Home Buying Help

[crazycakes]

We are currently house hunting, and I looked at a house I love today. DH is going to look at it with me tomorrow or Monday, but I know he will love the house. This house has a lot of really well done upgrades that are unusual for the neighborhood, like a finished basement with full bar and kitchen and lovely hardwoods throughout the main floor. It also has granite countertops, upgraded appliances, and upgraded bathroom fixtures. We have some friends in the neighborhood and know that most homes in the neighborhood have wall to wall carpet and builder grade fixtures.

My concern is that the current owners upgraded themselves out of the neighborhood price range. They are asking $189,900 for the house (and have already reduced listing price $10K from when they first went on the market a month ago) while sold comps seem to be more in the $150K range. Actually, many of the homes in the neighborhood are even less than that but are only 3 bedrooms while this one is 5 bedrooms. Five bedroom homes seem to be about $150K. The finished basement/bar and upgrades are definitely value adds, but I don't think enough to warrant a price of $40K over the comps.

We were thinking of offering $165K plus seller paid closing costs as a
starting point, with $175K + closing costs being our max budget if they are willing to negotiate.


What would you offer in a situation like this? Or would you even bother with one of the largest/nicest homes in a neighborhood? I know common wisdom is that it's better to have the smallest/cheapest home in a neighborhood rather than the other way around, just from a property value perspective. However, we have looked at probably 20+ homes and this is the first one that fits all of our must-haves and most of our nice-to-haves. Plus it's move in ready while many other homes we've seen would require a fair amount of work.

[awick14]

I would start at $165k like you said, and go from there.

I live in Canada so it's a bit different here, but if I was going to own a house long term I don't see any reason. Not to buy the bigger/nicer house on the block of that's what you want.

[crazycakes]

Feb 9, 2013 23:46:28 GMT -5 awick14 said:

I would start at $165k like you said, and go from there.

I live in Canada so it's a bit different here, but if I was going to own a house long term I don't see any reason. Not to buy the bigger/nicer house on the block of that's what you want.

Thanks, I guess I should have mentioned that we are planning to stay in the house at least 5-10 years. Obviously plans can change, but we are moving to be closer to family so unless we would get totally amazing job offers out of state or something, I don't foresee us having a reason to move anytime soon.