HELP!-- 3 Families Moving from NYC to Pittsburgh???? (Lebanon, Aliquippa: apartment, lease)

[By~Tor]

Originally Posted by targetsdad

By~Tor,

So sorry to hear about your place in Dormont - I have been following your post on your move to the Burgh.

If you are interested, I have a single family home in Mt. Lebanon that I could do a lease option with you on. It is on a bus line and is under a half a mile to the shopping district on Beverly Road. Its a 3 bedroom / 1.5 bath brick home with hardwood floors, a garage, and a yard.

Shoot me a message with an email address and I can send you photos and other info about the place.

Thank you so much; I've already sent you a Direct Message with the info, and hopefully, we'll get a chance to meet up next weekend when I'm in town.


JUST A THOUGHT: - - - To all those who might think Pittsburgh as an insular and forbidding place, I can only point to the kind offer this person made to me, as evidence to the contrary... I don't even know him (her?), and yet, they are willing to take a chance with me... and I can't think that I'm ALL that different from most people in this world, so I have to put it off, on the impression I have of Pittsburgh as a place where people are friendly, open and willing to lend a hand....

New York may be the "Big Apple", and Chicago the "City of Broad Shoulders", and Philly definitely mislabelled as the "City of Brotherly Love", but if I were to ascribe a name to Pittsburgh, it would have to be "The City That Opens It's Arms Up and Welcomes You"......... thanks, again.... to everyone who has been following this thread, ofering help, and of course, for the kind thoughts.

--Mike

[By~Tor]

Okay, targetsdad. . . it's been a week, and I haven't heard anything back from ya'.... hope you didn't just sign me up for a bunck of spam emails or something.... I'm leaving out for Pittsburgh today, so if you have that house for me to see tomorrow, I really need your info today, please....


Thanks...

[hongkyongnae]

Hello. I have just finished reading this mega-thread and I want to thank you all for the pix and info on pittsburgh. Great job!

I will move to Pittsburgh in May and work at U. Pitt. I am looking at houses in Point Breeze South and Regent Square.

Here are my questions for everyone...
(1) Are these good neighborhoods?
(2) How much can you bargain a house price down in Pittsburgh? Having lived in NY and Seattle, usually 10-15% is possible. (e.g. if house price is $150,000, I plan to offer $127,500 to $135,000).

Thanks in advance for any info and advice you can provide.

(By the way, from my perspective, I was really surprised at how many homes in Pittsburgh have only 1 bathroom!)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by hongkyongnae

Hello. I have just finished reading this mega-thread and I want to thank you all for the pix and info on pittsburgh. Great job!

I will move to Pittsburgh in May and work at U. Pitt. I am looking at houses in Point Breeze South and Regent Square.

Here are my questions for everyone...
(1) Are these good neighborhoods?

Yes indeed, among the best in the East End, and they have been steadily improving. I'd suggest only Shadyside and Squirrel Hill are more established, and you have probably figured out the prices in Shadyside and Squirrel Hill are a bit higher.

(2) How much can you bargain a house price down in Pittsburgh? Having lived in NY and Seattle, usually 10-15% is possible. (e.g. if house price is $150,000, I plan to offer $127,500 to $135,000).

By way of background, in the neighborhoods you are looking pricing is very tricky: there are a large variety of homes available in terms of size, age, style, features, condition, and so on, which often makes identifying comparables a bit tricky. There also hasn't been a huge amount of turnover, in part because these are not particularly large neighborhoods, so the best comparables may not be particularly recent.

So, pricing in these neighborhoods is a lot more art than science with the reasonable range often being pretty broad, and what you can expect the home to actually sell for in relation to the list price really just depends on what the seller was thinking. For example, some sellers might have priced on the high end of the reasonable range assuming they would bargain down, and others might have priced in the low-mid end hoping to generate a lot of interest right away.

In fact, it hasn't been uncommon in my neighborhood (Regent Square) for a nice home that was priced on the low side to generate a bit of a bidding war and end up quickly selling above list. Indeed, I've heard of homes basically selling at the agents' open house, or right after it hits the MLS. What that indicates is a decent backlog of people looking in these neighborhoods and waiting to bid on a good new opportunity (often people in the neighborhoods looking to upgrade, or people currently renting).

The upshot is that you may end up having to pay anything from your 10-15% below list to something actually above list to get a particular house. But none of that is necessarily unreasonable, given the difficulty of identifying recent comparables.

(By the way, from my perspective, I was really surprised at how many homes in Pittsburgh have only 1 bathroom!)

That was the standard for many Pittsburgh homes of even a pretty decent size built before WWII or so. I don't know how they did it, but families would raise 5, 6, 7, or more kids in these 4-6 bedroom, 1 bathroom houses.

Anyway, the market has definitely moved to 2+ baths being standard for fully-renovated 3+ bedroom homes, but as you are noting you can still find a lot of 1 bath places hitting the market. The good news is that if you otherwise like the place and the price is right, it can make sense to buy a one-bath place and add a second bath (if you don't go crazy with what you spend, it is a fairly safe investment). Or you can find a house where someone has already done that themselves, understanding that such a home is indeed worth a bit more than one with just a single bath.

[By~Tor]

Well, in OUR case (and for those of you following, we DID find a lease-option house this weekend and are currently in bargaining phase), we have found that 10% - 15% is a reasonable amount to count on, DEPENDING ON the following factors:

* How long the house has been on the market...
* Asking price vs. fair market Value...
* Seller's Motivation to Sell....
* Inspection results

There are other factors as well you may find in your individual circumstance, but in ours, we're trying creative structuring of the offer, so as to both allow the seller to get as much as they can for the property, and still alow us to get closer to the number we need to be at to make the deal workable....

Good luck with your hunt, and let us know what you find !!!!

Originally Posted by hongkyongnae

Hello. I have just finished reading this mega-thread and I want to thank you all for the pix and info on pittsburgh. Great job!

I will move to Pittsburgh in May and work at U. Pitt. I am looking at houses in Point Breeze South and Regent Square.

Here are my questions for everyone...
(1) Are these good neighborhoods?
(2) How much can you bargain a house price down in Pittsburgh? Having lived in NY and Seattle, usually 10-15% is possible. (e.g. if house price is $150,000, I plan to offer $127,500 to $135,000).

Thanks in advance for any info and advice you can provide.

(By the way, from my perspective, I was really surprised at how many homes in Pittsburgh have only 1 bathroom!)

[hongkyongnae]

Many thanks to both of you. Pittsburgh is a fascinating city in part because it has such strong and diverse identities among its many neighborhoods. Reminds me a bit of NY that way.

We should decide on a place in the next week or two. Right now, it is either a place we really like, but is a shade outside our budget (though I do plan to bargain) and a very well kept home that is very reasonably priced.... but is one room and one bathroom too small.

decisions, decisions.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by hongkyongnae

Many thanks to both of you. Pittsburgh is a fascinating city in part because it has such strong and diverse identities among its many neighborhoods. Reminds me a bit of NY that way.

Indeed, and often that is a result of similar forces, such as a long and complicated history and the local geography breaking up the city.

We should decide on a place in the next week or two. Right now, it is either a place we really like, but is a shade outside our budget (though I do plan to bargain) and a very well kept home that is very reasonably priced.... but is one room and one bathroom too small.

decisions, decisions.

If you haven't already, one obvious thing to do is check how long the more expensive place has been on the market, on the theory that if it has been a while, the seller may be getting antsy--although we are just now approaching the more active part of the year.

[By~Tor]

Okay, so here's where we're at (for those following along):

The original loan fell through, due to my gal not already having a job offer or verification letter for the Pittsburgh area, so we had to start ALL OVER, looking for a house, only THIS time, we were limited to Lease-Purchase options only, so that we would NOT have to provide said verification. Even with ME having a good job offer, since I'm NOT going to be on the loan itself, it does no good. . . . she had to have the job verification, which makes sense, although it's a severe pain in the ***** having t ostart over...

SO - - that said, we FOUND a GREAT house in Mt. Lebanon, even BETTER than the one in Dormont, and we both fell in love with it, immediately, and have made an offer on it. We're currently in negotiation with the seller's agent, and working thru the issues involved, and HOPEFULLY (Crosses Fingers and Knocks Wood), we will be able to make our move and take occupancy on May 15th.... which is good, since I cannot even START my job, until after I move, get proof of "residency", and obtain my PA Driver's License.... so, they are holding the job offer open for me for now, and they are true saints for doing so, especially considering the timeline we're faced with....

Better still, my gal has an interview this coming Monday at the Nat'l Headquarters for a well-known retail clothing company, so we will be coming back into town for that, and to set up a bank account in a local bank. Hopefully, we can get the home inspection completed over the weekend, as well.

This whole ordeal has been a long process, and the Finding Of The House is actually the EASIEST part!!!! It's everything ELSE that is such a dog & pont show... and at 40 years of age, I almost feel like we shouldn't have to be jumping thru so many hoops, but with the mortgage crisis as it is, I suppose I can understand their reasoning...

Here are a few more pics we took last weekend, showing the house itself, as well as a few various other pics I'll throw in, for grins.... enjoy, and if you guys have any advice, I'm alllll ears!!!

Cheers!

--Mike

[BrianTH]

As I believe I mentioned before, I didn't think it would hurt you too much on the house front to have to be looking again, and I am very glad it seems to be working out.

By the way, that is a great-looking house in general, and also very much what I associate with Mt. Lebanon, which is justifiably a very popular neighborhood.

[By~Tor]

Okay, so this past weekend, we made the Banzai Run from NYC to PGH again, staying on the Southside for my gal's Monday morning job interview at A.E.Outfitters.... which seemed to go well enough, and hopefully, she'll get a callback.

Then, we met with the owner of the house in question, who had understandable questions as to our solvency and ability to get the loan for the sale next year, after leasing the place for a year. And there really was no answer to give her, except that we'll do everything within our power to make the sale a reality, but no one can really determine where the housing market is going to be in a year, or whether ANY of us will still have jobs. . . . . hell, the whole world may erupt in flames, for all we know....

But that meet & greet seemed to go good, and I think she got a genuine understanding of us, as potential tenants/buyers.... I hope she will be able to see past the risks involved, and let us in there so we can start the building process, instead of pissing money away going back & forth, trying to find a place to start off in... my job offer won't last forever, I'm sure....

Anyway, so we left out Monday night about 5:30, and with no fewer than three HUGE traffic jams along the way back, we didn't arrive back in NYC until 12:30Am, and I am a complete zombie today.... someone please shoot me, or at least give me a shot of adrenaline or something, to combat this malaise.....