What You Get For Your Money

Dan and I spent this weekend house hunting. It sounds like fun but it is so tiring and so hard. We are trying to find the perfect house. We know we will be in NJ for at least another 5 years, so finding something that we can stay in for the next 5 years is the tricky part. And of course another big factor is the need to find a location that works for both of our commutes (me east into NYC and him west to Morristown). While I feel like we have plenty of time to look, the owners of the townhouse we are renting want to put it back on the market since we will be moving out. I’m dreading the house being on the market b/c it means we are going to have to have things picked up at all times – it is just a huge inconvenience when you are renting a place. At least when we were selling our house we knew we would get something out of keeping the house clean! Now, all we are going to get is kicked out of the house!

On Saturday, we met up with Amy to go look at some properties. (Amy’s husband Chris was in training with Dan). Her areas of focus are Jersey City, Hoboken etc – NJ cities across from mid-town and lower Manhattan. We went to several properties and this is where the ‘what you get for your money’ really came into play. Hoboken for instance (where we didn’t even bother to look) is entirely out of our price range unless we want a one bedroom or a studio with 800 square feet. Jersey City had some decent options, but some of the areas there aren’t so nice. Edgewater (which is where Amy and Chris live) is a nice area but a car might be needed for me to get to the public transportation to get into the city. Edgewater has tons of stores right at your fingertips so that would be a plus. Our first stop was Dixon Mills. This condo development is in Jersey City close to the nice downtown area. The complex which consists of at least 5 buildings used to be an old pencil factory and almost every condo there has a different layout. We looked at 4 units there but our price range would probably only get us a 1 bedroom. We looked at one of their most expensive units and it was very nice but TOTALLY out of the price range. After Dixon Mills we went to Montgomery Towers in Jersey City where there were two units for sale. Both were 2 bedroom but only one bath. We really want two baths. We also went to a building called “The Bath House”. The building was gorgeous and the units were very nice too. We might be able to stretch to afford a 2 bed 2 bath there but we aren’t too sure about the area. After seeing several more properties we headed back to Amy’s condo in Edgewater. She found a listing for a condo down the street from them in a different development, so after a quick snack we headed over there. The unit was a 2 bed 2 bath but the kitchen was a little out-dated. Master bedroom was very big though. I liked the unit a lot but I don’t think either of us liked it enough to want to buy it. After seeing that unit we met up with Amy’s husband Chris and went out to dinner. It was good to see the two of them and I’m sure we will be seeing them a lot more now that we are working with Amy to find a place!!

Sunday Dan and I went to breakfast and then decided to drive around and look at open houses. There was one particular place he wanted to see and a house I wanted to see. We went to the house I wanted to see first after stopping at a few open houses in South Orange (where we currently live) and Maplewood (the town right next to us). I LOVED the house that I had wanted to see in Glen Ridge! It had totally been re-done on the inside. It was a cape-cod style with 4 bed and 2 full bath and a finished basement. It was located right across the street from a little league baseball field so at least we knew there would never be a house built across from us. The open house was very crowded and I think the house will sell very quickly. We don’t know much about the Glen Ridge area though, so that is something we need to check out. The house was priced a little over our budget, but we could probably make it work if we really wanted to!

So, for now we are still on the hunt. Dan is always looking up properties and I look them up every once in awhile. I tend to get more frustrated with it than he does. He can find us a house and I will try to plan a wedding – seems like an even trade off to me! And the moral of this whole blog entry is that your money doesn't go nearly as far here as it would in Maryland - especially once you factor in the outrageous property taxes!