It looks like the property is sloped to a degree that would require it. The fence leads me to believe that the front of the house is level with the street (or at least close enough to have only a few steps up to the porch). We have several properties like this in our neighborhood.

Furlock Bones said:

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Zemira said:

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Is this we want a basement but with the ground we can't dig one so let's build the basement above ground?

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don't believe so. that's 100% foundation.

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It looks like it has a vent or water spigot on the side a good ways up.

Gramercy Riffs said:

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It looks like the property is sloped to a degree that would require it. The fence leads me to believe that the front of the house is level with the street (or at least close enough to have only a few steps up to the porch). We have several properties like this in our neighborhood.

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I've seen a lot of homes in that situation, but the ones I have seen typically use it as a walkout basement, not a solid foundation.

MAS444 said:

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I'm assuming flooding is an issue???

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No. It's on a slope and the builder is too cheap/lazy to do anything other than pour a massive slab.

This is very common in the hills of San Antonio and Austin.

Surely it's cheaper to bring in fill and properly build up the pad site than to pour that enormous slab.

Fill creates its own problems. You can wind up with unpredictable settling and sloping the yard to build a proper pad can render a tiny backyard utterly useless. Especially when you're talking about 8 to 15 feet of slope from front to rear.

That house/foundation is just horrible!

Silly to buy a bad lot and try and build a nice house.

histag10 said:

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Gramercy Riffs said:

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It looks like the property is sloped to a degree that would require it. The fence leads me to believe that the front of the house is level with the street (or at least close enough to have only a few steps up to the porch). We have several properties like this in our neighborhood.

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I've seen a lot of homes in that situation, but the ones I have seen typically use it as a walkout basement, not a solid foundation.

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It would be nice, but we don't do that here (Austin).

I knew there was a reason I didnt like Austin

Zemira said:

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Is this we want a basement but with the ground we can't dig one so let's build the basement above ground?

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Seriously, just put in a partial basement, get some useful space and be done with it!

Or, I guess do what most builders do and call it a feature without showing a picture. Include it on a long list of other features, nearly all of which are actually minimum energy efficiency requirements, along with specifying the names of various low-mid level hardware and fixtures because most homebuyers can't tell the difference anyway.

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Note: Owner is Real Estate License.

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That License is doing well for itself.

There is some crazy oneupsmanship going on over there for who can make the ugliest house. Thanks for the reminders that they look no better in SA than they do here in the southeast, it's just a different breed of ugly.

Crazy pics!

Nice.

I did an inspection once with an above ground pool in the garage. Wish I could find the photo of that one again.

It was a rental, of course.

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Thanks for the reminders that they look no better in SA than they do here in the southeast, it's just a different breed of ugly.

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It's all the same garbage, just slightly different takes and exterior materials.

The photo above is being listed for nearly $300k. Just junk. I hate doing new construction work.

dubi said:

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Crazy pics!

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Pretty sure I posted those on here a few pages back....

It's okay though.

sorry

p_bubel said:

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Nice.

I did an inspection once with an above ground pool in the garage. Wish I could find the photo of that one again.

It was a rental, of course.

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Thanks for the reminders that they look no better in SA than they do here in the southeast, it's just a different breed of ugly.

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It's all the same garbage, just slightly different takes and exterior materials.

The photo above is being listed for nearly $300k. Just junk. I hate doing new construction work.

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ack, seriously? I've been away from SA for 6 years now but... yuck. Time to browse realtor.com / 78248 to see what's going on over there. We had an easy sale back then since there were a lot of Mexican Nationals looking for a safe place on the northside to live. I'd see at least a Ferrari or a few new S-class with Mexico DF plates at the HEB at Blanco/1604 every time I went.

I'm not sure what can be done to fix the curb appeal of this one, unless the retro-fake colonial thing ever comes back. This neighborhood has a couple with the same sort of ugly roof that comes down the 2nd floor. It also has that annoying floorplan where there is no door between the sink area and master bedroom (shower/toilet are behind one).

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10-Fort-Royal-Ave_Charleston_SC_29407_M53032-09012

that house seriously looks like an apartment complex in Midland. Cant remember the name of it though.

78248 has had good gains, but nothing crazy. They're not cheap homes to renovate so a lot of them come on the market in original 80s/90s condition.

New construction just didn't keep up with growth for a while and there's a pent up demand for buying new which I think is crazy.

1604 is getting very crowded. I try and avoid it if possible now.

78209 went nuts, really nuts. Which makes sense given the school district and location, but that has kind of leveled off a bit. 78212 is still going strong and areas that were really stagnant for years outside loop 1604 seem to be above their pre-'07 prices.

That's just a very general and incomplete take.

We were in Woods of Deerfield and yeah, I think the only real work that had been done inside the house was a previous owner adding some green tile in a couple of bathrooms, and swapping out the original carpet in the late '90s.

Besides paint and other random small things I ended up redoing the master bathroom, kitchen, all flooring downstairs and a jack and jill bathroom upstairs, but it was DIY so the only cost was materials. Fully redoing a 2.5-3.5K sq ft house would be a pretty big cost if someone had to farm the whole thing out.

Construction quality around the Deerfield and Inwood areas are vastly superior to anything I've come across over here though. That part of town has the most consistently good build than any other area I've personally looked at though I'm sure there are others.

I don't understand the obsession for new builds that a lot of people who move to the far west side have, like they think they'll somehow be immune to (or move out by the time) a lot of common problems with existing neighborhoods. If I moved back I'd probably look for something older (1950-1970 and modern) in Castle Hills if the area is still ok. I don't remember 410 being too bad and Northstar, La Cantera and a lot of other things should be within 10- 20 minutes on a weekend or evening.

Cloudbait View


That's one "interesting" street name. Do they use a random word generator these days?

Of course, my local favorite is Mount Boracho.

They could just use a word like "Timber" on every street name.

Timberwilde, Timberhurst, Timberstone, Timber Point, Timber Meadow, Timber Crest, Timber Glade, Timber Lodge, Timber Wagon, Timberwick, Timber Row, Timber Path, Timber Grand, Timber Canyon, ...

I went to a friend's place in that part of SA before GPSs were everywhere and it was like hell trying to find their house when every street name is almost exactly the same.

$530K, with cheap tile everywhere, honey oak cabinets with cathedral doors and new venetian gold countertops. Crazy. I dropped the Google Street View guy in a few places nearby and was surprised how remote that area is - I assumed that it would have been a bunch of KB Homes neighborhoods from the early '90s that were starting to fall apart.

Would be very nice if redone, and the floor tile may be reuseable depending on whether it runs underneath the cabinets or not. It'll need lots of new drywall thanks to HD's clearance tile section. The rest of the place looks ok.

That looks turrible.

good god almighty. this thread is seriously one of the best on Texags.

"Your own Castle by the Sea"

http://www.har.com/106-ridge-harbor-dr/sale_RAARTX-127073

Is that a loom in on of the pictures? And who wants to sit around and stare at the wet bar? Couldn't put a tv over that small ass window?

Satellite of Love said:

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Is that a loom in on of the pictures? And who wants to sit around and stare at the wet bar? Couldn't put a tv over that small ass window?

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Those pictures are date-stamped 2014. I wonder if the place looks anything like that now!

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Backyard boasts a koi pond valued at 20k,

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You'd be lucky if an inground pool was worth 20k in this neighborhood, and people at least want those.
Good grief.