Comments on: Good Deal or Not? Possibly A Good Deal Edition

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:28:22 +0000

I went into this house months ago as a possible renovation project. I had the same reaction as Davey’s contractor- there has been so much shifting of the floors that you couldn’t salvage almost any of the original details, so it’s essentially a blank canvas. You’re going to end up gutting the entire house to fix all of the sloping floors, and at that point, you couldn’t afford to pay more than $400K tops for the house.

By: kck

kck — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:18:41 +0000

Having worked on several of these cracks before, I wouldn’t say it’s massively (prohibitively) expensive. If there is a crack in the rear wall, that is a different issue because the likely remedy is rebuilding the entire rear wall. I do think it’s crazy that the asking price is 100K over the SEP 07 price.

By: IMGoph

IMGoph — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 01:36:52 +0000

it’s funny, you post pictures of houses that monkeyrotica used to live next to, and one that i used to live next to on the same day!

i used to live in the red brick house to the right (the one that’s a story taller). i’m curious as to whether that big structural crack is on the party wall with that house, or the one to the left.

there was a nice old couple that lived there back in my day. wonder if they died or moved off to assisted living somewhere…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:43:35 +0000

If is a shell as described, one dollar would suffice

By: Robin

Robin — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 06:22:32 +0000

This home is down the street from where I work. My boss who relocated from NM was looking into buying it. Unfortunately after bringing in a structural engineer they discovered that the building has 2 structural cracks. One down the back and one down the side. The only thing really keeping this building up is the fact that it is attached and supported by the buildings on its side. This is a very bad deal because of the massive amount of money it would cost to fix he two major cracks.

By: hipchickindc

hipchickindc — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 23:18:56 +0000

Jamie, this is definitely a rehab loan. It’s been a while since I’ve been in it though, so I can’t recall the kitchen and bath.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:47:53 +0000

Seeing as the holding company bought it for $499k in September of 07, I’d say the proper price for it somewhat less than $499k. So, NO DEAL and its slightly offensive that they raised the price by nearly $100k without doing anything to it.

By: NAB

NAB — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:28:11 +0000

I hope someone with sufficient resources buys it and does it right. That might include using contractors who know how to preserve period detail. There’s a lot of real beauty here.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:28:35 +0000

That place looks like my kinda scum! Gorgeous, untouched house. That is NOT a shell. A shell typically has been demo’d or is unsalvagable. The floors and architectural details look fine to me. The crack, despite the dire fears of the laymen, is probably really not a big deal and deserves no more attention than filling. This thing has been standing 100 years, you think it’s going to fall down now? I’ve seen worse than that, and it’s a rare house that hasn’t settled noticeably in that time. The reality is, nobody ever repaired the plaster. The fixed-up house most of you are living in probably has had plaster work done dozens of times, you just don’t realize there are cracks in the brick behind it.

The price isn’t really that bad. 200 grand would easily do it, or far, far less for a DIYer. Yeah, 600K sounds like a lot for a fixer upper, but what would it sell for if it was renovated? It’s a great location, I bet you’d easily get a mil. This is a good deal, barring the unlikely possibility that it is structurally unsound.

Hipchick – you didn’t take any kitchen or bathroom pics. The difficulty in financing it would be if its “uninhabitable,” e.g. lacks a kitchen or a bathroom. If it has those, no matter how nasty they are you can still get a conventional loan. And I don’t see why it wouldn’t appraise.

By: Davey

Davey — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 19:34:31 +0000

I visited that house many months ago. I bet it’s set an alltime record for most visitors with no offers. Not only is there that HUGE crack but several smaller ones. Also, the entire back of the house where the kitchen is located is sloping significantly. I brought a contractor along who advised me not to be fooled by the genuinely nice original details, because after fixing the structural problems you’d be starting with a totally blank canvass — very little would be possible to save.