the back yard something akin to the place we had in S.C. I also had to have amenities such as a Post Office and UPS Store (or similar) within reasonable driving distance for my business. While we felt that these were not really stringent requirements, we found that most of the houses that met them were out of our price range. It seems that Iowa homes, for whatever reason, are a bit more pricey that they are in S.C. I suppose that has to do with the fact that nearly all houses here are built with basements which add quite a bit to the builder's cost.
After about 4 days of looking at houses, we had seen about 40 houses and had narrowed the field down to our top three choices. We were ready to start the offer process. One thing; here in Iowa they have a rather archaic method of doing title searches so it usually takes 20 to 30 days before you can close. This produced a collective groan from us as we figured two weeks for closing and were getting a bit claustrophobic in the one-room hotel we were staying at. Another thing about the hotel. After 2 days there, the air-conditioner in our room broke down. This would not have, ordinarily, been a problem to fix but it happened on the weekend and, for
some reason, their handyman/mechanic does not work on the weekend. So we had the option of waiting until Monday or changing rooms. After having unpacked and set up shop in the first room, we decided to move to another room which, again, produced a collective groan as we had unpacked about 20 boxes and suitcases worth of stuff which now had to be moved to another room. Even the dog was groaning now. But, I will also say that all the hotel employees bent over backward to help make our stay an enjoyable one. It wasn't the Ritz Carlton by any stretch but I would not hesitate to recommend the place if you were looking for a cost-conscious place to stay for a month or so.
Back to our decision. We decided to submit an offer on one of the houses.
The three places we selected were somewhat similar in size and price per sq. ft. but each had it's own little positives. The first one was a neat little place that sat on top of hill and looked down on a somewhat busy road. It had a larger kitchen, a large basement and a larger back yard than the other two places. The second place had a full, insulated but not studded, basement, overlooked a pond in the backyard and, as a bonus, came with a 42" plasma TV mounted over the fireplace. The third place also had a full basement but it was completely studded and ready for finishing. We termed these places "The Hill House", "The Pond House" and "The Pond Lookalike House" since its layout was very similar to The Pond House.
Lady G decided that she liked The Hill House best and I pushed for The Pond House. She had always told me that she wanted to live in a house on the lake and I explained that, for now, this was as close as we were going to get. This place came as close to having all the requirements we wanted. The house was also only about 5 minutes away from all the convenience stores (Walmart, Lowe's, Target, etc.) as well as the P.O. and UPS Stores. So, this looked to be as good a place as we would find for the money we wanted to spend. Actually, the house was priced a bit more than we wanted to spend but after calculating it out, it really wouldn't cost that much more per month that we were spending.
Another thing about houses in Iowa. The R/E taxes are, what I consider, very high. I don't understand why either. It's not as though this is a major US city. Perhaps one day I will find out. The city of Des Moines also offers what they call a tax abatement. Meaning that in certain areas they offer full rebate of your R/E taxes for 5 years. Unfortunately, we did not find anything that we liked in those areas so we did not qualify for the abatement.
I will continue with Part III later.
