743

We toured the house that we are interested in twice this week. The location is perfect, in between our two schools, in a nice quiet street. There is a functional windmill one block away and lots of trees and open space in the area - it feels like the countryside.

The asking price for the house was 199,000 Euros, so we figured it would be pretty much ready to move into. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A guy with mental problems lived there for 30 years and smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, so when he died, a crew came in to strip everything out. They did leave some big problems, like 3 inches of water in the basement, a big crack in the living room wall, a suspicious roof, problematic windows, and the list goes on. http://www.funda.nl/koop/rotterdam/huis-48753971-overschiese-kleiweg-743/

After the realtor left, we got invited in to the neighbors for a drink. They were really friendly and told us plenty about the house. He is a teacher who has been in the practice of buying houses and renovating them, so he offered us his knowledge and garage full of tools. They also said we shouldn't pay much more than 80,000 for the place because the renovations would be extensive and top dollar for the house in good condition would be about 170,000. Crazy high-end realtors.

Saturday Naomi's Dad and Edith came over. We had a nice time in Rotterdam and went to check out the house. As it turned out, the realtor left the door open, so we were able to see the inside with them (locking it up behind us). They pointed out some extra problems and said that we, of course, would need to get an inspection done.

I am more into the house than Naomi, but I think she is coming around. We want to see the house (officially) again with a friend who knows about construction and then put in an offer. Perhaps they will just laugh at it...but maybe not. Maybe they just want to unload a headache. Like Naomi's Dad says, buy cheap stuff from an expensive shop and expensive stuff from a cheap shop...