All Forum Posts by: Phyllis E.

bumping this post up to get in front of  my other one that got inadvertently posted by mistake , before I had even finished the title! Sorry!

Ignore this post--it got inadvertently posted before I even finished writing the title! (And btw--it is hard to squeeze a decent title into the allotted space!) Is it possible to delete inadvertent posts like this?

How can I find out which single family homes, listed for sale online, have potential rental suites, without having to call a real estate agent? I have done key word searches on things like "in-law suite" or "in-law apartment", etc. but there are so many different terms that might be used that this method isn't very efficient.  This area has lots of finished basements , and many may already have kitchenettes and bathrooms, etc that could potentially be rented out. Are there any real estate websites that identify houses with this feature? I can't seem to find out how to easily locate this kind of property for a potential "house hack"! Thanks for any tips that would make searching easier. I am  only in the "looking " stage right now, so I don't want to bother with a realtor at this point. 

How much do buyers care about the brand names

Did they realize that you were willing to buy it "as is"? Perhaps they thought they would have to fix up the property before it was "sell-able"? That could be overwhelming to an owner if the property is in bad shape.  Or perhaps, he was too embarrassed  to even show you inside, which you would inevitably want to do, even if buying it "as is"! Or, perhaps he wants to hang on to the property it in the hopes that real estate will be appreciating wildly again, like it did in the early 2000's?  Just some random guesses.... 

oops- I didn't even realize that my last post was sent inadvertently before I finished it! I was going to comment, with that last, unfinished sentence, that there is a beautiful McMansion, not too far from us (in very expensive "horse" farm country on the road we take to get up to Annapolis) that has been sitting vacant, with a for sale sign out front, ever since it was built over 10 years ago! We all call it the "mystery" house, because no one can figure out why it would be sitting vacant for so long, without adjusting the price as necessary to sell? That is an example of a real estate investment gone very, very wrong! (Mr. Brazil, or any one else from the area, do you have any idea of the home I am talking about? It is in Lothian (or possibly it has a Harwood address, off Mt. Zion- Marlboro Road?)

Thanks, Steve. Are you doing most of the rehab work yourself in order to get at least 100% ROI? I'm not in a high end market; believe it or not, $400,000 is not high end here (that is why we are moving--too expensive of an area!) The high end market seems to have suffered the most in our area, because there is still so much buildable land and acreage that, as one realtor explained to me, if people are going to spend over $500,000 they figure that they may as well just build themselves a brand new house and get it exactly how they want it! A lot of those originally over-priced McMansions in my area were built right before the real estate bust, so many of them went into, or are now in, foreclosure. Sometimes the price per square foot seems ridiculously low, even for a very large home. (I realize that, in general, as the size goes up, the cost per sq. foot usually goes down somewhat.) Maybe Mr. Brazil can comment on this!

There is a McMansion

Thanks once again, Mr. Brazil. Interesting comment about differentiating between "investing" in your home vs getting it ready for sale! I never thought of it that way before. I assume getting it ready for sale means "you aren't going to get more money for your home, but it will help it sell for the average going rate", correct? You are bringing up some very good points. I am going to listen to your BP podcast right now--somehow I must have missed that one! I might start looking at the Bowie area for potential flips--I am comfortable there as it is one of my "shopping districts" I go to frequently (we don't have much in the way of major shopping in Calvert County!) Thanks again for such helpful advice!

Thanks, Mindy! I actually did buy some new vanities, tops and faucets (I have two in my master bathroom!) from Home Depot! The shower stall is in good condition, (and is white "fake" tile --goes with my "white and bone" color scheme idea!) as it is newer (we had to replace the original tiled one years ago because they used to put tile directly on regular drywall back in the "good ol' days" -ugh, :-(   ). Right now it has a glass sliding shower door. Do you think a shower curtain would be better?

I see you are in Colorado, which I understand is a very hot market right now!  Ours is just "so, so", unfortunately. Some homes sell quickly, others sit, sometimes for years!

Thanks for the insight, Mr. Brazil, especially since you are from the same general area! Wow! That is quite an eye opener!!!  We live in the very northern end of Calvert County, which is still within easy commuting distance to D.C. and Andrews AFB, and we have good schools and a very "family-friendly", low-crime, country lifestyle out here. Most homes are on at least an acre or more.  (We are a very rural to semi-rural county, just south of Anne Arundel County, on the southern part of the western shore of the Chesapeake for those of you not from this area.) So I guess we would fall into the category of not getting an increase in sales price for remodeling the bathroom!  My home would probably sell in the low to mid $400K's, and it is probably a mid-range home in size and quality for this area. We have a lot of newer, larger homes that were built in the area during the  building boom of the 90's-2006, so I guess I thought that an updated bathroom might help. But to tell the truth, in looking at photos of local homes for sale in our price range, not many have really updated bathrooms either, anyway!!  (What about replacing our front concrete walkway, which is badly pitted and cracked, and slopes the wrong way (toward the house) , with a new paver walkway? Would that also not increase value of the home, or is "curb appeal" different?)

Thanks also for the honest info about flips being harder to do profitably in the nicer areas. I have been "tracking"(for information purposes) a few homes that were flips in our county, and I can see what you mean.  I have been looking at auction sites, too, and driving by homes, but haven't really seen any great deals here locally; now you have helped me understand why. Last year, I did read that Prince George's County was one of the most profitable areas to flip homes out of the entire country, but I wasn't sure exactly where, since it is such a huge county. I couldn't understand it, since the school district is not very good (an understatement!) and crime and taxes are high! Are flips more profitable there because the properties in bad condition in PG county go for such a bargain? What areas of the county are "gentrifying?", btw?  

Thanks again.