<h1>21 - North Park Original Spanish</h1>
<p>Here are the details about the house. This house is located in North Park and is only 1 block from Morley Field in the Balboa Park area. There are a couple of streets in this neighborhood in very high demand and this is one of them. The other area of North Park in high demand is a small set of streets called ‘Altadena’.</p>
<p>For those of you outside of Southern California you are just going to choke at the value of this home.</p>
<p>2 bedroom / 1 bath
900 sf
Only 3,500 sf lot ( that’s not a typo).
Barely any room in back for patio, definitely not enough room for any kind of sq ft addition</p>
<p>My estimate of fixed up future sale price = $560,000 (yes, I know, ridiculous!!!)
Original Craftsman style homes and original Spanish homes in high demand. I personally like the Craftsman style better</p>
<p>My first offer was going to be $410,000 with $40,000 deposit against the $427,000 asking price.
Listing agent said I needed to be at $415,000 to get the house.
While Listing Agent was meeting with the Seller to review my offer another full price offer came in
I reviewed my options with the Listing Agent and agreed to increase my offer to $418,500 (and I secretly know that she reduced her commission to 5% to get the sale, thus making my offer worth about $4,300 more = $422,800)
Before she could present my new offer to the Seller, the other offer came in and finalized at $427,000 with some of the same creative terms - including releasing $10,000 of deposit to Seller (very mysterious how they had same terms)</p>
<p>At this point I panicked because I just couldn’t believe that I would be able to sell this little bungalow for $560,000 after renovation. I went back to my agent (who will sell it in the future) and made her go through everything in MLS with me. She was able to find 5-6 comparables of same size (in average condition but not excellent condition), same half lot size, that sold within 7 days on market at $560,000 to $575,000 last year. The higher sales were during the March/April 2013 time frame when sales were really heating up in that neighborhood. The $560,000 was during October 2013 when sales were slowing everywhere. There are not any recent sales because this neighborhood just has no inventory, thus the high prices.</p>
<p>So, based on the $560,000 future sale price and the fact that, just once, I want to beat out the big boys I increased my offer to $420,000. Even though my offer was about $1,200 lower in net gain after costs to the Seller, she chose to sell to me because she liked me and had seen photos of some of my previous projects. Her Financial Advisor (who was there to sign with her) advised that $1,200 was one month’s living costs in her retirement, she still chose my offer. She needs every dollar from this sale for her retirement. There is no mortgage on the house and I am guessing that she has no retirement savings at all (since she doesn’t even have a couple of thousand dollars to go rent a new apartment).</p>
<p>Purchase Price = $420,000 (plus some closing costs)
Estimated Renovation = $60,000
Estimated Closing and Carrying Costs = $30,000</p>
<p>Closing and Carrying Costs are the items that the television shows and cocktail party flippers forget to mention 
</p>
<p>I have loaded some photos I took to a new Flickr Group - CC Flip Project 2. </p>
<p><a href=“Flickr Login”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■/groups/2560169@N22/</a></p>
<p>If this doesn’t work, please send a private message and I will share the link with you</p>
<p>I’ll keep everyone posted as the saga continues.</p>