Decade-old builder upgrades - how do they hold their value? (Austin: lease, mortgage)

[eirenecat]

Our agent is going to verbally ask the seller's agent if they are willing to entertain offers in the realm of reality--what other, actual recent comps in the neighborhood have sold for in price per sq foot. I suspect they will not be interested, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If not, they can continue to sit on it.

They're living in it, but from the interior, I suspect this may be a situation where their income has dropped from what it was when they purchased the house. They may have some kind of financial distress going on that's pushing the crazy price too, for that matter.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

Our agent is going to verbally ask the seller's agent if they are willing to entertain offers in the realm of reality--what other, actual recent comps in the neighborhood have sold for in price per sq foot. I suspect they will not be interested, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If not, they can continue to sit on it.

They're living in it, but from the interior, I suspect this may be a situation where their income has dropped from what it was when they purchased the house. They may have some kind of financial distress going on that's pushing the crazy price too, for that matter.

Why not just submit a written offer at the price at which you think it reasonable? Takes a few minutes of your time. You'll get your answer in a day or so.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by Eastcoasting

In a more abstract sense I'm trying to imagine what type of decade old builder upgrades would hold their value. With typical wear and tear most cosmetics would be tired, insulation would be hard to quantify for various reasons.

I suppose wider doorways and higher ceilings would have some value if they were absolutely unique in the neighborhood.

Other than that, full brick/stone exterior, tile roof, extra garage bay or "premium" lot is about all I can come up with, really just about the bones of the house.

We added an extra garage bay and an extra bathroom (options)

[mesmer]

Originally Posted by Austin97

We added an extra garage bay and an extra bathroom (options)

I've seen options for extra attic space. I might pay a bit extra for that.

[Eastcoasting]

Originally Posted by mesmer

I've seen options for extra attic space. I might pay a bit extra for that.

I'm not sure that would matter as much to me as I'm trying to figure out what I can and cannot store up there.

I'll state the obvious, a Texas attic gets hot. So aside from disciplining prisoners, dehydrating apricots or making jerky just what to do with a space that regularly hits 150 degrees?

[TexasHorseLady]

Our attic (in an early-last-century house) covers the entire house. While it's not finished out, it is entirely floored. It's a great place to store out of season clothes and just about anything that isn't temperature-sensitive, which is a lot more than you'd expect. And with the appropriate ventilation, it doesn't get anywhere near 150 degrees, though I do try to avoid doing any kind of work up there in the middle of the day in August.

I'm famous for my jerky, and I wouldn't try making jerky up there.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Austin97

We added an extra garage bay and an extra bathroom (options)

This is exactly the kind of upgrade that is likely to maintain value (though not its entire value - don't know of much of anything that will do that) - things that would be an enormous pain and expense, if they were even possible, to do later. In other words, the bones of the building. Higher ceilings and wider doorways will make a house more attractive to buyers because they are major remodeling if at all possible. Ditto with extra garage bays and bathrooms. But not as much as the sellers in the OP are imagining unless there's something we don't know, and the fact that it's been on the market for months would indicate there isn't (other than their financial situation and motivation to sell, which the market doesn't much care about when you get right down to it).

Upgrades like granite and stainless? Don't count on those holding their value because those are subject to the whims of fashion and, depending on what HGTV is telling folks when the house goes on the market, could be a negative to be torn out (no matter how functional) and replaced with the latest trend. At least until the house reaches an age, assuming the bones are good enough (it was built well enough to withstand the ravages of time AND was maintained and well-designed for its time), to become desirable as an example of its period that folks desiring to purchase an older home and restore it to its former glory will jump at the chance to purchase.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by Eastcoasting

I'm not sure that would matter as much to me as I'm trying to figure out what I can and cannot store up there.

I'll state the obvious, a Texas attic gets hot. So aside from disciplining prisoners, dehydrating apricots or making jerky just what to do with a space that regularly hits 150 degrees?

We have extra attic space (it's a walkout, so no big ladder, although we have one of those too), and I LOVE it. I come from the Northeast - land of basements - and boy do I miss them. The attic isn't quite the same, but it's a Godsend when it comes to storing Christmas decorations and such. It gets hot, but most of the things we store up there are holiday related (Halloween , Christmas, Easter) and so we rarely if ever go in during the summer. If we do, we'll do it in the evening, but we're only in there for about a minute or two anyway, so survivable.

[Trainwreck20]

We have a partially finished out attic that we use to store:
- Camping gear
- Seasonal stuff
- Old kids clothes before the younger grows into them.

The soffit/ridge vents keep it livable for the short time that we are ever up there, and all the stuff we put up there is pretty much unaffected by the heat.

But as to the original question, it doesn't matter WHY the house has a sales price, it either does or doesn't have that value to you. Doesn't matter if it has upgrades or not. They either will a) find a buyer for about that price, b) come down in price and sell lower, or c) let it sit forever.

[austin-steve]

Originally Posted by eirenecat

Our agent is going to verbally ask the seller's agent if they are willing to entertain offers in the realm of reality--what other, actual recent comps in the neighborhood have sold for in price per sq foot. I suspect they will not be interested, but it doesn't hurt to ask. If not, they can continue to sit on it.

They're living in it, but from the interior, I suspect this may be a situation where their income has dropped from what it was when they purchased the house. They may have some kind of financial distress going on that's pushing the crazy price too, for that matter.

There is a way to approach this without offending the agent/seller. I just say "we'd like to make an offer but I'm not finding the comps to support the price, and we don't want to offend the seller. Can you send me the comps you think the Appraiser will use to support the value? And the ones you and seller used to price it?"

Once you introduce the appraiser into the discussion, it reminds the seller/agent that even if a buyer is willing to jump that high, it still has to appraise unless you're in a hyper-competitive area of town where buyers are expected to go over value to win.

If all else fails, I agree with the suggestion to send in the offer, and make it well below what you think a fair value is, perhaps just as lower as the seller is higher, then start working to see if the seller is even interested in closing that gap and meeting in the middle, where the right value is.

Steve