After living in his father’s old-fashioned brick, mid-century home in Maplewood, NJ, since 2014, Michael Ghee enjoys the novelty of new construction. “Everything is so clean, tidy and bright,” Mr. Ghee, director of IT projects at Rutgers University. By contrast, the house where his parents had lived since 1965, and where he had spent the last eight years caring for his aged father, had not been touched for decades. “It was outdated. It was used,” he said, “I got tired of looking at it.”
And so, in January, he looked at the Maplewood real estate market and decided that if he wanted to sell the house without renovating it, he had to do it quickly. If ever there was a time to take advantage of a superior repairman, early 2022 seemed like the time. In three days, he had 19 deals, selling the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home for $ 710,000. He had listed it for $ 525,000.
But Mr. Ghee was not yet ready to have him again. She had spent most of her adult life worried about her responsibilities, first to her sister who had schizophrenia — she had assumed she would eventually become her caregiver, but she died in 2012 — and later to her father. For the first time in his life, his path was unexplored. “I’m free, now I’m free like a bird,” he said. “I definitely miss my family like crazy, but at the same time it’s a little stimulating. I’m starting my second stage of life here.”
Looking for a rental where he could live for a few years, he first looked in Maplewood, but with the increase in rents, the area was out of his budget. In May, Mr. Ghee, 60, moved to Citizen Linden, a new development in Linden, NJ, paying $ 2,150 a month for a bedroom. “It looks like a weird hotel. It’s amazing,” he said, looking forward to next winter when he won’t have to remove snow from his car now that it’s parked in the building’s garage.
Maybe one day he would like to buy a townhouse, he said, while dealing with construction rules, such as parking restrictions for guests and the obligation to subscribe to cable TV even though he prefers services of transmission. “It’s different to move from living in a free environment to one of corporate ownership,” he said. But for now, enjoy the lack of commitment. “It’s a whole new beginning for me to live here,” he said.
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