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Incompleted new home for sale....too good to be true?
I stumbled across this gorgeous 2600 sq foot home that the builders appartently stopped working on when they were almost done. It's being sold for a crazy low amount for what the neighborhood is going for. The only thing is there is a list of things that need to be completed.
1. Needs flooring throughout entire house (carpet, wood whatever you want)
2.Needs fixtures through entire house including plumbing fixtures and lighting fixtures (can do ourselves)
3.Needs all appliances
4. Needs outside AC Unit
That all together will cost a lot of money to complete. If the builder really wanted to sell this house he would accept a really low offer that would give the buyer the money to finish the inside of the house. Do you think we could offer them 30k below the asking price because of all the work that needs to be done? Do you think 30k is enough to pay for appliances,carpet, fixtures and an AC unit? It's a brand new house that we could personalize how we want but are we getting in over our head??
Re: Incompleted new home for sale....too good to be true?
Oh goodness, that sounds almost too good to be true. I'd want to talk with the builder and find out why they stopped, just to make sure there's nothing weird going on with the structure of the house.
But 30K doesn't sound like a whole lot for all that you need to do. It really depends on how fancy you go though. If you went for bottom dollar cheap-o toilets, sinks, and appliances, plus simple carpet and flooring, you could maybe do it. Keep in mind that you have to pay for installation of everything too. You'd need to sit down and figure out the costs of each item, because it will add up fast.
The old house that I rented, our landlord replaced all of the flooring, which was a lot of carpet and some linoleum. She let us choose (crazy, I know!) and it probably was 10K just for that, and it wasn't a very large home, nor anything super fancy.
It sounds like the price of the house already takes into account the fact that it isn't finished, but you can always offer what ever you want.
$30k could be enough to finish it depending on what you want for finishes, but it would be really close, so I'd make sure that you had an overage fund of some sort, just incase.
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Why have they not finished it? Did they go bankrupt? Where there "issues" with the house? Did they not have the proper permits? Did the person they were building it for pull out before it was done?
You can offer anything you want on a house but beware of trying to get too good of a deal. If the house is listed way under the local comps then it probably takes into account the work that still needs to be done. Offering $30k under on a house that is priced really low already may just be too much.
Again, offer what ever you want, but be prepared to get a no.
We bought a new unfinished home at a foreclosure auction in 2007. Actualy there were 2 new houses right next to each other, but we only bought 1 because we did not like the location of the other.
We were going to resell so did not put in top of the line materials. However we did put in solid oak hardwoods, as opposed to laminate throughout the house, ceramic tile floors in bathrooms, mid level stainless appliances and also finshed lower level with nice but inexpensive carpe with upgraded paddingt. Central air was also installed and that was one of the biggest expensives.
Labor is always the most costly expense in this process. As pp said check with the town for permits, back taxes, liens, etc. Also if there are any neighbors around see what info you can get from them.
I think the house was originally going for somewhere around 200 or a little less so it's already way low. We will definately not get the house if they don't come down a full 30k more because we don't have the extra money just sitting around to do our own renovations. We might try just for kicks but I doubt it will work out. Thanks anyway ladies!!
You need to make sure that you can get a loan for an unfinished house and insure it. You also need to check the permit/inspection history and just take a really close look the house to see if there are any noticable flaws. I would also try to find out why the builder stopped work and if they are still in business. If the builder did other homes in the neighborhood, try to talk to the owners to see if they are experiencing any problems.
As for the price, for this to be a truely good investment, you have to factor in the level of finishing you would have to do to bring this house up to the standards of the neighborhood. Even if the standards are modest, I don't think $30k is enough to complete the work AND get a good result on a house this size. Price out the cost of finishing the work the way it needs to be done and then decide if the asking price accounts for it, or if you need to offer less.
Even if they *do* come down $30K, you'd still have to have the extra money to do the renovations yourself - the bank isn't going to give you a loan for the original asking price so you can walk away with $30K cash in hand.
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