Zillow Fails
Well hey everybody (mom .... dad), welcome back! And welcome back to me!! I have recently become a home owner, which means tons of projects, and therefore blogging opportunities. I'm hoping to keep updating this thing a little more regularly. I've been feeling the writing itch lately and even if it's these silly, stream-of-consciousness blog posts, it's something, right?
During my hiatus, I wrote a couple of drafts that I never fleshed out into full blog posts. Well, this one still holds water even if the listings have long since sold ... or, um, more likely expired. Plus it's pretty funny to see my thoughts about home ownership was just sixth months ago. So here's what I wrote in November ....
I have a Zillow problem. I do not have money for a down payment. I know nothing about owning a home. I surely won't for another couple years at least. (ha! another couple years turned into 6 months after I learned that you don't need a 20 percent down payment. Thank goodness for my awesome realtor, Kim Sebrell.) But my addiction to HGTV has become a gateway drug to house window shopping.
In my search for my perfect dream home fixer upper, I've found that not every agent knows how to use Zillow, spellcheck, or even just plain ol' common sense. So here they are, my top three (okay, I admit it, this said five originally, but there were only three truly worthy) Zillow fails.
3. This surprisingly stationary house.
You know, I was really hoping I could take this gorgeous house to a better location. Because the house is just perfect. Until I read the line "AS IS-"WHERE IS." Really, you think?
2. The house with a tenth of a bathroom.
Well, I've seen a half-bath and I've seen a 6-piece bath, but I aint never seen a tenth of a bath. Until now ...
Yup, you read that right 3 bed and 2.1 baths. I wonder what a point one bath looks like ... a hole in the floor with a curtain for a door? (Too gross?)
*Update: In my home search adventures, I've since learned that the new convention is to put the number of full baths to the left of the decimal point and the number of halfs to the right. So this may technically be right, but I think it still looks like you're getting a tenth of a bathroom. Do these people not understand decimals? Put a slash or use an abbreviation system or something, am I right?
*Update 2: This home was purchased in the fall, seemingly flipped and is back on the market and looking good, and is listed, I might add with 2.5 baths. Phew, glad that listing fad is over.
1. The Fun House.
This guy takes the cake. Who the hell posts upside down photos for a home listing. And it's not just like one accidental upside down shot. It's the entire roll!
I mean, seriously. I'm not making this shit up. I would hope by now we're all familiar by the little arrow that means "rotate 90 degrees" Press that twice, bud, not too hard.
*Update 3: While I continuously returned to this listing last fall and was baffled to see he photos unchanged, it seems someone finally found the rotate button and then promptly took the home off the market.
Which means of these three fails that were supposed to be five, maybe one is still relevant. Maybe. But you know, what that's okay, because I enjoyed updating this and am excited about what it means for dusting off my blog. Cheers y'all and dabble on or whatever that tag line is supposed to be.