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jonzawonza

Dream home, but overpriced?

jonzawonza
11 years ago

We've been looking for a home for around 8 months now (currently renting), and we've not found a single one which ticks all our boxes until last weekend.

We totally love the house we've seen, the only problem is its price. It's a 15 year newer house than the rest of the houses around it (within a 5 or so streets) and its still in a nice area. It also has a finished basement and pool, and is very nice inside. Though the houses close to it are up for about $170K or so, and I'm sure some of those are nice too. The house we want is listed at $260K, though the realtor said they'd more likely get around $245K.

The realtor compared it to other houses across a main street (less than 0.3 miles away) where they are all newer and and also more expensive ($200K-260K). So we're not sure if the immediate houses around it would have that much of an effect on the house price we want. We were thinking of offering around $220K-240K but really don't want to miss out on this house.

Any advice is appreciated! Thanks for reading :)

Comments (17)

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I should also mention it was last sold in 2004 for $238K and has had $15K in renovations since then.

  • mostone
    11 years ago

    How long has it been on the market?

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Only 3-4 weeks so far.

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    It also has a pool, but at the sacrifice of 90% of the yard, so not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Most of the other houses in the area do not have a pool.

    The only single comp house was slightly smaller and sold for $238K

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    "I should also mention it was last sold in 2004 for $238K and has had $15K in renovations since then."

    That is the least useful thing you have.

    Having the most expensive house in a neighborhood can cause issues with appraisals.

    The appraiser adjusts for perceived value differences.
    They are interested in what the bank can get for the place if you default.

  • azzalea
    11 years ago

    I, too, was thinking how bad it is to buy the nicest house in a neighborhood. When you have the nicest house, if the neighborhood hits the skids, then you stand to be totally unable to sell at any price, let alone what you would need to cover your investment.

    Honestly? The way you describe this house sounds exactly like a situation in my 'old' neighborhood. There is one house, built only a few years ago in an 80-90 year old neighborhood. It's bigger than anything around, for about a half-dozen blocks. This house is ALWAYS on the market. Because the kind of people who will consider buying the biggest, newest house in a blue collar neighborhood, are generally not the ones who can afford it, so this house is usually occupied for 6 months to a year, then it sits empty, on the market for a year or two, and the cycle starts all over again.

    However, I will say, the house we just moved to? Is definitely our dream home for this stage of life. We saw it listed when it was in the $245,000 range (which we understand was down from the mid-260's). Too rich for our blood, so we passed it by. Some months later, we saw it had come down to $230,000. Still a bit more than we wanted to spend, but not terribly out of our price range, so we went through, made a reasonable offer, they divided the difference in half, and we got a great house. (it's actually one of the smaller homes in the neighborhood--which, I understand is the more sensible choice for the longrun). A real estate expert we used to listen to always said, "Buy neighborhood".

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Im inclined to agree. The main thing that makes me think twice is that it's actually on a row of all newer homes, but no others are for sale. Though there is one that's a foreclosure bidding starting at $225k. But without any of those others actually listed its hard to tell what they would normally be listed at.

    Like i said, there are plenty of homes just around the corner and the next few streets down that are around the $170k mark.

    We could easily see ourselves there for upwards of 10years too.

  • jane__ny
    11 years ago

    I just want to point out that a pool, which takes up most of the property is not appealing to families. Having shopped for almost a year, I would gamble and wait a month or longer to see if they drop their price.

    Ignore what it sold for in 04 -that was the height of the real estate bubble.

    Jane

  • brickeyee
    11 years ago

    "I just want to point out that a pool, which takes up most of the property is not appealing to families. "
    That would be very locality dependent.

    If there are numerous other pools available, having your own might be a real down side (they do take a lot of work).

    But if the nearest pool is an hour away, having one in the yard might be a selling point (especially in an otherwise warm area with a long enough swimming season).

  • jane__ny
    11 years ago

    We have attended many open houses and have seen as many homes with pools which took most of the yard. I frequently heard young couples mention the fact that the house lacked a yard. No where for the kids to play ball or no space for a swing set.

    We were considering a short sale in a very desirable neighborhood. The price was low as they hoped for a bidding war to drive up the price. The house was fantastic for the money but the pool/patio took the entire back yard.

    There were many couples very interested in the house but all walked away. We ran into a few at the next open house and they stated they couldn't buy a house without a yard because of kids/dog.

    The house sat for months and sold for slightly less than the list price. I was shocked. Someone got a great house (without a yard) for a great price.

    Jane

  • littleprincess
    11 years ago

    We turned down a potential house when looking because the backyard was taken up by two sheds, a patio covered area, a large porch, etc.. NO room for the kids to play and mostly concrete covered so not easy to "fix" either.

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We still haven't put in an offer, but the house next door just went on the market for a cool $185K!

    We're going to look at it tonight, but from the photos it's nowhere near as nice, but it's 1 year newer. It does however have more square footage, but no basement (slab) and no pool. That's a huge price difference though.

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We ended up putting an offer in and after some negotiation got them down to $180K. It was very well priced already though, so we think we got a bargain ($68/sqft). Hopefully we'll be closing next week.

  • kirkhall
    11 years ago

    Wow! Congratulations! That does sound like a good deal (I am assuming your put your offer on the original house you loved, and not the neighbor one).

  • ncrealestateguy
    11 years ago

    I think she means the new listing, not the old one.

  • lyfia
    11 years ago

    Just remember a basement is worth much more than a slab house in an area where both are available.

    Glad you found something you like and you are happy with.

  • jonzawonza
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We were told by the realtor of the house next door that they wouldn't even consider offers less than $250K, and they would just take it off the market if noone was interested. So we never put in an offer. We drove past last night and they'd moved the sale sign around the side of their house so I guess they never got much interest :)

    Yeah, we realize a slab is going to be cheaper. There's a real mix of basements/no basements in the area, with quite a high water table lots are prone to flooding problems too. So I think that makes the difference not so great. Plus we got this for $80K less than they were asking for next door! :D