Wow, thank you all so much for the answers. I feel really fortunate to be able to pull from the shared experiences of this community as I try to navigate my way through this field. I'm going to try to respond to everyone in one post so no one gets peppered with emails about the thread :)
@Pat L. I work in a companion position to commercial real estate appraisers and as such have had opportunity myself to conduct title searches - one of the houses I mentioned earlier was also an estate property that had been flooded while the relatives sorted the will. It is good to hear that you were able to derive such success for your transaction and inspires me to consider that it may be appropriate for me to dig a little deeper when I come across similar situations. Thank you again!
@Michaela G. I'm so glad you replied! At the risk of appearing like some weirdo, I actually recognized your name from the property records I've pulled over the past 18 months in Pittsburgh. We probably waited too long to pull the trigger in that neighborhood, but because I was a novice, I was comfortable paying a little more to satisfy my confidences in the direction of the market. When I found this forum, yours were some of the most informative and helpful posts I read, so I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated it. I'm getting outbid way about asking the last few weeks, so I think I've been priced out of that market, but were fortunate to pick up two out of the 20 or so we went for.
Your comment is really interesting and important because it reminds me that at the heart of all of these transactions are people and that we can be swayed by experiences and attitudes. I'm definitely not your buyer or bidder (not that you were implying that) but it is an important lesson to learn for me too; bad days and bad attitudes can have pretty far reaching consequences. I never really considered it because I try to be kind and polite to everyone, but I believe the house we are under contract on right now may have been a similar scenario. We met the seller in person and learned about his history with the home and how he felt about all the changes in the neighborhood. At the same time, several investors pushed through the house with a checklist loudly talking about all of the things they were going to gut, even though the house was mid-renovation with contractors present. We already had a pending offer prior to meeting him, as I'm sure others did as well, and by the time we got home, he had signed it.
Congratulations on your hard won successes investing in the area and thank you for never being stingy with your expertise or experiences!
@Michael Noto Thanks so much! I was hoping to hear from some agents for just this reason. I had no idea that the amount of earnest money made a difference. I can definitely bump that up because it makes zero difference to me, as I intend to pay in cash for the full amount of the bid.
@Frank Chin Bayside! You're up near Great Neck, right? So beautiful up there! Thanks for sharing your experience. These houses were definitely both under-priced and all of the bids were over asking. I am impressed with your ability to read the market like that and to evaluate the credibility of the buyers. 2006 was the year I bought my first house, and wouldn't you know, still stuck with it ha ha! I was fortunate that the area I chose did not go down in value, but it certainly did not go up for many, many years. Thank you again!
@Bryan Blankenship Thank you! I'm just trying to get where you are :) I think I have some more learning to do to that ends, although I've overseen some large renovation projects, I just do not feel qualified to make judgment calls on entire houses. It's super important though if I want to be successful in this, so I appreciate hearing about your process. We renovated and recently sold a large beachfront home in Costa Rica and I intend to design and build two more on adjacent land, so what I am doing here is really a trial run for that. I was born in Dayton, go Reds! :)
