The most significant problem with this home is the stairs. They were terrible in the 60’s, but the owners accepted this, now it is almost a deal killer.
Original owner ( agent selling it himself ) still owns it and has bought a condo in La mesa, so unless he did lots of refi’s and took alot of cash out his cost basis is very low.
My thought was to do a significant addition and put in a new interior stair outside of the original footprint, also put on a new master bedroom / bath up, along with an outside stairs to the lower level. New kitchen, windows, deck, etc Since I am in the business I though maybe put in $ 250 – 300K. Not to flip but to have as a great home. So my target would be pay $ 700 K. Alas don’t need the space and that much work. I already live on wanderemere and have done that.
Anyway I echo that del cerro is better place than mt helix; closer in, more convenient to everything, better schools; and slightly undiscovered. There are some decent bargains going to come up. It was just that in the 2005, 2006 time period some buyers went stupid and paid way too much for houses that needed everything and then in the down they were left you know where. Overall though the hood is fairly stable, lots and lots of people who have been there along time and when you look at the alternatives in central san diego there aren’t very many. Imo this will help to keep the area fairly stable with minimal decline. I think this is one reason seller has been keeping his price up – he maybe able to wait it out for some long period of time.