Should couple make offer on staged home or well-maintained, plain property?
My husband wants to make an offer on a large house with 20,000 square feet because the original owner has meticulously maintained it. The inspections prove it so — except the original owner has not updated the kitchen or bathrooms in the last 20 years. I want to make an offer on a beautifully staged vacant house with a newer kitchen and updated bathrooms. Per the seller’s disclosure package, the house I want has dozens of deferred repairs as does the landscaping. Both are large homes and lots in multiplemillion-dollar areas. How do buyers usually overcome our type of homebuying dilemma?
In Silicon Valley, we have had engineers since the Lockheed and Fairchild days. These home sellers proactively serviced their cars, homes and yards. Conversely, most homeowners don’t. Although the untroubled homeowner has regular medical checkups, semiannual teeth cleanings, and brings their cars in for servicing, their home’s components fall into disrepair. The owner of a house who is only updating the inside of a home, while not attending to the top, bottom or sides of a property, is asking for trouble.
Only in the Bay Area, could you be looking at a well-staged multiplemillion-dollar property that on paper might look like a fixer-upper. You have fallen for the lipstick-on-the-pig technique. It’s almost impressive how good a questionable property can look and feel on a walk-through. All day long, homebuyers will gravitate toward a newly painted staged home with kitchen and bath upgrades. Not so for the retired engineer’s property that is healthy as an ox. Buyers don’t know they don’t know. The termite- and dry-rot-free plain home might have already undergone landscaping, driveway, walkway, roof, electrical and plumbing replacements. Do the math: Your husband’s needle in the haystack is what other buyers couldn’t see, taking an investment from healthy as an ox to strong as an ox.
Full-service Realtor Pat Kapowich provides old-fashioned service within a high-tech world. You can refer Pat to friends, relatives or associates at 408245-7700 or Pat@ SiliconValleyBroker.com