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balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

Looking to buy a new construction town house in the Boston area and am wondering whether to finish the basement. The builder wants $15k to finish 400 sq ft. Do you all think that it is a good investment? When I look to sell the house, will that result in a sale price of more than $15k?

Brian C · Guest

Are you going to finish the basement or are you going to "finish" it as living space? Big difference between the two and the cost might be much more than the $15k you were quoted.

As stated here before, finished living space that you can count when selling must have walls, ceiling, working electricity, heating, and access to another finished area.

$15,000 / 400 sq ft = $38 sq ft. That isn't that expensive if they "finish" the area. I helped my parents finish off their basement, it costs us about $3k in materials for 1000 sq ft. We did all the work ourselves and finished it in about 10 total days.

How big is the condo? If the additional 400 sq ft gives you more than 20% overall sq ft, then it would be a good investment.

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

Thanks for the reply.

We actually decided to pass on the house. Supposedly they were going to put walls up, ceiling, electrical , heating, and closets but no bathroom. The living area was 1700 sq ft without basement so it sounds like that would have been a good investment.

The house was located on a very busy road (Weston St in Waltham) so even if we had decided to make an offer on it we thought that maybe people interested in the extra space (for a family) wouldn't have been interested in that property because of the busy road.

Guest · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:14 pm GMT Post subject:

I know the condos you are talking about.
Last year, I looked at one of them and thought they were very nice inside. I know the developer, seen his other work throughout Waltham and its quality stuff. But this is the first one, he's really going to get hurt on. The location is very bad, right in the middle of route 20 and vernon st. Too much traffic and noise for the price they want.

Its been on the market for $435k for almost 300 days now without ONE price drop. Another one of his properties that I almost bought, I forced him down to $395k before I found my cheap rental.

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

I agree - $435k is too much for that property. They need to drop the price about $40k. I don't know who they think wants to pay a premium for 8500 sq ft of non-fenced off land but is willing to live with high traffic 20 ft in front of their house. We decided to not even bother offering. The listing agent sent us some docs yesterday about it as we requested and replied that they just received an offer for it. We'll see if it sells and for what price.

balor123 · Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 1204

What was the other property? What was the list price that you forced him down from? I'm told that builders won't negotiate much on price but I'm curious to hear it for myself. Thanks.

Guest · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:20 am GMT Post subject:

I believe the property was located on Clark St.
Coldwell Banker was the middleman, but I met with the developer just by chance and we talked about price on the unit I saw.

It was originally listed for $410k, it was right before winter and he wanted to sell it. Offered $395k and to close in 30 days, he agreed if I could line it up. While I was getting my financing checked out, found a rental closer to my work for 1/3 the cost of my potential mortgage.

The unit did ended up selling 2 months later for $403k.

dennn · Guest