$250K Worth of Grey Paint? (Pittsburgh, Dormont: house, to buy, taxes)

[SteelCityRising]

A property can't be "overpriced" if there's a willing buyer.

I mean I think it's ridiculous how much some people ask for homes in Polish Hill these days, but if people are willing to PAY $300,000+ for them, then they aren't truly overpriced.

[justjagginyinz]

A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Ethical investors deserve to make as much profit as they can. It is a sellers market at present, so more power to them.

[Knepper3]

Here we are a month later and it is still for sale. People can price something, the market will tell them if they have it right. Was $325k, dropped to $310k about 2 weeks ago. Still a nice house but they might have just done a little too much for the area.

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by justjagginyinz

A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Ethical investors deserve to make as much profit as they can. It is a sellers market at present, so more power to them.

As long as they pay cash.

[Knepper3]

Originally Posted by Copanut

As long as they pay cash.

Or a portion if it doesnt appraise. I mean if it appraised for $290k they would only need to make up the difference if you couldnt negotiate it.

[Doowlle34]

I'm generally of the "let the market decide" school -- but I guess I could be persuaded that a municipality should, at least, consider licensing property rehabbers and/or picking their pocket a bit, er, I mean taxing them a bit more heavily -- at least based on the John Dillinger theory of taxation ("Why do we tax rehabbers more heavily, because that's where the money is").

As a demonstrative, this property here, which is already under contract, may be an example of when flipping goes wrong:

https://www.howardhanna.com/Property...stpenn/1399358

The former owner may be the fellow who is mentioned in this article as using ill-gotten gains to finance his property flipping:

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/ov...s/201708300173

[Knepper3]

I don't agree. Aside from the various costs/issues with any municipality setting up a licensing program or tax (a city transfer tax if under so many months of ownership??). I think there would be a great deal of issues trying to do this and in the end they might just cause flippers/rehabbers to look elsewhere thus not getting the revenue AND not improving the area.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by Knepper3

I don't agree. Aside from the various costs/issues with any municipality setting up a licensing program or tax (a city transfer tax if under so many months of ownership??). I think there would be a great deal of issues trying to do this and in the end they might just cause flippers/rehabbers to look elsewhere thus not getting the revenue AND not improving the area.

Bingo

A license/tax would be ridiculous

[Copanut]

Originally Posted by Knepper3

Or a portion if it doesnt appraise. I mean if it appraised for $290k they would only need to make up the difference if you couldnt negotiate it.

A person would have to be really stupid to do that. Like my sister in law who did exactly that.

[Copanut]

As to the OP, what's wrong with making a profit? I'm amazed by the prices in LarryLand. 16 foot wide townhouses for +300K. No thanks. But, apparently there is a market for that.