Here Is What’s Wrong With This House – And Why It Doesn’t Matter

If It Weren’t For These “Flaws”, You Wouldn’t Want It

View to the North on the road to this Illinois home and property for sale

Not Much Wrong With This

I once read a story of a real estate developer who had a nice new subdivision with all of the homes sold except for a few along the back of the development.

The problem?

There was a railroad track on the other side of the fence.

Here Is How He Sold Those Homes

The real estate agent scheduled a special showing of these homes at 2:45pm one afternoon.

Many people showed up.

The agent explained all the features of the home and then just before 3 O’clock he said there was one distinct negative to the home:

There was 1 train per day, and it went by at 3pm. (A time when most of these people were at work anyway)

Right on schedule the train roared by. And then silence again.

In order to compensate for this “huge” negative, the agent explained that the nice big screen TV in front of them was being given as a bonus to those homes bordering the back fence and opposite railroad track.

All the remaining homes sold that day!

That Is Why I am Telling You What Is Wrong With Our Home

Every home and property has some negatives, a beautiful home on a hill in Hawaii with the most gorgeous view is not only expensive to buy, expensive to live there, but a long flight from anywhere else.

What I will also point out, though, is that what is “wrong” with our home may be the very reasons you want it. So here goes:

Isolation

We are 2o minutes away from a major metropolitan area, the Quad Cities. Also 20 minutes away from Monmouth to the south, 30 minutes to Galesburg. BUT! We are less than 4 minutes to a grocery store, public park, cafe, pizza place or Casey’s. 10 minutes to a town of 3000 with a Walmart, McDonald’s, farm store and numerous shops and restaurants.

While some find that a negative, those who want:

Peace and quiet
Privacy
Minimal traffic
No trains (sorry, had to put that in)
Lower property taxes. What do you think you would pay in taxes if this home and land were nestled in the Chicago suburbs, or even just south of Rock Island?

… will absolutely love living here, just as we have.

Roads

This beautiful custom home and 87 acres is located on a non-paved township road. But it is maintained and snow removal has always been prompt (6pm the day after the worst snowfall we experienced in our time here was a rare issue; usually road is cleared before you leave for work) and the lack of blacktop keeps the traffic volume down and the SPEED down as well.

Without question, a blacktop road would be nice. There can be times during Spring thaw that the road can be less than delightful to drive for a week or two, depends on the year. Some years haven’t been that bad at all. Our front wheel drive mini-van never had a problem.

Here is the other side of that coin:

If this home and land were on a nice blacktop highway you would likely pay several thousand dollars – per year – in increased property taxes for the privileges associated with that type of location.
Since the land is in a smaller (population) county that is not 100% blacktop roads (like the one to the north of us) we find that the county government is prone to pretty much leave you alone for the most part. These days that can not only be a joy, but it can end up saving you thousands too!
There is no question that if our driveway did exit onto a nice blacktop highway the asking price for this property would be $50,000 to $100,000 higher!
As mentioned above, blacktop roads invite traffic and high speed fly-by’s. Not everyone wants that.
Dust from the road is not a huge issue as the house is to the West of the road and prevailing winds blow dust east. We are set back from the road behind an ever larger growing “filter” of pine trees.

The View

As a person who works from home, I have to admit to you that I just am not as productive living here as I would be elsewhere. While my office in the lower level is without windows, by design, I find myself all too often heading up to get a drink or maybe heading to the restroom and getting distracted by an open window and that causes me lost time.

Living in a cookie cutter subdivision has it’s advantages. Look out the back window of your house and all you see is the ugly back of your neighbors house (they just use cheap ugly colored siding on the backs of those homes) above the privacy fence separating your (probably small) backyards.

Deer Emptying Bird Feeder

Besides being nothing to look at, coming up out of your basement there will just put you in earshot of all the barking dogs who smell each other through the privacy fence but are driven nuts by the fact that they cannot see or get to that other animal.

The flip side here is that you may be like us in that you enjoy:

Deer nibbling at the grass or sucking the contents out of the bird feeder just outside the back window.
The squirrel hanging upside down helping himself to the goodies put out for the birds in the squirrel-proof bird feeder.
Turkeys strolling through the yard.
Snow on the pine trees, perhaps still falling.
Watching your kids playing on the fort, swingset or splashing in the pool, then running around in the grass with squirt guns, water balloons or perhaps playing in the sprinkler or sliding down one of those plastic sheet water slides.
Smelling the fresh country air that’s either coming through the windows or perhaps you are REALLY wasting time away from your work by sneaking out onto the front porch; possibly enjoying a snack in the meantime.
Staring at the views of the ponds, the trees, the fresh mowed grass or wondering how the fruit trees will do this year.
If the kids are sledding down our ideal sledding hill, I’m out there either sledding, filming, or giving them rides up the hill in our 6 wheel ATV.

Squirrel Munching Stolen Strawberry – Whattaya Gonna Do With Something THAT Cute?

This Home Has No Deck!

GASP! Call 911! – There is a place for a deck, but none was ever built. One real estate agent, who we had worked with (favorably) previously in life, saw that, declared the home unsellable and left (as if one couldn’t still be built).

While this is a travesty, I know, think about that another way:

We just aren’t really deck people, are you? Then design and build a deck according to what YOU want not what we may have not really wanted or what some contractor may have “thrown up in a hurry” because he knew that every house just HAD TO HAVE a deck! The price is already discounted to take into account this grave omission on our part.
After we built the home, we found the kids just LOVED to play in the “clean” black dirt that I had filled the “deck” area with enjoying some nice Tonka Construction Toys purpose built for the task.
My wife ended up planting a few strawberry plants there, and I some tomato plants. The tomato plants did OK for a couple of years, then the strawberries took over and we have enjoyed strawberries every year since.
Not only have I not had to maintain a deck, today there are LOTS MORE maintenance free deck materials available should you choose to build one. If we had built a deck, it likely would have been constructed out of redwood or some other maintenance requiring material that was popular 10 or 12 years ago.

There Is Land To Take Care Of

If you want the land to continue to look as it does, then yes there will be some maintenance. If you are a hunter and care not for the “mowed and trimmed” look, then let nature do what nature does while you do something else.

The plus side of this negative is:

There is land! (Need I say more?)
I often find mowing relaxing and therapeutic (especially on a beautiful fall day in the back 40)
You can buy just 10 acres with this home if you prefer. Someone else will buy the remaining 77 acres and you get to enjoy the view anyway!