3-bedroom rambler with a 3-bay garage and a true 3-wide driveway

"Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo" (thetomselleck) 08/10/2017 at 14:03 • Filed to: Houses

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Please gib. This is the humble dream.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:08

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Agreed, this is the right way to garage.

Ash78, voting early and often > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:10

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That many front-facing car holes so close to the street, on a house so small, is very awkward. I would have tried to find a way to make the third bay around the corner down a gravel path or something more natural looking. And this style of house begs for single-wide garage doors. IMHO.

Textured Soy Protein > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:13

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I was looking at some floor plans on a builder’s website here in Madison. They had one that was like a 2000 sq ft ranch with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, nice open floor plan, and you can option it with a 3-car garage, screened in porch, and finished basement with play room, media room, 4th bedroom & bathroom, yadda yadda.

They have a couple locations of totally boring subdivided land that used to be cornfields and there will be no trees in sight between your house and your neighbor’s house. You can see a virtual tour here by clicking on the Arbordale model. It includes a stop in the screened in porch with a view of vast nothingness.

Of the two plots of land in the part of town where I’d want to be, the one in the more desirable school district has a starting price of $400k for a smaller floor plan with no options. A house like the one in the tour would probably easily top $500k.

And then I left the builder’s website.

random001 > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:13

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This, this is very nice.

CaptDale - is secretly British > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:13

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A little awkward looking, but 7.5/10 would own

lone_liberal > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 14:14

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That is the requirement for my next abode. I’ve told my wife that is the one absolutely mandatory thing I want. I’m in one-car garage/driveway hell right now and I want out!

TheHondaBro > Ash78, voting early and often 08/10/2017 at 14:21

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That many front-facing car holes so close to the street, on a house so small, is very awkward.

You’re right. The garage should be bigger and the living space smaller.

Ash78, voting early and often > TheHondaBro 08/10/2017 at 14:27

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They should be the same space. One giant door.

Spasoje > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 14:47

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That description for only $500k would be a dream price where I live! I’d be living there already.

victor > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 15:03

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Where is that?

Textured Soy Protein > Spasoje 08/10/2017 at 15:14

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Our property taxes are very high at 2.14%, so you’re paying $10,700/year or $892/month in taxes on a $500k house. Realistically my budget probably tops out at $350k.

The biggest problem I’ve been having with house searching so far is that most of the houses of the size I want in the neighborhoods I want have dinky tiny master bathrooms. It’s like the builders here didn’t start making good sized master bathrooms until the late 90s and even now lots of brand new houses have dinky master bathrooms.

I don’t want anything super fancy, just a double sink, good sized shower and nice tub. Basically something big enough that my wife and I can both be in there with room to not constantly bump into each other.

But the locations I want tend to have been built at latest in the 80s and you’ll see a 2500 sq ft 4 bed 2.5 bath house and the master bath is a little single vanity and regular tub/shower combo with a curtain and that’s it. Even if you redid it, you’d have to move walls to make the room bigger.

CKeffer > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 15:29

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I’ve basically got this setup now, can confirm 10/10 would incur this debt willingly again. House is 2,200ish sqft, 3 car garage, and a badass back porch, in the $250k range we were looking in, I really don’t think we could have done any better. It’s so nice being able to have all 3 cars in the garage at once, even nicer that there is some room to spare with all 3 in so working on the toy is possible without having to move any vehicles.

E92M3 > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 15:31

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This should be more of a thing. Shouldn’t have to buy a 5,000 sq/ft house to get a 3 car garage.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > victor 08/10/2017 at 15:35

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Silver Lake

Quadradeuce > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 15:54

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Property taxes in WI is what pushed me to go the fixer upper route. Granted, it’s taken me 10 years to get the house fixed up (having 2 kids will slow things down), but we have 3000sq ft and the city has us assessed at under $150k. It helps that the house had a super low assessment to begin with, and they’ve been kind with their adjustments along the way. I’m expecting it to end up with a $200K assessment when we’re done next year.

When we were looking, many a house was scratched off the list due to a 5 figure property tax bill.

Pistol Whipped Cream > CKeffer 08/10/2017 at 15:56

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We have a 3 car now. Wish I had 4. Will never do 2.

fintail > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 16:00

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Chop off everything to the left of the wide garage door - entryway is awkward, and isn’t needed anyway. A garage front with living behind will suffice.

CKeffer > Pistol Whipped Cream 08/10/2017 at 16:04

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Previous house had a 2, and yeah, never again. That said, I’m hoping to stay in this one for a good long time.

gawdzillla > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 16:07

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I need moAr moneis

Textured Soy Protein > Quadradeuce 08/10/2017 at 16:08

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I sometimes entertain the idea of a fixer upper. The parts of town I like best are of course the pricier ones. One part has a lot of small houses built in the 50s & 60s with 1 bathroom and maybe a 1-car garage. There are some with 2 baths and 2-car garages but the bathrooms are always small.

I’m cool with the idea of renovating a place, knocking down some walls to open up a floor plan, etc. But unless you build an addition, the overall house is still small, and I don’t know if I want to build an addition.

The starting prices aren’t cheap anyway. Like this place is $300 friggin grand and it needs a whole new kitchen, and I’d want to expand the 1-car garage to 2.

Another part of town I like has bigger houses built more in the 70s and 80s, but they’re still $300k+.

In my target zip codes, basically the only way to get below $300k is to live on a main road, buy a place that’s under 1200 sq ft, or get a townhouse condo, and then you’re paying condo fees on top of property taxes.

When I think about living in another part of town, then schools become an issue. Unfortunately some of the Madison public schools are down the toilet because they are a mix of middle class and low-income areas. That’s not to say all poor people behave badly but there’s a lot of problems in the schools that draw from less affluent parts of town. So it’s like, “well I’ll save a little on the house, but if/when we have kids then we’re stuck paying property taxes for to put our kid in a school that sucks,” and I gravitate back to the part of town I prefer.

WiscoProud > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 16:09

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I’m with ya. Although being in snow country, that’s a lot more to snow blow. Although, that is a good excuse to buy a bigger snowblower....

WiscoProud > Quadradeuce 08/10/2017 at 16:16

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We did a fixer upper for our current house. Everything we were looking at (4bd, 2.5+ba) was north of $300k, but then we found a 3,600 sqft 4bd for $286k that probably hadn’t been materially updated since it was built in the late 70s. We’ve stuck probably $30k into so far, and are still well below what a newer house would have cost. Taxes are pretty low too.

That being said, I’m getting tired of the constant projects and redoing rooms. I may need to take a break for a bit.

WiscoProud > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 16:18

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Didn’t realize the west side was that expensive. I’m in New Berlin, which isn’t particularly cheap, but a house like that would probably be $250 or less by me.

Textured Soy Protein > WiscoProud 08/10/2017 at 16:32

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There are definitely cheaper houses on the west side of Madison. But there’s a growing crime problem along Raymond Rd, the main east-west road on the southern part of the west side. It started in some pockets of Section 8 housing but has driven property values down in the school district which encompasses them, which creates a vicious cycle of the crime-y part expanding.

I live in a rental townhouse a couple blocks south of Raymond, but I’m west of McKenna Blvd which has traditionally been the border of the grimier parts of Raymond Rd. But the grimey parts have been expanding and creeping closer to McKenna. It’s one thing to have like, burglaries or whatever, but someone got killed in their car in a cul-de-sac (a case of someone wanting to kill this person in particular) and another guy decided he wanted to randomly shooting at cars in the intersection of Raymond & McKenna. A lady was driving through the intersection and thankfully he missed her and only shot out her window. He’s been arrested.

It’s unfortunate because this neighborhood south of Raymond and west of McKenna is really a quite nice with decent size houses, a good park, and mature trees. My wife and I often go on walks and think about how we could be totally happy with a house here, but we don’t feel comfortable buying a place in this school district, and the violence that’s getting too close for comfort has us like, “ok, time to peace the fuck up outta here.”

We don’t want to be anywhere near this crap, or even have to drive through it.

WiscoProud > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 16:45

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Yeah, I understand that. Sorry to hear about the crime there, I didn’t realize it was spreading outside of the normal areas on the south side. Where else are you guys looking?

victor > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo 08/10/2017 at 17:39

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Like south of Centralia? That’s fucking far.

Textured Soy Protein > WiscoProud 08/10/2017 at 17:51

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Yeah, if you look at this heat map you can see around Whitney & Raymond where it’s bad. Also around Gammon & Schroeder.

If you look at this zip code map ...

Basically I want to be anywhere west of Midvale Blvd and north of Mineral Point Rd. So zip codes 53705 & 53717. Also Middleton (53562).

I’m also possibly open to 53593, which is Verona and the parts of the far west side that are south of Mineral Point but west of Pleasant View Rd.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > victor 08/10/2017 at 18:12

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No, like East Mill Creek

Spasoje > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 18:18

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WOW, that’s insane! Our half-duplex, assessed at close to $800k, runs about $2300 per yr in property taxes. Plus, municipalities here tend to adjust property tax rates such that we paid the same $2300 5 years ago, when the place was worth $400k...

But then, I likely wouldn’t be complaining if salaries followed the sharp increase in property values, but they’re still stuck in the eighties... We’ve recieved a massive influx of foreign investors (basically, Chinese factory owners with bottomless pockets and no intention of haggling), which is what’s driven prices waaaaaaay up above what anybody living here can afford. We’ve reached the point where people who inherited their house can’t afford to live in them, since the property tax bill on a suddenly-$1.5m lot is too much to bear.

Interesting that bathrooms are so small! Here, a master bath is a master bath, often much bigger than it needs to be... Room size, however, is a problem for anything built after 2000 or so, when developers decided to start squeezing as many rooms out of their square footage to make the ad look better. And now with the market being such a source of easy money, almost all new construction is shockingly shoddy.

Pricing here is almost exclusively linear, in that the further from the city center a property is, the cheaper it is – doesn’t matter if it’s a brand-new house, or a run-down shack built in the twenties. So when we were looking, all the locations we wanted were just out of our price range. Ended up with a property further away than we wanted, but conveniently close to the major freeway that bisects most of the city, and it’s not too much of a fixer-upper...

Quadradeuce > WiscoProud 08/10/2017 at 21:58

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I’m very tired of the projects, but the payoff has been worth it. We have a house that is exactly how we want it. I’m sure we have more cash in this house than it’s worth in the short term, but I don’t see houses as investments. What’s funny is, not many people would blink an eye at spending $30k on a new car, a depreciable asset. But spend $30k on your house and people act like they lit a suitcase of cash on fire on their front lawn. Thankfully my wife agrees with my philosophy and drives around a $5k beater so we can add a master suite onto the house.

Quadradeuce > Textured Soy Protein 08/10/2017 at 22:04

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The real benefit to the fixer upper route, if you’re willing to take your time, is the lower mortgage. We’ve done all of the upgrades using cash as we have extra money to throw at it. Right now my mortgage is about $60k with plans to pay it off by 2020 (might be too optimistic). Once it’s paid off, I can start looking at CARS!

Textured Soy Protein > Quadradeuce 08/11/2017 at 00:51

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I’d be willing to entertain it if there were truly cheap fixer uppers in the parts of town I want. But when my budget is $300-350k tops, it doesn’t make sense to buy a $300k fixer upper.

awmaster10 > CKeffer 08/11/2017 at 10:26

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Very pretty house for a very nice price, well done.

CKeffer > awmaster10 08/11/2017 at 10:44

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Thanks! We were super excited to find it, and hope to be in it long enough to pay it off. Barring my wife or myself getting transferred to another city, I think we’ve found the house we’ll be in fairly permanently.