Model "D"

The houses I'm considering are what's known in Lakewood as "Model D." These are three bedroom, one bath, 1210 square feet, making them the largest of all the models. Both "the Probate House," and the "Tile Floor House" (more on that in a moment) are this model. In fact, the two houses abut back corners.

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.

New Possibilities (and Photos of the Probate House)

I spent the afternoon going to open houses and checking out possible new places to go with my agent on Monday afternoon. Many of the places where horrible! There was the foreclosed property with holes in the ceiling, and a gaping hole in the floor where the tub used to be. Many were just too small or had a configuration I didn't care for.

There was one open house where I saw the same model house as "the Probate House," and I got a sense of what it might look like without furniture or carpeting, and with a redesigned laundry room. This one had an added master bedroom, office and bath. It was too much house and I didn't like the backyard, but they were asking only $450,000 for it. I'm going to ask my agent to find out when the Probate House's tenants move out so I can see what it looks like without them.

In order to see what it looks like with them, here are the photos of the current interior that I finally was able to download from the web. As you look at them, try to strip away all the furnishings and decorations and just look at the bones of the room.


[The overstuffed but well-lit living room]


[The quite large dining room]


[The relatively large, but needs updating kitchen]




[I would not place my bed in such a way that the backboard blocked half the bedroom window]


[The large backyard]

I did find two new possibilities to visit with my agent on Monday afternoon.

The first is right around the corner (literally) from the Probate House. It has nice curb appeal, but I'm a little concerned about one aspect of the interiors: it appears to have marble floors throughout the home. I need to see it first before I can decide.

Here are some photos of it I've downloaded off the seller's website:


[The front of the house and the landscaping are nice]


[The kitchen appears to be quite large]


[I'm just not thrilled at the idea of marble living room floors. There's also no entry foyer; I believe that's the front door]

The second house I want to see is a bank-owned house. I peeked through the window and it looks to be in much better condition that the last two bank-owned properties I've seen. The front of the house, though, is really ugly. I'm also not sure if what the condition of the roof is. I found photos online at the agent's website:


[Here's the really ugly front. The other houses on the street are much nicer, and there's a large pine tree in front]


[The interior decoration seems to be an odd mix of styles].


[Some of the flooring is hard wood]


[Some of the flooring is either marble or tile]


[at first I thought the last owner took off all the cabinet doors, but then I realized they were perpendicular to the camera]

The tag line on the agent's site for this house is: "This house sold once and will sell again." Yeah, but the last guy who bought it went bankrupt!

My Bid Was Rejected

They took the other bid. :(

Apparently there wasn't a difference in price between our bids, but they took the other because the other bidder had higher assets than I.

Well, I'll just keep looking.

My Counter Offer

The sellers came back last night with a counter offer to my offer. The original asking price was $417,000 and I bid $410,000. They countered with $415,000 and asked for several of the dates for the contingencies be shortened.

After confirming with the loan officer that we could get an appraisal done in time, we countered their counter offer last night by agreeing to all the deadline changes, but refusing to come up from my original price of $410,000. Apparently, according to my agent and loan officer, I'm an ideal buyer (because of my credit rating and the size of my proposed down payment), and they should know that if they accept my counter offer, we shouldn't have problems closing the deal.

The sellers have until noon today to respond.

Waiting

I heard yesterday that the sellers wanted a letter of pre-approval from a lender before they considered my offer. After much frantic phone calling, scanning, and e-mailing, I received the letter an hour ago and it's been sent to the sellers' agent.

All I know is that they've received one other offer on the Koi Pond house, but that it's not as nice as mine. I'm keeping my fingers crossed (and my stomach in knots).

More Details About the Koi Pond House

No word yet back from the agent on my submitted offer, but in the meantime, here are some more details about the house and a few more photos:

Double paned/ Doubled hang/ Low E glass windows.
All copper plumbing.
Electricity for garage has been re-worked underground.
The panel has been updated (from 50 to 100 amp) -- whatever that means.

I've been having some issues with blogger and the way the photos look online.  They read fine if you view the blog through Firefox, but a little funky if through Internet Explorer.  I tried going back to the older system, but all that did was change the color of the blog template.

In the meantime, here are three photos:  the first is of the inside of the garage (needless to say, they don't park their cars here).  You can see how the left wall is finished (as is the right).  The next shows how they remodeled the back porch with the paving bricks.  You can also see the wooden gate leading to the drive way.  The last shows part of the closet in the master bedroom.  You can see the two frosted glass bedroom doors they recently installed.

The Probate House - Updated

We were the first people able to see this house since it went on the market; the tenants only made it available today.

Unfortunately, I wasn't permitted to photograph the interiors lest I piss off the touchy tenants. There are photos online, but I couldn't download them, so I will need to describe it.

The living room is nice sized but the dining room is far larger than any other I've seen.  All floors are carpeted but there is hardwood underneath.

The kitchen is ok.  The cabinets and drawers are original, but have been repainted and refinished.  The laundry room attached to the kitchen needs a fair amount of work.  In its current configuration, with the washer, dryer, and water heater, it's far too crowded.  One has to carefully slide past the dryer in order to reach the back door.  Ideally, the water heater should be moved outside and the washer and dryer moved to the far wall.

The back yard is large and nice, with block walls on all sides.

The master bedroom is fine, but there is so much furniture in it right now, it's hard to see exactly how large it is.  The king-sized sleighbed backboard blocks most of the window on the front, and the large mirror on the dresser blocks most of the other window.

The original floor furnace has been replaced with central air and heat, so there will be  patch visible in the hardwood when the carpet comes up.

It's a good house, but at $410,000, it's the same price as the house I just bid on, and that house is still nicer (though that large dining room is rather appealing).