As an owner and resident of 143 Fearing Street for nearly twenty years, I did everything I could to maintain the property as well as I could. More than regular maintenance, in the three years prior to the sale of the house I did many improvements that weren’t strictly needed, but that I thought would help market the house. I had the roof replaced. The old roof wasn’t leaking, but I thought the house would look better with a new one to a potential buyer. I also repainted the exterior and the interior of the house. I thought that having the house freshly painted would give it a brighter appearance and make it move-in-ready for the new owners. And I refinished almost all the floors in the house. When I lived at 143 fearing Street, most of the floors were carpeted and so the wood finish was not so important.
What a buyer of a property needs to understand is that the purchase is not always just an exchange of money for a parcel of land and the building built on it. When a buyer purchases an owner occupied home, what they are buying is the place where part of a person’s life took place. And although on paper a buyer is always trying to get the best price they can for a property, it is also important for them to remain respectful of the person they are buying the house from. Listing a home you have cared for over twenty years is a very personal matter. There can be many reasons for selling a home, but the listing is kind of like a personal ad for a large part of your history.
Unfortunately, the buyer of 143 Fearing Street treated that purchase as just a financial transaction and tried to get as much money off as he could. His tactic was to ask me for my lowest and best price and then find things wrong with the house that he could chisel off this number. I shouldn’t have given him my lowest and best price. I had never sold a home before and I didn’t know how the manipulation went. As part of buying the house he sent several inspectors to my property to find things wrong with my home. Now, looking at the Google street view of the house it is clear that some of the things that his people found have been fixed. But to be fair, I would like any potential buyer to know what his inspectors found so that they can either force him to fix them, or they can get money off of the price of the house for these items to be repaired.
Rodents
According to the buyer’s people, one piece of the exterior trim had separated at the edge of the roof, which was allowing rodents into the house. I had had the outside of the house painted prior to listing, and while the paint work was being done every loose piece of trim that I found was tacked back in place or replaced as needed. However, apparently his people found something I missed. I never saw evidence of rodents in my house but this was one of the points that he brought up. I did get up on the side of the house and re-attach that piece of trim. I used one construction screw to pull that piece of trim the half inch back into position. When I was up on the ladder I saw that that that piece of wood was only decorative and there was another piece of wood behind it so there was never a gap into the house. But if you are buying 143 Fearing Street, I suggest that you have it checked for rodents.
House Settling
Before I sold the house, I had the foundation re-pointed all the way around the building. The mason who worked for me told me that he did not find anything wrong other than just basic maintenance. He said that the foundation needed mortar between some of the bricks and that is what I paid him to replace. However, the buyer’s inspection said that the north west corner of the building was settling. I am not sure what this means but if you are thinking of buying 143 Fearing Street, you should have that corner of the house checked for settling and get money off the cost of the house from him for this problem if you can.
Bad Plumbing
This is one genuine problem with the house that I didn’t know about before the current owner’s home inspection. In the years that I lived at 143 Fearing Street, I had many people work for me to maintain the house. One of these people did some plumbing work and I didn’t check if he pulled the needed permits with the town. Apparently some of the work he did was not up to code and I didn’t know this until the time of sale of the house. None of my training at the University had taught me residential plumbing code. The current owner’s plumber who inspected 143 Fearing Street found twelve plumbing problems. And because of these problems he had me take $4,000 off the sale price of the house. If you are buying 143 Fearing Street, make sure that the owner either has all of these problems fixed, or get the current cost of fixing these problems taken off the cost of the property. Click here to see a PDF that documents the twelve problems that his plumbing inspector found. Based on what I now know about plumbing costs, I think that these problems would cost more than $4000 to fix. You can use this PDF as a list to have contractors bid on these repairs. I recommend that you have your own extensive building inspection done to find all the current issues with the house.
Illegal Storage Room Use
Part of the process of selling a house in Amherst is a required fire inspection. According to code, all smoke detectors need to be tested working prior to the sale of a house. During the time that I owned 143 Fearing Street, I had wired-in smoke detectors installed in every room. As part of the fire inspection, it was found that one of the batteries in one of the smoke detectors in one of the locked basement storage rooms needed to be replaced and so the house failed fire inspection. I replaced the battery, had the fire inspector back, and the house passed.
It is important to note that the basement rooms below the living room and below the kitchen are for storage only. On the current Google street-view image of 143 Fearing Street I see that the basement window for the room below the kitchen is blocked off. When the current owner was moving into the house he said he was going to use that space as a TV room. This is against the law. I was told by the Amherst building inspector that, “Those spaces are not human habitable and if I see anyone using those rooms I am going to take you to court.” For potential buyers of the house, just be aware that those basement rooms are for storage only.
Garbage Collection
If you own 143 Fearing Street you will either need to pay the town for garbage collection or you will need to contract your own waste hauler. Garbage collection is not a town service included in taxes in Amherst Massachusetts. It used to be that when tenants moved out of my house with outstanding utility bills, I would send them photocopies of the final utility bills to document the amount of money that I had taken out of their security deposits. One of these tenants apparently put the photocopies that I sent him into a garbage bag and illegally dumped this bag at a bus stop in Amherst. I then got a letter from the town that I had been illegally dumping in Amherst because of what that tenant did. To defend myself I needed to provide documentation that I had an independent garbage hauler. Just be aware, if you do not pay for town garbage collection services, you will need to send documentation to the town that you are contracting an outside hauler.
High Cost of Electricity
For reasons that I do not understand, the cost of electricity in Amherst, Massachusetts is higher than it is in Northampton, just a few miles away. In the city where I have moved, we have a choice of suppliers, and we can use this choice to reduce our electricity bills. At least when I was in Amherst, there were no options to select electricity suppliers, and the electric bills were high all year round. Make sure you add these high utility bills to the total cost of owning this house.
Recycling
Amherst has mandatory recycling. When recycling was started in Amherst, food containers and cardboard were picked up every week. For some reason that I am not clear about, after a year or so they switched to a system where cardboard and paper products were picked up every other week and containers were picked up on the alternate weeks. At least when I lived at 143 Fearing Street, the amount of containers we would collect per week were more than one full bin. Unfortunately, because the house is located on Fearing Street, this bin could not be left outside or it would be knocked over by the people walking by. The result was that I had to store bins of recycling indoors for up to two weeks at a time. During most of the time that I lived at 143 Fearing Street, my slate fireplace hearth was covered by recycling bins. I did not purchase a home with a fireplace to use it as a storage place for my recycling.
Trees
One of the joys that I had living at 143 Fearing Street was being surrounded by the trees. I remember that there were three trees in particular that made my home a joy to own.
There was a Dogwood tree that grew outside of my bedroom window. I loved watching how the seasons passed in that tree. In the spring, there would be lotus-like flowers framed by my four pane bedroom window. In the summer, I would watch a leaf or two added to each twig. In the fall, there would be the colors of the leaves. And in the winter there would be the stark austerity of the bare, gently curving branches. I have sketch pads of drawings of that tree at every season. It was as if the previous owner had left me a gift to enjoy and capture in my art. I notice on Google Street View that this tree has now been cut down. It is sad that the current occupant of that room will not get to watch the seasons pass as I did. I guess I still have my drawings of how it was when I was there.
There was a towering Hemlock tree that grew next to the house. Just standing beneath it and looking up I felt elevated. My home on Fearing Street stood nestled beneath that towering monument. In time, I had a skylight installed in my bedroom and I would lay in my bed looking up into that tree. I felt that I lived in a tree-house and imagined being high above the forest floor and feeling the wind blow. I fed that tree, adding nutrients to the soil so that it would be healthy and strong for years to come. I imagined that as I grew old living at 143 Fearing Street that tree would still be there long after I was gone. Again, on Google Street View I see that the current owner has cut that tree down.
But the tree that I lived there for was a Pin Oak, which stood at the edge of the property to greet me. It was tall and straight and I was sad when one branch needed to be cut by the town, but it was still a beautiful tree. When I left that tree was about forty-five years old, probably starting out about the year I was born. In European tradition, an oak tree cares for travelers and is safe place to sleep beneath. That was my tree. I would touch it when I came to the property and when I left. That tree could have lived there for two hundred years. For me, that tree was as much of my home at 143 Fearing Street as the building itself. I can understand why the current owner may have cut down the trees close to the house, but there was no reason to have cut down that Oak. Looking at the images of the house, that tree is now gone. I don’t understand why. All that is left of those trees that I once loved are stumps to rot away.