Buying a home in Farrar Estates

I'm Shelby Cotton, a REALTOR® with eXp Realty, LLC in Lubbock. Farrar Estates is exactly the kind of neighborhood where my background in architecture, civil design and subdivision planning pays off for buyers.

On a tour I'll help you judge what can change and what can't. Can that wall come out to open the kitchen, or is it holding up the roof? Does the floor plan have good bones under the dated finishes? How does the lot drain, and where is there room to add on? These are design questions, and the answers decide whether an original home is a bargain or a money pit.

I'll also look closely at the expensive parts. The roof, the heating and cooling, the plumbing, the electrical panel and the foundation tell you what the home will cost after closing, whatever its kitchen looks like. On an older home with mature trees nearby, roots near the slab and the sewer line are worth asking about too.

The most common mistake on an older home is falling for the space and forgetting the cost of making it yours. In Farrar Estates, where one home may be largely original, the work belongs in the math from the first showing.

Start with the must-dos: any roof, systems or foundation items the inspection is likely to raise. Then add the changes you'd want within the first few years, like a kitchen, bathrooms or flooring. A rough number for each is enough to compare homes fairly.

Once the work is priced, the comparison gets clearer. An original home at a lower price plus the cost of updates may still come in below an updated home, with finishes you chose yourself. Or it may not, and the updated home becomes the better buy. Either way, you'll know before you offer.

Generous rooms are one of the neighborhood's strengths, and they only pay off if the rooms work together. Older homes were often laid out for a different way of living, with a closed kitchen, a formal living room and a separate den. Some of those layouts adapt well. Others fight you.

On tours I'll look at which walls could open up and which likely carry the roof, where plumbing runs and how the kitchen might connect to the living space. I'll also look at how the house sits on its lot. A generous backyard facing the right direction is worth more to daily life than one that gets the harsh afternoon sun on the living room.

You don't need to plan a renovation on the first showing. You do need to know whether the home can become what you want without fighting its own structure, and that's a question I can help answer on the spot.