oldfort

arabrab - I would do the minimum to make the house look presentable - fix holes, paint everything neutral color. I would re-do master bath flooring with white tiles, not too expensive.

As a buyer, I won't pay up for renovation unless it is top quality and my taste. Real estate agents like to tell me, "bathrooms are completely renovated." But why did they use that shining greyish tile? Kitchen completely renovated? Most of time, it's not the kind of cabinet I would have picked out, and wrong color counter top.

We are almost in contract for an apartment with non-objectionable upgrades, but we'll want to completely re-do bathrooms and the kitchen and maybe even move some walls. We are giving the seller a little bit more for his upgrades than other apartments as is.

emilybee

Two houses just sold on my street. One has been on the market since last June, was way overpriced and they kept dropping it in increments of $10K (a total of $50K) until finally the priced it where I felt it should have been all along. What they eventually got I've no idea yet.

The other house - which is more like mine - included new addition/kitchen/family room - was on the market in 2010 at a ridiculously high price, didn't sell and was taken off the market. Back on again at end of 2011 for $30K less (still high, imo) but it sold in about two months - which is very good during winter months in upstate NY - the slowest selling period around here for $20K less than asking price.

The third house on my street has also been on the market since June. They were asking way too much also. It was off the market for a few months in early fall, then back on the market in Dec. also $30K less. It's in great shape, very well maintained and on a double lot. I'm curious to see what happens now that the selling/buying season is really getting started.

I started a business last fall prepping homes for sale, inside and out (have lots of friends who are realtors and they pay me, not the seller) and I don't suggest gutting kitchens, bathrooms, etc. I advocate simple fixes (paint colors, take down wall paper and if there are any borders, they have to go, if their is carpet over hardwood, rip it out, if not, make sure carpet is it super clean. take out furniture (it's amazing how many people have every inch of space in their homes filled,) cut down overgrown shrubs, move plants which are crowded out, and don't, fgs, put a POD in the driveway - pay for storage space.

I arrange for any workman that need to come, take the seller to the paint store to pick out colors and do hands on de-cluttering, and will assist the seller with the landscaping part if they can do the work themselves without needing a landscape maintenance. I'm an avid gardener so unless they are elderly, I can help the seller with most of the things that can be done outside to spruce up their home.

Arabrab, if you want PM me and I will give you my email and you can send me pictures. I'd be happy to offer you my opinion.

oldfort

We have been looking at a lot of apartments, and I can't believe how messy people's closets could be. If I knew people would be opening my closets, I would at least fold my clothes or hang them up.

mathmom

I'd pay for paint and a plain tile on the bathroom floor. I might put wood on the slab. I know I considered it a huge plus that the house I am living in now had real oak floors under the hideous pink carpet. I don't actually know what's better - we have very few slabs around here. I wouldn't bother with the kitchen. Someone might think that aqua oven is cool and it's too easy to spend money on granite that someone else will hate.

vballmom

The Bay Area continues to heat up w/respect to real estate. The house in Palo Alto that I mentioned a few pages ago, with 38 offers, is shown here. You'd think for $1.65million you'd get a working oven, but apparently not.

Buyers compete for short supply of homes in Bay Area - San Jose Mercury News

BCEagle91

Looks like cost of living may be a reason to expand tech companies in other areas like Massachusetts:

Westford - Internet technology provider Red Hat signed a lease agreement this week with the Gutierrez Company to expand on Route 110, choosing to stay in town rather than move to one of two locations in Silicon Valley.

Read more: Red Hat will expand in Westford - Lowell Sun Online

(180 new full-time jobs over 5 years)

VeryHappy

vballmom, that is one ugly house for $1.65 million. The closet doors aren't attached right in the bedroom they show.

dstark

Vballmom...that is a great link...

""It's amazing what's not out there right now," he said. "There are only 32 homes in the whole city of Santa Clara. We're down 74 percent from February....
Sales were up across the Bay Area in February, the strongest showing for that month in five years, according to DataQuick, a real estate information service.
Silicon Valley is having its fourth-highest year in sales since 2000, said Richard Calhoun of Creekside Realty in San Jose. Calhoun, who has tracked the inventory of homes for sale in Santa Clara County for more than a decade, said that in some parts of Silicon Valley, including the Palo Alto area, the entire stock of homes for sale would be exhausted in less than a month.
"The housing market has definitely bottomed and is on a recovery path," said Ken Rosen, chairman at the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. "I think it is a real recovery happening, around the whole country."

performersmom

Tear-down in Palo Alto, ya think?

hayden

Things must be picking up a bit around my part of the country. Some homes that went on the market the end of Feb / beginning of March are already under contract. The prices were realistic, but not lowballed. Nice to see some good news.

vballmom

I don't think that Palo Alto house will be a teardown. It looks like a typical 1950s Brown and Kaufman tract house which generally age fairly well. The print edition of the Merc has a photo of the front of the house.

Here's a similar house in Palo Alto that has been renovated:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/ga....html?_r=2&hpw

DrGoogle

Too many short sale released in my area. Unbelievable. Heard some local companies will be laying off too. Not good for housing.

BCEagle91

I had a look at one of the many layoff tracker blogs out there and things don't seem as bad as they did after the internet crash where there were a lot of announcements with numbers in the thousands. Most of the stuff I see is below 100 with some places cutting several hundred.

Layoffs are definitely bad for housing though too.

I think that banks releasing too many properties at once is also a problem. They seem to be pretty good at dribbling them out in my area.

DrGoogle

BC, lots of condo and townhouse types. I have never seen this many. Before the bubble, it's hard to find 2-3 bedroom in $200K-$300K range. Now there are plenty. The problem is that banks still keep the asking price too high. If prices are not too high there will be more movement.

BCEagle91

The banks keeping the asking price high is working in my area.

There was a foreclosure in my neighborhood (not the flood) that was in pretty poor shape. A contractor bought it for his daughter and spent about six months renovating it. He lives 50 miles away and came up on weekends and sometimes during the week to work on it. I thought that he got a fantastic deal on it but I found out that he bought it for about $10K less than market. I spoke to his wife one time and she told me that it wasn't worth it. I'm curious as to what the flooded place sold for - though I'm not completely sure that they bought the place - they could be renting from the bank.

I just had a look at Zillow on the property. It looks like it sold at market - the bank did do a fair amount of work on the place. I'd say that it sold at about $35K below peak. I believe that the previous owner bought around the peak though I don't know how much he put down (perhaps nothing).

Looking a little wider, I do see several that were sold recently at lower prices and one really distressed sale. The distressed sale might have been something like a sale to a relative. The price was 40% of peak and way below market. I have seen those sometimes on the town transfer cards (saw one for $1 a long time ago) and I don't think that those are normal market transactions.

It seems to me that the banks are better at getting higher prices than individuals. Of course the banks are backstopped by the Fed with low interest rates and they can afford to carry these places longer than a distressed homeowner.