which house is better? (Plano, West: days on market, comparable sales, for sale)

[Reaare]

8008 Stone Ridge Dr Plano TX - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #11591172 - Realtor.com®
4409 English Oak Dr Plano TX - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #11587375 - Realtor.com®

For the first one, the kitchen looks cheap; the dining,living, and the master br are small. Also, are the west facing rooms too hot in the summer? After all, it is in Texas.
As for the second, I wonder what's wrong with it. It looks not bad; the price is not ridiculous. why it stands on the market more than half a year?

Could you please share any opinions? Tks

[Ryan Kirkpatrick]

You will be well served working with a quality Realtor to answer your questions.

I'm a do it yourselfer typically like you (as it sounds like you are taking this on without help), but a good agent is worth more than the hard earned gold that you will most likely be losing in negotiating a purchase. I know many others will agree with me on this board.

To answer the West facing windows question, you can get treatments for the windows, but it is definitely something to consider when make your purchase.

Good luck,

Ryan

[Reaare]

Thanks for your reply.
I do have an agent, but he is not willing to give me his own opinions.
I have to figure it out by myself.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Ask the broker of the firm to assign you a new agent.

[nsumner]

huh??? Your own agent doesn't want to give you his opinion? what does he get paid for then? He can point out the pros/cons of the house, neighborhood, did he give you a market analysis to see which home is the better value?

Naima

[loves2read]

agent does not want to stick his neck out and then be blamed if the customer is unhappy--

but the customer may be phrasing the questions in the wrong way--
they need to be objective/qualified--not OPINION questions

[Philip T]

This is funny, a person just asking straight-up, simple questions can no longer get straight-up, simple answers.

Originally Posted by Reaare

8008 Stone Ridge Dr Plano TX - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #11591172 - Realtor.com®
4409 English Oak Dr Plano TX - Home For Sale and Real Estate Listing - MLS #11587375 - Realtor.com®

Observations -- these are both in the same school areas, so that must be something you are already happy with? (Big Deal in Texas). And they are both in various Sub-Division land, so that must also be something you are happy with?

For the first one, the kitchen looks cheap; the dining,living, and the master br are small. Also, are the west facing rooms too hot in the summer? After all, it is in Texas.

Kitchens can be re-done if that really matters to you. You can even turn the dining and living rooms into a "great room," if they are on a common wall. Put that in your trade-off budget. As far as utilities and Texas. Ask and require utility bills for a year or two backwards. That way you can know-before-you-go.

As for the second, I wonder what's wrong with it. It looks not bad; the price is not ridiculous. why it stands on the market more than half a year?

There is a LOT of back-logged real estate on the market. Those DOM (days on market) dates are no longer what they used to be. Some "savvy" folks pull them off the list and re-list them to get a shorter date. We have looked at some go up to year, and then get re-listed with a shorter date.

Could you please share any opinions? Tks

jmho -- There is still a lot of downward pressure on Real Estate. Even here in the less impacted area(s) of the "Great Recession." We are still observing prices floating downward and decided to rent a somewhat similar house to your candidates -- but on some acreage out in the county near your candidates, for a good deal less than what the house payment + taxes would be.

If you are new to the area, and not absolutely certain you will be here until the Great Recovery (whenever That is coming) renting may be a smarter thing for you, too. Most folks leasing their homes will give you an option to buy, if it turns out to be what you really, really want (which does not sound like either of these are).

But renting means that means you do not have to love the place, but can get to know the area, decide if it is really right for you, and then buy when prices have bottomed and you have to time to find what you really want, without facing any of the downside risk.

[mikeh19468]

Originally Posted by loves2read

agent does not want to stick his neck out and then be blamed if the customer is unhappy--

but the customer may be phrasing the questions in the wrong way--
they need to be objective/qualified--not OPINION questions

The agent is being retained to provide opinions based on their knowledge and experience. The houses they provide for us to look at are based on their opinion of whether or not they'll meet the standards I'm looking for, and should tell us why. If they're simply going to recite basic facts, and look for a 4 br/2.5 ba 2750 sq ft house that's less than 5 years old and in a certain zip code, I'll sit at home and shop via realtor.com.

Although if you can sue doctors for having bad opinions, I suppose there's a lawyer someplace that would take on the case of suing a realtor for having a bad opinion...

[emilymail]

english oak house was built in 94, on market since oct'10 current price 260 & original price was 268k, tax value 252 and zillow estimate is 228

stone ridge was built in 99, recently came on market (unless they relisted) price is 273, tax value 259 & zillow estimate is 243

just by looking at the pics, english oak looks better to me and i think you can negotiate better for a house that's been on the market for a while.
do get cma & inspection reports before you decide but i'm guessing you can get that for as low as 245k

disclaimer : layman's opinion

[nsumner]

Originally Posted by emilymail

english oak house was built in 94, on market since oct'10 current price 260 & original price was 268k, tax value 252 and zillow estimate is 228

stone ridge was built in 99, recently came on market (unless they relisted) price is 273, tax value 259 & zillow estimate is 243

just by looking at the pics, english oak looks better to me and i think you can negotiate better for a house that's been on the market for a while.
do get cma & inspection reports before you decide but i'm guessing you can get that for as low as 245k

disclaimer : layman's opinion

Don't look at all at the zestimate from Zillow. It's useless in TX because it's a non disclosure state and sales prices are not public. They use public data to compute the zestimate and since only the loan amounts are recorded, this squews the data big time.

Tax assessed value doesn't reflect the market value.

Only a market analysis will show you what the value of any particular house is. We use comparable sales from no further than 6 months, the same approach appraisers do, and homes that are in the immediate area, taking into consideration upgrades, location (busy street, corner lot, overhead power lines) and more to determine what the value of a home should be.

This is one of the most valuable tools that a Realtor brings to the table.

One of the above homes was listed for less than it is listed today just a few months ago, this wouldn't be something that would be public record either. Your Realtor should have shared that with you unless they are not acting as a buyer's agent.

Naima