House Hunting in the Fort Collins Area.....UPDATED

Well, as of today we've looked at 12 houses, and are down to TWO definite candidates.

There's an open house on Saturday for one that just popped up last night, and we'll be driving over to see that one as well as one that went on the market this morning.

The one I was hoping for, and the one our contractor in-law looked over for us the other evening, has officially been "scratched" by the wife. She just flat out will NOT buy a property that needs major work.

PERIOD.

It wouldn't bother me too much, but while she doesn't want a 100% turn-key ready place, so wants one that's, oh....maybe 95% turn-key ready.

And another one we both loved, and the wife wanted to make an offer on, got scratched after we realized:

1) We don't need a THIRTY-SIX HUNDRED square foot house for the two of us

and

2) It has an HOA that specifically states NO "Communications Antennas" unless they can't be seen, and are approved by "The Committee".

So we're down to to two. One is out off CO-14, Mulberry Street, just past I-25, and is drop-dead beautiful, and the asking price is $420k. Since this is rapidly turning into the "off season" for real estate, sellers are anxious, and buyers are few and far between. Our agent is pretty confident we could get that particular house for well under $400k.

The other one we looked at today is also quite nice, in a quiet, well-established neighborhood, but has a few glitches.

#1, it has three layers of shingles on it, and some are starting to "lift". This means a complete tear-off and re-roof in the Spring.

#2, some of the rework wasn't done to a very high standard, and while it's just some goofs in the drywall, they kind of jump out at me.

#3, the owner won't close before 27 November due to capital gains issues, so we won't be into it before Christmas.

We're going to look at another house in about an hour that also looks promising. This one is a 4br, 4ba,  2540sqft house on a 12,200 sqft lot.

I'd really like the "#1 house" to be our home, but the "#2 house" has a bigger lot (15,500 sqft), and is further West.

None of these have HOA's, and as far as we can tell, the also don't have any restrictive "CC&R's" that would prohibit a tower.

Hey, if I can't have my separate garage, than I'm damn sure going to get a 40~50' tower with a KT34M2 on it, and a new radio!

UPDATE 

We just got back from looking at two more. The first one looked real good "on paper", BUT.....it's going to need ALL new siding in a year or two ($$$!!!), and had a couple of other issues, so we scratched it.

The second one we looked at just became the wife's new "#1 house", and it's a stunner.

3390 sqft, 5br, 3 full baths and a "half bath", fireplace, fully finished basement, on an 11,000 sqft lot. Quiet neighborhood, located on a cul-de-sac, mature trees, fresh paint inside and out, new carpet, etc, etc, etc. The HUGE insulated (but not heated) two car garage with separate, NEW insulated doors and a large work area are a big plus, and there's enough room with good access to build another "car-and-a-half" garage if I decide I need it.

No apparent HOA's or CC&R's, and I saw some TV antennas on homes in the neighborhood.

I posted a question on the NCARC email reflector asking local Hams about it, and I'm stating to get some replies.