Historic Lynchburg Mansion for sale (Richmond: assessors, houses, buy)

[badger74]

Bargain at $800K


Historic Villa Maria property back up for sale - NewsAdvance.com : Local News

[Charlesaf3]

Not so clear it's a bargain...

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by Charlesaf3

Not so clear it's a bargain...

Why?

[VAFan]

The house has been sitting empty for some time. It needs work $$$$. As the below article states, someone with "deep pockets" that is if it gets sold to an individual. Beautiful place.

Lynchburg's Villa Maria On The Market - WSET.com - ABC13

[sregorat3]

Cost of renos are all relative... Knowing a bit about the house, if you sunk 500,000 into the house, and spent a total of 1.3 mil, it would be quite a deal based on the asking prices of high end homes in tht area. The utilities... No big deal if you can afford the house. Some liked the deal, as their was a bup.idding war driving the price up.

[Charlesaf3]

500k would be a nothing budget from the description. And can Lynchburg really support a number of million dollar houses? That comes as an honest surprise to me, I'll have to do a bit of research.

[Charlesaf3]

Nope, it can't. Unless the data are way off, I see 3 sales over 799 in a casual look at the area, with 2 places asking over a million and not getting it. If I were going to fix up a place like that for sale, I'd want to see a million dollar sale every month, to show there was some market. No evidence for that support there, it'd just be a vanity/personal project.

[sregorat3]

If you've spent much time in this part of the state you would know that most sales over 1M are vanity projects. Yes, expensive houses do move and if you dig deeper you'll see more, but suggesting that Lynchburg can't support million dollar houses shows how little you know about this market. Just because there aren't that many sales, doesn't mean that it doesn't happen- maybe you should look at the assessments around that area. Quite a few houses in that area are in the 750k to 1.3M range, and there are enough people here that can afford it. Will they buy right now? Doubtful, but some of the big spenders seem to be coming down from areas like DC. The house wouldn't need more than 500k (this from a contractor who knows about old houses)- unless someone wanted to do that. Less than 2 miles away, a family just completed a house that, upon completion, was appraised for more than 3.5M.
Not trying to be contrary, but I know the area and the people better.

[Charlesaf3]

Not true in Richmond area, which has at least 10 million dollar range sales a month. Lynchburg has... Zero. Assessments are meaningless, it's actual sales that count.

Not to be contrary, but I have just as much old house contracting experience as you I'd guess, and probably a lot more developer experience... It takes an amateur to talk assessments and appraisals, professionals talk sales. Show me some sales, and I'll start to believe you. The rest is just talking smack.

[sregorat3]

If you want to say that the market won't produce many million dollar sales, true. It seemed as though you were suggesting that there weren't existing houses in the price range or of that value in Lynchburg, and that would not be true... and you would use accurate assessments or appraisals to show that they do exist (that seems to be more common sense than amateur). My point is that there are million dollar homes in Lynchburg- not that there are bunches of them for sale or that they sell all the time. Lynchburg and Richmond are very different markets, as you know, and we certainly don't have all the large estates that one sees in and around the Richmond area.
One thing you mentioned, that "if I were going to fix up a place like that for sale, I'd want to see a million dollar sale every month" seems to indicate that you are looking at this from the aspect of a potential ROI. The people who buy a house like this in Lynchburg surely aren't going to be looking at its marketability 2 years down the road, and if so, they won't and shouldn't be interested. While you mentioned my amateur-ness in suggesting values based on assessments, it is a fact that homes in Lynchburg, unlike many other places, are assessed at very close to market price. The city assessors office has spent a tremendous amount of time over the last six years revaluing properties in the city, and we have seen assessments drop dramatically in the last six years.