OK, here’s the deal:
My brother and I inherited our mother’s house. Built in 1964, it is in fairly bad shape – needs all new exterior trim, new gutters, painting inside and out, all three bathrooms need updating, has no central air, oil baseboard heating, all windows need replacing, outdated kitchen, leaking subfloor over utility room, settlement in walls and ceilings of several rooms, the flooring in one bedroom squeaks heavily – in short, we’re looking at anywhere from $50k - $80k in repairs according to estimates we’ve had from contractors.
The positives are that it’s in a sought-after, established neigborhood, great schools, with a large wooded lot. It’s a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home with 2210 square feet.
Problem is, we’re heading into the holidays, and our hot seller’s market has turned into a buyer’s market. We have not had it appraised yet, but two different realtors did CMA’s that put it anywhere from $260k to $300k. I can’t figure out why there’s such a disparity between their two figures.
I don’t want to walk away from what could be a great investment opportunity. Keep in mind though, that neither of us have any mechanical or handyman capabilities, so all the work would have to be done professionally.
My thought is to refinance, get about $80,000 cash out to do repairs and hopefully get more for it in the spring time, supposedly when it’s a better time of year to sell.
I’d appreciate your thoughts.