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: 8107 Glen Dell Ct.
Details: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths; 2,757 sq. ft. on an 11,307-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $245,000
History: On the market almost continuously from March 2005 to February 2006, then again from March to September 2006, and after a couple of weeks’ rest back on again until March 2007. Returned to the market from February to August of last year. Listed again since July 3rd of this year. Price reduced from $259K.
Here’s our reader’s nomination:
The home has a lot of good bones, flagstone exterior & some flagstone floors, big windows, angled rooms, pool. But the things done in the name of updating haven’t helped it. Lots of cheap ugly ceramic tile, Home Depot pedestal sinks, overdone moldings, and the original flagstone posts were taken down in favor of plain square wooden ones. There is no landscaping to speak of, and the pool is drained, now that will show well.
So, then . . . what might be a better price?
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Our nominator continues:
The home has been on the market since about 2005 or so. If you couldn’t get the price in better times, what makes you think you will get it now? $245,000? try $189,900. . . . Nevermind there is a much larger 6 bedroom 4.5 bath 2 doors down for $237,000.
What do you think?
The reader’s suggest $189K seems more realistic than $245K. Just looking at the pics, the place could probably use a new fence, landscaping, an update for the kitchen and is that a giant hole in the siding above the French doors leading to the pool? How many times has this place flooded due to the nearby Sims Bayou?
The house does look pretty cool in a retro way. Just seems like a place you could quickly grow to hate with all the flooding, plane noise pollution, the constant drone of I-45 and having to drive your kids to a private school since the local ones might not be so hot.
Sims bayou was redone about 15 years so it doesn’t flood over there other than some occasional street flooding in spots. I doubt it flooded even before the re-engineering of the bayou. Sims didn’t get out of banks in Allison or Ike in that area. Glenbrook sits in the middle of the “V” pattern of the runways so the planes don’t normally fly over the subdivision, (you can see that on google earth), there is some faint noise from the freeway but nothing significant. As for schools, yeah, they suck. Not everybody has kids and some that do don’t want public school. But for those that do want good public, it ain’t the one.
This house obviously has a lot of issues, but flooding, plane and heavy freeway noise wouldn’t really be on the list .
Even though all the cool MCM features have been ripped out, I would think it would have sold in four years’ time. Is there a meth lab next door or some equivalent? Is the owner just really stubborn on the price? There must be some circumstances we’re not privy to.
It’s actually a really nice street with some really nice nearby houses, several with architectural pedigrees.
This one seems to have a strange facade, and an unusual floor plan compared to its neighbors. Some landscaping would shore up the curb-appeal.
And the god-awful updates have kept the mid-century enthusiasts away at that price. Who wants to pay that much for poor-quality bland?
I live down the street. No meth houses in the vecinty so can’t blame the lack of sales on that. Nice quiet cul de sac with some long time residents from what I know.
I would imagine anyone paying that price for 3 bedrooms would expect a back yard to be presentable.
Houses in this ‘hood in that price range usually have oustanding architecture (or at least great Mod features) or are much larger square footage.
According to HAR, the average price per square foot is $53. Therefore, even if this house were on par with the rest of the neighborhood, the market value should only be ~$150K. I’m surprised the seller didn’t take a picture of the apartment complex located nearby on Broadway which has a first floor unit that has been converted into a convenience store. Every time I drive to Hobby Airport, I get a good laugh looking at that store.
I’d say 150k is fair. It wouldn’t cost too too much to reinstate the flagstone posts, rip up the tile and put something else down, tidy up the kitchen a bit, and do something with the yard, but enough to have the selling price not that high. I guess that’s been demonstrated with being on the market on and off since early 2005.
The street walkers near Santa Elena and the feeder sure don’t help.