Rehabbing old house cost? (Pittsburgh, Lawrenceville: condo, mortgages, neighborhoods)

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Then why not leave the chimney open and rustic, exactly as they do upstairs?

Oh...maybe they routed utility vents through the front chimney? That's stupid (everyone knows you should use the rear chimney) but plausible.

They probably just had gas stoves, rather than fireplaces, especially upstairs.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by gg

I of course can shave more off your estimate, but I have been around longer. You can shave off materials if you have contractor accounts. It is a pretty good savings. Also, I swing a hammer and a lot of other things when I do a home. The property looks like it has potential. Come on UK, go for it.

Unfortunately the new information I gleaned from the realtor on post #24 makes any such consideration moot regarding how it's listed & some odd string of ownership for the parcel.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by doo dah

They probably just had gas stoves, rather than fireplaces, especially upstairs.

Even so, the "rustic" look of open, unfinished brick chimneys is in now. It only costs a few hundred to hire a bricklayer to deal with missing/broken bricks, and you can clean off the bricks yourself (provided you buy muriatic acid, and are comfortable working with it).

Originally Posted by UKyank

Unfortunately the new information I gleaned from the realtor on post #24 makes any such consideration moot regarding how it's listed & some odd string of ownership for the parcel.

There look to be several other gut jobs of similar price or cheaper on the North Side right now.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by eschaton

There look to be several other gut jobs of similar price or cheaper on the North Side right now.

If you have some links to some Id appreciate it as I do like the idea of making a place how Id like if even if remodeling can be a pain & I'm sick of the amount of sh*tty flip jobs around that people want a fortune for. Thanks

[SuburbanPioneer]

Originally Posted by UKyank

The ownership history doesn't make sense either -
Presumably both addresses were bought on 9/16 for $220,000; given to the development co for $1 a week later then listed for $550,000 (or $225 a piece) now.

The guy who bought the building for $220K is doing some serious property flipping/investments. Allegheny county has two pages of mortgage activity on him:

https://pa_allegheny.uslandrecords.c...tname=iannotta

He bought the whole building from WYLIE HOLDINGS LP for $97K, which previously invested 30K in some interior remodeling:

Building Permits at 928 Western Ave, Pittsburgh, PA

Judging by the pictures, the budget was certainly not enough.

Then he gives it to a non-profit redevelopment co. Perhaps in part because property taxes on the unit doubled after the reassessment in 2013 and the non-profit doesn't pay property taxes.

Real Estate | Tax Info | Allegheny County

If Curtis is right on the level of real estate corruption on the north side, they will likely now sell the property and split the profits.

[doo dah]

Originally Posted by UKyank

If you have some links to some Id appreciate it as I do like the idea of making a place how Id like if even if remodeling can be a pain & I'm sick of the amount of sh*tty flip jobs around that people want a fortune for. Thanks

Do you specifically want to live on the North Side?

and, unrelated: Heathside Cottage is for sale?!?

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by UKyank

If you have some links to some Id appreciate it as I do like the idea of making a place how Id like if even if remodeling can be a pain & I'm sick of the amount of sh*tty flip jobs around that people want a fortune for. Thanks

Looking back, a lot of the gut jobs are contingent now, but this, this, and this appear to still be available. Last one is in a semi-iffy part of Manchester though.

If you can get some of the tenants out, this could be interesting in Deutschtown. Looks to be set up as a three-unit now, even though it's legally only supposed to be a two-unit. Certainly it could be a sizable house, and given the age of it (newer for the North Side, looks to be built between 1900 and 1910 I'd guess) it probably had some quite nice original features inside.

If you're willing to look at Troy Hill, this might have potential. Not sure if you'd want to live above storefronts in the longer run though.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Do you specifically want to live on the North Side?

and, unrelated: Heathside Cottage is for sale?!?

I wish I could get my mother interested in buying it. Heh.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by doo dah

Do you specifically want to live on the North Side?

and, unrelated: Heathside Cottage is for sale?!?

I really like that place, unfortunately I own too much crap & recently decided to get married to someone that owns too much crap

I'm not necessarily 100% set on the Northside, I just have this problem:
In the SouthSide now & can walk to work (downtown) which I've really grown to love being able to do so if at all possible would like to be within walking distance. Now I still like the Southside but hate 90% of the available housing, plus it might be king of the sh*tty flips neighborhood. That being said, we are leaning towards it.

Lawrenceville would still be ok but I don't think it's housing stock is much better than the southside plus it went from 0 to 100 in pricing overnight.

Northside, I do like a lot of the houses but geographically (cut off like it is) I feel it's always going to be lagging behind all the other nice & transitionally improving neighborhoods - not to say it's not nice now, but still has some sketchiness to it that I don't think will change much.

I could love the Strip but current housing is very minimal & the only thing anyone seems interested in building in the future are expensive condos (which while I'm sure are nice, I have no desire to live in a condo).

Rest of the East End I'm trying to rule out just because of where it's at.

Looking to spend less than $400K & probably keeping the place for a long time. Current place is about 1700sq ft so would like something larger.

Just started looking at places now so my ideas above could be wrong but for the time being that's my line of thinking.

[gg]

Originally Posted by UKyank

Unfortunately the new information I gleaned from the realtor on post #24 makes any such consideration moot regarding how it's listed & some odd string of ownership for the parcel.

Whoa! That is a great location, but that is too high. Howard Hanna has the reputation of listing super high and reducing, reducing and more reducing. They buy listings. In other words they tell a seller we can get you some wildly high price and then they will break it to you slowly to get their sign in place. It is how they have always done business for the most part. At least that has been my experience.