It seems to me that I have seen ads like that - in the back of MR, of course. It would be the logical place to advertise, along with standard, boring ads in the real estate section.
Lets face it the average model railroad out there is not the one from the magazines.
What a pity!! What do they do??? 8<))
Ernie C
To echo what was stated earlier, if Allen McCelland couldnât sell the V&O, one of the nations premere layouts, and throw the house in, chances we mere mortals will have a tough time selling our model railroad empire. Plus the V&O was in the basement. Lets face it, most basements are just crap-catchers anyway! We moved to western Colorado a few years before the V&Os demise. I told my wife, if we were still in Ohio, we might be moving to West Carrollton instead.
Thatâs just because he is in BC. The rest of western Canada live in iglooâs and travel by dog sled. BC is more like an annex of the US so houses there are just like yours and they have motorcarsâŚ
As a person who was a real estate agent for many years, I take offense to the person who completely insulted ALL real estate agents. Not all real estate agents are bad and conversely not all are good. Thatâs the nature of the game. If I were to say that âbuyers are liarsâ youâd probably get offended if you were a home buyer. Sadly this is a saying in the real estate community and often does in fact apply quite well much of the time. Maybe I should say EVERYONE who plays with trains is an immature simpleton incapable of rational thought. Of course that would apply to me as well so of course Iâd never think that! You get the idea.
Profession aside, I see both sides of the argument. I even listed a house that had a room devoted to Lionel with a large layout. I actually didnât want to sell that house as I liked going over there! As a general rule I would advise my clients to put away personal articles and keep the house tidy as well as keeping yard landscaped and organized. Itâs understood that you live there but at the same time it shouldnât look like a pig pen. First impressions do count. One of the first things Iâd recommend be removed were refrigerator magnets and pictures. You wouldnât believe at how offended some women got over that suggestion! Many people often have too many pictures on the wall. For end tables and night stands you recommended they follow the ârule of 3â which was 3 different sized accessories and thatâs it. No more and preferably no less. For some reason it is just pleasing to the eye. I found that many sellers found this step quite fun as it gave them a little chance to play interior decorator.
Saying all of this, I only mentioned it as a suggestion and never forced anyone to actually follow through with it if they didnât want to. I also showed a list of things that could effect the sale of the house and to most peopleâs surprise there are more things that THEY have control over that can affect the sale of their hou
Ya I use to call Winnipeg home until I saw the light warmth.[:D]
Brent
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Did Allen McCallend market his house towards the model railroading community? I dont recall it being advertised in Model Railroader or anything like that. It was too bad it is gone. That was a part of model railroading history.
I donât know about the guy you mentioned, but W. Alan McClelland (V&O) did try to offer his house for sale to model railroaders with the layout intact. No takers. There were a number of mentions in various places at the time.
I know this post has been around for a little while since I responded early on. Batman, my question is, what was your decision and is your house on the market? If ti is, good luck!!
I believe he said he was just having a realâestate agent for dinner, not selling.
Something else to consder, if your gonna have strange people in, it wouldnât be bad to get the layout out of the way so things donât walk away. All you need is a coat rolled under your arm, and cars, engines, can walk away. It;s highly unlikely, but even non-mrrs can see money, and a BLI will leave more easily than can a Plasma TV. This goes for other items that might be in a house.
, maybe, maybe not. If true, your statement is a sad outlook on MRR mags (thatâs plural). And it is recognizable that there are the âgreatsâ. But I really think that the difference between home layouts and magazine layouts is that one is in a magazine. Bar that, and their all wood>foam>track>green dust>trees. (That might be oversimplified, but it gets the point across)
He hasnât posted on it in a month so maybe heâs simply still running trains and not killing his layout.
He is not selling the house, it was just a rant. In the first post, he said
Amazing how long this thread about nothing has lasted.
I donât know about others but it gave me some info. If you figure that every house will be sold at some point, itâs good to know what others have heard or experienced so that we know whatâs ahead. Looks like most layouts will meet the chopping block before a house is put on the market or after the home hasnât sold.
My guess is that theyâre not all that palatable. Probably stringy, gristley and a bit chewy, and taste like old shoe leather.
John
[(-D] A little HP sauce goes a long way.
After my Rant, I am still pondering over what I would do if I ever were to list the house. Maybe it would be a good time for a fresh start and a new layout. No matter what, with moving my current one it is unlikely to fit ideally into a new home anyway. However if it didnât matter if we sold or not I would not take it down just in case it didnât. Iâm a realtors worst nightmare[:-,]
Brent
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[:-^]
C&RC, I live up here and didnât know that Igloos had basementsâŚ[(-D][swg][(-D]
Itâs been said before but to put it bluntly, sheâs right and it ainât even close.
The worst thing that can be done to a house (and remember we are talking about selling it not owning it) is to over customize and devoting a large space to a rather restricted hobby is about a worst case scenario.
This also applies to decorations, color schemes, even bathrooms.
And in your case you âover-customizedâ the BEST (by your own and everyone elseâs admission) room in the house.
Hey but it is your house and you have a choice when it comes time to sell: Tear out the layout and redo the room or expect rock-bottom dollar for the place, your choice.
Remember nothing is worth what we think it is worth, it is only worth what the buyer is willing to pay.
And as to not hiring her, I would. She was completely honest (is not even vaguely tactful) with you about the damage you did to the resale value of the house and do you have any idea of how many of these agents will lie to your face just to get you to list with them? Swallow your pride and listen to a professionalâs opinion.
Not necessarily true.
I would have thrown the realtor out of my home for spouting off about the layout that way. Especially since you werenât even trying to sell yourt home!
About ten years ago I built a 3 bed room ranch (Topeka KS) with a rectangular 30â x 50â unfinnished basement. The basement was designed with the stairs and utilities so an HO scale shelf style layout could be built around the walls. I was single at the time and took my track plan to the contractor and said that I wanted a three bed room house built on top of this basement. I work in healthcare administration and subject to unexpected job changes. I constructed my layout in modular (dominoes) constructed from quality plywood. The layout was attached to the basemnt walls with 1/4" anchor bolts and the 6â dominos were connected with 1/4" carriage bolts. The layout was designed so I could move it. JOB CHANGE Unfortunatley I moved 500 mi to an apartment and had to leave the layout with the house. I had not completed any scenery, but the layout track was down with Atlas/Walthers Code 83 track, and the layout was wired for DCC with a 12ga bus wire and power districts. The layout was operational.
A few years later I was visiting the LHS in Topeka and the owner said ânice layoutâ I didnât remember him seeing the layout, but I had purchased a lot of the materials from this LHS. He told me that the people who had purchased my home, the wife refused to move into the house while the layout was there. The husband contacted the LHS and asked them if they would remove the layout for free. The LHS owner said he and his son went to the home and removed the layout intact by disconnecting the sections as I had designed. No demolition was required. He said he stored the sections in his garage for several months and sold it to a retired guy. They reassembled the layout, with some minor modifications into this guys basement. I didnât ask what he sold the layout for.
I am now married, but same problem. I let my wife build her dream home (Topeka KS) above