Selling house and I have questions about price. (Miami, Miami Beach: sales, insurance)

[thebigW]

The $290k may not be a true, arms-length sale. Was it listed in MLS? If not, it could be a deed in lieu of foreclosure, an intra family transfer, transfer made to raise prices, transfer including additional items, creative financing, incentive, etc. or a wide variety of other things that make this not a true sale. If it was listed in MLS, what was the list price, how long was it on the market, were there concessions? Also, what other properties were available at the time this one sold? To find out why a house sold well over other properties requires a thorough analysis. If it sold for substantially more than other properties in the area, chances are it is not a "good sale".

[FlaLadyB]

the thing is... I CAN find out information about the house you are wondering about. All you have to do is ask.

You may say I don't have any vested interest in you, but that's not really true. The fact that you are here in this forum, as am I, on a constant basis does make us kind of a "family" in some way. I don't want your or anyone else to make a huge mistake on buying a house or selling it.

If I can help you, I will. I have nothing to lose or gain either way. It's just what you do.

[JimT7406]

For all the reasons the BigW noted there is no way it is a "good sale" or a sale that you could use as a reliable indicator of the current value of your home. If you put the address out there I am sure you will have an explanation in a few minutes.

[pslhomie]

I think this is getting off topic. I really wanted to know experiences from buyers and sellers to determine if the market is good or what they were buying. It has devolved into a battle of who is right an agent or the buyer/seller. That was not the intent of the question.

[pslhomie]

Here is the house that sold for $299.100 a couple of months ago. It is about 400 square ft larger than my house and has 1 more bedroom. I checked the Property appraisers site to confirm. I have no idea why someone would pay this but it appears they did. Sorry I fixed it so you could not see the exact street address. I don't think it's ok and I would not want someone putting my information out there. You can find it.

SW Imperial St

[alsidw]

I probably paid too much for my new house but when we saw it we loved it. We were coming from an old fashioned 100 year old house to something built in 2003 plus it has good landscaping, a well and a sprinkler and was move in ready. We did see cheaper houses but they were all in awful condition or in noisy neighborhoods with high traffic flows.
Buying is so subjective. I loved all the landscaping but others may not want it because it would be too demanding. I garden instead of going to therapy. Are there things that need improving sure but the house is sound basically and I did get termite treatment and a contract.

[pslhomie]

Sid, I don't think it is as much about paying too much especially if you plan on living in it a while. I think it is about what are you getting for your money. Whether you need to move in right away or if you have time. There is a shortage of small contractors in the area and the ones that are available (that are good) are spread thin. It's hard to get someone to show up on time and do the work in a quality way. During the building boom there was a lot of houses just thrown up. Mercedes homes in particular was one of the worst. The person who built my home Peck was very good. The house is solid. The only issue I had was with the finish contractors. We had to go back and fix a few things but nothing big other than the AC we had to replace after the house turned 4. My only regret is that we can't live in it full time.

[FlaLadyB]

That home sold as a short sale for $130,000 last year -- it only closed in October.

It's a 5 bedroom 3 bath and it's 2733 square feet under air -- that a lot.
But, I can not see how any kind of improvements would warrant that kind of sale price no matter what.

It has a balloon mortgage through a private lender- someone in Lake Worth --not a bank- which may or may not have something to do with the price. The rate is 6.25%

At the SAME TIME --- they were given a DEED to the property by the same lender.

Something doesnt make sense

[pslhomie]

Then why does the property appraiser site list the sale so high?

[PortStLucieWater]

So I purchased my home in May 2012. I originally set a price range of under $150k (NO HOA!) (No shortsales) We used a realtor from ReMax and she was absolutely terrible. I won't get into that but it kind of helps lead into what I did and why I did it...

So with the realtor we looked at a bunch of houses anywhere from $115k - $150k. We didn't mind if we had to do some work to clean up the place and we were willing to ignore things we knew could be fixed/changed. We looked at about 15 homes in person and most were in decent shape. 2-3 of them were foreclosures and the rest were being sold as normal sale. The foreclosures were definitely rough. Missing appliances. Needed new paint/carpets, hard water rust, etc... We ended up liking 2 houses but on both we were "outbid" [over list price]. We also found that when new homes would pop up on MLS for a decent price they were quickly snatched up by an investor or cash buyer.

We finally ditched the realtor we were using from ReMax because we did not feel their negotiating skills were up to par. Because we dumped the realtor we thought it would be best to avoid any conflicts and look at a completely different price range. (Because the range we were looking at had slim pickings) We increased our price range to be $150k - $200k. We looked at about 3 homes in person and they were very nice! One of my favorites was in an area called "Paar Estates" and all of the properties had 1/2 acre. Unfortunately, we were not able to act quick enough and that property went under contract.

When browsing an online MLS one day we came across a property near the St. Lucie West area that had been listed 2 days prior. After going to see it and falling in love we jumped on it immediately! The home we bought is a 3,029sqft under air home. 4 bedrooms 3 full bathrooms with an office that has a door+closet. Wood fence yard and well+sprinkler system. The home was purchased by an investor for a very very cheap price. (The home at one point had some illegal activities happening in it) and when the investor bought it he had to gut the place because it was missing walls in several places. Every thing in the home was completely gutted and replaced.

(Was NOT a case of chinese drywall)

Because the investor had to gut the entire home he thought it was best to slightly re-architect the inside. That is the part that really sold us on this home (and the fact that we would be the first to live in the home after renovations) There are only a handful of different floor plans in PSL but we can truly say that our floor plan is unique to this model home. We purchased the home for ~$180,000 and it was 100% turn-key. I couldn't be happier with our decision.

I'm glad I increased my price range and definitely happy I dropped the bad realtor.