Would you/should I buy a nice home, but in a not so organized "neighborhood"? (feedback, square foot)

[GarofaloS]

Ok guys, so I'm in a dilemma I absolutely hate. I found a beautiful house inside and outside.
It's 2,480 square feet and 99.9k, but the guy will come down to 90k. Now, of course, for something like this, there's a catch. There's always a reason homes like this don't get snagged up.

This on happens to be the location. It's not.a bad location in the sense of crime, but it's... outdated... the surrounding homes are mostly trailers, shack type trailers with the exception of 2 houses that aren't in the tip top shape. But right down the road there are actual nice houses, it's just everything in front of the house are trailers and even an old abandoned house. Behind it, there is another house and the people there just have a few tires back there, which if I were to get this house I'd throw a privacy fence all around back there anyhow for my dog.

Possibly the city plans to rid of the abandoned home and rid these trailers soon?? I mean they look old and some just don't look like someone should live in there.

So the pros: GORGEOUS house, 90k, would plan to be there for quite some time, never have to upgrade (all the room I could need)

Cons: Semi run down location. Surrounding trailers/homes are worth about 30k (info from zillow)

So what is everyone's opinion?
I'm just torn... other homes in this price range have been hard to find for what I'm qualified for in sense of size.

[GarofaloS]

Let me just add about the nieghborhood. Directly in front of the house is another house. It's not kept up. To the right of him are two trailer shacks, then an abandoned, boarded up house.
To the left of him is another trailer home.

The neighborhood. (From what I've seen so far, plan to do more drive thrus) isn't bad in the sense of crime, but if anything more worried it's "trashy".
I plan to call the police department today to ask about calls from the surrounding areas, and drive through the area a few times this week and weekend.

It's in Moss Point, Mississippi.

[willow wind]

Easy answer for me- just no.

Location,location,location. You can't change a location. There is no guarantee the city will ever do anything about this area. It is what it is. This is a run down shantytown.

Based upon your previous posts, you are planning on getting married. Does your soon to be wife like this area also ? I can't imagine she would.

Do you need a 2500 square foot home right now ? Why not buy something a bit smaller in a desirable location. Buying this place, IMO is not a good idea. The location negatives far out weigh any positives.

[themudpuppy]

I wouldn't buy it. This was my biggest challenge with finding a house and I passed up some very nice homes at great prices because of it. I wanted space and peace and quiet, so I looked mostly in rural areas. Unfortunately in the state I live in, rural areas have very few or no zoning regs or noise ordinances. Anything goes. There were many homes I really liked, some were very nice mobile homes and some were nice site built homes, but the majority of homes with some land in my price range in the town I most wanted to live in had neighbors like this. To find something rural that wasn't surrounded by rundown trailers and trashy yards I had to look in towns that I had not considered before. I'm retired so I'm not tied down to a specific area. I've found that trashy neighbors are usually problem neighbors in other ways too like loud music, barking dogs, loose aggressive dogs, drugs, drunks, or wannabe mechanics who think revving their engine all day is going to magically fix the problem.

[ea1420]

I wouldn't buy it either. Unlike some city neighborhood that can transition back into being a good area via regeneration, an area like you describe is unlikely to improve significantly in the relatively near future.

And I wouldn't count on the city doing much of anything to address the abandoned buildings, etc.. My grandparents had an abandoned house next to them for years. It took over a decade of begging the city before it was finally demolished (keeping in mind that the city routinely gives out tickets to homeowners for overgrown grass, etc.). I would encourage you to settle for a smaller house in a better area. You can make a lot of changes to a house, but you can't change where it's located.

[jghorton]

The fact that a 2500 sf nice home is priced at $99K and quickly dropped to $90K tells you that the investment value is probably not great. How long has the house been on the market? -- What did the other nice homes down the street sell for (check your county tax appraiser web site for this).

IF the city takes action in the area or IF a developer buys-up the area, things could change. But, you need to look beyond the immediate street you are on to the surrounding area. How does it stack-up? Are there decent amenities (schools, shopping, etc) in the area? -

Florida zoning laws have always been a hodge-podge, so it is not unusual to have trailers and homes side-by-side -- But, is this really the neighborhood you want to live-in? Will you simply wall yourself off from your neighbors and live inside your 'compound?'

You didn't mention kids, but, one might assume with a 2500 sf home, you may not be single. Is this where you want your kids living?

Overall, it sounds like a no, but, your situation might be different(?)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I can't answer that without knowing real estate in your area. I'd also like to know the crime rate in that neighborhood.

Is the nice area moving out towards this house? What is around it? I bough 3 beat up old, pre-HUD mobile homes in an area surround by nasty rental un-cared-for old mobile homes. Those lots in there are now going for $280,000 and beyond, just for a tiny piece of bare land. Old mobile homes are not necessarily the kiss of death. What is happening in that neighborhood?

Crime rate is a biggy. Are the old mobiles full of meth dealers, or do they belong to owner occupants who have lived there all of their lives?

That sounds like a screaming good deal. What are the neighbors like (the people, not the houses) and how long do you intend to live in that house?

[WorldKlas]

If crime is not an issue and this is not a property you hope to earn appreciation on, only you can really decide if you'll find living there is soul sucking.

My DH and I travel right now alot in our early retirement and when we sold our personal (big, expensive) house, we initially moved into a rental property I own. It was fine for our needs as far as HOA upkeep (townhouse in an HOA) and size. No crime issues but we had to drive past a trailer park and some kind of low rent apartments to get to our community. One day my husband said he found it soul sucking to live there because of the location. I was a bit frustrated because the financials made lots of sense and we are not in town that often. But I also realize we should live our lives as joyfully as possible and some feelings cannot be controlled (I was perfectly fine living there). So we moved .....

[cully]

One thing that could convince you is getting the crime report of the last year or so for the area...types of crimes, frequency.

Also, look up sex offenders. Just because there's usually a list that keeps track of them.

I contemplated a similar question a few weeks ago. Nice home. Not a mansion nice. But solid brick. Glassed porch in back, screened porch as well. A swimming pool. Trees all around. Gardens. A quiet area. A brick wall in front, higher than the usual low wall, which said something right there. But the house sat higher still and had the most fabulous view from the front porch of the sunset over fields and a golf course. What could be so bad? Why hadn't it sold already?

A block behind were nice simple homes on lots kept neatly mowed. Next street over from there was a high end subdivision...and the so-called "estate section" of that sub-division.

On the left of the house were smaller, simpler, older homes...not mobiles homes...one levels, capes. And the street curved back after a few homes to the older community of homes in the woods. Just a few homes but a whole other world with uninviting looking people on the porches. The road actually branched, so going straight up the road were large lots, fairly well kept and fairly nice one level homes.

On the right of the house was another house. Beside that a house that had been made into a few apartments.

So. Looked into sex offenders. They stayed in that house made into apartments. Yes, right beside that estate section.

The street that curved back....lots of crimes...gunshots, breakins, drugs, household attacks, fights.

Even if I lived in an island of my own making in that house....it would be interrupted by the sounds of crime and, who knows, statistically breakins.

So I had to pass on it.

[GarofaloS]

Thanks for all the feedback guys.
I'll try to answer as much as I can in this one post.

The neighborhood itself has close to no crime.

Why do I want a house this big? Well, because personally if I'm going to purchase a home, I'd rather have one to set my current and future needs rather than do it in all different steps.

Moss Point isn't known for their school systems, I do not have kids yet, but it's something that's a turn off.

The homes around this one (the actual kept up homes that are right down a road connected to this one) are going for about 65-95k.

Resale wise I wouldn't worry too much about that, because I'd intend to stay for quite some time and by then the neighborhood could possibly get better, or better yet, demolished :P. I mean, it can't get much worse.

But all jokes aside, like I said, it doesn't seem to be ghetto, or lots of crime (that's not to say the people are doing some sort of drugs), it just seems the people are either Poor, lazy, or just don't care, possibly all 3.

Also, there is a church right next door to us and sex offenders aren't allowed to live close to a church.