Brief introduction; we moved to Johnsonburg, PA earlier this year. The house next door to us just recently went on the market. I am interested in purchasing the house but have some questions.
So the house we bought, the previous owners converted the garage into a two-story two bedroom apartment building among some other structures. We have no yard. The neighbor, 'Bob', moved his mother into an assisted living facility about 4 months ago. This would be a chance to give our kids a yard. I have been talking with Bob about the house 2-3 times a month since then. He initially said he would be trying to sell it for 35k. (remember this number, it's important).
I've done as much research as I can online and every place I check states the market value of this house is about 15k. I don't know exactly what year it was built but after many conversations with BoB, nothing has been updated in the house since the 90s and most of the flooring, walls, etc look to be from the 60s or so? All the walls have those thin wooden panels and it's not even dry wall behind, something slightly thinner but definitely not dry wall. Carpets look like they're 20 years old, floor is worn from many years of walking on it (that rolled out linoleum I believe).
I asked Bob last week if he had a chance to get an appraiser out. He stuttered a bit as if he didn't want to lie or something then blurted out 'my realtor said it was worth 35k'. I called the realtor and asked about the asking price and the date of the appraisal and all she said was it was appraised at 35k. I told her I just got done talking with Bob and he didn't have the house appraised. After about 3-4 seconds of silence, she hung up on me.
Am I creating red flags out of thin air or does something smell fishy here? I'm no expert in real estate and I would assume someone could list their house for whatever they wanted but lying about an appraisal from the realtor?
What can I do from here? I am very interested in the property but I don't want to pay more than double what the house is worth and this isn't even including costs to get the house up to date. I seem to be on amicable terms with Bob but I don't want to push the dialogue into more dangerous territory without being prepared. Any advice on how to handle this?
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/qjwc0z/potential_buyer_here_any_red_flags_or_is_this/
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