bostonbubble.com

Richthofen · Joined: 02 Apr 2014 Posts: 69

https://www.redfin.com/MA/Boston/105-Perham-St-02132/home/9213578

I put an offer of $470K in on this house last week. Has been on the market for a while. It's got decent space for the location; Walk up attic and I could finish the basement. Definitely needs some stuff; has temporary 'jacks' under the main load bearing beam. Oil heat but house has gas meter for the dryer so conversion would be painless. In a great part of town in my mind.

Then I discover after a friend googled the address that the previous owner was murdered by his son in the house 10 months ago. I was blown away this wasn't disclosed but it isn't actually required to be disclosed in most states.

They countered $485K but I declined. I might have still gone through at $470K but I have no idea how you price in the 'murder' factor. Sure would make it harder to resell, at least among the superstitious set.

Anyways, that's how crazy MA real estate is. I was totally willing to overlook a murder to get a house under asking price.

2passion8 · Guest

I saw that house on Redfin! I might have clicked favorite too because it looked like it had nice bones but yikes. I would not want to buy a house with that history. I don't believe in ghosts or anything but it would be in the back of my mind too much. I think you were lucky to get out of that one. But for someone who doesn't care they might get a great deal and that might b worth it. Shocked

Richthofen · Joined: 02 Apr 2014 Posts: 69

Here's an article about the murder

http://boston.homicidewatch.org/2014/03/19/west-roxbury-man-charged-with-killing-father/

It went under agreement w/ contingency this morning. Not to me though.

showgunx · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 60

I didn't know this murder thing is a big deal, unless to Asian buyers, which normally would not deal with anything related to death. They won't even consider any house near graveyard.
Location wise this house is in a decent area of west roxbury, kind of close to the train. I had lived in west roxbury for a while, driving to work in boston from that area is the giant pain in the butt, as there is NO quick way to drive into the city, I95 is horrible during morning hours, going route 9 is suicidal. Taking the train to north station is ok, and if you try taking the bus to switch orange line, that bus will take forever to get to frost hill.

Richthofen · Joined: 02 Apr 2014 Posts: 69

House is back on the market.

Yeah I wouldn't want to drive through Brookline/West Roxbury. I commute using public transit to cambridge. Should take an hour with Commuter Rail to South Station then red line to Central.

Richthofen · Joined: 02 Apr 2014 Posts: 69

So I had offered $470K and the sellers rejected the offer. Waited a bit (3 weeks), offered $475K. Accepted the offer. Did an inspection, and there were a lot of things we already knew about and had been ok with (electrical, etc). One thing we did not budget for was that the city water supply pipe was made of lead. That was a huge red flag. We had a contractor give us a $5K estimate to replace (city said it was owner's responsibility even though the pipe was before the meter). We asked the sellers for the $5K off and they wouldn't budge. We held our ground; we didn't want to spend a dollar more given we already knew we had work to put in. In the end the deal fell apart.

What really pissed me off was after we had a signed offer they had one additional open house. Really shitty. I guess they got a good backup offer because they house did not go back on the market.

Guest · Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 4:29 pm GMT Post subject: too bad

showgunx · Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 60

http://www.boston.com/real-estate/news/2015/04/30/home-prices-greater-boston-soared-the-first-months/9NQye9kleG8XADq1wKGFBJ/story.html?p1=story_hp

First time home buyers, just go cry your eyes out!

admin · Posted: Sat May 02, 2015 1:36 am GMT Post subject: Re: can't afford it

Richthofen · Joined: 02 Apr 2014 Posts: 69

So the house closed. $480K. Our offer was $475K and we balked at the $5k pipe fix. Of course I feel like a total idiot now.

My job allows remote work and I am seriously considering leaving the state. It's too expensive for the type of life we want. It's too depressing to battle other people at open houses, when I will never have enough money to outbid someone. It's shitty to see rinky-dink houses that my parents grew up in go for a million dollars to a foreign investor who won't even live in it. It's shitty to think that I can either rent and give my son a good education in Belmont, or roll the dice with his schooling in West Roxbury (assuming I can even find a home to buy there).