Looked at 3 houses today with realtor we had met this spring during an open house on Barranca Mesa. He's young - born in 1976 - has a two year old and another child on the way. He seems nice and we both think we could work with him. Afterwards, he was taking his family into the Jemez Mountains for a cookout.
We first looked at a 5 year old duplex in Piñon Trails Crossing - only 1,165 sq. ft. and not air conditioned. Not having air conditioning (or even ducts in which to install it) seems a liability because White Rock gets really hot!
There are nice views of the Sangres from the kitchen window. The house is vacant, in very nice, move-in condition and has a single car garage which is where it attaches to the dwelling next door. The house and yard seem cramped to us and too close to the neighbors.
There are some yappy dogs next door. The yard is xeriscaped and includes a small section of artificial turf - yuck! Even though I once wanted to landscape our yard with rocks, this yard looks ugly. Immediately behind the back yard is a large vacant lot and it's unclear if it belongs to the two churches back there or if it's privately owned.
Then we looked at a townhome on Cheryl Avenue in White Rock. It's 31+ years old and 1,934 sq. ft. We really liked the extra space and the fact that it's air conditioned. It backs onto the Cañada del Buey hiking trail and has a pretty backyard that's just the right size as well as 2 small courtyards. The price is right but I really don't want a house that old.
I won't enumerate the various issues that would drive me nuts unless I addressed them but here's one example: The hot water heater is in the garage and instead of it sitting on either the garage's concrete floor or on a structurally sound, actual raised floor, it's placed on what I can only describe as a "table" made of heavy timber, just to hold the hot water heater. I can see that the plywood on the "table" top has already delaminated from a past leak. I don't think the "table" is structurally anchored in any way to the building. That makes me nervous. I love the location, the space and air-conditioning but don't want to take on repairing and maintaining an older house as a retirement project.
The third house, a condo in Los Alamos on Short Drive in the Las Ventanas development, was built in 2000. The realtor says that there is a high ratio of tenants to owners in this development and that similar units have sold for lower prices.
The real problem is that the condo is a narrow, 4 story building with small rooms on each floor. It needs a fire escape!! From the topmost floor, the ground below looked so distant - rappelling off buildings in an emergency is not my strong point. It's bizarre and not for us! What we liked, though, was the downtown Los Alamos location, the air-conditioning, how new it was (and in good condition) and that the condo fee is only $150 a month and covers the exterior building maintenance and the roof.
Hot here today. The South Fork fire was really blowing up this afternoon.