Over in Eastwood, a corner 1940 property that sold in the middle of last month has reappeared on the market. The fresh listing last week, pitched as a duplex or single-family home, has an asking price of $415,000. The seller bought it in April for $334,901.
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A pair of front doors open off the sturdy porch (above). One heads directly to a stairwell with a twist . . .
though there’s an optional portal into the first floor’s trimmed-out living space:
The property fits 2,962 sq. ft. of living space onto a 7,838 sq.-ft. lot. There are 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms in all. Could this room off the dining room be one of the former?
And then there’s this, one of the 2 master bedrooms:
Here’s the first floor’s kitchen.
Its breakfast nook comes handily fitted with a corner cabinet:
The side entrance faces the Eastwood neighborhood’s namesake street. Access to the garage (and its 720-sq.-ft. quarters) is also from the side street.
That’s it for room showings in the current listing’s tour. The previous listing, however, included a few more views (below). Other than removing furnishings, the power of price ranges, and the passage of time, what merited the price jump?Â
The downstairs unit opens into repeating archways. The kitchen shows up in cross-view . . .
both ways, to capture the built-ins displaying a healthy glow:
The second floor’s layout pretty much follows the one below:
The dining room’s archway, however, picked up some shape-shifting filler at some point:
The 2-car garage appears to have a garage of its own, occupying former back yard. Meanwhile, the quarters:
- 4402 Pease St. [HAR; previous listing]
Sooooo classy.
Really well kept too.
This house looked better in the previous listing.
The buyer likely thinks that the high-level of interest in the original sale means a quick profit. The numbers (whether to keep as a duplex or convert back to a single family) don’t back that up, but hey they can try! My guess is it will sit for 60 days before they decide to do a few touchups and rent it out. But in this market, there truly is one born every minute, so I reserve the right to be completely wrong.
The price is almost what the same house would go for In Montrose, but over there it would be a teardown.
My wife and I walked this property the first go around. We were told that since it was built (1940s?) and had one owner–a Korean War veteran and local attorney, although we didn’t completely understand the timeline. The house was well taken care of although some items were out of date or needed attention (if you are planning on buying, take a look in the attic and street water drainage/retention first…)
We were told that the first listing agent had an offer from someone driving by as she was putting the sign out (before placing the property on the MLS). For the second go-around, It appears that nothing was changed other than a few months and the list price.
Love the porch!
$325k bid
When I think of Eastwood I think cool craftsman, not 1940’s, weird brick, have no idea what style, house. I like the inside arches–way over priced for Eastwood. Again, really hate the brick color, cool porch, tho.–295K, it needs lots of work.
HCAD has this property valued in the low $200’s… which, honestly, seems pretty accurate for this property.
But you could run this same article 50 to 100 times every day here on Houston on a different property and the answer to you question: “Other than removing furnishings, the power of price ranges, and the passage of time, what merited the price jump?” would almost always be the same: “Nothing.” but also “Demand.” If there weren’t so many buyers frothing at the mouth to buy any new listing that comes out on the MLS–before it gets snatched up by some other frothy buyer–prices wouldn’t be rising so quickly in almost every innerloop neighborhood.
And that phenomenon is largely a function of easy money and low interest rates. Which are what caused the last bubble we had. If appraisers aren’t willing to assign ever higher valuations and banks aren’t willing to loan on those appraisals–the merry go round stops.
She added 80K for what? Time and trouble? This will be an interesting one to see play out.
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This is actually the kind I’d rather buy, one without kitchen and bath updates. But for a lot less $$$$ because those kitchen/bath updates will cost a bundle. I do love the arches and the fireplace.
I’m sorry Jared, but if you think low $200’s is accurate for a property like this in Eastwood, you are dumb as a box of hammers. HCAD valuations are very seldom even remotely close to reality. People are paying half a million for absolute crap in the Heights or Montrose. Why? because it is so close to downtown, midtown, the medical center, Rice, Hermann Park, Discovery Green, so on and so forth.. Well, that, and those areas now appeal to the d-bags of suburbia and corporate relos that are just too lazy to commute. Eastwood has all those same aspects, except the very last ones, appealing to the suburban d-bags and corporate relos. If anything, it ought to get a price bump for that.
As a resident of the Eastwood area, I’ll be anxiously waiting to see if anyone is interested in this property at its current inflated asking price. It would be interesting to see what the inspection report contains and how much has been done as far as replacing old wiring, plumbing supply lines, etc. Speaking from personal experience, anyone who buys and renovates/restores a home of this vintage should expect some budget-busting surprises in the process.
I’m not familiar with the new listing agent’s name and wonder how well really knows this neighborhood?
@artfox This agent has been active in Eastwood for a year or two now. She represents some guy hiding behind an LLC who is actively buying properties there that he considers undervalued, then flipping them for greatly inflated prices as soon as he closes. One cleared lot that I wanted to buy (but was beat by him by a few days) was listed at $60k. He offered the owner $50k and then relisted it immediately for $150k. There are several other examples of this. I’m on to his shenanigans, but I suspect most people looking over the listings in this area won’t know that several are owned by him and they’ll just see the artificially high asking prices and assume that demand is setting those prices. No, it’s some human parasite. My advice: if you see an Eastwood property you like, and it is this agent’s listing, don’t offer anything near the asking price.
I went through this house when it was originally on the market, and it’s all original. That’s great with regards to the finishes, and it’s all brick, but of course plumbing and electrical have to be updated, and the garage apartment is in marginal shape (as most are). We guessed about $100-150k to reno it right, and that stopped us dead in our tracks. It’s a big hourse, but it was priced with rental cash flow in mind, not someone converting it back to single-family. Now it’s just overpriced and the market will rightly ignore it until the listing expires.
Update: this house’s listing price has been down and up and back down again since this post. I live around the corner and I have seen various comings and goings of workers. They gutted the place, prettied up the outside and installed new windows. They kept the wooden flooring but no idea about the kitchen or bathrooms. I believe they updated the electrical and plumbing. It was bought on December 1, 2015 for $350k (only $15k over purchase price). Since December 1, there have been no sign of any work or people around.
We bought the house Dec. 1, 2015. We converted the home to a single family residence, and it has been completely updated. Renovations will be completed May/June 2016. Home will be on the Eastwood home tour in Oct. 2016.