House Hunters Recap: Turnkey vs. Reno In California

House Hunters Randy and Greg have been married for 13 years and have moved to Napa, California, from Washington, D.C. So it’s time for them to ditch their very small rental and make a purchase.

Randy has lived through too many renovations, so he’s hoping their $1.2 Million budget can find them a turnkey home. Greg, however, is totally up for another reno.

Wish Lists

Randy: He’d rather have a single-level home. He also says as little as 1,800 square feet is doable. He also wants a large yard and wants to be close to downtown.

Greg: He wants at least 3,000 square feet and a formal floor plan, and a walkable neighborhood. And again, unlike Randy, he’s OK with doing some projects and upgrades.

House #1, $1.375 Million

The first house is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom two-story craftsman(ish) that has been completely redone.

Neither of them really like the outside of the house. After entering the house, they do decide they like the high ceilings and the brigtness of the rooms. They also love the large fenced back yard. The kitchen is a pretty amazing kitchen and they think so too. It’s a nice house, but it doesn’t have a ton of character and I think they think the same thing. I don’t see them going with this house, especially considering it’s not walkable to downtown.

House #2, $735,000

The second house has a bit of Bates Motel vibe. The craftsman was built in 1890 and has sustained some earthquake damage. It’s close to downtown, but it’s also a total fixer-upper. And we aren’t talking a little bit of a fixer-upper. It’s not even livable at the moment. There’s really nothing more to say about this house. It’s a complete disaster and I can’t imagine they’re that interested in rebuilding a house from scratch, basically.

House #3, $795,000

The final house is a 1951 ranch with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It’s small and definitely dated. And there’s nothing about the house they currently like. So they know they’d have to renovate to make it there own. So basically, there’s again, nothing much else to say about this house. It seems the only thing good about this house is the price. It’s really far under their budget and they could afford to make the house their own.

This is definitely a tough one to figure out. None of the houses are even remotely close to what they want. I think the first house is the best, but it’s over budget and not close to downtown. The second house is a mess and would take months and hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade. So I’m guessing they go for the third house with plans to renovate it. Even though I don’t understand why they would go with any of these houses. Surely there was something out there closer to what they wanted. Oh well. Let’s find out what they decided.

So what house did they decide to buy? It was House #2. Wait, what? I am completely shocked. I don’t even know what to say. Actually, I do know what to say. This is one of those episode I hate where the house they go with requires a lot to work and we don’t get to see the finished product. That makes the whole episode seem pointless to me. So disappointing.

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