My wife and I have saved tremendously over the last year, enough to go from barely enough to buy a home in our old (cheaper) city, to being able to buy a nice place in our new (more expensive) city. We're currently planning on the short-end, 3-5 years until parents retire and settle into retirement, and possible future offspring will determine where we want to be (we're currently on opposite side of country).
We're trying to keep ourselves from buying too much house. The average home sells for $310,000 in our city of 60,000, we've got 21,000 colleges students, and they create incredibly annoying demands on both traffic and housing.
We're renting for $1400 a 2bed/2bath apartment. We really want a yard. We can both ride bike to work. We can't find a house with a yard for rent for less than $1500, and if we do, it increases our commute by 10 to 20 minutes, not because of mileage, but because of traffic. In our neighborhood rental prices on single family homes are north of $1650.
We did however, make an offer on a house that is literally right across the street from our current rental apartment.
It's a 3 bed, 1 bath, shared-roof carport, block foundation rancher built in 1950 with a nice front and back yard and good neighbors. The neighborhood is gentrifying, slowly. VERY SLOW TURNOVER. This is only the second house in this neighborhood listed this year.
It's been flipped. New kitchen and bathroom, new appliances, new plumbing, new paint and doors, new fixtures. Listed at $262,000 in a neighborhood where most houses sell for $220,000 because most are 3 bed 1 bath houses without garages built in the 1950s and most are kinda junky.
At $262,000 it got a single other offer in 3 weeks on the market in a town where good deals last for a few hours.
Inspection revealed that it'll need a new roof in 5 years. Foundation is ok. Concrete walkways and carport are pretty cracked. Siding is junky, but looks nice. Interior is 8/10. Needs a second bathroom. Laundry is cramped. Few other minor repairs are necessary, nothing more than a few hundred dollars.
We got estimates of around $15,000 to do the little stuff, as well as the conrete replacement, not including the roof or addition of a half-bath.
Seller lowered to $245,000.
Our realtor is absolutely of no assistance in helping us determine whether the house is worth $262,000, much less $245,000, and whether she believes the house is worth putting another $20,000 into in order to get more offers when we sell.
My wife believes passing up this house means potentially waiting a few months for another in our desired neighborhood, and potentially ending up with a house that may have 3 bed/2 baths/1 car garage, but not the recently updated interior.
I think it's worth waiting.
Suggestions?