the fine print on buying a house...

Mike and I are more curious than serious about buying a house right now... but that doesn't keep us from looking at what's for sale every weekend.  This past weekend we saw this house on the market in the East Bay for $1.1 mil (that's a real steal by East Bay standards).  The house looked great, picture after picture we thought, hey, we could totally live here! And then came this picture, of the yard, (read the fine print) -- the yard in a $1.1 million dollar house is not included!   What I'd also like to know is, did they also photoshop in the tetherball pole?  Because not having grass but a tetherball pole would really sell me on the house. 

And while we are talking about house hunting, can I tell you how *skewed our standards have become?

Must have:

1500 square feet

**air conditioning

That's pretty much it on our "must have" list. Everything else that we would get would be a bonus.  And for that we're likely going to pay $1.2 million dollars.  And with that, we'll just keep renting.

*reasons why on occasion while watching House Hunters I'd like to throw one of Barkley's stuff toys at the TV.  Price points here compared to the rest of the country are just plain silly (and annoying).
**AC is only necessary if living in the inland East Bay areas, that one can be removed if we are on the Bay side of the East Bay area.