The only renovation the Probate House has is central air and heat; the Tile Floor house has been totally remodeled. Not surprisingly, the Tile Floor house is asking a lot more money $449,900 vs $410,000.
The tenants in the Probate House have almost finished moving out, so I'm hoping to get inside again on Wednesday. We walked around the exterior this afternoon and I took a few shots and made notes on what needs to be changed. The question is, how much would it cost to renovate it and is it worth it.
Since they are the same model, it's relatively easy to compare before an after pictures.
Let's start with the dining room:
[The Probate House]
[The Tile Floor House]
Note that the Tile Floor House has added crown moldings, chair railing, and has a fancier paint job. At the same time, they've blocked most windows in the house. It's rather odd].
The differences in the kitchens are more dramatic.
[The Probate House]
[The Tile Floor House]
The countertops in the Probate House are are linoleum; in the Tile Floor House, they're corian. The latter has all new and upgraded cabinetry and flooring.
[The Probate House]
[The Tile Floor House]
In the Probate House, they cut away part of the wall to open up the space with the dining room. It's not as deep because there's a closet on the wall to the dining room, and a pantry on the wall in the kitchen.
I have no photos of the Probate House's laundry room, but this is how it should look when it's renovated:
[The Tile Floor House]
They also did some nice upgrades on the Tile Floor House's bathroom.
They also added a nice brick patio connecting the house to the garage.
The bedroom, which is exactly the same size as the Probate House, has crown molding:
The problem with the tile floor house is that the covered all the nice hardwood floors with ceramic tile. I really don't care for it. The question is whether it would make good sense to pull up the tile and refinish the hardwood underneath. I'm going to try to take a contractor back with me to both the Tile Floor House and the Probate House on Wednesday morning and get some sense of how much things cost.
The Probate House requires a lot more work, but I may be able to buy it for a lot less.
The most important thing would be to move the water heater outside. However, because of the width of the driveway, it would have to be on the back of the house, not the side. That probably means redoing the back steps.
[The water heater would have to go on the left of the corner, not the right]
The windows in the bedroom will have to be replaced with double paned, low e glass to handle the southern sun and the street noise.
[this is typical of the windows on the Probate House]
I would also like to upgrade the kitchen, at a minimum, putting cabinets under what's now a desk and putting in granite countertops through out. I also want to pull up the carpeting and restore the hardwood floors.
So my questions for the contractor are
1) How much would each of these projects cost?
2) How much time would each of these projects take?
The sellers are asking $410,000 for the Probate House, which is actually the market rate for this model. Given the amount of work it requires, however, I will try for a hefty discount. I'm leaning towards making a $375,000 offer.
The sellers are asking $449,900 for the Tile Floor House, but even with all the improvements and nice touches, I think that's a bit high for a house without a second bathroom.
Next update: Wednesday.
P.S. The bank-owned house was awful. We couldn't get in, but from what we could see in the windows, I told Barbara to cross it off our list. That's three for three on bank-owned property.
P.P.S. We saw the "Nicely Improved House" (aka "the Short Sale House") again. I do like it, though the kitchen is awfully small. The problem is that they have both a first and a second (both with the same bank), but they've not cleared the short sale with the bank. That means months and months of waiting in the hope that at some point the bank might agree. I don't think it's worth it.
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