To all urban dwellers escaping apartment life downtown - this mini park backyard is going to be PARADISE

8924 Hardy St.

Okay, lets get into why this is the a*actual* first time home buyer's dream home

Features

The Backyard

.27 Acre Lot of Green Goodness

- if you're coming from a downtown apartment, this is literally like moving to PARADISE. Fully fenced with green grass and mature trees.

1,248 square feet

Room to spread out and enjoy a living area, kitchen, and family room with ample storage spaces.

3 Beds 1 Bath

3 bedrooms - all with refinished hardwood floors, lots of windows for natural light.

Unfinished Basement

An unfinished basement the full length of the house, featuring 4 window wells to let in natural light. A great place for laundry, painting, roller skating, working out, and more. Necessary for tornado alley. It could easily be turned into another bed and bath.

1 Car Attached Garage

Attached garage with room for a midsize SUV plus room for storage and trash cans, no more scraping ice off the windshield for you! With a bonus 2 car width driveway for guests.

Neighborhood

Cherokee Hills Neighborhood. Within walking distance of the downtown Overland Park Farmers Market. Shawnee Mission School District. Established neighborhood with tree-lined streets and no HOA. Safe, walkable, and within 20 minutes of Downtown KC, Town Center Leawood, or horseback riding through a prarie.

Solid Foundation

The entire house has been updated - from the foundation to the windows to the floors to the attic insulation. This is a solid and well constructed house.

Overland Park's cumulative appreciation rate over the last ten years has been 97.96%, equating to an annual average of 7.07 and is anticipated to continue to climb.

You are buying a solid piece of real estate in an area that is trending up, up, up.

Bedrooms

Living

The Exterior

Schedule Your Tour Now

Call

Email

Check out all of the very cool, very fun things I spent all my money on
so you don't have to

Click Here to Download the Full Buyers Guide

My villain origin story - these are all of the updates I had to make to my brand new first home

aka - why I loathe entirely "flip houses" and would never ever in a million years recommend you buy one

Pay now through your mortgage, or pay later out of pocket.

Most homes in this price range are priced lower for a reason. They have been owned by the same people who built it in the 60's. No hate - that's my grandparents! But, once you own a home for a while you kind of take it for granted. You are used to the weird quirks. You think that everyone has water in the basement.

The HVAC is aging. The foundation has never been professionally addressed. The sewer hasn't been touched in years. You save $20–30K at closing - then spend it, and more, in the first two years.

Except, surprise! You already drained your savings account buying the stupid house to begin with, and now you are faced with a furnace failure going into winter. You can suffer through no air conditioning, but if you put off a new furnace, it will inevitably go out when it's freezing outside. And then your pipes will freeze and burst. And now you have a $50k emergency that you have to somehow pay for.

With this house, every one of those expenses has already been handled.

The $45,700 in improvements made since 2023 is baked into the purchase price, which means it's covered by your mortgage and spread across 30 years - not a surprise bill you write a check for six months after moving in.

This isn't even including the cost of therapy bills, botox for new wrinkles, or the 10 years of your life lost due to the mental stress that these suprises add.

Just saying.

The difference between these two homes isn't really $30,000 - it's when you pay and how.
At 8924 Hardy, every dollar of improvement is rolled into your loan and paid over 30 years at your mortgage rate.

The alternative is writing a $10,000 check for a new furnace in January, out of savings, six months after you already stretched to buy a house. And then another $10k check in March for the foundation. And don't forget a 3rd $10k check in August for something ridiculous like dirt or insulation.

One of these is a budget line. The other is a crisis.

House Updates PDF

This website is the little silver orb in the hunger games and it contains the exact gifts you need to conquer the world that you didn't even know you needed

Here is the work that I did to this house - and the amazing humans who made it happen cause if you don't have reciepts did it "really" happen?

Also, it's really hard to find good contractors - and these are incredible.

Lesson 1 - Always get 3 bids

Lesson 2 - If you're nice and tip well and bring them gatorade and cookies they will do a great job and come back when you need them

Lesson 3 - Pay for people who are insured / certified. Trust.

I love data. And every house needs a data center - with everything you need to know about how to keep it happy, healthy, and thriving.

I subscribe to the proactive and preventative approach to healthcare - and if owning a house has taught me anything, it is this:

- Invest continuously

- React Immediately

Take care of the routine maintenance and your house will take care of you.

Deal with issues AS SOON AS THEY ARISE - do not procrastinate. They will not go away. They will get a housand times worse.

House Maintenance Calendar

House Maintenance and Contractors

Side Note:

This house isn't *perfect* - it's the perfect first house.

I think your first house should be structurally sound, in a safe neighborhood, and well taken care of.

Sure, maybe there is a weird shelf that you don't know what to do with so you fill it with plants, or the garage is BLUE ( seriously, whose idea was this?) and the basement is a basic and boring concrete basement.

But overall - it's a phenomenal house.

A great place to start.

And a perfect first home.

That said, here are some of the fun things I would do if I were buying the house today.

Like replace this less than attractive light and get a new screen for this window and repaint the garage any color on the planet besides blue.

Bonus - all of them are completely asthetic, completely optional, and clost less than a car.