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So I've spent the last month looking for Houses. Nothing special, nothing extravagant. I came from a 1700sqft ranch with 3 bed, 2 full bath and a car port, small town, sold for about 215, and I got 135 take home after everything was paid off.
I had to expand my budget to 350 up here just to sniff houses that aren't in absolute disrepair on the inside and would require 50+ in reno, are 1.5 bth, or someone watched a couple episodes of Flippers and did a shittier job of "updating" the inside by putting the same cheap shitty grey vinyl flooring in several rooms.
There was 1 house I really liked, good area, open floor plan and a great basement. Downside was all the first floor carpet needed to be tore up especially since there were large stains in one of the bedrooms and it was poorly installed so was already buckled and loose, and there were cheap vinyl tiles in the foyer and kitchen that showed their wear and had to be removed. Just under 1700sq ft listed at 340 and went over asking the day it hit the market.
Another house, looked move in ready. 1500sq ft, with a half finished basement. Went to look at it...the house is claustrophobic, and the carpet needs to be pulled up also because of the terrible condition. The owners "finished" the basement by putting large vinyl tiles down themselves...which have already buckled and are about an inch off the ground in several places. They have a back patio which is about big enough for a Weber kettle grill and a camp chair. They're asking 336, claimed they already had an offer when I was looking at it but I noped outta that shit. That was a week ago and it's still on the market so either they were using BS tactics or the "offer" was for what the house was actually worth and they refused it. It's also the smallest house in a large neighborhood.
the same cheap shitty grey vinyl flooring
I have never in my life hated a house product more than this shit - and I grew up in the '70s surrounded by the fake wood paneling and the nasty shag carpets. I don't even understand what that flooring is trying to emulate. No real wood is light gray and comes in 6" x 3' planks.
I've been renovating a house since last year that has that shit in the living room and I've intentionally left it uncovered the whole time in the hopes of fucking it up so bad that I'm forced to replace it, but unfortunately it is extremely durable.
This one particularly hurt. The house was listed at 350 a couple months ago, the price was reduced 10k, then went off the market, then yesterday was relisted at like 330 and claims "brand new flooring in 3 rooms". Someone consciously chose this to be installed, thinking it would help sell their already overpriced house.
Like, the salesperson needs to say "this flooring is popular among houses that stay listed for over 3 months and have their prices reduced around 25k"
Yeah, idk why people think "gray, wood-grain" looks good, either go with wood colored laminate (looks great in my sister's) or something like tile. This floor just calls attention to itself way too much ("look at me, I'm cheap laminate!"), and it doesn't look good enough for that.
Why did your house sell for 215?
Because that's what houses in that area were going for on the high end. Cost of living where I am now is redonk
Idk, $350k for a 3 bed isn't all that high. In my area, houses (and I use that term loosely) start at $400k or so, and a 3-bed would probably be $500k, and I'm not in some posh area either. I'd have to move quite far away to see anything under $400k that was anywhere near worth moving into.
That said, we bought our house for $250k, and it has more than doubled. It's a 4 bed, 3 bath (2 3/4 baths) with a garage and a decent lot (1/4 acre), so I'm guessing where you lived wasn't so different from where we bought 10-ish years ago. Houses have just gotten a lot more expensive, and if I moved next door, I'd have to offer at least $600k just to be taken seriously. If I looked anywhere remotely urban, I'd have to double it and drop the lot size.
So $350k is honestly pretty decent price for much of the country, assuming you're within commute distance of an urban area. And that's still nuts to me, because I thought $250k for our house was a little high at the time...