Looked at the house that I posted. Asking was $170k but it need a bit of work. The $170k would've been fine had the house been immaculate. The columns on the front porch had some rot, the place needed painting and we found a couple other issues. The owners apparently bought at the height of the market because they still owe over $160k on it. Had I offered, about $150k was as high as I was willing to go. Needless to say, walked away from it.
With that said, kept looking and looking. Found a couple more, started to make offers and I'll be damn...when I finally decided to offer, usually about a week later, the houses went "pending." Almost gave up at one point, got frustrated.
Glad I didn't give up. Found this diamond in the rough, made an offer and it was accepted! It's a HUD Foreclosure and has been empty since 2011. Asking price was $122k and they had a bid deadline a couple weeks ago. Decided to bid $117,500 and as I was talking to my agent, I thought about it and come to the conclusion that someone else was going to possibly bid that number and then I'd be in a bidding war. I really liked this house so I decided to up my bid.....by $9.24 bucks! Yes, my bid was $117,509.24!
GUESS who won that house by $9.24 smackers!?!
Now, it was a foreclosure and needs about $3000 work done. Re-applied for a different loan, a 203(k) which allows you to add up to $30k in repairs & upgrades and it be financed into the mortgage. Went for the full $30k and not only will the repairs be done, also installing new solid hardwood floors, new tile in kitchen & bathrooms, new carpet in bedrooms, new cabinets & appliances. The back door and 2 of the interior doors are part of the repairs that's listed as "must-do's" so those will be replaced as well. The contractor (work has to be done by licensed contractor for the loan, else I could do it myself) crunched all of the numbers and we're over the $30k by about $4000 dollars. He removed painting and reduced the appliances purchase from $7000 down to $4000 to get the bid closer to $30k for approval from the lender. I'll be doing some of the work...painting, pressure washing, demo...just to help stay under budget so this place will be really gorgeous after its finished.
There is a wall between the kitchen and living room. I like an open floor plan so the contractor & I decided gonna knock that wall down, install a nice sized island which will also have the countertop stove in it. The area where the standard stove/oven goes will be getting a double oven combo. The original refrigerator location will be getting a pantry cabinet that matches the new cabinets. The fridge will be relocated to a different spot.
Anyway, here's a link to the listing.....
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2029-Strawberry-Dr-New-Market-TN-37820/55488043_zpid/