We requested to see a few more this weekend, anticipating that there would be issues with some of them. Out of the 6 we requested, the realtor is going to try to set up showings with 4; here's what happened to the others:
33 Essex St, Salem MA (sorry Michael & Siobhan, we tried)
2br 1.5 bath, 1000 sf, 2 car parking; townhouse (2 stories) w/ roof deck. $159,900
For whatever reason (the realtor couldn't quite say), this people selling this unit never chose to have it approved for FHA loans. I'm not sure if it's because it's not FHA approved, or because the owners are absolutely redic, but they also required 15% down.
I'm pretty sure if I were able to put down $24,000 (15% of $160k), that I would not be looking at $160,000 properties. So that explains why this has been on the market for 6 months. Good riddance!
50 Conant St, Danvers
1000 sf, 2 br 1 bath, 1 car pkg; townhouse (2 floors)
Apparently 50 Conant St has just been converted into condos, and this is the first one that is for sale. With an FHA loan, you cannot be the first one to purchase a condo in a newly converted building.
If you ask me, that kind of rule is about equivalent to needing to hop on one foot while patting your head and rubbing your belly in order to win the prize. However I'm sure it has something to do with the potential for disaster if the building should need improvements while you are the only one there paying the fees.
But again.... good luck getting someone who has a better loan than FHA to be interested in that size of a property.
Stay tuned this weekend for updates on:
24 Wisteria St, Salem
25 Wisteria St, Salem
11 Gardner St, Salem
1 King St, Peabody
Over and out.
Yeah there was something on NPR last weekend about condo disasters from stupid developers with no business sense doing senseless conversions for which there's no market. In that case since the building sat mostly empty through a winter, pipes froze (unless the developer paid to keep the heat on everywhere, which he didn't have $ to do), causing more damage... it was extra bizarre because (the story said) the developer had sweetened the deal by offering a huge flat-screen TV to everyone, so if you drove through that sketchy neighborhood you'd see mostly empty dark buildings with the occasional fully lit apartment with a huge TV in the living room.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about thaz FHA rule but maybe the govt has figured out that not everything business people do is intelligent...