All Forum Posts by: Ben R.

If it truly hasnt gone to market yet, what has it been doing for the past year?

I've become convinced, at least in my market (and my mind), that listing agents and asset managers are playing games with bank owned property...just my personal viewpoint and I'm sure it is absurd conjecture on my part...

Originally posted by Ben R.:

I have to reserve my file downloads so can't see the pdf but, 5 (6?) bedrooms in a 2700 sq ft dwelling doesn't sound like a good ratio of living to sleeping space...

This is actually an interesting point, and I don't know...as it's not clear how many bedrooms we have...

On the second floor, there is a master and two other bedrooms. Now, the master has an attached office area that has a separate entrance from the hallway, so it *could* be a 4th bedroom up there. But, it's relatively small, so I imagine it would more likely be used for a home office (attached to the master) or an extra walk-in closet. So, from our perspective, there are really only three bedrooms upstairs.

On the main level, there is a formal guest bedroom (next to a full bathroom), and then there is a room at the front of the house that will have glass french doors, so I don't imagine it will be considered a bedroom by most. More like a formal office, sitting room, or some other specialty room. But, of course, it could be a bedroom.

So, we look at it as a 4 bedroom house with a small extra room upstairs that is accessible from the master or from the hall and an extra room on the main level that is multi-purpose. But, I can certainly see how others would view it as a 5- or 6-bedroom house.

Would you have a recommendation for how to use the space if it weren't segregated into separate rooms? Or would you just make the entire house smaller and room the extraneous room or two?

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I would not build it any smaller. 2700 sqft is actually a good size for a home w/ basement, in my opinion. I would limit it to three bedrooms though, especially if there is room to grow in the basement.

I would also pay attention to the number of full baths and how a resident would access that space. I've seen floor plans that require a person to walk through a hallway that is open to the family room and kitchen to get from their bedroom to the bathroom, and the bathroom serves as the powder room for the rest of the family. Not a good layout in my opinion. What makes it worse is that this house (we actually have a contract on this property) has three full bedrooms upstairs plus a media room all served by one full bath. What saves this project is that a little remodeling will allow another bathroom to go in upstairs.

But that is all simply my viewpoint. Your needs and wants are likely completely different.

Just looked at a FSBO is a very sought after neighborhood in North Dallas. Built 1980 3/2 at about 1900 sqft. Owners have gutted the place and want to fix it up themselves and resell. Contractor quoted 10k but to get the price they want its probably more 15-20k. Another issue is the foundation has been repaired twice. First time was before the current owner moved in and no paperwork. The second repair was done during current ownership and their is paperwork.
My question is, does foundation repair diminish value and if so how much? I know if I am going to pay top price for a home I don't want foundation repair.

Planning on fix and flipping this house and I am going to have to convince the owner they might struggle to get the asking price they want.

I might be reading this wrong but, if they plan to fix it themselves, and you anticipate paying top dollar (retail?), how is this a fix and flip opportunity?