How exciting to be looking for your next home! I'm originally from Naples and just love it there. Would move back myself in a heartbeat if I could convince DH. There's nothing like being on the Gulf surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches.

I know what you mean about not expecting to be remodeling at this stage. We're selling our beautiful, completely remodeled home in California and moving to another fixer upper in Franklin, Tennessee. We sacrificed a move-in ready home to get a beautiful 15-acre horse property with lovely pastures and pond, plus a guest house and huge barn for DH's workshop. So the next remodel project is coming soon!

Re the house with a rat trap, if an exterminator can eliminate the problem, maybe you could have the attic completely vacuumed out to eliminate all traces of past rats and then reinsulate with new materials? That, along with new paint and flooring in the house, might eliminate any lingering odors.

TNfarmhouse:

Thanks for your thoughts. Even if I could get an exterminator, I'm not confident that there wouldn't be a lingering smell. There are wood rafters in the attic and I don't think animal smell comes out of wood. We're going to keep looking until we are sure it's the house for us.

Good luck with your Tennessee farmhouse renovation!

This guy says there's a way to get rid of the rat waste smell.

If you can get a steal on the house, it may be worth it to get the views.

Maybe make the deal contingent on a successful odor removal process?

Thanks weedy! We looked at a couple of other houses today and the realtor told us that the owners of the "rat house" were anxious to get an offer. I do think we'd get a deal on it. We just started looking so we're a little hesitate to buy so quickly.

One of the houses we saw today was nice, but above our budget and it needed work. I told the realtor that a house with the same floorplan in the same community in excellent condition sold for less money just one month ago. You gotta love the internet!

Call a disaster cleaning service like Service Master and have them come and evaluate the attic situation before you throw in the towel.

We moved into a house with rat issues. We thought the odor was a pet smell because there was dog pee all over the carpets. We didn't realized until after we moved in that there was also a rat issue in the attic. The rat smell was bad but we did get rid of it.

Keep in mind that rats will be an ongoing issue. If they can access your roof from the trees in the yard they will continue to chew to try to get inside. Periodic service from a good pest control company will keep them out.

thanks for the advice dgw.

Let me ask you this, "did you give your house away"? If the answer is no, then why would you be looking for somebody else to give their's away? Sorry, but it drives me nuts when people want a deal on everything, but when the shoe is on the other foot, it's a different story!

So Pat Brown you don't think a house that is rat infested should go for less than one that is in good condition with no rats?

I was fortunate when we were selling our house on Long Island. We had a steady stream of buyers looking ( although most of them were crazy, lol) and had various offers of which to choose from. Our house/price was very much in demand.

When I look at a house to buy, I also look at the real estate market in the area. Right now, for my budget, it is a buyers market in the communities I am looking at. Most of the houses I am looking at have been sitting for 6 months. Some are also asking more for their houses than the sold comps. I won't over pay for a house. The Naples real estate market is totally different than my area in Long Island.

As the winter approaches, the real estate market in Naples typically sees more homes listed for sale in anticipation for the snowbirds. As time goes by, there will be more houses for us to look at. The prices may come up this winter. If we wait to buy a house, we take the chance that sellers will ask more and not accept less.

Not looking for anyone to give their house away. Looking for the best value I can get for my budget. Just like when I sold, there were buyers that made offers that were too low for us. We had the luxury of declining the low offers, since we had a lot of action on our house. If we didn't we would have had to sell our house for less than we wanted. The market will dictate what your home is worth. We are retired now and have the luxury of taking our time to find a house that we love. If it takes a week, fine, if it takes a couple of months, that's fine too.

Another example of the market here in our budget. One of the homes we would like to see is not available to see for another week since the owners have decided to change the floors and remove all wallpaper. The house has been sitting for months, and obviously the owners want it sold. It's in a community we want, on a road we like. It's near the rat house. We hoping it's in better condition and doesn't smell. We are willing to pay more if it doesn't require much work.

We would love to see a house that needs no work! There just aren't a lot of homes on the market in the communities that we are interested in. If we were looking at condos for under $200,000, it is an absolute sellers market. Our friends sold there condo here in one week. In our budget, that it not the case.

Looking at 2 homes tomorrow in another community. We'll see!

Have you checked out Fiddler's Creek?

Fiddler's Creek is beautiful. We don't want to go that south and the fees, taxes and CDD fees are crazy. CDD fees are community development district fees. When a builder starts a new community here, a lot of them float bonds to pay for the roads, beautiful pools, golf courses, etc. They pass that bond payment along to the buyers. So in addition to the taxes you pay, you pay the CDD fee. sometimes it can add 2 to 3 thousand a year to your taxes. They also can add to them if the community wants to add more goodies, ex: tiki bars, fire pits, etc. All of these goodies are wonderful, but make the fees way higher than we want to pay.

We've learned a lot along the way, and would not buy a home in a CDD community. There are many communities that don't have CDD fees.

Following!

Today we looked at three homes. One of the homes was in the community we want, in an unbelievable section of that community that we could never even think we'd be able to afford. The house is newer, doesn't need a thing and we may be able to get it for our budget. If not, we'll move on.

Now, here's the bad news. It has no view. No water view and no golf course view. The backyard faces a preserve. The homes in this community with the good views are untouchable to us. We would be getting into our dream home but giving up the view. What would you do?

The other two homes are in our budget with a view of the golf course, but not in our favorite community. They are lower priced and turn key so we would have more money to play with.

Big decisions!

Location, location, location. Which will hold it's value over the years? That's the one to pick.

You say it has a view of preserve. What is the preserve like? Bird area? I know if that were the case, I'd be in heaven.

Additionally, my new place will have absolutely no views, so we're designing it so our lot will have its own little oasis. Good landscaping can make up for a lot.

The location of the house is in an excellent community in one of the best communities there. We would be one of the lowest price homes if they accept our offer. We would be giving up the waterview. The homes with the waterview are about $200,000 more. It would be a great financial move giving us equity right away. When and if the market goes up, we would make out very well.

It is a dream home that we would never imagine to live in. The preserve view is of palm trees and woods. The landscaping is exceptional. It has a gorgeous pool and spa that gets sun all day, with the patio area in shade. It has everything we want. We found out that beyond our backyard is conservation land that is owned by the county and never can be built on. I found this out by calling the county.

We've discussed the pros and cons, and it looks like we may make an offer. If the owners say no, we're willing to move on, because we have to! It's pushing our budget to the limit, but doable.

I really don't think the owners will accept our offer, but we're willing to give it a try! The house has been on the market for a long time, as many others have been in this location, in this market. Time is money, and it all depends if the owners want to keep paying the taxes and fees.

Wish us luck! I'll let you know how this plays out.

It sounds ideal. Hope it works out for you.

Update: We've been in negotiations all yesterday on our dream house. The sellers have come way way down. It's getting very close to what we can afford. We gave the last counter, now we're hoping to hear from the seller's today. We can't believe they have come down as far as they have. We're at the "meet in the middle" moment.

Good luck to you! I hope you get it. One caveat, however:

We found out that beyond our backyard is conservation land that is owned by the county and never can be built on. I found this out by calling the county.

Don't believe that. My parents built a house on Sanibel years ago that had all preserve land across the street, which is one reason they chose that location. I was over there last winter and took a drive by our old house and that "preserve" is now a big new housing development. In FL where a developer has a will, there's a way, alas. I believe in this case the county did a swap for some land elsewhere to be preserved instead.

I appreciate everyone's advice and thoughts regarding our house search in Naples Florida. Today after some more back and forth we finally got the call from our realtor that they accepted our offer on our dream home! We just can't believe they came down as much as they did.

Our realtor was KEY to us getting our dream home. Even though it was above our budget she showed us the house and worked her butt off to get it for us. She is worth her commission all day long.

So it's now onto the home inspection and closing. We are very excited and hope all goes well.

Congratulations! I hope everything goes smoothly from now through the closing. It sounds like a great house.

Congrats!!! I would love to have a nature preserve for a view!

Congratulations! Wishing you smooth sailing and like others have said, I love a nature preserve view.

That sounds very exciting. Thanks for sharing your hunt for the perfect home!

Thanks everyone for the support. I really appreciate it. So far everything has gone well. No major problems at inspection, yeah! Looking at furniture and deciding what style we want to go with. This is the fun part!

All the drama with selling our house on Long Island is in the past. I can't believe we are finally at this point. For anyone selling, hang in there. Things get better.

Congrats - how exciting. I agree - a preserve is a view. Trees and woods far preferable to looking at someone else's house which is what a lot of people end up with.

We really had no choice but a preserve view since the homes in this neighborhood that had the "pond" view were out of our budget. LOL We are going to enjoy the privacy that our preserve view gives us. We're getting real close to closing. Even ordered some new furniture. Busy times, but fun!

Barb just seeing this now. Been super busy between our closing in Oct, buying all new furniture and getting the house all done then coming home to Thanksgiving and now Christmas. Very exciting news and so happy for you! Have you closed yet?

Yes, we closed on the house just before Thanksgiving. Got some furniture delivered. Went with a Tommy Bahama style. As we say, Tommy Bahama wannabe style. LOL

Been busy changing our address on everything and buying odds and ends that you never really think about. So far the house has been great. Everything so far is working well. The one thing I do hate is the side by side refrigerator. It's absolutely beautiful, but is too small even though it's big. I told DH I want to get an undercounter beverage fridge when we have money again. LOL

The neighbors have all been very friendly. We have been told that we moved to the "best block" in the neighborhood. By best, they mean the most fun and friendly block.

We're currently in the process of renting out our condo in North Naples. We've decided to keep it for investment.

So happy to hear that things are going well for you! Aren't you glad that the whole selling thing is over? We sure are! We look at each other and still can't believe all the work we've done with this move.

Yes I am thrilled but will be selling my main home this Spring if things are ever completed. Still waiting on new septic to be put in and we have a dratted woodpecker that keeps ruining our shingles. ARRGGH.

We also have been told we have a great street and have fantastic neighbors....and many in our age group! I had only one friend from my entire neighborhood in my last house and she moved after 2 years.

Your home and the neighborhood sound great. I am so happy for you getting such a good deal. Enjoy it!

Thanks so much for the good thoughts. I really appreciate it. As you go through all the pre selling work in prep for the sale of your main home this Spring, think of all the good stuff that is to come! Before you know it, you'll also be looking back on all the work you've done in the past and how worth it, it was.

Good luck with your Spring move!