We're currently living in a small house in a working class neighborhood in a small town in the midwest, and are DIY renovating it, with completion estimated by the end of this year.
There's a house around the corner, which we've been eying for a few months. It's got more curb appeal potential than ours (all brick), is a little bigger, and has a fantastic garage (we have none). We've never seen the occupant.
Last night we saw cars there, so we knocked on the door and got a tour and the scoop: resident is a widower, went into a nursing home a few months ago, and family is burdened with cleaning out the house and selling it. Our chance to swoop in and buy pre-listing!
So my question is how to determine a good (for us) price. It's a fixer, probably worth somewhere between 30-50K now, ultimate value maybe 80-90 when beautified, but that bumps up at the upper limit of the neighborhood. And 30-50K is a big range. I think it has a mortgage (will check at the courthouse). And I know the family feels overwhelmed. It's completely full of stuff now, a few nice antiques but a whole lot of junk. I don't even know the square footage, or the other normal stuff the realtor pulls out of the MLS. We would do this without a realtor, but I'd like to get the info plus some good comps to tell me what the upper ceiling value is, what the current owner bought it for, etc. What's the best way to go about doing this, and then how can I best spin a low offer to the family? What makes an offer appealing in such a case? How have you approached similar situations in your real estate empire building?
Because we're mid-remodel, we'd likely commandeer the garage, do some basic fixes to the interior and rent it until we get our current house done. Then we'd renovate and eventually move in. It would probably rent for about $700/mo.