Seattle has buses (and trains). Use them! In which case you might as well find a place to live along a line. One line at a time. Here's the next one, selected at random for the fun of it.
Working in Seattle, but want to live in what was forest, then rural, and is now suburban? If it is in King County, there's a good chance there's a bus that will take you from the burbs to the city in about an hour, maybe with an assist from the train. That's a lot better way to spend an hour than by sitting in traffic. Metro #159 is a public transit getaway car to the East Hill of Kent at the end of the day.
↑ Opulent, empty, and roomy. In Kent, $849,950 is enough to buy 1% less than an acre, which is enough to have a 4,376 square foot house with lots of room outside as well. It only has 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, but that's because the rooms are enormous. Maybe it just feels that way because there's no furniture in the photos. There's even enough room outside for a potting shed that's big enough for a Tiny House. The garage is 1,410 square feet. That's big enough to store the shed and a couple of downtown apartments - and maybe leave room for a car. What do you also get? A gate to lock out the world.
↑ Who would build a house with 4 bedrooms and only 1 bath? Someone in 1920 building a farmhouse. The term suburbia had barely been invented when they built this 2,760 square foot house on 2.83 acres. The original house was probably smaller (and probably cost a lot less than $799,000), and the description suggests taking it down to zero and turning the land into a development. Mind the horses and the electric fence. Bring your hammer to either build it up or tear it down.
↑ And now for something normal and new. This two story has been on the market for about half a year and was built in 2014. Not a lot of history here, but it is the nice and comfortable 3 beds, 2.5 baths, in 2,140 square feet on a 5,759 square foot lot, for a middle-of-the-road $354,950. A lot less maintenance because there's a lot less lot, and everything is about as new as realistic so it should all work (hopefully.) Get to know your neighbors because they're close, but not as close as in an apartment in Belltown.
↑ As the price shrinks, so does the square footage, down to 1,160; which still finds room for 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. A thousand dollars less than a quarter million gets a house that keeps the nice amenities without a lot of extra rooms. It was built in 1961, so the landscaping is established. You already know what will grow there. No guessing unless you want to experiment. The place does look a bit blurry though. Maybe that's the microclimate.
↑ The blue tarp on the roof probably explains the damaged ceiling and the price of only $139,000. Aside from that, it is a small house with 3 bedrooms and 2.25 baths in 1,260 square feet. The lot is even a bit bigger than usual at just over 9,000 square feet. It isn't acreage, but it is roomy. And there's great access to SR 18, or at least its noise. Buy it, fix it up, and the neighbors will be glad you moved in.
See anything you like?
· Route 159 [Metro]
· All Bus Tours coverage [CS]
Written by Tom Trimbath