[quote=pfflyer]Thanks for your responses. I cringe when I see listing prices at or above 2006/07 sold prices. I would think we would be at 2003 or thereabouts. Maybe the coast just hasn’t dropped yet (or never will to that extent.)…[/quote]
pfflyer, you have to ask yourself (on a case-by-case basis), “What was done to the property since 2003?”
You can’t expect to get $100K ++ in “improvements” for “free” if the property was purchased “original” or “near original” in 2003 (or thereabouts) unless the sellers are about to lose the property to foreclosure and their lender(s) are willing to “play ball.” It’s not purely a “numbers game” in the areas you are looking in. Many of those ‘hoods may have been tracts at one time but since the vast majority are now remodeled to varying shapes and sizes, they could now be considered “custom areas.” Therefore, the money spent on them by former owners varies WILDLY from property to property.
Your “numbers game” only works on tracts in which there are few models (under 6), the houses are fairly new (under 20 years old) and the type of buyers who purchased them in the past didn’t have the wherewithal to drastically improve them (and/or the area wasn’t worth spending a lot of “home improvement” money in).
pfflyer, if you want an “under-market deal” in one of your target areas, I recommend looking for a very dated fixer and offering to pay in escrow for any termite work needed.
