Scarlett, I have a few positive observations. I’m not very familiar with this area but from the pictures, it appears there is a nice park with a lake nearby.
The condos don’t have the typical ’70’s wood shake roof (perhaps they were reroofed at some point?) so they SHOULD qualify for a fire ins. binder in escrow with no conditions.
The homeowner’s dues are quite low for what you get in amenities. Considering the condo’s age, the low dues seem to indicate a well-managed complex (or poss. deferred maintenance in the common area – check this out yourself).
The complex was built PRIOR to the inception of MR.
The complex was built PRIOR to the usage of polybutylene plumbing.
The garage door is decent-sized and the alley/easement turnaround looks good to enter it (you might try to enter with your vehicle and see if you can do it w/o backing up).
The big attic room is a FANTASTIC addition to a condo this size (not incl. in sq. footage). It makes the condo livable for a family.
A lot of the unit is wallpapered but you can strip it or paper over it if you don’t like it.
A former owner spent $$ on wood flooring and surround sound and the flooring all looks nice.
The only minor drawbacks I see are:
There is not quite enough kitchen cabinets, but you could store some things in the attic/garage and just take them out when you will use them.
The rear fenced patio is small, but “OK” for this price range, because you have the pool/spa and park across the st.
If the HOA financials and reserves look good, I might offer $350K on it, if that’s what the low comps are, because stripping wallpaper is not a fun job. OTOH, the “competition” may not have the partially finished attic room. You probably would want and need that so attribute SOME value to that if you think it warrants it. Put an inspection contingency in there and get your inspector out within a week of acceptance of your offer (so you don’t waste time in the case of previous flood/extensive dry rot etc).
The reason for the longer market time is that, to their detriment, most condo buyers WANT *NEWER* CONTRUCTION (smaller units, tighter common areas, higher dues AND MR for the same $$). The wallpaper alone will turn off a lot of buyers who don’t realize you can fix all of it to your liking in less than a week! So I don’t see you having to compete with multiple offers here.
All in all, seems like a decent, well-located complex!
