I can't remember if I've posted this before, or just meant to. Sorry if I'm repeating myself.
Here's probably the coolest house in Waukesha. A real picture by a real photographer (looks like a 4x5 original), although I'm afraid I have no idea who the photographer is. The house is a converted 1934 Art Deco water tower, high on one of the highest hills in my hilly town.
Unfortunately it's also by far the most expensive house in a rather downscale neighborhood (actually, one of the most expensive houses in the whole city), and it's right across the street from the hospital. But it certainly is interesting...I'd love to go see the inside, but I can't see my way clear to knowingly waste a real estate agent's time. You know what they say: Oh well.
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Kevin Bourque: "Mmm....I can just smell the Ektachrome 64T. Architecturally correct verticals, too!"
Paul Mc Cann: "Having moved a few times and sold houses I can assure that here in Ireland at least 90% of the viewers are tyre kickers and/or neighbours in for a nosy peek. In Northern Ireland it is, or was, acceptable to just knock on the door and ask for a look-see, without any appointment. In Southern Ireland that would be a no-no. The agent accompanies all viewers there and prefers to have the occupants not present. Stressful either way."
Mike replies: I'll say. I toured the house of a neighbor that was "for sale by owner" and thereafter vowed never to do that again. For me it's an agent, an open house, or nothing.
For one thing, it appeared that the husband and the wife had quited different feelings about the idea of selling the house and moving. Very awkward, and I was so uncomfortable I remember little of what that house looked like!
Interesting house.
A lot of dollars...Yes.
But on a cost per square foot [$127] it isn't outrageously priced.
Posted by: paul in AZ | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:06 PM
That house would be at least a few million where I am from. It's a steal at that price. If I lived nearby, I would make an offer.
Posted by: Edward Taylor | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:08 PM
It is a cool house! Though I wouldn't want to be in charge of cleaning those windows, which I invariably would be if I lived there.
As for wasting real estate agents' time, just wait for an open house; they don't necessarily care if you're buying or not as long as they have foot traffic, because that makes the property seem interesting to the 1 person in 50 who might actually be there because they're thinking of buying it.
Quick story: I once walked into an Open House and told the real estate agent in no uncertain terms I was not going to buy the house (I couldn't even afford the down-payment), I just wanted to see it, and that she should not waste time with me but spend it with someone who might actually be looking to buy. She still insisted on giving me a tour and laying the pitch on me. Maybe she needed to practice...
Posted by: Miserere | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:21 PM
All that so close to the Giant Guernsey Cow of Waukesha is pretty tempting.
Posted by: hugh crawford | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:22 PM
Well, if it's on the market they might well run an open house; then you're not wasting anybodies time.
Posted by: David Dyer-Bennet | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:28 PM
A water tower with no cell phone antennas on top. Something rare today.
Posted by: Speed | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 12:52 PM
Must be a Klein Bottle kind of house or real estate folks count in a unique manner. Total 8 rooms: 3 bedrooms, 5 (or 3?) bathrooms, living room, den, kitchen, dining room & other. Nonetheless, cheap by Southern Calif. standards.
russell
Posted by: russell | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 01:25 PM
My wife is always trying to get me to move back to Wisconsin. We could be neighbors.
Posted by: Dave | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 01:30 PM
It would certainly make an impressive HQ for TOP. As I'm currently looking for a house in the UK, the price, while high to you, seems amazingly low from a UK perspective.
[Hi Geoff, Housing values are quite low here, but believe it or not they're much lower in other places in the Midwest. I checked out one small central Illinois town where the most expensive homes are in the $200k+ range, many are below $100k, and a fair number are under $50k. However I would guess it's a pretty economically depressed place and probably a pretty grim place to live (especially for an outsider coming in). --Mike]
Posted by: Geoff Morgan | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 01:50 PM
I think you should contact the realtor and say that you have no intention of buying the house but you'd like to tour it. You may find them surprisingly accommodating, especially if they see this post and understand that you've advertised their property to a wide audience.
Posted by: Ben Rosengart | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 02:30 PM
"Unfortunately ../.. it's right across the street from the hospital."
Thus spake the youngster. Wait 'till you thank your lucky stars you
'only' live across the way from the nearest hospital ...
Posted by: m3photo | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 03:15 PM
"I can't see my way clear to knowingly waste a real estate agent's time."
You wouldn't be wasting the real estate agent's time if you were taking interior shots with your E-M1 and sharing the results. Just sayin...
Besides, you wouldn't be the first or last person who wanted to take a look around. Tell the agent that's want you want to do and leave it up to him or her to agree or decline. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Posted by: Gordon Lewis | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 04:35 PM
$10,741 in Property Taxes!!! Is that what the owner of this property would have to pay every year to the local authority?
That's 1.65% of the property value per year.
Here in New Zealand I'm paying 0.5% of property value per year.
What do you get for three times the price?
Regards
Chris Stone
[Hi Chris, property taxes here pay for most local services, including free public schools, police and fire departments, libraries, parks, city streets, county roads, ambulances and emergency rooms, and many other services such as the Forestry Division (the department that takes care of the trees in town) and garbage collection and recycling. Taxes are assessed based on the value of the house, so that one's near the top of the range for my area. --Mike]
Posted by: Chris Stone | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 04:47 PM
If it is for sale, Real Estate agents often have Agent-only tours to show off the house to local agents. You could call the agent up and see if you can join one of these.
Posted by: KeithB | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 05:15 PM
Sydney, Australia calling... if only $650k was the high end of the market here, I might actually be able to afford to buy...
The median house price in Sydney is now $722,000, with five of the most affluent suburbs having a median above $1,000,000
http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/sydney-beats-700000-price-barrier-20131023-2w1la.html
Posted by: Sam Murphy | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 06:11 PM
This crop seems to be the same image (though with more PP?) and has an unreadable photographers credit on the bottom right of the image.
http://www2.featuredwebsite.com///users/27991/images/Front%20View%20at%20Night.jpg
I see the real estate folks are not so good with photo credits :-)
Posted by: Kevin Purcell | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 07:35 PM
A beautiful house with awful furniture. I can't begin to imagine what a challenge it must be to heat the living room in winter...
Posted by: imnotme | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 07:41 PM
One floor for books, one for the TOP World HQ, and one for everything else.
Posted by: Mandeno Moments | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 09:37 PM
Ha! Here is what $649,000 will buy you in my neck of the woods:
I am absolutely not making that up.
[Impressively small, but that's with a lake view...consider that lakeside homes around here are roughly 2-3x the price of the same house when landlocked. Water always seems to add to the price. --Mike]
Posted by: MarkB | Monday, 18 November 2013 at 10:51 PM
Here in Montreal we gloated for decades that it was both an interesting place to live and astoundingly cheap. But for the past 10-15 years, things have gone wild. Last week I saw a listing in my old neighbourhood for a small two-storey house with three bedrooms and a nice little yard out back. Great location, etc. The kind of thing that would have sold for $250,000 15 years ago and people would not have believed that anyone would pay so much for a little house.
I assumed it was in the $700,000 range now. Nope. $1,175,000. Ow.
Posted by: Ed Hawco | Tuesday, 19 November 2013 at 12:33 PM
Location, location, location. Here in California this thing would be worth several times the asking price depending on exactly where it was.
Posted by: Doug Dolde | Tuesday, 19 November 2013 at 04:38 PM
Fantastic house. It's great to see a classy old structure reborn as a home. Here's another, a bit stranger and also more expensive.
http://www.missilebases.com/adirondack
Our farm is next to an abandoned Atlas site but when it was decommissioned all the structures were demolished. During the Cuban Missile crisis all three birds were stood up with warheads in place.
It thoroughly freaked my father in law out which is understandable.
Posted by: mike plews | Tuesday, 19 November 2013 at 04:44 PM
Wow that is a cool house. Love it. But for goodness sakes $11,000 in property tax on a $650K home? In Seattle - $650K gets you a 4 bedroom house but you only pay $7K in taxes - which I thought was high until I saw that.
Posted by: Don | Tuesday, 19 November 2013 at 09:49 PM
$650,000!!!
That's a bargain. Housing has got so ridiculous here in Australia that a house like that, almost regardless or where it is, would be well over $1Million. If it was in a good suburb it would be in the $2M + bracket.
Posted by: BAG | Wednesday, 20 November 2013 at 12:06 AM