My Clients are very experienced investors and when this property in the heart of the Kerns business district on SE 28th popped up on their radar, it was a must-see!  

First of all, the listing photo (shown here) looked so cute!  Secondly, Walkscore.com gave this location an incredible score of 91 and called it a “Walker’s Paradise”.  Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Bamboo Sushi are just across the street and there’s a cornucopia of restaurants, shops and entertainment options a few blocks away.  It was the perfect. fixer. location.

Now, these buyers are no strangers to the magic of real estate photography but we were in no way prepared for what awaited us at 323.  The pictures in the listing (shown here), had been taken over two years ago and the house had been vacant ever since.  Vacant, unkempt and in places, completely open to the elements…and various unsavory creatures.  Given the large amount of work this home needed, the fixer formula just didn’t make sense but this crazy-hot rental market was meant for this property so on to Plan B! 

The listing report said  ”No offers below $125 will be considered.”   We opted to ignore that and my clients wrote an offer that reflected the actual condition of the property.  Not a strategy I would normally recommend, but given the extreme length of days on market I just had a hunch there might be some room here.  The bank set up numerous hoops through which to jump but they didn’t burn the offer, or send it back with a laugh track.  And they didn’t just ignore it for 6 months before declining it!  They actually considered it and for this, I must give huge kudos to the very experienced listing agent.  The bank requested that a professional home inspection be submitted to them prior to third party approval (um, no thank you) and that a fully detailed budget of repairs and improvements with contractor information, be submitted asap (a good 4 days of work for my busy clients).  That did the trick!