Why is this house so cheap?

[Anonymous]

The "garage" situation in the back looks iffy to me, but otherwise I cannot figure out why this house is so (relatively) inexpensive: https://www.redfin.com/MD/Takoma-Park/7344-Carroll-Ave-20912/home/10974624 What am I missing?

[Anonymous]

Needs a lot of work

[Anonymous]

My guess is the Carroll Ave location, and may also be a tad under priced to drum up interest. It's a cute house, yes it needs work but it's livable as-is, for the time being.

[Anonymous]

Busy road by a busy intersection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Busy road by a busy intersection.

Busy road, yes, but not really a busy intersection. It's actually backing up to Sherman Ave, which is a pretty street, and is very nice a really nice neighborhood park.

But that aside, it is hard to figure out the bedroom and bathroom situation. One bathroom is in an otherwise unfinished basement, and not clear what they are counting as bedrooms. My guess is that there are a couple of really small, ugly rooms that are being counted as bedrooms. So it is probably closer to two bedrooms and 1.5 baths. And my guess is that new coat of paint and some other cheap looking flip fixes that the agent slapped on aren't really going to hide some ugly stuff.

That said, this will go for that price.

[Anonymous]

No central air? Prices low to encourage a bidding war? Ghosts? Gruesome death? Divorce and need to sell ASAP?

[Anonymous]

It’s teensy tiny, everything in it is cheap, and the back addition looks very suspect. It probably needs a gut renovation but it’s not clear you can make it big enough to make doing that worthwhile. It’s probably priced right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s teensy tiny, everything in it is cheap, and the back addition looks very suspect. It probably needs a gut renovation but it’s not clear you can make it big enough to make doing that worthwhile. It’s probably priced right.

Tangential, but what makes the back addition look suspect? I'd love to get better at being able to eyeball that kind of thing and know what to look for.

[Anonymous]

Could be any number of things--location, street, fences, lack of deck, shed or garage(?), yard.

[Anonymous]

I don’t believe that agents post houses here because what would be the point?

Because social marketing.

What would be the point of a non-agent posting a “Why is this house sitting/cheap/etc” thread? None whatsoever. Why would a non-agent care enough about a house they don’t own to solicit insight from anonymous internet posters? They have the same information as the person asking the question.

“Why is this house” threads are absolutely agents. Because social marketing.

Now on to the question:

Why is this house so cheap?

Indian burial ground. The house is built atop an Indian burial ground. And this is not just any Indian burial ground. This Indian burial ground is the resting place of natives who specialized in the buying and selling of real estate, making this property especially cursed. How do I know this, you ask? From the Historic Property Assessment I just made up. Or did I?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No central air? Prices low to encourage a bidding war? Ghosts? Gruesome death? Divorce and need to sell ASAP?

It has central AC

[Anonymous]

Do streetview

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do streetview

And? The streetview shows nothing negative really, besides the double yellow which has already been discussed. The homes surrounding this one look cared for, to me.

[Anonymous]

I bet it shows horribly. The situation is the back is a trainwreck. Needs a tremendous amount of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do streetview

And? The streetview shows nothing negative really, besides the double yellow which has already been discussed. The homes surrounding this one look cared for, to me.

It looks pretty run down on the streetview. I am guessing the house was in rough shape and someone did a cursory spruce up to make it look better for selling, but it probably needs a lot of work.