The Swamplot Price Adjuster needs your nominations! Found a property you think is poorly priced? Send an email to Swamplot, and be sure to include a link to the listing or photos. Tell us about the property, and explain why you think it deserves a price adjustment. Then tell us what you think a better price would be. Unless requested otherwise, all submissions to the Swamplot Price Adjuster will be kept anonymous.
Location: 8906 B Memorial Dr., Bayou Woods
Details: 7 bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths; 7,521 sq. ft. on a 25,740-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $1,650,000
History: On the market for more than 2 1/2 years. 8 separate price reductions, totaling $925K. Just cut $100K at the beginning of this month.
Says the nominator of this home:
This place is just too much. Really. I mean … 22 ft. ceilings in the Living Room? Who’s got that much of a swelled head? And 2 separate game rooms? One of them has its own kitchen and dining room! I think “built for builder” says it all.
But what do I know? At only 7,500sf maybe it’s not grandiose enough for the new Bayou Woods.
I don’t really know much about this place, but it sure has been hanging around on the market for awhile.
What should the price be?
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Obviously, the original $2.575 million asking price was way too much. I can’t really guess what price it’s going to sell at, but it sure would be fun to see another $100,000 cut or so, maybe just for sport. So I’ll say $1.5 million, just to get the conversation started.
Your thoughts?
Here’s a quick comment on this property’s problem…Its 8903 B Memorial Drive. If I could afford a $1 million+ house, I would not want my address to look like that of a townhome. The address knocks at least $20K off the price for me. Lot looks weird, too. This house has way too much white for my taste.
That last picture has an range and oven right below a sloped ceiling. I hope is have ventilation right behind it or that’s a fire hazard and cleaning nightmare waiting to happen.
Also, has anyone in that house heard of color?
$1.65 million might be a fair price for the place, but I suspect that something in the $1.25 range would get the house sold quickly.
Too bad I don’t have the cash on hand, because I really like the place.
The listing sez, “Property not on Memorial.”
So, if you put a big fence fronting the street you can then say it’s not “on” the street? I didn’t go to realtor school, so I guess I don’t know the patois.
This is an excellent nomination. There is nothing “stoopendous” about this place other than the location. No pool, no color, no fun, no you…oh, I think I’m turning Japanese!
Seriously, this place looks like absolutely no fun. I’m sure color, a skilled decorator, a small pool, and a family of non-lobotomized goofballs could liven it up. But, it just strikes me as a builder’s way to get rid of a bunch of leftover middle grade stuff. The catch is you get to pay out the nose for it all due to the location.
How ’bout $1.15 million and they throw in some paint that contains pigment?
If you google the adress, you’ll see why that “b” is in it.
There is an existing house on Memorial that must have sold a strip of land on the east side for the driveway for this house plus the existing back yard.
This house appears to be built on the old backyard of the house on memorial.
kjb, that range under the sloped ceiling is one of those JennAir models that has an extract fan in the center between the two pairs of burners. It’s a downdraft extract that, if you are lucky, might pull the flame off center on the bigger burners. The only thing saving that ceiling is the fact that noone will use a stove in the gameroom.
What a disaster. I can’t believe the builder thought it would be a good idea to set this home up in this configuration. Follow kjb’s advice to see why. The best bids are going to be the guy at 8906 A or maybe whatever address this backs to on Pinehaven. So my answer is whichever of those 2 guys has the higher bid. That number is probably $700k, and they will demo this place. If not them, maybe someone would take it for $600k.
Nobody wants to pay a million bucks to live in the guest house.
According to HCAD, 8906 Memorial is tract 20A of Bayou Woods Sec 1, sitting on about 3/4 acre, and has a market value of $935K. The property in this article, 8906 B Memorial, is a flag lot, meaning it has only driveway access to Memorial. It has less acreage than the other, but HCAD thinks it’s worth $1.684M.
Flag lots are apparently really hard to sell, whether they’re out in the country or in the middle of a swanky Memorial neighborhood.
There are a number of houses in River Oaks hidden behind street-frontage properties with only driveway access: it creates a great sense of privacy, and the longer drive builds anticipation for your guests. They might be hard to sell, but in practice they’re very nice.
Now, that being said… it helps if the house at the end of the drive isn’t a joyless builder-white drywall showroom. No fun!
Gosh, all that gaudiness and no pool? I’d have to agree with Random’s suggestion of around $1.25M. I guess the seller’s not all that motivated since it has been on the market for 2 1/2 years.
Is this a home? Or is it a Giant Dumping Ground for High Margin Building Products? Or is it a Rancid Monument to the 2005-2008 get-rich-quick scheme of building $1mm+ McHomes? Whatever it is, it will serve as a time capsule to this short-lived era. Positively EVERY architectural detail in this “home” from the 22 foot living room cielings, to the needlesly complex indoor and outdoor rooflines, to the archways, to the excessive use of odd angles and curves, to the metal faux balcony will be completely out of “style” in 5 years. A false balcony? Really?? REALLY? EVERY home of quality I have ever seen has a REAL FREAKING BALCONY. Come on. Hang a $1,100 iron grate over the lower half of an upper floor window? How many of these windows actually open? Lot value + 1/3 of replacement cost of the structure. $800k + 1/3 of $600k = $1.0 million bucks. And you can talk me down too.
This works on the Price Is Right…
$1.
SIX car garage? Six? I mean, really, SIX? That’s just unnecessary.
I intend on building a six car garage on my lot at the lake. In fact, the entire ground floor of the structure will be garage/shop with the 2nd story being lake view living quarters. Anyone who questions the value of having a six car garage does not understand/appreciate man-like hobbies. Where else to keep the boats, motorcycles, trucks, cars, lawn/gardening equipment, wood working equipment, automotive repair bay, and various mechanical tools? This will all be across the street from my lakefront townhome which does not have room for any of my hobbies.
I wonder what the current owner paid for this place, and I’m curious what the conversation between owner and realtor was like when determining the list price. 30 months of carrying costs are now down the drain, and ~$100k in realtor commissions will cut into the bottom line as well. Just an observation.
I bet there isn’t a current owner living in the place. My wild speculative guess is that the lot was created by the home owner along Memorial and it was sold to a builder to build a house. Or the home owner of the house on Memorial figured they could make a buck by selling off a piece of their property with a home on it.
The lot has promise though. It’s hidden away from Memorial traffic, a fence or proper planting could make that back yard pretty awesome and compliment the home.
CK – hmmm….I do indeed have a truck, car, a van, lawn/gardening equipment, wood working equipment, and various mechanical tools – but somehow, they all fit into my 2-3 car garage.
LT…. some of us endorse our hobbies more than others.
I am guessing the price is just about right where it is now and am jumping on the $1.5MM sales number.
I’ve seen this house for years and always wondered why some would build a McMansion behind a perfectly nice Memorial Drive ranch house. I thought they would just buy the front 40 when the original owners died. My bad.