Short sales happen, and sometimes they are expensive. Grand dreams available at discount prices.
Go to the east side of the Eastside, in Issaquah. If you're already working there, great. If not, there are probably some good jobs just down I-90. Here's a short sale of a regular house on a large lot for a large price. Listed at $925,000 can be a lot for a house with no photos of the 4 bedrooms, and 2.75 baths. The house isn't palatial either, at 1,930 square feet; but, you do get more than an acre. That's a fair amount of elbow room.
From the photo, the house has two garage doors and one window; but the window is upstairs, so the one story house is probably elevated by the partial basement and the garage. It is a typical 1972 suburban house snuck back into the trees for privacy.
Did you notice the cottage? Don't be surprised if you missed it, there's also a cottage that can be rented, but no photo of it unless that's what's hiding in the trees. That effectively boosts the square footage, provides an income source (and a source of landlord duties), or gives you a place to live as you renovate the main house - or vice versa.
The house is surrounded by trees, but with a border of well-established lawn and garden. Expect a ready supply of chipmunks, wild birds, and raccoons and coyotes. Almost 5 feet of precipitation a year is just the thing for moss, ferns, and mushrooms; but be careful with that last plant. Zoom the map back out a bit though and see that the trees are ringed with other houses. What was a forested retreat is now a refuge for the forest. Maybe you can save it, and that little tree that the photo shows is trying to grow.
It is a lot of a lot, but not extraordinarily. Go a bit farther east and acreage becomes available. Get 8 times as much land (sans house) for half the price. Also at about half the price is the tax assessment which was $494,000 in 2013. And yet, this will be the right combination for someone. You?
· 4804 240th Pl SE, Issaquah [Zillow]
· 31430 SE 62nd Way, Fall City [Zillow]
Written by Tom Trimbath