“Gene’’ likes to bid low, but did he push it too far?
A bidding war in the dead of winter - and in Burlington no less.
Gotta love the Greater Boston market - a half decent house in a solid town at a good price is enough to spark a bidding war, even in the toughest of markets.
A good sport, "Gene" just updated me on the latest in his now months-long hunt for a home in the western suburbs.
A tech guy, Gene and his wife have been bunking with his parents and stashing away cash.
His interest was piqued when he saw a three-bed, 1,600 square foot split level in half decent shape come on the market in Burlington for $340,000 - or 15 percent below the median sale price in town.
Gene and his wife offered $320,000. Instead, it wound up selling the day of the open house for $344,000, though with $3,000 back at the closing as a concession.
However, it got me wondering. Did Gene lose out on a decent home by going a little too far with the low-balling?
So I will throw it out there to the best appraisal service in Greater Boston - the readers and regulars who make this blog what it is.
Here's a link to the house.
As Gene explains it, the attractions of the home include a nice, sizable square lot, updated bathrooms and a new gas furnace.
Still, while some basic things had been updated, Eugene contends when he pressed, he was not able to get as full a picture from the sellers as he would have liked. For example, the roof looked old to him - would he be faced with replacing it?
And the house needed some updating in terms of the cosmetics - wallpaper and such.
"The work that needed to be done was the standard updating/cleaning that you would expect from a house that your parents lived in and just maintained. It had not been updated much in the past 40 years. The kitchen cabinets looked original and dated. Every room had the 70's style wallpaper," Gene writes.
For his part, Gene makes it clear that he may be disappointed, but certainly not heartbroken. He does not feel in a rush and will wait until the stars align correctly.
Sounds all very reasonable - except of course our perpetually overpriced real estate market in Greater Boston is anything but reasonable or logical.
Was the house really worth the $341,000 - the price minus the concession - that it fetched?
And if not, what would you have offered?
