For a few weeks now an agent friend of mine has had a client who is considering purchasing a house that backs up to a freeway.  The agent has asked for my thoughts.  The owner has asked for my thoughts.  After questioning both of them, I still could not come up with the answer, because they were not providing the information I needed to offer my advices.  So I went to the house with the other agent's clients (with her permission of course) to gather the information needed.

On the plus side, you could not SEE any cars.  Even worse than road noise, is road noise and seeing the cars going by.  This is true of streets that have much less traffic than a freeway as well.  If you see cars going by at a steady clip.  If you are at the bus stop, which is very noisy as the bus stops and starts, and you have people waiting for the bus hanging out on your front step,   Generally, what you can see and what commotion is happening at the house, is more important than road noise alone.  Noise alone is better than noise and visual chaos.

So I get to the house and there is noise at the house.  That there is no noise IN the house is good, but still, don't you want to be able to open the window?   Always judge the house by the noise you can hear with the window open, or from the front steps, the deck and the yard. 

Why would someone buy a house that back up to a freeway?  Easy answer, because it is much cheaper.  It has a view of the lake and mountains, it's a great house and it is $300,000 to $500,000 less than that same view in a better location.  If you really want a view, and you can't afford a view house in a good location, at the right discount you can get that view home in a lesser location.

The property WAS properly discounted for the negative aspects of the location, so why did I say NO, you should not buy this house?   They liked the floor plan and they liked the view.  But that was about all that they did like.  They talked about doing a $50,000 remodel on the kitchen.  They talked about doing a $20,000 remodel of the master bathroom.  They talked about replacing every door frame and every door and every cabinet in the place.  By the time they stopped talking about what they would DO to the house to get it the way they wanted it, they were up to $100,000 or more of improvements.

If you like the house just the way it is.  If you do not plan to sell it in the near future.  If you could see yourself living there for fifteen to twenty years.  Then you should buy it if it is properly discounted for the location weaknesses.  But if you are going to sink a ton of money into it AND think you may want to move in three to five years...then NO, do not buy that house!

By the way...the seller RAISED the price $50,000 after not selling it for two years, because Zillow said it was worth more.  Guess Zillow can't see the road noise and need for updating :-)  Zillow can be a great tool, if sellers understand that computer generated value calculations need to be adjusted for things a computer can't see or hear.