Followup…and a couple observations on the local market (Central Indiana – the most affordable market in the US !)
-> The large company that says they buy houses (billboards with cavemen) are, essentially, just another lowballer. If the house fixed up would list for x, and it takes 15% of x to fix it up to decent shape, said company will offer half of x. They will be cheerful and helpful all the way through though, give advice, etc. Enough people bite apparently. Not sure how they cover the large franchise charge.
-> The market in flyover country is in the tank. The local real estate industry chatter show on the radio mentioned YTD sales figures – and the numbers for Marion County (equivalent to Indianapolis) are about half what they were a year ago, and 58% of sales were distressed in some way rather than traditional sales. I live in an average neighborhood of a few hundred houses, and while winter is slow, there’s only been one traditional sale in the last 6 months. A few houses on my street have been in a state of either “for sale”, or bought/repo’d/relisted, for the last 2 years.
Looked at some listings this morning, there’s a brick ranch in good shape in a decent neighborhood near here, in an average school system, 1900 sq ft, .3 acres, $109,000:
