Spin
Footballguy
When my wife and I first moved into our neighborhood, there was a basement home at the front of the neighborhood for sale (in Nashville area, basements are relatively rare since the ground is nothing but rock) that we fell in love with, but it was outside of my price range.
Fast forward a few years and the house next door to it has been foreclosed on, and is identical, same exact model. It sold for 411k in 2019. It's 3100 sqft and has close to 1000 sqft of unfinished basement. The previous owners started to finish in the basement. It's got a finished bathroom with a nice tiled shower, a bedroom walled out and painted. They drywalled and framed a side room that has tons of boxes of sound proof foam in it, I'm guessing they were making a media room or some sound studio. They drywalled a ceiling in, stained the concrete floor and drywalled a bedroom and painted it. So the basement is mostly finished, and has a few sheets of drywall and unopened tile boxes that match the bathroom tile.
The current price for homes in this area is about $120 a sqft, so with the finished basement it'd sell for right at 500k.
They listed it at 375k, and are taking sealed bids through the 22nd. On the 22nd they'll open all the bids and whoever has the highest offer wins. It must be owner occupied and be the primary resident of the buyer, so we're not competing against investors. They also won't take a sale of home contingency, so you have to qualify for the mortgage outright. I think these two factors help limit our competition. I'm pre-approved for up to 450k without selling my current home, so I can offer up to that amount. I'd still sell my current house and would net about ~140k.
The hardwood is destroyed, looks like they had big dogs, as there are scratches and deep cuts everywhere, so it'd have to be replaced. A few holes in the walls/doors and a lot of the light fixtures are missing. The carpet upstairs is destroyed. It's being sold as is. My wife's dad is a general contractor and did a quick walk through and said a quick estimate is it'd take about 50k to replace all the flooring/fixtures, paint the whole house and then finish the basement with what they started, unless we wanted to move some of the walls they built. But I like the layout, so we'd just finish it and paint. It was built in 2016, so all the appliances and hot water heater/hvac etc are all new.
My real estate agent suggested we offer 387,550, and is 12000 above asking, and said he's pretty sure we'd get it at that price.
Am I crazy for wanting to bid more to ensure we get it? It's a blind bid situation, which sucks because if we lost by like 500, it'd really suck. I know we're going to finish it all out, and have the money to do so. I'm looking at it if I bid 420, spend 50 to finish it, I just bought a 500k house for 470, and I'm pretty happy, and think we got a good deal.
My wife and real estate agent are thinking we should try to stay under 400 because then it's a "great deal". But I'd live in this house for 5-10 years easily. Am I crazy to want to bid 40-50k more than the "list" price, because I'm seeing the potential of what it could be?
Fast forward a few years and the house next door to it has been foreclosed on, and is identical, same exact model. It sold for 411k in 2019. It's 3100 sqft and has close to 1000 sqft of unfinished basement. The previous owners started to finish in the basement. It's got a finished bathroom with a nice tiled shower, a bedroom walled out and painted. They drywalled and framed a side room that has tons of boxes of sound proof foam in it, I'm guessing they were making a media room or some sound studio. They drywalled a ceiling in, stained the concrete floor and drywalled a bedroom and painted it. So the basement is mostly finished, and has a few sheets of drywall and unopened tile boxes that match the bathroom tile.
The current price for homes in this area is about $120 a sqft, so with the finished basement it'd sell for right at 500k.
They listed it at 375k, and are taking sealed bids through the 22nd. On the 22nd they'll open all the bids and whoever has the highest offer wins. It must be owner occupied and be the primary resident of the buyer, so we're not competing against investors. They also won't take a sale of home contingency, so you have to qualify for the mortgage outright. I think these two factors help limit our competition. I'm pre-approved for up to 450k without selling my current home, so I can offer up to that amount. I'd still sell my current house and would net about ~140k.
The hardwood is destroyed, looks like they had big dogs, as there are scratches and deep cuts everywhere, so it'd have to be replaced. A few holes in the walls/doors and a lot of the light fixtures are missing. The carpet upstairs is destroyed. It's being sold as is. My wife's dad is a general contractor and did a quick walk through and said a quick estimate is it'd take about 50k to replace all the flooring/fixtures, paint the whole house and then finish the basement with what they started, unless we wanted to move some of the walls they built. But I like the layout, so we'd just finish it and paint. It was built in 2016, so all the appliances and hot water heater/hvac etc are all new.
My real estate agent suggested we offer 387,550, and is 12000 above asking, and said he's pretty sure we'd get it at that price.
Am I crazy for wanting to bid more to ensure we get it? It's a blind bid situation, which sucks because if we lost by like 500, it'd really suck. I know we're going to finish it all out, and have the money to do so. I'm looking at it if I bid 420, spend 50 to finish it, I just bought a 500k house for 470, and I'm pretty happy, and think we got a good deal.
My wife and real estate agent are thinking we should try to stay under 400 because then it's a "great deal". But I'd live in this house for 5-10 years easily. Am I crazy to want to bid 40-50k more than the "list" price, because I'm seeing the potential of what it could be?
