[Cadre-politics] house for sale

[Dan MacNeil]

Renting the house on Puffer St has made a difference for CSL VISTAs and 
a Lawrence Habitat VISTA.  Eliminating the crazy roommate problem is a 
huge help to our work. For the VISTAs the only major downside is the 
distance from the house to the lab.

However, selling the house, eliminating the rent subsidy, eliminating 
the vacancy costs, transferring the equity into our condo and lowering 
our mortgage dramatically reduces Laua and my monthly expenses and risks 
and lowers fearless leader overhead to close to zero.

The new plan to address VISTA housing needs is to build a network of 
VISTAs serving in Lowell. I know of 8, there are probably more.

The house is accessed at 211K [1]. The house could use 10-20K in paint, 
new windows and new kitchen cabinets. The roof and boiler are new, there 
is off street parking and a garrage, 3 bedrooms, full basement,etc,etc. 
It is a good neighborhood, the nearest elementary school is excellent 
and the neighbors are pleasent and sane.

[1] 
http://gis.lowellma.gov/arcims_process.asp?IDValue=4785-99&LocValue=99+PUFFER+ST&DisplayValue=99+PUFFER+ST&csv=true

We bought the house in 1997, We're not looking for what it would have 
brought in 2003 but we are looking for just slightly less than whatever 
the market rate is.

Right now somebody in our internal network is looking at the house. If 
they should make us an offer, we'll pay for a new accessment and 
compare. If that doesn't work, we'll wait until March to hire a real 
estate agent.

I'm expecting/hoping to close around June 01, which is a good time for 
the VISTAs to be looking for housing.