Would a Buyer "buy" a 1200 SqFt. house built in 1900?

How can I give a opinion? What are the comps in the area. Can you get it cheap enough to fix it up so that it is the nicest house on the block and still make
at least 15% ROI? Will it sell? Is it a scrape? You need more information, starting with purchase price. Rehab/repair/remodel costs. What will it sell for after fix up, then you will know if a buyer would buy a 1200 Sq. Ft. house built in 1900.

Michael Mangham
MD Home Acquisitions LLC

In my opinion, I say it is all in the numbers. An investor wants a deal and I wouldn't think the age of the home would be a concern, so long as they make money. If you get comps in the area and find the purchase price, repair cost(ARV} and profit, etc. are less than what it will sell for, why not. Looking closely at comps with a good REA, you can sort to look at homes sold in the area in that age bracket. Do your homework. Prior to committing to purchase, a home neglected for 15 years warrants a thorough inspection. Good luck

It's ALWAYS worth a shot to send a letter, because you can make money on any house with the right numbers. But may I ask what made you even consider it? You didn't mention if it was for sale or looks vacant, or anything along those lines. Only mentioned the fact that it's old which doesn't usually have to do with the sellers motivation.

I was only trying to gauge if it's worth looking into or not. Obviously, an inspection would be something to consider. So, there were no posted numbers ~ you are all right. What made me consider the house? The looks from the outside, and realizing what a potential or non-potential it could become.

Thank you for the advice.

than this buddy. GOT to get the numbers and all the other infor as Mangham said. If it looks the same today as it did 15 years ago I can imagine how distressed it is now. Anyway, could be a great deal but youll never know until you check it out.

Dallas, you've been on here too long to ask a rookie question like that. What is your gut telling you? Did you crunch #'s. It seems like your looking for someone to push you into the deal. This deal is your call Dallas, we can only give opinions. Michael hit it on the head, do some research. Hell, I crunch numbers on a daily basis and some props I haven't even seen. You know how the process works, now go crunch...Jan

Hey Dallas,
If you saw my posts about a month ago, I have a place under contract and still may purchase it myself. It is from 1847!! But it is over 4000 sq ft, and the other part of the building in a State Bank which is just as old. It runs 150ft from state trails for biking, horse back riding, hiking and snow mobile clubs use the trail in the winters. There are boat tours for the marsh where from spring through late fall, thousands of tourists come for the migrating geese and other birds. And if someone is on the trails, this is the only town they come through for miles. The town is unincorporated, and has several very old buildings.
One across the street was on the market for $1.2 million, and the other old building was brought back to life and now used for weddings and the high school prom. So that gives my building a huge edge for a B&B, restaurant, coffee shop, bike shop, or whatever else. It needs work but was started already, and has a lot done, but needs lots of finishing. I got it for $113k and had estimates already even on acid washing the brick outside. Another property with old buildings on 300 acres that they call the mansion up there, is advertised for $3.3 million.
I'd be happy with fixing mine and asking $300k and still would walk with a good profit.
Can you do something different with this place to make it attractive? Is it in a place where it could be a business or a unique home. I haven't advertised other than on CL and DG classifieds, but at my REI club I just went to, I got interest and some excellent advice on it, from several people. Including a company from Chicago.
So make sure you won't lose money, consider all the options. I can't run comps on mine but....the other buildings like this one, are for sale for a lot more than what I want. Even if I sold it as just a residence. The building is really unique.
If you want, PM me and I would love to find out more about your place and maybe can give you some tips. In Wis you can register with the Historical society for anything even from the early 1900's and get a grant for help on it. Found out the IRS will even give you a percent of tax free money towards the place.
So check out a bit more, and maybe even if it is half ways decent, assign it and tell some of its' history to promote it.
Good luck
Sandi

After you research the property and see if you can contact the owner to make a deal-consider if the property is too far gone, what would the LOT sell for?Look at ALL angles. Run the numbers.

Dallas,

I bought my Duplex and it was built in 1901! The interesting part is that I had seen an ad on craigslist for it posted in July titled "Duplex for sale $24,000 - Rock Island". My gut reaction was no freaking way am I buying a Duplex for $24,000 in Rock Island.

In my area that cheap of a house in Rock Island is not an area many people tread at night. That was my first opinion until I finally contacted the seller in September after seeing it a few more times on craigslist and again when it became listed with an agent.

Found out that the property was part of an estate sale and that there had been some upgrades to the house already all about 6 years old. Roof, furnace, and the upstairs apartment had all been taken care of. The downstairs needed work and I ended up buying the place for $15,200 (thanks again to Matt Larson for negotiation advice).

After all was said and done crunching numbers, there was no freaking way I was turning this deal down!

Every potential DEAL is only a LEAD the moment you put it under contract it is a DEAL! But you cannot have any DEAL without LEADS!! LEADS become DEALS!!!

So my long answer becoming short, send them a letter, drop off a business card, put a bandit sign near the property, ask the neighbors who owns it, talk to the mailman, ask the current paperboy, search to see if there is a tax lien on it, etc!!

If you spend time pondering whether or not if you should mail out a letter to an owner, your only spending more time than necessary to send out a letter. Every time you decide whether or not to pursue find a lead you are putting the law of averages to work against you!

Matt always describes the 25:1 system as a way of making 25 offers to find 1 deal. Some other gurus have also described the 100:30:10:1 rule. We will use the MLS system to make an example. For every 100 MLS sheets you look at 30 are a possible deal, 10 are great deals, and 1 is a deal of the lifetime.

The point is that you can potentially have the deal of a lifetime every week if you can search through 100 leads every week. Do you need the deal of a lifetime every week or would one deal of a lifetime feel pretty good even once a month?

I hope the explanation of a LEAD vs a DEAL helps. In the beginning I was so afraid of losing that "deal" when it was truly only a lead. Focus on bringing in leads and then turning a small amount of leads into deals! Think like baseball batting average, 3 1st base hits out of 10 and your an awesome batter without even hitting a homerun!

Your post was really encouraging!! I found an absolute excellent deal, and my agent and I would have to drive 4 hours each way, so I dragged my feet for two weeks. Thinking there was no industry in that area to possibly sell this house.
But the deal was so good......in short, another investor didn't wait. I lost it, and he picked it up and made some nice money selling it quite fast.
So sometimes our "gut" feeling will open some good doors!
Sandi

Roll the dice...lowball it with $50 option consideration for a 6 month option.

As others have posted, it depends on the numbers whether or not it's a deal. But if the ocncern is the age of the house, I wouldn't seee that as a problem at all. In the Northeast at least, many houses are that old and generally where built right (post and beam construction). The oldest house I've bought was 1853 and it's as solid as ever!

- Tom

Some great advice from Mike,Jan and Jay G, put it in a pot and mix and you have your answers and direction. Bottom line is go get it done.
Find the owner, get inside the house and go from there.Everything else will fall into place as you do your research on everything.

Good luck!!