Wed 18 Jun 2008
Today, we went to an appointment to view another similarly-sized property as my #1 choice, in the same neighborhood. And now we’re confused.
This new house is BEAUTIFUL. It’s a short sale, but we know that if we offer what the bank wants as its bottom line ($10K less than the original asking price of my #1 house), then the offer will be accepted and we go immediately into Escrow. There is nothing to be done with this house. It’s perfect and very upgraded. The few things that are original are in excellent condition. So here’s what I like about this house more than the #1 house.
* has a separate living room, dining room, and family room. (#1 house has no family room)
* more modern stylistically.
* has a nice deep carpet in the family and living rooms.
* marble tiling in foyer, dining room and kitchen done very well. (#1 house has large travertine tiles throughout)
Here’s what I like about the #1 house more than this house.
* backyard landscaping is nicer.
* 2 master bedrooms upstairs + 1 bed/bath downstairs makes for bigger bedrooms and more privacy for guests staying on the main floor. (This new house has all 3 bedrooms upstairs, and it’s a nice-size master but the other 2 are small.)
* indoor laundry. (new house has laundry in garage)
* significantly better view. (new house has high block walls in back yard)
We figured we’d let the gods of fate decide again. If the #1 house accepts our offer without countering, it would be $20K less than this new house, so it’s a better deal. We know the new house won’t budge from its asking price of $10K less than the #1 house’s asking price. Is that confusing? Okay, here are the specifics.
#1 house we put an offer on:
asking price – $589,900
our offer – $560,000
new house we saw today:
asking price – $580,000
I suppose I’d be fine with either one. But I really do like the many common rooms downstairs in the new house and the carpeting, and I really do like the 1 bedroom downstairs in the #1 house. What should I do?
it’s true too many choices sometimes can be worse than none! but i know u’ll end up picking ur fave and be very happy 🙂
awww, thanks! That’s a lot of faith. =)
seeing the prices makes me realize even more how insane housing is in the bay area. we’re looking now and to get a 4/2, 1500 sq ft house on a 6000 sq ft lot in an area with good schools is going to run about $1.1m! argh!
downstairs bedroom/bath is VERY important. the carpet you can always change, in fact, should, unless it’s very new.
Greg – 4/2 houses in nice areas in SoCal are much more expensive than the ones we’re looking at. Not $1.1m expensive, but maybe $700+K. The reason these 2 are this low is cuz the 1st one, the one we have an offer on, was purchased cheap and flipped. The 2nd one is a short sale.
My solution for your NorCal housing dilemma? MOVE TO SOCAL AND BE OUR NEIGHBORS!
diana – downstair bed/bath is important? Why do you say that? Just curious. It’s important to ME for the privacy for our overnight guests, and cuz Mr. W’s parents don’t do stairs very well. Why do you consider it important?
The house w/the bed/bath downstairs doesn’t have carpet, it’s travertine tile throughout. The 2nd house w/all bedrooms upstairs has carpet in the living and family rooms, but it is definitely nice new shag carpet, very dense and comfortable.
More Mr. Mortgage housing news for this month, the numbers are in and they look bad for sellers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlmMQOpG14o
Make sure you twist the arm of the seller and get a screaming deal, because you are pre-approved you are in a strong position.
There are going to be a huge amount of new Bank-Owned real estate coming into the market up until the end of the year, so you will have lots of choices, and the prices are going to get better and better.
So if for some reason any of these deals don’t pan out you are going to get even more choices for better prices soon.
I think we got a screaming deal. If we’re in a good position at the end of the year, we may buy another bank-owned property as investment property. Then we’d have vacation homes! Par-TAY!