4 ms·

An observation I've also had is that not many people factor in time, maintenance and repair costs when considering Portland homes. I've looked at $350k houses h

An observation I've also had is that not many people factor in time, maintenance and repair costs when considering Portland homes. I've looked at $350k houses here that are complete junk without another $50-200k in (I'm not just talking kitchen remodels, just as often I see serious roof and water damage problems), and therefore really are priced at $450-600k. Real estate brokers have been.. less than stellar about disclosing some of these issues to buyers. One place I looked at was listed at $375k, went for over $450k and had in the house, no shit, uninsulated knob-and-tube wiring going into a fusebox model from the 60s that was recalled 25 years ago for electrical issues. Better to get your Will settled before moving in there. When you factor in these hidden costs, things start to look very overpriced around here. I expect that in the next five years there will be a lot of disgruntled owners putting these houses back up at purchase price (or maybe even less) after they get sick of dealing with the problems and start to realize the price tag to fix them. In the interim, the bad news is that Portland is basically out of housing stock at this point too. Expect more rentals and condos in the future.

showerst 11y ago
Counterpoint: Conditions were just like this in DC 7 years ago, and tons of people bought these dilapidated 350k row houses, put 150k into fixing them, then sold them a few years later for 750k+ because demand in the city kept growing. It's not a strategy I'd bet on myself, but it has worked in many cities in the (recent) past.
ryanSrich 11y ago
It's literally crazy. We bought our house last May and have seen a 45% increase in value (according to online estimators which are usually off by a bit). So far we've lucked out. Our house was built in 1920 and had major work done in 1950, 2005, and again in 2009. Over the past 9 months the only major issue we've had is updating our furnace and heating from oil to natural gas (which ends up saving us money in the long run). I do wonder about many of these flipped houses though. Just one street over I've seen 3 1920's houses flipped in a few weeks and sold for crazy high amounts. These flips have to be mostly cosmetic. They make the interiors look amazing, but the house itself is still shot.
blackguardx 11y ago
What is wrong with knob and tube wiring? Fuseboxes suck, but knob and tube isn't too bad. You are basically guaranteed to never have an electrical fire.

showerst 11y ago

Counterpoint: Conditions were just like this in DC 7 years ago, and tons of people bought these dilapidated 350k row houses, put 150k into fixing them, then sold them a few years later for 750k+ because demand in the city kept growing. It's not a strategy I'd bet on myself, but it has worked in many cities in the (recent) past.

ryanSrich 11y ago

It's literally crazy. We bought our house last May and have seen a 45% increase in value (according to online estimators which are usually off by a bit). So far we've lucked out. Our house was built in 1920 and had major work done in 1950, 2005, and again in 2009. Over the past 9 months the only major issue we've had is updating our furnace and heating from oil to natural gas (which ends up saving us money in the long run). I do wonder about many of these flipped houses though. Just one street over I've seen 3 1920's houses flipped in a few weeks and sold for crazy high amounts. These flips have to be mostly cosmetic. They make the interiors look amazing, but the house itself is still shot.

blackguardx 11y ago

What is wrong with knob and tube wiring? Fuseboxes suck, but knob and tube isn't too bad. You are basically guaranteed to never have an electrical fire.