Unless you need to be the big fish, it's never been the smart way to go. But with things as they are, I can't imagine that even if a
wanna-be big fish did come along, that they'd be able to get financing for the biggest or most expensive house on the block.
This occurred to me today when I saw a house for sale for $1,299,500 in the Vista De Las Candelas subdivision.
When we were looking to down-size a couple of years ago, a house came up for sale in Vista De Las Candelas that was as perfect as we could have hoped for. We loved it. It was a mid-century adobe that had been completely and beautifully renovated. Gutted and redone,
it was just the right size, look, style, floor-plan, good views, everything we wanted, and at $845,000, or $306/sf, the price was OK too. I still keep a picture of it in my wallet.
BUT, in Vista De Las Candelas the next highest priced sale was
$615k and just $179/sf, and no matter how I tried, I couldn't get that $615 to look like $850. And most of the other sales were in the high $300's to mid $400's. There's nothing wrong with this subdivision, it's a nice Foothills location, convenient, etc, etc. But because it's a community of older homes, and no one has put that kind of money into renovation and then sold, it didn't have even one comparable sale.
So while we knew it would go in a jiffy, and it did, we made up all kinds of reasons why it wasn't right for us and walked away, sobbing.
The one I saw today is listed for $1,299,500 and, while I wish them well, unless they get a real happy go-lucky cash buyer, I just don't see how they're going to pull it off. The next highest sale in there is the one we walked away from, which sold for $825k in two days, but that was 2 1/2 years ago. Beyond that, the next highest sale is still the one at $615K that I tried to finesse. So nothing has changed, for the better anyway.
But then again, while I may be a smarty pants for not buying it, I still think about it.
see my web site thefoothillsToday.com
to search for and learn more about Tucson Foothills Homes
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