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petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 9:35 a.m.

I've brought up our house we've been planning on selling before, so based on the interest I thought I'd post some pics and details.

The house is approximately 1600 sq-ft, and has forced-air natural gas furnace and central air. The gas water heater is about 4-years old. It is on city water/sewer, and located in Rossville, IL(60963). It's located on a large double-lot on a corner of a quiet neighborhood(they're all quiet here...) approximately 120' deep x 150' wide in dimension. The electric is updated to a 60-amp breaker panel, and all old wiring has been removed. It has vinyl siding, and I blew cellulose insulation into the walls & attic. It has a partial basement under the kitchen/dining room. The previous owners were retired and wintered in FL, so the whole house is setup to easily drain all the water, and has a main shutoff just inside the foundation. There are also 2 cedar-lined closets as described below to prevent moth damage during long-term storage.

It has a nice sized living room and dining room with original hardwood floors that are in good refinished condition.

The original part of the house was built in 1878 and it's been added onto several times, so the setup is a little weird. There is a bedroom on the 1st floor with laminate wood floors and a 1/2-bath/closet combo. Then upstairs is setup like many older houses(around here anyway) in that you walk through one bedroom to get to the 2nd bedroom. The 2nd bedroom has a 1/2 bath, and also has a large cedar-lined closet.

On the first floor is a large full bathroom with a linen cabinet and also a full closet.

The back porch/laundry room has a mud sink and wire shelving/clothes racks on 2 walls.

On the other side of the house is/was a long and narrow glassed in porch, about 5'x20' feet. It has it's own separate exterior door, plus a door inside to the kitchen, and windows between it and the dining room. It's also insulated, has electric and an HVAC duct. We needed an extra bedroom, so I put painted OSB over the outside of the windows, and isolation + painted OSB over the inside too, which are still in place but could easily be removed.

On the back of the house is a screened-in concrete patio, about 10' x 16'.

Now the important stuff - the garage. The detached garage sits about 40' behind the house, and is roughly 24' x 30'. It has 120v electric and 2 overhead doors. There are several built in workbenches, cabinets and shelves. There is a gravel parking area/drive next to the garage, and a nice size gravel parking area in front of it. We kept our 6 vehicles there without any problem.

Next to the garage is a nice 10' x 12' shed, also with electric. Inside it is a cedar-lined closet that's 3' x 6'.

The house certainly isn't perfect, and is far from a "showcase" home, but it's completely livable/functioning as-is. In fact, we presently have it rented for $500/month, but there is a clause in the lease to end it upon sale.

We have a newly remodeled grade school here in town that's very nice, and the students get a choice between two nice neighboring high schools. There is a nice day care facility in our old grade school building. We have a brand new medical clinic, fire station, Dollar General(it's actually nice, unlike most that seem to be pretty trashy), Casey's. We also have a restaurant, bar, American Legion, and a country club just outside of town.

The population is around 1300, and our crime rate is very low. Yes, there's drugs/meth but our police have taken a very active role to reduce the problem. However violent crime is virtually nonexistent(a bar fight once every year or so), and theft is pretty low as well(usually teenage kids). Our cost of living is among the lowest in the nation also.

We've been getting many retirees from Chicago move to town over the past several years. We're about 1.5-hours from the city, which is close enough for them to visit friends & family, but far enough away from everything else.

So, what's the catch???

Well, there aren't many jobs in our county for average working-class people. We're 14-miles from Danville, IL which has some positions that pay well, but certainly not a plethora of jobs. We're 50-miles(an hour drive or less) each way from Lafayette, IN(home of Purdue) and Champaign/Urbana, IL(home of the U of I), so there are jobs in either location for those willing to commute. We also have 60Mbs internet for anyone who can telecommute.

Overall it's a nice town and a nice place to live provided 1.) You have/can get sufficient income. 2.) You're willing to trade some of the conveniences of a larger metro area for the peace & quiet of small-town living. 3.) You don't mind winter.

Here's a few pics:

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Fueled by Caffeine
Fueled by Caffeine MegaDork
7/23/15 10:13 a.m.

That's $700K of house and land anywhere near Seattle. WOW.

DrBoost
DrBoost UltimaDork
7/23/15 11:05 a.m.

How much to deliver to MI?

petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 11:07 a.m.

In reply to DrBoost:

Board-by-board, or in one piece???

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 UltimaDork
7/23/15 11:16 a.m.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: That's $700K of house and land anywhere near Seattle. WOW.

Where I live, $700k will get you the 5,100 sq ft McManson next door to my house.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2512-Fairway-Ln_Sandusky_OH_44870_M33052-79642

Should be noted that my house that is half the size of his only cost me about 25% of what he is asking.

petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 11:30 a.m.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

You could buy our whole downtown - including the 8800 sq-ft buildings we remodeled and live above - for that price.

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 UltimaDork
7/23/15 11:41 a.m.

The ramp to the bed looks a lot steeper than the ramp to the front door.

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy PowerDork
7/23/15 11:46 a.m.

I live near Joliet, IL and have a goal to move to Central, IL but if the taxes keep rising I'm moving to central Wisconsin. I'm too young to retire though.....

mtn
mtn MegaDork
7/23/15 12:43 p.m.
Datsun310Guy wrote: I live near Joliet, IL and have a goal to move to Central, IL but if the taxes keep rising I'm moving to central Wisconsin. I don't have enough money to retire though.....

FTFY.

petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 1:07 p.m.

In reply to Datsun310Guy:

You drive/travel a lot for work, and even pass through this area from time to time, correct? You could probably sell your existing house for enough to buy this outright with cash, which just means you'll be able to retire that much sooner!

Fueled by Caffeine
Fueled by Caffeine MegaDork
7/23/15 1:15 p.m.
JohnRW1621 wrote:
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: That's $700K of house and land anywhere near Seattle. WOW.
Where I live, $700k will get you the 5,100 sq ft McManson next door to my house. http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2512-Fairway-Ln_Sandusky_OH_44870_M33052-79642 Should be noted that my house that is half the size of his only cost me about 25% of what he is asking.

Note I said.. Near seattle.. If you want your 5,100 Sqft mansion where I live, IN seattle or BEllevue.. You're looking at $1.5M with a postage stamp sized lot.

RossD
RossD PowerDork
7/23/15 1:23 p.m.
Datsun310Guy wrote: I live near Joliet, IL and have a goal to move to Central, IL but if the taxes keep rising I'm moving to central Wisconsin. I'm too young to retire though.....

Come on up, the waters fine!

Ross in *Appleton, Wisconsin.

*EDITED to add city

EvanR
EvanR Dork
7/23/15 2:14 p.m.

In the spirit of that silly car blog...

Why buy a house for $64k, when you can have this perfectly good Dodge Viper for the same price??

2006 Dodge Viper R/T

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy PowerDork
7/23/15 6:59 p.m.

I need 7 more years to not pay taxes on my equity in my current house. My brother just moved to Appleton and loves it. Sturgeon Bay to Ephraim would be my dream.

My youngest is starting 7th grade and I refuse to move until she is 18 - I don't need any more drama.

Lockport, IL is reality right now.

Knurled
Knurled UltimaDork
7/23/15 8:11 p.m.
JohnRW1621 wrote: The ramp to the bed looks a lot steeper than the ramp to the front door.

Well you want to be tired when you go to bed, right?

And what better way to wake up than a rapid descent to the breakfast table?

OHSCrifle
OHSCrifle HalfDork
7/23/15 8:52 p.m.
petegossett wrote: ......the 8800 sq-ft buildings we remodeled and live above - for that price.

I want to see some photos of THAT. I always thought it'd be cool to live above a store like the ones downtown in my hometown in NE Ohio.

Hungary Bill
Hungary Bill SuperDork
7/23/15 9:19 p.m.

Ran when parked?

daeman
daeman Reader
7/23/15 10:16 p.m.

Is it a ramp or a slide? If its a slide then your the best parent ever and my my inner child is extremely jealous.

Moving to the US doesn't look like a bad deal, property prices in Australia have become bollocks. On the up side my partner and I will do pretty well when we sell out current place.

Good luck with the sale.

Spoolpigeon
Spoolpigeon UberDork
7/23/15 10:21 p.m.

Trade for a 97 Ford Taurus. Runs great, just needs an air filter.

petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 10:30 p.m.

In reply to daeman:

Those are our tenant's belongings, but yeah I was a bit jealous of the bunk-bed/slide combo.

petegossett
petegossett PowerDork
7/23/15 10:36 p.m.
OHSCrifle wrote:
petegossett wrote: ......the 8800 sq-ft buildings we remodeled and live above - for that price.
I want to see some photos of THAT. I always thought it'd be cool to live above a store like the ones downtown in my hometown in NE Ohio.

I've not done a good job documenting it, but there are some remodel pics here. If we weren't such slobs I'd take a pic or 2 of the interior now. We're really happy with how the east 1/2 of the upstairs turned out. I just cleaned the original wood floors with a floor scrubber, then went straight over the top with polyurethane. It had been a workshop up here originally, and I exposed a couple places that were completely embedded with tiny tacks. I put extra poly over the ones I couldn't get out. . The other 1/2 of the upstairs turned out ok, but that's the kid's & cat's side, so we knew I would get trashed and didn't do anything special decor-wise with it.

Johnboyjjb
Johnboyjjb Reader
7/24/15 10:22 a.m.
Fueled by Caffeine wrote:
JohnRW1621 wrote:
Fueled by Caffeine wrote: That's $700K of house and land anywhere near Seattle. WOW.
Where I live, $700k will get you the 5,100 sq ft McManson next door to my house. http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2512-Fairway-Ln_Sandusky_OH_44870_M33052-79642 Should be noted that my house that is half the size of his only cost me about 25% of what he is asking.
Note I said.. Near seattle.. If you want your 5,100 Sqft mansion where I live, IN seattle or BEllevue.. You're looking at $1.5M with a postage stamp sized lot.

As I was reading this listing I had a lot of this conversation in my head. I always forget how insane some housing markets are. Puget Sound Eastside suburbs would estimate that house in 400-500k range.

Brett_Murphy
Brett_Murphy PowerDork
7/24/15 10:32 a.m.

I am amazed at how inexpensive this is.

Rufledt
Rufledt SuperDork
7/24/15 11:52 a.m.
Brett_Murphy wrote: I am amazed at how inexpensive this is.

agreed, i kept waiting for the catch, like "also it's currently on fire" tucked in at the end or something.

JohnRW1621
JohnRW1621 UltimaDork
7/24/15 12:08 p.m.

I think the catch is, "you had better bring some personal wealth with you because amassing wealth from the local economy will otherwise be your greatest challenge."

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