Audacious Flips and Renovations cont'd

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  • http://www.redfin.com/WA/Monroe/544-Sim ... me/2476853

    Aug 01, 2007 $240,000 - Todays asking price $349,000

    Does this remodel justify $109,000 gain in just 10 months? At least they could have redone the driveway! In Monroe you can buy new at this price.
  • This one doesn't qualify as a flip - as it's new construction. But it's infill on Capitol Hill so it's definitely an investor special. They took an L2 lot with an existing house on the back half and built this on the front.

    28094393_0.jpg
    click for link to listing

    They are asking $912k!!!!

    On the corner of 12th and John, which is pretty busy. It's basically a townhouse - 1650 sqft, on a 1700 sqft lot. No views, except from the roof. I happened to be walking by yesterday and stopped into the open house. It was kind of cool, but when I saw the price my jaw just dropped.

    Un-effing-believable
  • The black siding makes it look unfinished. And the power hook up is unexceptable. Location may sell it at this price, over time. :?
  • Re the house at 12th & John, I think Pb Elemental's houses sell well. Some people will pay a big premium for modern design.
  • Markor wrote:
    Re the house at 12th & John, I think Pb Elemental's houses sell well. Some people will pay a big premium for modern design.

    Yeah, I have seen their stuff before, that is why I stopped in. But even for the design, I think that price is pretty bold. No view, postage stamp sized lot, busy street.

    Townhouse of similar size in a much better location in the same neigbhorhood goes for about $650k right now. I think they have $100-150k premium potential - half what they are looking for, but we shall see.
  • Bad deal or not, it seems to be a steal compared to MLS #28091923, an $860K zero-lot-line 1300 sq. ft. townhouse in the same neighborhood.
  • Markor wrote:
    Bad deal or not, it seems to be a steal compared to MLS #28091923, an $860K zero-lot-line 1300 sq. ft. townhouse in the same neighborhood.

    lol. I know that one too. a few blocks from my house. There are 2 of them on the MLS. http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/429-13 ... ome/144329
    the second one is listed for $840k - and is bigger. go figure.

    I think the PB/MD guys are using them for comps!!!

    The ones in the back do have terrific views, but I think they already sold

    I just did a search of Capitol Hill new construction, 2+BR/2+BA sold in the last 6 months. Of the 30 sales, only 4 sold for over $500/sqft - and they were all real houses/north of Aloha. Big difference.

    check it out
  • biliruben wrote:
    Two weeks, no bites...

    Time for a $500 price drop!
    May 15, 2008 $319,900
    Jun 02, 2008 $319,400
  • Heh. I noticed that this morning as well.

    It's kinda funny, because he gave me this long lecture about dropping aggressively before the listing gets stale.

    I think his profit margin is too thin to cut significantly. He's only making 20K for his 1000 hrs at this price. $20/hr makes it worth the work. A 10K price drop, and it's $10/hr, and he should have gone back to detailing.

    He's probably carrying about 3K/mo in PITI, so he's in a squeeze.

    Again, I really like him and wish him well, but this kinda puts the lie to flipping profitably in a down market. At least with this house it does. I really assumed this would be a tear-down when it went up for sale last fall.
  • biliruben wrote:
    I think his profit margin is too thin to cut significantly. He's only making 20K for his 1000 hrs at this price. $20/hr makes it worth the work. A 10K price drop, and it's $10/hr, and he should have gone back to detailing.

    I think your neighbor is probably going to get a lesson in that accounting concept known as "sunk cost", as it's hard to negotiate your $/hr on the back end.
  • biliruben wrote:
    Heh. I noticed that this morning as well.

    It's kinda funny, because he gave me this long lecture about dropping aggressively before the listing gets stale.

    I don't even think it has anything to do with staleness at this point in time. Let's say in February you priced a house $10k too high. In theory, you should be able to realize that a month later, drop the price $10k and you'd sell.

    The problem is that in that month, the market just fell another $10k because the average comp already dropped their price that much. So you drop your price $10k and you are still overpriced by about the same amount.

    So people are dropping prices faster to try and beat the rest of the market. I've seen a number of place on the east side with $20k-$30k price drops in just the last month.
  • You're both probably right.

    Personally, I am having my doubts it will sell in the 3s. He will end up in the red. The longer he waits to cut, the deeper, darker red it will be.
  • You might suggest to him that he put the square footage in the listing. Otherwise people may assume that the house is too small for them (so small that the seller wants to omit its square footage from the listing).
  • Why? And remove all doubt that it's too small? ;)

    840 sq ft, BTW.

    I don't live there anymore and no longer see him. He never lived there, and probably has little reason to visit. I sold my house a month ago, which had the identical layout when they were both built, in 5 days.
  • biliruben wrote:
    Why? And remove all doubt that it's too small? ;)

    Actually, yeah. As a potential shopper, I essentially rule out any incomplete listings from houses to even look at. If it's missing price, sq footage, or lot size, I'm usually done. If it has only one picture total...and that's a picture of the back fence, I'm often done.
  • It definitely generates immediate negative feelings when they leave it out, but if it looks good otherwise, I just go look it up on the parcel viewer. In fact, even if they do have sq ft, I look it up on the parcel viewer, because I'm pretty adamant about getting 2000 non-basement sq. ft, and the county records are the only place that splits sq ft out by floor.
  • How about MLS 27163445? At $767/sq. ft., it's marked down from $907/sq. ft. It's been 3 months since the last price drop.

    I used to live in that bldg. It was a great place to be a renter in the early 1990s. I'm pretty sure this unit would have rented then for about $1500/mo. Now you can buy it for $1.1MM, plus pay $1150/mo in dues & taxes.
  • That Queen Anne condo started at $1.3M - it won't sell unless it drops another $200k or more; especially given a DOM of 273. It's kind of funny but you can get a SFH for close to the price of a condo given the price per sqft differential. This house (MLS: 28090537) is on the west side of the south slope of Queen Anne. It doesn't have a view but I bet you could get one with the difference (~$260k).
  • Just your standard, run-of-the-mill flip:

    445K last year, 729K today.

    Drop some carpet in the basement so you can "double" the square feet,
    28097614_8_0.jpg

    add some shiny appliances,
    28097614_3_0.jpg

    and profit!
    28097614_0.jpg

    I can't believe the flippers are still playing this game, or trying to.
  • biliruben wrote:
    Just your standard, run-of-the-mill flip:

    445K last year, 729K today.

    Drop some carpet in the basement so you can "double" the square feet,
    28097614_8_0.jpg
    Wow, is it short in here, or is it just me? Target market for this house: Hobbits.
  • In case of fire please exit via Hobbit window...

    King County Records indicates a square footage of 1950 even with a finished basement ($25k worth of labor and materials tops). Above grade (appraised higher) is 1170 sqft or $623/sqft AGLA. Good luck with that in Ravenna.
  • The Tim wrote:
    Wow, is it short in here, or is it just me? Target market for this house: Hobbits.
    The house I'm renting has a ~7' ceiling height in the basement. I kinda like it, since I won't be heating an extra foot of empty space in the winter. Wouldn't want less than 7' though.
  • The Tim wrote:
    Wow, is it short in here, or is it just me? Target market for this house: Hobbits.

    The best part of that picture is the light switch. I've never seen one quite so close to the ceiling of a room before. Usually, they are about 4' high, which would make that a 5' ceiling?

    Being John Malkovich much?

    being-john-malkovich.jpg
  • ah yes, floor 7 and a half.

    good movie
  • Markor wrote:
    I kinda like it, since I won't be heating an extra foot of empty space in the winter. Wouldn't want less than 7' though.

    No kidding. When I see "vaulted ceilings" I read it: "extra cubic footage that you have to heat 9 months out of the year but never get to use."
  • Apparently my flipper bud realized $500 wasn't going to cut it, and decided to take $10/hr. He hopes.

    Price down to 309K.
  • biliruben wrote:
    Apparently my flipper bud realized $500 wasn't going to cut it, and decided to take $10/hr. He hopes.

    Price down to 309K.

    I'm sure it will sell now. After all, according to the description "There is little left to be desired in this fully remodeled home! "

    That must have been some remodel
  • Such is the power of granite!
  • MLS #27214356 is the $425K 2br Bellevue condo of (apparently) the person posting comments on seattlepi.com about how they will absolutely not drop their price, due to Bellevue's future growth prospects. Check out the sales history, price drops so far, and days on market. Ouch!

    I'm bullish on Bellevue myself, but even I don't think this place is worth $425K. Especially not when a real house can be had for less, elsewhere in Bellevue.
  • biliruben wrote:
    Such is the power of granite!

    was that the one thing he left to be desired? cuz sounds like he took everything else with him.
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