Living near the Plaza (Kansas City, Grandview: for sale, foreclosure, rental)

[elkotronics]

Good morning - my wife and I are thinking of buying a house in Kansas City. We are currently renting in Grandview, MO, and our lease is up in mid-August. So we've got a little time to explore around a bit. I see one for sale on Agnes Ave. in the Oak Park SW neighborhood. My question is this: Are these neighborhoods safe around there? This one would be within a nice walk of the Plaza. The one I'm looking at is only $48,000 and that makes me wonder why. It's a 2BR, 1BA craftsman with adobe coating built in 1920. The owner has put a pool table in one of the rooms and I would like to do the same. Any thoughts from some of you would be most appreciated. If we would be safer heading southward a tad towards 61st St. SW of town a bit because there's plenty of homes southward a bit that would fit our price range, too.

[PA650]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

Good morning - my wife and I are thinking of buying a house in Kansas City. We are currently renting in Grandview, MO, and our lease is up in mid-August. So we've got a little time to explore around a bit. I see one for sale on Agnes Ave. in the Oak Park SW neighborhood. My question is this: Are these neighborhoods safe around there? This one would be within a nice walk of the Plaza. The one I'm looking at is only $48,000 and that makes me wonder why. It's a 2BR, 1BA craftsman with adobe coating built in 1920. The owner has put a pool table in one of the rooms and I would like to do the same. Any thoughts from some of you would be most appreciated. If we would be safer heading southward a tad towards 61st St. SW of town a bit because there's plenty of homes southward a bit that would fit our price range, too.

I will differ to more knowledgeable posters, but I would heavily scrutinize any neighborhood East of 71.

[WiseOwlSaysHoot]

I feel like calling Agnes Ave "near the Plaza" is a bit of a stretch.

I would be hesitant about living there. If a house is only 48k, there is a reason why: location (which is likely the case here) and/or condition.

You will likely need to spend considerbly more to get a decent house in a decent location anywhere near the Plaza.

If you don't mind sharing, what is your price range?

[SPonteKC]

Oak Park is pretty tough man. If I had 50K to spend on a house, I'd look elsewhere.

[TabulaRasa]

My husband works out of the U.S. Navy Operational Support Center at Agnes and Cleaver.

It's not gonna be your safest option of neighborhoods, your lowest of crime areas, and billing it as a "Plaza adjacent" neighborhood is a stretch. I'm very familiar with homes in the area, and condition of the house/property is likely to be as much an issue as the location.

Home values here are very low, even compared to other area neighborhoods, education rates are low, crime is high.

[elkotronics]

We drove by and didn't like it at all. I'm just starting to gather Kansas City data on housing prices. The house's interior looks really good to me. My wife hated the neighborhood and I did, too. We're happy with our Grandview rental, we're just exploring the idea of buying a house in Kansas City somewhere and may not go that way at all.

[elkotronics]

My wife spotted a couple of small houses in Overland Park worth taking a look at. We're heading north ta go take a look shortly. One is a foreclosure. More like what we're looking for - Overland Park.

[kcmo]

Have you looked into Waldo?

[elkotronics]

She likes Overland Park and says "that's our spot." We saw a great little house in white with yellow trim with an attached garage in a great neighborhood that is going for around $130,000 that she just loved. And I liked it a lot, too. We're just looking at the hoods right now, our lease for our Grandview rental runs through mid-August 2017. That neighborhood is only about 10 minutes along 87th St. to my Lenexa job, too, which is a real plus. So we're feeling good about our future here in the KC Metro round about now! Good housing is so important, obviously.


There's nothing wrong with our Grandview rental, but she wants to be near a busline, which this house we saw today is near. She doesn't drive, so she needs to be able to hop a bus to get to work. Work for her is another thing to tackle, she's a cook. Mostly institutional cooking, schools and nursing homes. So we'll start looking for something on the busline that she can apply for in the not-too-distant future. We are liking the KC Metro a lot - I like the fact that the city has good supporting highway structure. You've got to understand, I'm from Seattle. Bottleneck city! Gonna look for a Nissan Versa S 5-speed sedan that gets mid-30's on the highway - possibly one from Stateline Nissan. I don't have a long commute, I have just caught the Nissan bug and might just be interested in getting one.

[kcmo]

Originally Posted by elkotronics

She likes Overland Park and says "that's our spot." We saw a great little house in white with yellow trim with an attached garage in a great neighborhood that is going for around $130,000 that she just loved. And I liked it a lot, too. We're just looking at the hoods right now, our lease for our Grandview rental runs through mid-August 2017. That neighborhood is only about 10 minutes along 87th St. to my Lenexa job, too, which is a real plus. So we're feeling good about our future here in the KC Metro round about now! Good housing is so important, obviously.


There's nothing wrong with our Grandview rental, but she wants to be near a busline, which this house we saw today is near. She doesn't drive, so she needs to be able to hop a bus to get to work. Work for her is another thing to tackle, she's a cook. Mostly institutional cooking, schools and nursing homes. So we'll start looking for something on the busline that she can apply for in the not-too-distant future. We are liking the KC Metro a lot - I like the fact that the city has good supporting highway structure. You've got to understand, I'm from Seattle. Bottleneck city! Gonna look for a Nissan Versa S 5-speed sedan that gets mid-30's on the highway - possibly one from Stateline Nissan. I don't have a long commute, I have just caught the Nissan bug and might just be interested in getting one.

Cool. I just though I would make sure you looked at Waldo. It's pretty well served by buses for both KS and MO. But if you find something you like in northern Overland Park, or something, that's great too.

FYI, RideKC just started offering service to Lenexa Town Center along 95th. So that opens up a lot of western JoCo to transit access.

RideKC bus service extended to Lenexa City Center development | The Kansas City Star