#realestate

This Home Was Created To Wrap Around An Apple TreeThis place is stunning.Montreal-based studio ACDF Architecture created a low-slung contemporary home that was designed to wrap around an apple tree. Even cooler, residents of the house will get a glimpse of the tree from all rooms around the living space! It’s like a modern and stylish version of a fairy grove, where cool mystical beings gather. The home also has an all-black exterior, which is quite unique compared to other homes out on the market. Additionally, ACDF Architecture designed the home for its residents to experience and enhance a deeper connection with nature. The owner of the home, who commissioned the project, wanted the apple tree to be part of his home. “The owner embraced vivid childhood memories of growing up in an orchard environment. The apple tree was symbolic of his earliest encounters with nature as a child, and of the continuity of that connection years later while picking apples with his own children,” the company explained.Image credit: ACDF Architecture #homes #architecture #interiordesign #realestate

A Tour of Flea's $8.8 Million CompoundLa Crescenta, Caifornia, is on of the nicest places to live in the state, part of Los Angeles County that borders Angeles National Forest. This home for sale is, with no doubt, one of the nicest places available in the small town. The 5.71-acre property has three buildings. One home was built by famed architect Richard Neutra for his secretary in 1953. A larger home was built by award winning architect Michael Maltzan in 2009. There's a cabin for overflow guests, too! This is luxury living. The current owner is Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The whole thing is a bargain for $8.8 million. Why, just the view is worth that much! Considering you'll have a total of eight bedrooms, maybe you could split it with some people you really like. -via Nag on the Lake#realestate #luxuryliving #Flea #RHCP

A Truly Unique, if Baffling, Home in Kansas CityA home for sale in Kansas City looks pretty normal on the outside, with a nice-looking fish pond in the front yard. This window on the side is a clue to how different is it on the inside. Inside, you'll find lovely ornate trim, more stained glass, and...

Have a Whale of a Time Living in This Orca-Themed HouseThe Salish Sea between the State of Washington and British Columbia is a famously good location for whale watching, particularly orcas. This house, now posted on sale on Zillow, is situated on a high hill overlooking the Salish Sea, so it’s a great site for whale watching—albeit from quite some distance.The house has an orca theme, most loudly on its porch and driveway, where an enormous orca sculpture shows one of those magnificent creatures leaping out of the water. Smaller images of orcas appear on both the exterior and in the interior of the home, including pictures reminiscent of the art of the First Nations of that region.-via Zillow Gone Wild#whales #realestate

Home Goes on the Market for the First Time in 700 YearsLooking for a longstanding property with some history? An estate for sale in Adlington, Cheshire, UK, has its roots in the Saxon era. Adlington Hall was the home to seven generations of Norman Earls until it passed to King Henry III in 1221. Some of that history is gone forever, as the oldest part of the existing house, the Great Hall, was completed in 1505. The house has been expanded, reduced, and remodeled in various phases since then. Adlington Hall has been the private home of the Legh family for hundreds of years. It can be yours for a mere £30 million.

A Treasure of the Art World in the Real Estate ListingsAn unassuming 840-square-foot two bedroom cottage in High Falls, New York, is up for sale for $240,000. It would make a great getaway in the Catskills, but there's more to it. This was the art studio that Russian/French artist Marc Chagall worked in from 1946 to 1948, before he returned to France for good. Chagall had come to the US in 1941 after escaping occupied France. The artist's period in High Falls was a productive one, where he created around 100 works of art. Chagall moved to High Falls with Virginia Haggard McNeil, who was pregnant with his child. The couple settled into a house on Mohawk Road and turned a smaller cottage on the lot into an art studio. The property with the art studio has been severed from Chagall's home, and the smaller building is for sale. Strangely, the real estate listing says the house was built in 1950. It wouldn't be the first time that the "year built" statistic is an approximate guess, but this house has a highly documented history. The listing is managed by Berkshire Hathaway. -via Nag on the Lake#realestate #MarcChagall #artstudio

Home For Sale is an Art FunhouseThe Twitter account Zillow Gone Wild found a home that has plenty of surprises. The Sacramento house is nice on the outside, and gives no clue what the interior is like.

Eight Bedroom Home Comes with Stained Glass, Steeple, and OrganA church in downtown Shamokin, Pennsylvania, is for sale as a single-family home. This is fine if you've always wanted to live in a church. The interior is 14,000 square feet! Plus it comes with lovely stained glass throughout, a bell tower with bell, a pipe organ and a grand piano. The real estate listing says it has eight bedrooms, two full baths, and two half baths, plus a commercial kitchen. It's described as a "church converted to mansion." But if you take a closer look, you'll see that the conversion consists of putting beds in various rooms and adding Jacuzzis to two of the bathrooms. Oh yeah, and there's a washer/dryer in the fellowship hall.Would this be a neat place to live? Sure! But think about heating that sanctuary, the fellowship hall, and all those bedrooms that are much bigger than they need to be. There is no parking lot, or even a driveway that we can see. Yes, it could be remodeled, but that expense needs to be taken into account before purchase. This is a rare listing that doesn't have a realtor; it is for sale directly from the owner. With extensive remodeling, it might make a really nice business, entertainment venue, or hotel, but that would be subject to zoning. Honestly, the best customer for this property would be a church congregation looking for a larger home. -via Fark#realestate #church

Castle Style House For Sale in The Dallas AreaSome say that a man’s home is his castle. For those who take this adage to heart, and have about $3 million to spare, boy do we have the property for you! According to The Dallas Morning News, a castle-like home set on a 2.27-acre lot is for sale in Fairview, Texas. Fairview is located a short 40 minute commute from the Dallas area. This royal abode is located at 941 Circle in the Woods and is said to be designed to look like a German castle. The home boasts four stories and 9,591 square feet of living space. There are seven bedrooms and seven bathrooms, and of course a butler’s pantry. The outdoors features a pool and a spa for relaxing. This is a perfect home for a hardworking Snow White and many, many of her dwarves.    Image Credit: Roxanne Barton#realestate #castle

For Sale: An American House Owned by the Same Family for 300 YearsHere's an opportunity to buy a historic home that figured in the American Revolution. If you don't have a couple million dollars to spare, you can look inside anyway and see how well-off people lived back then. The house at 99 Sudbury Road in Concord, Massachusetts, was built by one of Concord's original settlers, soon after the land was purchased in 1653. It was sold toDeacon Edward Wheeler in 1696, and has since been in the Wheeler family's possession. But on the death of Betty and Richard Wheeler, the home is now on the market. Owners of the home have included two Wheelers who fought in the American Revolution. During the war, the house was used to store supplies for the Continental Army, such as tents and tools. It has 4,510 square feet of interior space, which includes five bedrooms and four bathrooms (yeah, those were added long after the war). Historic details include wide plank flooring and five fireplaces outfitted for cooking. However, the kitchen is relatively modern, having been remodeled in the 1950s. One thing to keep in mind about buying a historic home is that it is protected through the local historical association, in this case the Historic New England Preservation Easement Program. It allows necessary upgrades to kitchens and bathrooms, but restricts total overhauls. Still, who would want to change a thing about this charming 369-year-old house? See 40 pictures of the outside and inside at the real estate listing. -via Fark#realestate #historichome #AmericanRevolution

This Luxurious Estate Must Smell WonderfulA 60-acre estate for sale in Leverett, Massachusetts has everything. The property has eight buildings, with 120,000 square feet of living space (the main residence is only 25,000 square feet). That includes 16 bedrooms (five in the main house), 25 bathrooms, an indoor water park, a bowling alley, indoor parking for 80 vehicles, a recording studio, indoor tennis and basketball courts, a nine-hole golf course, two wine cellars, an arcade, a small theater, and a fitness center. Did I miss anything? Yeah, there's more. And it can all be yours for just $23,000,000.

How to Purchase an Affordable Home Through a Land BankIf you are looking for a home at a bargain price and you don't mind putting some work into it, you might consider the enormous savings possible by buying through a land bank. Land banks are entities run by local governments or nonprofit organizations. The houses they acquire are in tax default, foreclosed, or otherwise abandoned. Sure, you can buy a foreclosed home at a bargain by going through normal real estate companies, but land banks can be much less expensive, and when you purchase a home through one, you can be a part of making the world, or at least your town, a better place. Land banks take over properties that commercial developers don't see as profitable. Land banks are looking to fill those fixer-uppers with people who will take pride in them, which builds value not only for that home, but the surrounding neighborhood. That will not only improve the town, but raise tax revenue. Therefore, you are almost always assured of dealing with a transaction that isn't all about squeezing the buyer. However, land banks will attach strings to any purchase, which vary from state to state, and even from land bank to land bank. You may be required to live there, to get the house up to code within a certain time limit, or to retain ownership for a certain number of years. The trick is knowing what you're getting into, but if you are willing to put the work in, you can own your first home without a 30-year mortgage. Lifehacker has a guide to getting started if you want to purchase a land bank home.(Image credit: elycefeliz) #realestate #homebuying #landbank #fixerupper

Where a House Near the Beach Will Cost You The LeastIf your goal in life is a house of your own near the beach, you can save money by steering clear of that vacation town that made you fall in love with the seashore. You'll also want to avoid cities. There are five seaside small towns where you can buy a home for less than $100 per square foot, and plenty of places where the median cost per square foot is not much higher. Property Shark gives us a list of the ten more affordable beach towns to buy a house in, with a description of each location. The most affordable by their calculations is Port Arthur, Texas, which has plenty of opportunities to commune with nature. What's the catch? Well, there's that big oil refinery nearby, but you can't have perfection when you're only paying $65 or less per square foot for your dream beach house. -via Digg#beach #beachhouse #realestate

A Medieval Castle in IdahoCompared to other real estate listings, this one is pretty odd. The single-family home is 8,000 square feet and sits on 8.6 acres, including frontage on Lake Pend Oreille. But it only has two bedrooms, and the only heating sources are the fireplaces. We understand wanting to live in a castle, but most castle homes in the US have modern amenities hidden in the construction. It was built in 2022 and is not completely finished, but is already for sale.

Honest Home Buying with Roger HortonThe latest installment in Cracked's Honest Ad series is about buying your own home. This video mocks every part of a home buying experience, from real estate agents who don't know what they are doing to the TV shows that make it look easy. But what Roger is really carping about in this video is the system that prevents people from being able to buy homes they can afford. Not that he's really complaining- he lives on a boat! If you already have your own home, count yourself lucky.#humor #realestate #HonestAd

The House That GrewWhen a real estate listing tells what year a house was built, that can be a little misleading. My house was built in 1906. That's what the title says, and there's a newspaper article about it (it's a very small town). But I know that only four rooms were built then, and a huge chimney with four fireplaces to warm them. There was neither electricity nor plumbing available at the time. When that arrived, a kitchen and a bathroom were added. Another bathroom was added much later. A back porch was added, then converted to another room. I personally added four rooms in what was once the attic, plus a stairwell, in 2009. In addition, I know the original four rooms were extensively repaired and remodeled after a flood in 1957. You can tell almost the same story with my previous house, originally built in the 1930s. Sometimes the result of all this expansion is quite nice. Sometimes it's a sign of mental illness, as in the case of the Winchester Mystery House, which Sarah Winchester obsessively expanded until her death. She had plenty of money to hire professional builders using the finest materials. On the other end of the spectrum is the house that grows on a budget, using cheap or often free surplus building materials. An extreme example of this type of house is for sale in Wallkill, New York.

The Truth About House Hunting and Home Renovation TV ShowsPeople who have bought, sold, or renovated homes already know, but if you haven't, don't expect these experiences to be anything like what you see on HGTV. The first thing to remember is that the difference between reality TV and scripted shows is that reality TV uses volunteers instead of professional actors and doesn't expect them to memorize full scripts. Otherwise, these are highly produced fictional stories. An internet meme makes fun of house buying budgets: No one with any savvy believes a young couple who walk dogs or sculpt for a living can spend half a million dollars for a house. But that's just the beginning. Most of the people who are buying houses on TV already own their dream home, which might even be one of their options to buy on the show. Renovations are done for speed and looks, and probably not by the stars of the TV series. House flippers don't complete a project in one episode, nor do they make the easy money it appears they do. The exception is the show This Old House. It's been on the air since 1979, before reality TV was a thing. The projects are not quick, cheap, and easy (remember, you can only have two maximum); they are realistic. There's much more to the fiction behind home purchase and renovation shows, revealed by the people who appeared on them, which you can read about at Lifehacker.(Image credit: Tomwsulcer) #HGTV #realityTV #renovation #realestate

New York City's Oldest Home is on the MarketIn the priciest listings in the East Village of Manhattan, the top is dominated by full buildings of apartments that go for millions of dollars. But the second most expensive listing is for a single family home, at $8,900,000. The five-story house is sandwiched between other buildings, but at one time it was a free-standing home. Sure, it has five bedrooms and 4.5 baths, but the reason it's so expensive is its history. The house at 44 Stuyvesant Street is the oldest home in the city.The house was constructed in 1795 for Nicholas William Stuyvesant, per the 1969 St. Mark's Historic District designation report. He was the great-great-grandson of Peter Stuyvesant — the last Dutch director-general of the New Amsterdam colony, which eventually became New York City.

Live in a Classic Home in an Iconic Hitchcock TownThe 1963 Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds was filmed in the tiny town of Bodega, California. The house at 17085-17024 Bodega Lane is on the market now, just a stone's throw from Potter School House, where Tippi Hedren led a group of schoolchildren fleeing from the attacking birds. Immediately to the left is St. Teresa of Avila Church, featured in Ansel Adams photography as well as in the Hitchcock film.

Dealing with Rising Sea Levels -by SellingThis house is a third-story walkup. According to the real estate listing, it was built in 1974. How has it remained stable on all those cinder blocks for almost 50 years? Well, the house might be that old, but the pillars aren't. Here's a look at the house from 2013, from Google Street View.

Utah House Contaminated With Meth Gets Listed For $575,000When illegal methamphetamine is manufactured or used in houses where other people live, sleep, eat, and work, potentially hazardous levels of harmful chemicals are released. This can have long-lasting negative health implications. It also often requires homes to be professionally remediated. Ironically, due to the high demands in the real estate market, a meth-contaminated house that costs around $575,000 still appears to be very appealing, according to its listing agent. The house is located in an affluent neighborhood in the Canyon Rim Millcreek in Utah. The area is close to the Wasatch mountains. The three bedroom one bath house is on the smaller side, at 1,468 square feet. The location and the crazy real estate market have made the house very desirable, despite its toxicity.Image credit: KUTV#Meth #Utah #House #RealEstate

A Former Toxic Waste Dump Sells for Over a MillionIn an illustration of how hot the real estate market is, an empty lot about a third of an acre in a popular District of Columbia neighborhood was listed for sale at $1,295,000 and had a contract within five days. We don't yet know how many people bid on the property or what the pending sale price is. The kicker is that the site was a dumping ground for toxic chemicals during the aftermath of World War I. Mustard gas and other chemical warfare agents were buried there by a lab who was developing and testing chemical weapons for the US military.On the back of a 1918 photograph, Sergeant Charles Maurer described the waste pit as “the most feared and respected place on the grounds. The bottles are full of mustard, to be destroyed here. In Death Valley. The hole called Hades.”Washington, DC, has grown a lot over the past 100 years, and the area is now residential. The buried chemicals were forgotten until they were found by a construction crew in 1993. A cleanup ensued, which required the demolition of the grand house that stood over the pit. The cleanup began in the 1990s, but was only completed last November! Over those decades, crews removed chemical warfare agents, munitions, a ton of laboratory debris, and 7,500 tons of contaminated soil. Read about the toxic waste dump at Washingtonian.(Image credit: Army Corps of Engineers) #realestate #toxicwaste #toxicwastedump

When You Want Live Away from It AllA real estate listing in Maine might be an outlier, but it is also illustrative of the crazy housing market in 2022. This little house is listed for $339,000. It has 1470 feet of oceanfront and a 360-degree view of the sea. Yes, it's your own private island! But it comes with some deficits you might want to think about. The house has two rooms; one is a bedroom loft accessible by ladder. It has no heat, no air conditioning, no bathroom, no parking, no road, no trees, and no gas. It is unclear if there is any plumbing (there is a kitchen sink, but no faucets). You'll have an outhouse a short distance from the home, but with no trees to hide it, it's a good thing there are no neighbors. It does appear to have electricity.

The Most Popular House Styles in AmericaAmerican Home Shield took data from Zillow about sold homes and their prices to determine which architectural styles are currently the most valued in the United States. At the very top is the beach house, which seems like a loophole of some kind, because the term "beach house" is less of a style and more of a location. Take those houses and move them inland, and the reaction would be more "meh" than "million-dollar property." The chart above lists the twenty most valuable styles and the twenty least valuable styles, which makes us wonder if there were only forty styles considered, or if perhaps there are others that landed in the middle.