I went to see a cute house today that is a 3/1. The good news is that it had already had a bunch of work done to it. Someone had coated the walls, trim, built in shelves and in fact every paintable surface mocha beige. All that I would do to it would be paint the trim a different color and refinish the floors. Also, for some odd reason the washer was in the kitchen and the dryer was in a bedroom. The house was built in the 1950's. The attic had been finished out as "living space" for munchkins. Not really usable for much else besides storage. However, it is "under roof" and the seller expected that to count towards the total living space for sale purposes. It was about 300 sq. ft. To me, it was a 1100 sq. ft. house. To the seller it was 1400 sq. ft. I usually analyze a house on a sq. ft. basis. So, to me, a fair price for that house would be $58 per square foot multiplied by 1100 with a deduction of $6000 for not having central heat and air for a purchase price of $57,000. The seller would take "in the mid-$60's ". That would have been a fair price had the upstairs been usable. Take a look for yourself. Being an investor, in this case, I would not include the finished attic space in my price/sq. ft. calculation. The other reason I would avoid this house is that 90% of all houses sold (not listed) in my market have more than one bathroom. The market is flooded with 2/1 and 3/1 houses a buyer can pick up a 2/2 or 3/1.1 or 3/2 for the same price.
