I paid $563.00 psf last October.

Was the going rate in your area $56 a square foot last October? That is, did you also overpay?

My question was why would anybody overprice their house so much for something so ridiculously stupid. Who in their right mind will buy a house with no wall between the bathroom and the kitchen? A house with no bedroom???

Just because it’s priced like that doesn’t mean it will sell, I see a ton of overpriced homes in my area, and they’re not selling, or if they do it is not for anywhere near asking. As a realtor I get annoyed seeing these, but then I remember it’s probably their sister or cousin listing their house for them. 🙄

Yeah, that's my question.

So you just play along, knowing it'll go nowhere? That's gotta be frustrating

I agree, it may not sell.

In my neighborhood in 2022 some relatively ordinary houses that have been remodeled inside--a little better than flipped, maybe---have started to break the $1M barrier. This is anything from about $450-600+ psf, if the house is slightly bigger it's less per sq foot...

As is inevitable, a relatively ordinary house with a completely untouched c. 1980 interior just hit the market at the $1M + mark, because people say "If they are asking $X, so can I". Even though they are in completely different conditions. And depending on how tight the market is, the seller might get lucky.

Our market is not that brisk that people are jumping on these $1M properties though.

Not me, I don’t take those listings lol. You can always tell you got a “live one” when the description is all in caps, or has bad grammar and misspelled words. That annoys me more than the price haha.

There is no way it will sell for what it's asking!

I admire their audacity? Triple, if not quadruple a reasonable price for the property. Insanity.

KR, I love your comment about a live one. Yep! There is no way it will ever sell for what they're asking. I guess I they gotta start somewhere, because there is no property that is... "comparable". It's in a really old part of town (though, it s lakeside), and I have long suspected that it's the garage of a home that was there before. Seriously. Oy.

I paid $563.00 psf cash full price AND GOT BEAT. Their deal fell through and I was the back up. This answers your question. They ask this much because they can and will get it.

They may be selling it for the land value. I see that a lot in my area, the structure gets town down and replaced by a $x,xxx,xxx house or apartment complex.

In this market when you figure out corporations and snatching anything and everything up they can turn around and rent it may well sell and no one feels weird since a family/person isn't their target audience anyway.

That's my other thought. It's ON the lake. Maybe someone can make it an air BNB. Not a big enough lot to build much on, but how big does it need to be for a spot to sleep overnight? We'll see what it sells for.

If it renovated well and is truly turnkey, you may be surprised. I live near the ocean and properties like that command a huge premium. People either use it for a weekend retreat, and/or the AirBnB thing you already mentioned.

I said the bathroom was open to the kitchen? And is really NOT renovated. Doesn't seem turnkey. Ah, yes. To bathe in that tub touching the water heater, so relaxing. Nope. This is not something that can be justified. To do the air bnb stuff, there is a lot that would have to happen.

Ok, yup - now I see what you mean. That's heinous!

Pictures are worth a thousand words.

Sounds like you're paying for location, location, location. Well, someone. Maybe not you personally.

If this isn't some sort of super-high-value property, the seller will figure out in a hurry that the price just won't fly.

Maybe it's out of step with your local market and then it won't sell for asking, but where I am that would be an astonishingly good deal worth buying just to gut or even tear down. On a lake too?!

I paid about the equivalent USD 700/square foot 3 years ago for a place we had to mostly gut -- that was a pretty good deal and prices have shot up since. All that to say posts like this really only make sense to people in the same or a similar housing market to your own, so you might want to mention location.

What I would do is buy the house next door to it along with it. They're being sold by the same person at the same time. The other house is almost as pitiful. You could actually put one decent house there on both lots in the middle of it. And then you would make a killing. As it is, neither lot is a reasonable size, neither house is a reasonable facsimile for a lake house.

As someone else said, maybe it’s location, location, location.

This house is in the middle of a bunch of far more desirable houses, in a less desirable spot. I'm telling you the going rate for houses that are actually selling in that area. It isn't location. Basically, the owner is in the middle of a pipe dream.

"Basically, the owner is in the middle of a pipe dream."

That will be determined by the marketplace alone.

Yes. We'll see.

There are definitely sellers like that. But then again there are some people crazy enough (for a variety of reasons) to take them up on that offer. Ya never know! Market is changing though, so let’s come back to this conversation in a year and see where we are.

A corporation from out of state bought both lots together at the same time. I'm betting they see what I see. One dwelling right in the middle of both of them. Though I can see who bought it, nobody has done any work on it yet.

Thanks for the update, @rob333 (zone 7b)!