trex is around $5.5-$6/sf by me. real wood still has a long way to go

I'm in the process of buying a house right now. All finances are looking good but the lender is asking for a third party verification for my 'business'. I am a live professional. Has anyone done this before?

Tax return is what I remember using

My house was listed last night at 8pm and I had 4 showings today with one scheduled tomorrow. This is not the DFW area and is a small town with a mostly O&G economy so no jobs right now. I did not think there would be this much interest so fast.

Two guys from the showings today said the house needed a lot more work than they thought and passed. I put a lot of dang work into this house and was kinda offended by the feedback. It's also incredibly icky knowing strangers are walking through your house with all your belongings opening cabinates and drawers.

I decided to go with a realtor. Got an offer for full listing price tonight from someone who hasn't seen the house in person, but the realtor suggested that we don't mark it "pending" or "contingent" on the listing until the people look at the house or produce a pre-qualification letter.
He said he has had people make an offer without being pre-qualified or make an offer before they saw the houses in person; they couldn't get financing or backed out after actually seeing the houses and it hurt the interest to have the house showing as "contingent" online.

I've walked through several houses in my neighborhood that I've viewed as move-in ready, but then after they get sold the buyers completely gut these houses and redo them.

Buyers have different views and potentially even different objectives with the property than the seller. Best thing you can do is just look at things logically and try to use the feedback constructively. It could potentially give you insight into whats important to potential buyers, or maybe its just a one-off that does nothing for you. Either way, your emotions can only get in the way.

when my parents bought the house they live in now, the backyard had like 3-4 full on pigeon coops built in the back, like cabin sized buildings for pigeons

my parents liked the place, but hated those coops as they smelled as you'd expect and were ugly af so they viewed them as liabilities that'd be costly to remove but the owners literally viewed them as the crown jewels and in their minds it's what made the property so special - even though they'd had the place on the market for over a decade, they didn't get it, my parents offered about half the asking (not as low an offer as it sounds cause they asked for way too much cause of the coops) and after a month or so the realtor called them back and said she'd finally convinced them those coops didn't add value but subtracted it

we all have pigeon coops of one form or another and you just gotta accept that

MLYLT,

It’s an asset you’re selling. Who cares what the buyer does if you get the price you want?

My limited experience is you shouldn't do much work to make it move in read outside of obviously unfinished or dangerous things and aesthetics to make it look nice that don't cost much.

I wouldn’t accept an offer without proof of financing or cash. One thing we learned in selling our house is that the big online finance companies such as Quicken hand out pre approval letters like candy but a lot of those fall through when going through underwriting.

some people have problems detaching themselves from their house.

i tried to buy a house a couple years ago that an older lady owned and was overvaluing, but in her mind it was worth the price because she raised her family there and all the work her husband had done in the house. albeit, it wasn't massively overpriced, but she had it on the market for a year at a set price and never lowered it, we offered about 6.5% less - which was slightly over market value, but it had everything my wife and i wanted and was in the specific neighborhood my wife wanted, so we offered about 5k more than what market value probably was. they never responded and when my realtor contacted theirs, they flatly asked if we had a better price. not a counter offer, just wanted us to come up because they asked us to.

long story short, it worked out for us. we bought a house down the street 2 months later for 13k less than we offered for that house above + sellers gave us $10k cash for a new roof. same exact model, so everything we wanted. that lady ended up waiting another 8ish months and sold for 5k less than what we offered.

it really depends on the market. in this market, i wouldn't bother doing anything. if you price your house right and get multiple offers you can basically sell a house as-is right now

I don't care what they do after they buy it. These were two separate viewings and both the guys said it needed a lot more work than they thought.

This was an outdated house with the same builders grade furnishings from when it was built in 1980. I have listed the house at 9% above the neighborhood median price and this is one of the few houses in the area with a pool. Since moving in 2yrs ago, these are the updates I made:
-new floors in bedrooms, bathrooms
-new lighting fixtures throughout the house
-replace all laminate counters in bathrooms and kitchen with marble and granite
-added tiling to kitchen and bathroom
-refinished kitchen cabinates
-replace outlets/light switches
-peeled wallpaper and textured damaged walls
-fresh paint the past two weeks throughout

I can't imagine what other work they think needs to be done to update the house other than replacing shower tub units with some nice tile.

:Thumb:

MLYLT,


My mother-in-law loves her house. She thinks it is perfect. And for many ways for her it is. We have given it some thought lately because she is getting older and may not be able to live there on her own in a few years. It would take at least $100k in work to get it into shape so it could sell quickly (we'd easily get that much and more if we did the work). If we were to inherit it and wanted to live there, it would be a total gut job.


The point is different people have different views on what a house needs to be what they want.


Also, to me a pool is a negative. Others may differ.

Don't take it personal. We felt like you the first few times we got negative feedback, but the reality is that people just have completely different tastes and some people see things a lot differently than you or me.

Does anyone have any experience with communal living? We are currently leasing a house that shares a front greenspace. All houses are in a U and face each other with a shared greenspace in the middle and a small patch of grass behind the house. They have just started phase 2 and then will add a 3rd phase in a year or two. This type of community may be common elsewhere but it is the first of its kind in Arkansas so it seems like there could be a lot of risk.

Pros: You are in the middle of everything in a high growth part of the city. No yardwork. It's across from the medical college and it makes me feel young. Everything is walkable in the area and there will be a big park built in the middle with restaurants, bars, amphitheater, etc.

Cons: Houses are right on top of each other, new concept that could fail, overpriced, very limited design options on exterior but we are fine with the look.

So far I enjoy it and we are two years into a seven year plan so everything should just get better. I'm used to having some space (previous home was on .75 acres) but I also hate yardwork. If anyone has any experience with this type of living I'd like to know the good, bad and ugly.

when you did all this work, did you do it to your tastes or did you do it to mass appeal tastes?

there is a reason every flipped house is painted gray right now. 15 years ago, they were always painted beige.

agree with poster above about pool being a negative. higher insurance rates, completely different maintenance to anything else on your property.

Sounds like townhouses to me (except not attached?), but I think I'm going to need a diagram.

Everything was done for mass appeal and a little of what I liked. The plan for this house was always to do the work myself and turn a profit. If it sells for listing, gross profit after relators fees and what I put into it will be 18%.

Here are the kitchen and bathrooms. Does this look mass appealy?
I have to paint that vanity....you can see the slime my kid splattered in the pic ugh

Kitchen looks meh to me. Bathrooms look good.

Kitchen cabinets and flooring are dated. I might like the dark blue paint but it isn't for everyone. The light over the sink belongs in a disco or a brothel.

Phase 1 video is where we are leasing



Phase 2 is being built and we are considering but will probably choose phase 3 if we decide to build there.



Here is a video of the masterplan

I like the bathrooms, albeit are those wood floors (seems strange for me in a bathroom)?

In the kitchen I don't like the cabinet color, tile floor color, appliances, or that dark blue wall in the back. That's just based on the photos though. In person I may like it better or may find more things I dislike.

Thanks for the feedback. Here is a view of the kitchen from the other end showing the dining area. I put a large rug in the dining area to cover that ugly tile. I have a runner I can put in the kitchen to make the tile not so obvious and I can paint over the blue tonight with grey to match the rest of the house and not put any buyers off.

Razor I've never seen anything like that and it looks kinda creepy or something they'd mock in Weeds. Probably nice enough to live in.

MLYLT,


Don't paint anything without talking to your agent first