I’m trying to get this one up as quickly as possible while the impressions are fresh in my mind. The open house was this past Sunday and even though this house was a bit out of our price range, we were happy for the excuse to get out of the apartment a bit.
50 Paumanake Ave
- MLS# 2133440 – Zillow Page
- Ask $549,000
- 3 bedrooms – 1.5 bath – Colonial
- Taxes $11,266 – Village Taxes: $883.66
What does it mean when you show up for an open house and the home owner is there? It generally means bad news all around. A lot of things can happen with an owner in the house and very few of them are good.
Sixteen years ago when I was shopping for my first house (with my first wife) our Realtor brought us to a house owned by a middle-aged Italian couple. The man showed us around around his home, explaining all its the great features, including a cinder block barbecue grill that he was going to “throw in”, as if most people would load that up on their the truck and take it to their new place.
After the tour, we sat around the kitchen table and the man prepared to make his final sales pitch. He turned to me and said, “Now I’m going to explain to you some things about the house”. He then turned to my then wife and said, “..and you can listen too”.
The owner at 50 Paumanake didn’t make any similar gaffes. He was a nice, older gentleman and we enjoyed his stories about the house, which he obviously loves. Thereby hangs the tale.
This is a very charming house in the Indian section of Babylon Village. It’s been on the market for a little while now, about two months or so. The taxes are very high, but the owner explained that he spent many years serving on various tax boards and it would have been difficult for him to file a tax grievance.
There are three bedrooms upstairs. The master and second bedrooms are of decent size while the third is smaller, but still serviceable as an office, nursery or small child’s room. The master and second bedrooms have hallway-like areas that lead up to the front dormer windows.
The living room has attractive oak floors and a marble fireplace. It flows nicely around to the right into the dining room and makes a nice space for entertaining. I’m not sure where I’d put my new, giant TV, but that’s a problem with most houses we’ve looked at.
The kitchen has a cute, country feel, but it’s a bit of a stretch to call it updated. The countertops are light pink laminate and the appliances are far from top of the line. There’s a good amount of space and some unique touches, including a built in gas grill with its own chimney for barbecuing.
There are some other nice bonuses to this house, including a sun room off the back of the house with a hot tub, washer and dryer on the main level and 1500 watts of solar panels on the roof.
Still, it’s very hard to see $549,000 for what is essentially a modest size, three bedroom colonial. The owner obviously loves his house and maybe that’s messing with his judgement a bit. We liked the home a lot and it would be a nice fit for us, but the price and the taxes really put it out of consideration at this time.
DIVORCE FORCES SALE……that’s why the price is so high. Has to be split 50/50.
Do you personal knowledge of this, Blog, or are you just making a supposition?
Yessir….got it from the son. Longtime Babylonian.
Dude,
This house is back up for a bargain price of 500k! Is that a good price?
Redwing
A good price for what? That’s a great price for the seller if it he gets it. That’s not such a great price for me to buy it at.
Thanks for the heads up, Redwing.