City Real Estate

I think we probably overpaid for our house. It sat on the market for 18 months and got little action. Maybe we could've lowballed more than we already did... you know, "you really wanna sell this place that has significant termite damage that has been on the market forever?!"

It has it's problems, like any old house will have. Still, I feel ok about it. It's a gorgeous place, and we have more than enough space to stay here forever, even if we someday acquire a half dozen more kids (which is not likely, I'm just making a point here). I guess, seemingly unlike anyone else in the world, I'm willing to pay a premium to live here.

Seeing the abundance of vacant and/or blighted properties within a quarter-mile of our house, we kinda sorta agreed we'd someday probably wind up with more property around here eventually. We had no idea we'd be open to the idea so soon. We also had no idea how inexpensive it is to buy property in our 'hood:

• We almost bought a house up the road last fall. 2000+ square feet. $17k. It needed some work, but still, turning a profit wouldn't be too hard with such low capital costs. If we hadn't just found out we were pregnant, we almost certainly would have done the deal.
  
  
• Not knowing an adjacent property was even for sale, I found out from the new owner that he paid a whopping $40k for a 3-family almost 3000 square foot house that seems to be in pretty dang decent shape.
  
  
• A property that caught my wife's eye from first sight is the old flower shop + apartments above. 6000 square feet, in really good shape, arguably the crown jewel of what once was an impressive business district. Just sold for $60k, which seems unbelievably low to me.

There is a For Sale By Owner sign in the front window of a building that intrigues me in the business district. I had to at least call, right? Well, I did. And I didn't get a call back. So, being a man of no shame, I called a second time.

I received a voicemail back after the second call, but the caller gave limited information, not even mentioning the asking price. I learned a whole lot more from Dusty Rhodes than I did from the seller. I returned his call, thanking him for his message, asking for more specific info. Several days later, still no response.

I've made 4 calls over the past week-and-a-half. The real estate market sucks. You'd think that someone expressing interest might get a return phone call, no? You better believe I'd be calling back if I was selling a building by owner. I doubt anybody's knocking his door down. (Maybe that's a bad choice of words... it is, after all, the 'hood...)

Of course, regardless of what happens here, there will surely be other opportunities. There are an awful lot of available places 'round here.