Stopped by an Open House Today

My wife and I stopped by an open house today for a condo conversion project that's been under the works for over a year. (My wife walks past the project each day on her way to work, so she was interested in perusing the open house.) Prior to the conversion, the place was a typical late 1970s/early 1980s apartment complex, which seem quite numerous around our neighborhood.

The open house had a half dozen realtors there, showing three of the 30 or so units. There was also some live music, a soloist strumming some Mexican guitar music. The units had been improved nicely, with new paint, kitchens, hardwood floors, granite countertops, free wifi, new plumbing, new fixtures, etc., etc. All in all, a nice job, they've spent a lot of time and energy on the project as a whole, as evidenced by my wife's daily walk to work.

While the conversion was nice, there were a few problems that would definitely sour me:

• The location
• The price per sq. ft.
• The layout/age of the building

First off, the project was located one block from the road in town littered with bars and tatoo parlors, and three blocks from the beach, cramed between two other apartment complexes and a busy alley. To put it another way, you weren't going to get any sleep during the weekends, especially in the summer months. (My wife and I live on a cul-de-sac street, and we still get enough noise, especially in the summer, to wake me usually at least once a night during the weekends.)

The prices started in the low $300s for the 450 sq. ft. efficiency unit on street level.
That's close to $750 per square foot. And the efficiency we toured was right on the street level with its back window facing the alley (meaning that across the alley are the backs of the bars that are open to 2:00 AM each night). The largest units available were one bedroom and neared 1,000 sq. ft., although I'm not sure what their prices were.

Finally, the conversion, while well done, was on an older building. Walking around the units the floorboards creeked much like my parent's home that was built in the 70s. Not necessarily the sign of defective construction or termites or whatnot, but it's kind of unsettling to be dropping that kind of money for a seemingly "new" place. It's important to keep in mind that you're really buying a renovated interior of an old apartment complex.

This was one of dozens of open houses in the neighborhood. On our walk there, we passed the sign flippers for the conversion that's offering a free car if you buy a condo. I assumed we wouldn't see any potential buyers, but while we were touring the open houses we saw five or six others checking out the open units as well.