Pricing home for sale - agents and assessors please help

[lhall85917]

Originally Posted by TN2HSV

Your post is a few months old, so I hope you've had some luck in the meantime and sold your home

I've really never seen anything like Madison as far as builders/developers starting a new neighborhood and then pulling out and selling their lots. It seems to be a recurring theme! And here I thought ours was the only one

We live in Hardiman Place....my husband was one of the first to build and it's a Dennis Olive home. on the plus side...we have a larger lot and a 3 car garage. But he was told that there would be a pool, yadda, yadda. Of course that didnt' happen. And Alabama Heritage sold their lots to Savvy, and Savvy has built some very cute, nice-looking homes but then a bunch of lots toward the back were bought by Breland (where it connects to Brighton Park) and Breland is KILLING the price/sq ft. We would love to sell & get a bigger place and in a neighborhood that DOES have an active HOA & stricter covenants, and a neighborhood pool, etc. for our kids. But we are stuck because the current value of our home (according to 2 different realtors) is 30-35k less than what it cost brand new. Not to mention, the neighborhood just looks bad. our section of the neighborhood is all brick ranchers with "bigger" (by comparison) lots, then you have the Savvy homes that are 2 story cottagey style homes, then you have the rest of the Alabama Heritage homes and the new Breland homes....I don't know WHAT style you would call those. And it's just a mish-mash of unplanned stuff. I know some people dont' like a restrictive HOA, and some people dont' like the "5 different floorplan" look, but that's better than what we've got going on in our neighborhood

I guess the moral of the story is....don't be one of the first ones to buy/build in a neighborhood!

Unfortunately, our home hasn't sold yet. So discouraging. I know some of the first homes built in our neighborhood paid more than current new homes are priced at, I'm sure there are many reasons.

We have been the first to build in new neighborhoods three different times, and all three made us money within five years. The last was almost twenty years ago so times have changed considerably. It has really caused us to think when we purchase our next house. Although we have only had new homes, we may end up in a pre-owned one when we sell. It will be nice to go into an established neighborhood.

Since you brought it up, I'll just add - if anyone is interested in a beautiful home in the low $300's please message me. We LOVE this neighborhood, the friendliest we have ever lived in, and it is a fantastic house!

[LCTMadison]

Originally Posted by TN2HSV

Breland is KILLING the price/sq ft.

Eh, Breland has not had as big an effect as you would think on Hardiman Place. Prices were dramatically down before Breland picked up those lots and Creekside at Hardiman is a hard sell and has been ever since I can remember. Even Jim Wright struggled in there.

[TN2HSV]

Originally Posted by LCTMadison

Eh, Breland has not had as big an effect as you would think on Hardiman Place. Prices were dramatically down before Breland picked up those lots and Creekside at Hardiman is a hard sell and has been ever since I can remember. Even Jim Wright struggled in there.

Why do you think that is......that Hardiman Place/Creekside has been a tough sell? Reasonably priced, convenient location, Mill Creek & James Clemens schools. you'd think it has a lot going for it.

[bmrisko]

Originally Posted by TN2HSV

Why do you think that is......that Hardiman Place/Creekside has been a tough sell? Reasonably priced, convenient location, Mill Creek & James Clemens schools. you'd think it has a lot going for it.

Maybe it is just me, but we looked at building with AHH there before Stoneridge opened in Cambridge and the neighborhood was just a mish-mash of smaller homes and newer, larger ones in the back with no apparent order. There was obviously not an HOA as we saw cars parked all over, RV trailers parked in driveways, etc. It seemed like you had to drive through a "cluttered" front section to get to the larger new construction homes...most people dropping $300k+ on a home don't want that. Also, there were no amenities to speak of aside from a playground. IMHO, location is about the only thing going for the neighborhood as it just wasn't very physically appealing to us. I hate to sound blunt, but that was the impression we got whenever we went in there to check out AHH and Stoneridge floor plans.

[TN2HSV]

Originally Posted by bmrisko

Maybe it is just me, but we looked at building with AHH there before Stoneridge opened in Cambridge and the neighborhood was just a mish-mash of smaller homes and newer, larger ones in the back with no apparent order. There was obviously not an HOA as we saw cars parked all over, RV trailers parked in driveways, etc. It seemed like you had to drive through a "cluttered" front section to get to the larger new construction homes...most people dropping $300k+ on a home don't want that. Also, there were no amenities to speak of aside from a playground. IMHO, location is about the only thing going for the neighborhood as it just wasn't very physically appealing to us. I hate to sound blunt, but that was the impression we got whenever we went in there to check out AHH and Stoneridge floor plans.

Feel free to be blunt! LOL. Unfortunately, I agree with your assessment. But the cars parking on the street has actually improved a lot. Dennis Olive was using one of his empty spec houses as his construction "office" for a while and there were constantly cars, construction guys' trucks, etc. parked up & down the street. Thankfully someone bought that house and I guess he moved his makeshift office elsewhere, and that has taken care of the "clutter" in front. The good news is that the Breland homes, although smaller & less expensive, are selling very quickly in the neighborhood and hopefully that means it will be built-out by the time we are ready to put ours on the market.