Hi! I Grew Up In This House ... Do You Mind If I Come In?

Hi Carrie, I bought a home that is pretty much one of the anchor homes in the neighborhood. I've strangers come up to the door mentioning that they knew the second owners and they can rember when it was .........................I love the history and insight and that a person feels comfortable enough to come and share it with me. 

Best

My wife spent some of her childhood living various parts of Michigan. A few years back we took a family trip to celebrate her grandmother's 90th birthday and spent some time driving around to see all of the houses that she lived in. We actually stopped at one of them and the owner's let us inside. It was a lot of fun for her to see the place where she had lived some 30 years before.

Hi Carie. I'm not sure that I would be interested in going back. I think it would be very hard.

Hi Carrie,

My seventh grade daughter said - we can move from this house. But then you have to buy it back for me when I am old enough!

Phil

Google Earth makes it easy to see pictures of your old homes. I have driven by a few, but never ventured inside.

I visited my childhood home a few years ago ... it was a home my parents built when I was 7, and it had a lot of fun features that they dreamed up.  When they sold it, someone else from the neighborhood bought it and raised their family there, and are still there these many years later.  I phoned them up one day and asked if I could drop by to see my mom's rose bushes outside and take a few outside photos, but they insisted on inviting my son and me inside and gave us a full tour.  They hadn't changed ANYTHING and said they loved the house so much they just left everything as it was.  It was a real treat to see every room!  Then they treated us to lunch and we had a great visit.

I have gone back to my old neighborhood and talked to the neighbors, it really is fun!

Hi Carie!  My parents still live in the home I grew up in.  I would, however, love to see old photos of the house I live in now along with the neighborhood.  The house was built in 1923 so it has some history to it.  And since most of the other houses in this neighborhood were built well past that time it would be so interesting to see what the neighborhood used to look like.  

Have done it, and had it done to me. I once had a house worth about $20k in 1967 and a young man my age showed up at the door with that request to see it, and we let him in, after he had looked he offered us $25k cash for it and we said no our kids were settled in the school, etc. He jumped to $30k and we said OK if he deposited the money in the title company first so we would know he was real, he did, we sold and bought the house we really wanted. Found out he was very successful, scored big early, and the happiest years of his life were in that house.

The second case I was the one asking to look, I happened to be driving by the first house I remembered living in, great years, and a woman was working in the yard out front and I showed her my license, drivers and real estate, and told her the story. She said that was a coincidence because she was going to have to sell and I ended up buying it and my parents lived there for two years while they were building their Lake Tahoe property, they loved it and a few of the old neighbors were still there.

Hey, Carie, you have the most amazingly creative blogs - not sure how I missed this one earlier.  I had to chuckle at many of the comments and I truly believe (with your adorablely engaging smile) that you could knock on the door and be welcomed in!

It might just be our relatively small community (~130,000), but I've stopped in to see a couple of homes that my parents had owned and the current owners were very gracious to show me through and discuss the changes in the community.  Such a sweet little trip down memory lane!

I drive by the house I grew up in about once or twice a year when I make it back to my hometown to see relatives. It has been 32 years since my dad died and the home was sold. Sometimes I would like to just go inside and reminisce but I will just drive by for now.

I was home a couple of weeks ago and took the drive down the old neighborhoods, but haven't knocked on the door.

Carie, it is true.  Over the years, the basketball hoop has gone up above the garage door and come down several times.  I love the tree lined streets!

Hi Carie! I have done the same thing many times - drove by and looked, but didn't stop. One time I saw my childhood home for sale on the MLS. I looked at all of the pictures, saw my bedroom and the back porch, and wondered if my dad ever took the spare key down from its hiding place on the patio. Maybe someday I'll stop when I drive by...