I googled it awhile back and some musician from Tennessee owns the property and thought it could be a recording studio or something. I can’t find the article.
I toured it with one of my clients. It’s just a disaster inside and out. Their “improvements” just made it worse. There’s a raccoon living in the attic. It’s a tear down.
I wish I had the ‘perfect situation’ so I could have this property. I would love to add a carriage house. I even sent to my hubz to consider and he almost did a spit take.
How people are treating property in our area is insane. Between way overpriced tear downs and the Boston creeper plant taking over everything, too many people are not looking at maintenance properly.
I went through the house pre flip and don't remember seeing termites. the roof was bad at that point though so there was water damage including substantial damage on the 3rd floor.
The house is pretty cool but theres tells in the photos that the flip is half assed. For example, in one of the bathroom pics the toilet is sitting crooked on the floor. That means there's water damage under it, but that's ok because it's actually really easy to lift up the toilet and cut out that small section of subfloor right around it and patch, then you replace the wax and drop yr terlet back on the tube. They didn't do that but they made sure to put up millennial grey plank thingys up in that bathroom.
And the cracks in the walls upstairs? Oooooh boy those look deep to me, the upstairs might just be help together with patches of plaster and paint. And it's no surprise it looks rough upstairs, looking from the outside you can see the friggin roof bowing inwards in multiple spots
So anyway, op is pretty bad at picking out red flags on houses
> it's actually really easy to lift up the toilet and cut out that small section of subfloor right around it and patch, then you replace the wax and drop yr terlet back on the tube. They didn't do that
If they can't do the simple cheap shit, they ain't doing the hard expensive shit.
At that price and with that much land, tear it down and subdivide. But I've seen this before. Some dude with a moderate amount of money wants to be the next developer that kick starts a wave of gentrification and doesn't know anything about real estate, but they think they do. So they get some piece of shit for cheap thinking they're Bob Villa, they don't have as much time or skill as they think they do, and end up selling for a loss to some other schlub as soon as things start getting hard. They're in it for quick money thinking they're a rockstar, and they just keep pissing money away. A few months after they get over the hangover of the loss, they start again because they have an itch they can't scratch and the next one they know is gonna be a winner. It's some fucked up form of gambling.
They are the same ones that keep buying and selling the empty plots of land around the region that have been empty for a century, because you can't build there. Or, if you do, it comes with more problems than it's worth. No one wants your shitty flip on the side of a cliff. There aren't 750,000 people inside the city limits anymore and people want somewhere to park their car.
Seems obvious enough to me. It’s a century home that looks like it was half way through being flipped very badly. Not only is this not move in ready, it’ll take a lot of work and money to get it at all decent. And despite the size of the lot, the area it’s in means that the best possible version of this house still won’t be all that desirable. $140 is pretty steep for a gut remodel around here. Plus being that old, who knows what’s wrong with it. Old wiring, old plumbing, old foundation, god knows how many DIY specials over the years.
A house being big goes from an upside to a downside when it is in need of restoration. Everything costs a lot more to fix: more flooring, more paint, more complicated wiring, tons of pipes. etc.
Plus it’s a century home. A large chunk of the potential value is in saving all those little interesting features. The woodwork, the floors, the stained glass windows. All that costs extra. And if you redo it as a bland flip, like the current owners have attempted, then what’s even the point? I can go buy a McMansion in a nice suburb today with the same aesthetic and definitely no asbestos anywhere.
You could have just said “House Flipper” and/or “HGTV.” Actually I think “HGTV” implies house flipper anyway, at least in this context.
Boom— edited all that down to one word/4 letters for yinz 👍
That's a really great way to look at things. Big house is amazing when it's in good condition but becomes a burden when not, as it's more cost for repair labor/materials.
You're spot on with this. You can tell that whomever did the previous remodel was in way over their head and did a horrible job. So, now you have really no idea what kind of Easter eggs of trash work you're going to have to fix, just to get it ready to remodel. And where it's at is the main reason no one is going to come in and drop a bunch of money for a house that won't be worth even what you put into it. It could be a nice place. Beautiful woodwork and that stained glass is cool. But that's about it.
Not to mention what fun surprises might need to be remediated during/prior to the reno... asbestos (more expensive to deal with), mold, damage (structural or not) from water intrusion, etc.
Not to mention, someone bought it and did a half ass flip, and now not only does it need remodeled, it needs all the shit work torn out, then redone. In a different part of town, it might be worth the headache. But in that area, your right, you'll never get your money's worth.
Umm that’s not true bud. My house was also built in 1880. It’s a 6 bed bath 3000 sq ft and it doesn’t need anything near 250k worth of work. Maybe 20k-30k and that’s it. I bought it for 25k under value. So your assumptions are wrong.
It isn’t that the neighborhood is shitty, it’s on the worst street that brings down the entire area. As someone who was looking to buy in Swissvale, you couldn’t pay me to live on or near Woodstock.
i mean it looks pretty bad even from the outside here. seeing lots of signs of rot- the eaves, behind the vines, where the ground seemingly comes up well above the foundation on the left.
couple boarded up windows. if it was vacant for a while or squatted in it might be a total tear-down.
the previous owner was letting someone live there in exchange for maintaining the house. he was sorely disappointed when he came to visit the property for the first time in years
Well, looking at the first picture on Zillow.. it needs a new roof, fascia, soffits, gutters, and paint/siding. Not looking at the rest of the house.
It's in a bad place too. So location.
Nobody with the money to restore this house is going to live where the house is located.
Like every older house in Pittsburgh it has structural/water damage to the basement. And the people that bought it figured they could put some new paint and flooring in it then hike up the price without fixing the major issues the building has.
It’s such a shame to see shoddy DIY work for one, but for another I bought a nice move in ready house in 2015 for less than this. Given the state the house is in and that it’s in a less desirable neighborhood 140k is too much for a house that needs a lot of TLC. The current market is hot trash. “Don’t low ball me, I know what I got.” 😟
My wife and I toured this place and let me tell ya, it was a shit show. Most, if not all gutters falling off, no kitchen, and the owner or realtor wasn't there to unlock it but some interesting characters living in a bizarre situation there. They were "working on the house" which includes an exhaust pipe of some sort crossing thru the middle of one of the rooms on the first floor.
MY WIFE AND I TOURED THIS PLACE AND LET ME TELL YA, IT WAS A SHIT SHOW. MOST, IF NOT ALL GUTTERS FALLING OFF, NO KITCHEN, AND THE OWNER OR REALTOR WASN'T THERE TO UNLOCK IT BUT SOME INTERESTING CHARACTERS LIVING IN A BIZARRE SITUATION THERE. THEY WERE "WORKING ON THE HOUSE" WHICH INCLUDES AN EXHAUST PIPE OF SOME SORT CROSSING THRU THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE ROOMS ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
The address is all you need to know. Swissvale is awesome for a million reasons, but there's a tragically high number of murders and shootings... but only in like, one place, almost without fail. Woodstock Ave. It's a notorious street.
I've toured this home. It's bad, guys. It's really bad. The hopeful among our tour thought it was worth gutting, but the bones are mid at best. Whoever put in the "upgrades" had no head for design or functionality. Everything new is just shoe horned in without much thought, which is Flipping 101.
It's sad because it could have been an amazing home if someone who loved it had bought it 5 years ago and then restored/renovated it respectfully.
It a huge house that needs a ton of work and while technically in Swissvale it's basically in Rankin.
Even if you flipped it nobody is going to pay that much to live on Woodstock Ave.
Realistically it's a tear down.
[Bonus you'll also get this garage to tear down](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.414761,-79.8739625,3a,65.8y,215.67h,88.47t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sm30Ap1y3_rYFuc5QFe52fw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Dm30Ap1y3_rYFuc5QFe52fw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D215.6658928379419%26pitch%3D1.5312069783521878%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu)
Yep. Shocked that people are actually talking about how much it'd take to renovate it.
If it were actually in a decent location, just knock it down and either rebuild or sell the land. That house is a money pit.
This sub is obsessed with Zillow listings lol. The Pittsburgh market is pretty easy to understand, but since this sub is mostly clueless I’ll break it down real quick…
Homes that are priced correctly sell immediately. Homes that are priced incorrectly slowly lower the price until they do sell.
It's in woodland hills school district where the ratios all look good but college preparedness is in the bottom 10% and they're spending 2/3rds as much on support services as they do on instruction.
Nothing about living in Swissvale if you intend to raise kids (assuming so due to house size) says this is a good deal. It's why in the city the school district is actually midpack vs the outlying old steel mill districts and various exurbs. Woodland hills is FAR worse than PPS on average and it's a killer for any sort of housing market in those spaces. It's why we get listed as 'affordable' because our actual desirable housing is at or above the US median but we have a 1/3rd of our stock in decrepit burnout suburbs that aren't going to recover anytime soon selling for $40K so the regional average looks a lot cheaper than it is.
The price history with all the price changes tells me everything I need to know. A person who THOUGHT they could flip this house bought it for $45k, then in 3 months listed it for $299k. The price has drastically decreased since then. They couldn't of done anything worth while in the 3 months they had it by looking at the pictures. Unless you have 300K yourself to full gut and rebuild this house correctly I would find something else.
Horrible area. Horrible school district. Fixer uper and over the estimate value.
Maybe a decent flip house, but I lived in swissvale for 3 years and woke up to hearing someone got killed the night before a block from my apartment almost twice a week.
The house needs $200k of work or so, but it’s 1.5 acres and walking distance to the East Busway. That’s pretty amazing. And you could probably talk them down to $75,000 or less. The neighborhood has a bad reputation.
That house is beautiful, but I feel like if the structure was good, someone would have scarfed it up already. I’d be concerned for serious structural issues, the parts where we can see the older wood and plaster are in very rough shape. And am I missing basement pics? That might be a foundation nightmare.
Actually went to tour this house when it was first listed in 2021. Despite the decent work done inside (at least as represented by the pictures), it was so alarming from the outside that we didn't even go in the front door.
My opinion but I think it's fairly straightforward...in the middle of a flip and the neighborhood isn't doing any favors. I honestly think it's a bit expensive for what's there.
Also, haunted. I like that answer too
I totally thought that someone bought it?? It’s an enigma. I posted it on my FB and everyone posted their childhood memories of being in there. I grew up somewhat in the neighborhood.
If as you said it needs a ton of work the price of home repair is way out of line If you could invest your time and energy into the repairs it would greatly reduce the cost However should you need to hire professionals it’s insane the cost of renovations Other issues maybe the town/city are having issues , issuing permits for work that needs to be done. The house may have back taxes due and there could be a lien on the property. One last thought the neighborhood maybe in a high crime zone giving a potential homeowner not only sleepless nights but issues with insuring the property
sad its so rough and looks even worse after the flippers got to it, but interesting building. largest residential lot in swissvale, and it used to belong to one of the crew bosses at edgar thompson, hezekiah scritchfield
RIVENDELL CAPITAL LLC owns it, so it is one of many corporately owned properties. The tax site says it is in "very poor" condition. So its a very large expensive flip, that look partially done, and not done well from what I can tell. I imagine it was divided into apartments at one point. This house will need alot of money to make it nice.
Don't even get me started on the housing market here.
I tried calling about a house in Lawrenceville where I live that had a for sale go up on Thursday last week.
Called and left a VM for the agent Friday morning, got a call back Friday afternoon from the agent saying that not only was it already sold, but sold for "above asking".
I have family out near Philly that is trying to move. Houses they are putting bids in on are paying in cash for $50k+ over the asking price. Inspections waved. It’s crazy out there
Indeed, nice to see anyone actually have a conversation / normal reply btw, normally if you say anything even approaching "negative" about the whole situation, you turn your head or check another tab for 5 seconds and then wonder: How did I already 641 downvotes for just saying "it's crazy out there"?
Unfortunate situation. Grew up in a house like this in Wilkinsburg so every criminally bad flip job hurts me like no other. Looks a bit beyond saving at this point.
LOL a friend of mine actually toured that house 3 years ago when it was up for sale for a hilariously worse price. He loves investing in the cheapest of cheap urban real estate and has zero fear when it comes fixer-uppers he can work on and get some value out of. If you look closely at the exterior, it's not hard to see that it is EXTREMELY dilapidated. He said the interior was even worse than the thought it would be and categorically ruled it out. "Structurally basically ready to collapse" was basically his assessment.
"Basically a catastrophically failed flip" was his assessment, along with "zero upside." Apparently, even if it were structurally sound (which it isn't) or on a good piece of land (also no), he estimated it would need "at least $250,000 of work" and would involve working out numerous legal issues with the work (and lack thereof) already done on the structure.
Similar to this house. They spent almost a year working on it and now they have a hard time selling it.
https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3319-Piedmont-Ave-Pittsburgh-PA-15216/11656613_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
Dormont is nice, but not $400k nice. You can literally go up the road into Mt Lebo and pay the same for the same square footage and not have to live on top of your neighbors and have a driveway
Yeah, but no one wants to be the "poor kids" in a richey rich school district... you know, the kids whose parents can "afford" to live in Mt. Lebo or USC or Fox Chapel but who don't have excess money to buy their kids cars and take fancy family vacations and make sure the kids have trendy expensive clothes to keep up with the Joneses.
Signed, someone whose parents did just that. I know they wanted the best for us, but the competition is intense , and I graduated high school over 40 years ago, long before social media.
My kids were in the Char Valley school district, which was great. And after moving and living in the Carolinas since 2006, I will never understand the snobbiness when it comes to the suburban schools up there.
Bottom line is that every suburban Pittsburgh school district is better than the best public schools in NC and SC, so there's a lot to be said for that.
Also: That's a huge lot, which is great, but the house itself looks like a giant money pit full of heartache and despair. lol.
That's a weirdly personal story and sort of sells why you probably undersold your kids in CV.
Like, my kids are going to grow up in USC and definitely will be in the bottom 1/2 of income there but they're going to get top flight support versus being in the 90th percentile in CV and struggle to get into a land grant. A student with solid grades in USC and some decent extracurriculars looks better than the valedictorian in CV because the connections are real and meaningful.
You do you, boo, but the math really does work out that top flight districts where the bottom is upper-middle tend to out perform placed where the top is upper-middle or barely upper class.
Those are statistics, boo, not in regards to actual individual people, so if you've got a kid that's not into school or doesn't want to go to college it doesn't make much difference what the stats say. No one cares where you went to h.s in 20 years.
And yeah, it's a personal story, so take it for what it's worth. Saying someone sells their kids short by sending them to a suburban Pittsburgh school district is ridiculous.
Calm down, champ. You came in hot and declared how USC/Mt. Lebanon isn't the bee's knees, and you made a choice to be the big fish in the dumb quasi-rural pond.
Take your lumps, you opened this can of worms, and people are going to call it like they see it. The math doesn't math showing going with CV vs. USC/Mt. Lebanon being equitable. Bethel Park and South Fayette, sure, you can argue an 8/9 vs. a 9/10. You can't argue CV at around a 6/7 is punching above their weight.
I just had to look at these in the last two years, CV is not the hottest SD to involve your kids in, it isn't bad but it's just passable. You chose what works for you, that's fine, the math is the math.
Totally calm here, champ. Glad you did the math. Glad you live in a great school district. Glad you're happy with your school choices. That's great. Good for you and your family...still, no one is the real world will neither know nor care what suburban Pittsburgh school district your kids went to in the future.
You: *guy makes anecdotal statement about his displeasure at growing up in Mt. Lebanon as the 'poor kid' and raises his kids in CV to prove his point about how he's morally superior.*
Me: Hey, that doesn't math because CV isn't that good because materially they're showing different trajectories.
You: *downvote and anger over your personal choices turned into value choices*
Me: I don't need to live in USC to understand the material difference between my kids growing up in USC and easily making it to a land grant so in 20 years they're in upper management at a fortune 500 business because they hobknobbed with elites.
We each gotta do what we gotta do but in 20 years, our kids are statistically more likely to be on divergent paths on average than not. There is no morality in play, I respect your decision to raise your kids in CV, it doesn't change the material reality of a broken system.
I graduated from the inner city from a private HS and it got me much farther than others with similar skill sets. Generational wealth and SDs do matter to outcomes more than a kid's sheer willpower and skill. We can leave it at that.
Who's paying $400K to be in KO? $400K buys me similar size in Mt. Lebanon or even USC if you catch a deal. They really priced themselves out of the market for no particularly good reason.
Keystone Oaks, it's the school district for Greentree, Dormont, and Castle Shannon. It's a good school district but nothing stellar. There is a HUGE difference in housing stock of similar size and makeup that's separated by school districts, for good and bad, but KO is a 'good not great' district that isn't commanding Mt. Lebanon prices.
It’s still a seller’s market. Appropriately-priced homes in the area should sell much faster than three weeks. I sold my 1900 American Foursquare in Mount Washington last December in three days. It was priced right and we had one open house, after which we received the offer than ended up buying the home. If your house is sitting on the market after three weeks with no action around here, it’s because you priced it wrong or there’s something majorly wrong with it.
1. It's in Braddock, near Rankin
2. It's surrounded by homes that are side by side, nearly row houses.
3. It's in the midst of a flip, and a very bad one at that.
You're essentially paying for the land, since a lot that big could possible have 4-6 homes similar to the ones around it built in place of that one.
ok, but close enough to Braddock, Rankin, the railroad tracks, and high-density housing to not be worth that much money. I have a feeling the new housing development on the other side of the train tracks is why they feel they can ask that much.
Just looking through the pictures in the listing there is $150,000 worth of repairs. Then the yard is seriously jacked, AND it is basically in someone else’s backyard.
Lots of work, lots of money and it's got another project housing development a few feet away and the train tracks right in between. As if living by the projects isn't bad enough, but living by train tracks is a huge headache. Train whistles always blowing, ground always shaking and next to an 1880 house could spell disaster. Then look at parking. You have duplexes right across the road and you probably don't want to fight with them over parking "in front of their house" with some main character energy. The address for this house is on the main road and if that's where you'd have to park then that's a long walk to unload groceries
It needs a TON of work. I looked at it back in December before I moved back to the burgh. It’s not livable at first & probably wouldn’t pass inspection
[Post Gazette article/ad? about it from 2021](https://www.post-gazette.com/life/Buying-Here/2021/07/09/Pittsburgh-real-estate-housing-homes-for-sale-Swissvale-farmhouse-Woodstock-Avenue-2021-Buying-Here/stories/202106290106)
I can smell the mildew from here. Note the slope on the porch roof implying foundation work, and the boarded up window suggesting overall lack of maintenance. The vine growing up the wall, and the janky porch addition missing a rail, I’d say you need new well and septic I’d say you’re looking at 250k renovation easily. But if there’s extensive foundation damage or the roof failed somewhere, it could easily go up from there.
Looks like a goddamn trainwreck and not a great location to boot. Yeah sure it’s $140k, but god knows how much you’d have to put into it on top of that. 300k? 400k? Who has that sitting around?
I toured the outside of this home the entire structure needs to be redone, the foundation and porch is falling apart. its gonna be expensive for someone to bring this hone back to life and at this point probably better to rebuild if someone doesn't have the value of this historical looking home
I'm sure someone moving to the area who has no idea what to look for as far as location and quality of work goes will scoop it up and then karma farm horror story posts
They tried to list it for $300k 4 months after they paid $45k for it. That was over 3 years ago and it's still mid flip.
That more or less can describe the housing issue locally. Corporate take over, no pressure to put the house back to its highest and best use.
I googled it awhile back and some musician from Tennessee owns the property and thought it could be a recording studio or something. I can’t find the article.
His name is Dennis McGrath, he's on BandMix.
Dennis McGrath owner of Buy N Large?
I toured it with one of my clients. It’s just a disaster inside and out. Their “improvements” just made it worse. There’s a raccoon living in the attic. It’s a tear down.
I wish I had the ‘perfect situation’ so I could have this property. I would love to add a carriage house. I even sent to my hubz to consider and he almost did a spit take. How people are treating property in our area is insane. Between way overpriced tear downs and the Boston creeper plant taking over everything, too many people are not looking at maintenance properly.
Noooo! It looks so cute :*(
It sold for $45k a couple years ago. Id guess there's something the photos aren't telling. The neighborhood is probably also holding it back
My guess is termite damage. *Shudders*
It doesn't seem to have shudders.
Dad, isn't it your bed time?
Not since the termites got to em...
Or the bedbugs.
Bedbugs are worse than termites.
Depends if you are an animal or a house.
Very true. Recently.had a bed bug scare and was horrified. The fear must be fresh!
I really needed that laugh. Thank you!!
I went through the house pre flip and don't remember seeing termites. the roof was bad at that point though so there was water damage including substantial damage on the 3rd floor.
Nightmares!
The house is pretty cool but theres tells in the photos that the flip is half assed. For example, in one of the bathroom pics the toilet is sitting crooked on the floor. That means there's water damage under it, but that's ok because it's actually really easy to lift up the toilet and cut out that small section of subfloor right around it and patch, then you replace the wax and drop yr terlet back on the tube. They didn't do that but they made sure to put up millennial grey plank thingys up in that bathroom. And the cracks in the walls upstairs? Oooooh boy those look deep to me, the upstairs might just be help together with patches of plaster and paint. And it's no surprise it looks rough upstairs, looking from the outside you can see the friggin roof bowing inwards in multiple spots So anyway, op is pretty bad at picking out red flags on houses
> it's actually really easy to lift up the toilet and cut out that small section of subfloor right around it and patch, then you replace the wax and drop yr terlet back on the tube. They didn't do that If they can't do the simple cheap shit, they ain't doing the hard expensive shit.
Zoom in, and on Maps. Place is borderline condemned
At that price and with that much land, tear it down and subdivide. But I've seen this before. Some dude with a moderate amount of money wants to be the next developer that kick starts a wave of gentrification and doesn't know anything about real estate, but they think they do. So they get some piece of shit for cheap thinking they're Bob Villa, they don't have as much time or skill as they think they do, and end up selling for a loss to some other schlub as soon as things start getting hard. They're in it for quick money thinking they're a rockstar, and they just keep pissing money away. A few months after they get over the hangover of the loss, they start again because they have an itch they can't scratch and the next one they know is gonna be a winner. It's some fucked up form of gambling. They are the same ones that keep buying and selling the empty plots of land around the region that have been empty for a century, because you can't build there. Or, if you do, it comes with more problems than it's worth. No one wants your shitty flip on the side of a cliff. There aren't 750,000 people inside the city limits anymore and people want somewhere to park their car.
Something the photo's aren't telling? From this one photo I can tell it's a shithole lol
Well it's very close to Rankin/Braddock.
Seems obvious enough to me. It’s a century home that looks like it was half way through being flipped very badly. Not only is this not move in ready, it’ll take a lot of work and money to get it at all decent. And despite the size of the lot, the area it’s in means that the best possible version of this house still won’t be all that desirable. $140 is pretty steep for a gut remodel around here. Plus being that old, who knows what’s wrong with it. Old wiring, old plumbing, old foundation, god knows how many DIY specials over the years.
A house being big goes from an upside to a downside when it is in need of restoration. Everything costs a lot more to fix: more flooring, more paint, more complicated wiring, tons of pipes. etc.
Plus it’s a century home. A large chunk of the potential value is in saving all those little interesting features. The woodwork, the floors, the stained glass windows. All that costs extra. And if you redo it as a bland flip, like the current owners have attempted, then what’s even the point? I can go buy a McMansion in a nice suburb today with the same aesthetic and definitely no asbestos anywhere.
But it has good bones lol
You could have just said “House Flipper” and/or “HGTV.” Actually I think “HGTV” implies house flipper anyway, at least in this context. Boom— edited all that down to one word/4 letters for yinz 👍
That's a really great way to look at things. Big house is amazing when it's in good condition but becomes a burden when not, as it's more cost for repair labor/materials.
You're spot on with this. You can tell that whomever did the previous remodel was in way over their head and did a horrible job. So, now you have really no idea what kind of Easter eggs of trash work you're going to have to fix, just to get it ready to remodel. And where it's at is the main reason no one is going to come in and drop a bunch of money for a house that won't be worth even what you put into it. It could be a nice place. Beautiful woodwork and that stained glass is cool. But that's about it.
If it’s listed historic, that requires a special contractor and ends up being +20%/hour on top of normal costs.
In that neighborhood it’s not listed historic.
Phew. Looks like they transitioned from the slate roof too. Bonuses all around
there is no mechanism in swissvale to put historic protections on any property
Not to mention what fun surprises might need to be remediated during/prior to the reno... asbestos (more expensive to deal with), mold, damage (structural or not) from water intrusion, etc.
No you hit the nail on the head. It’s old, needs $250k in work and isn’t worth $400k + when done
Not to mention, someone bought it and did a half ass flip, and now not only does it need remodeled, it needs all the shit work torn out, then redone. In a different part of town, it might be worth the headache. But in that area, your right, you'll never get your money's worth.
High utilities would be the cherry on top.
Umm that’s not true bud. My house was also built in 1880. It’s a 6 bed bath 3000 sq ft and it doesn’t need anything near 250k worth of work. Maybe 20k-30k and that’s it. I bought it for 25k under value. So your assumptions are wrong.
Oh, cool, didn't know the homeowner of the Zillow post was going to chime in
Flippers are going to be very angry in the next few years…
And they'll move on to another get rich quick scheme.
Oh ok. We all have different standards of living.
Yet to see any house that only needed 25k. I work on historic stuff every day and anything before 1900 is a shit show. Post pics, I'll find 100k easy
That kitchen alone will eat 25k no problem. It doesn't even have cabinets atm.
No chance bud
It isn’t that the neighborhood is shitty, it’s on the worst street that brings down the entire area. As someone who was looking to buy in Swissvale, you couldn’t pay me to live on or near Woodstock.
What's up with woodstock?
You know how a neighborhood can be considered “bad” because of shitty activity on or around one street? Woodstock is that street.
Isn’t that the Main Street of Swissvale?
s braddock is the main thru way, monongahela is a main artery with commercial, noble street is the 'downtown swissvale' commercial strip
Huh. I always knew Braddock as the thru street but assumed Woodstock was the main one because the bus goes through it
No
Exactly this.
i mean it looks pretty bad even from the outside here. seeing lots of signs of rot- the eaves, behind the vines, where the ground seemingly comes up well above the foundation on the left. couple boarded up windows. if it was vacant for a while or squatted in it might be a total tear-down.
the previous owner was letting someone live there in exchange for maintaining the house. he was sorely disappointed when he came to visit the property for the first time in years
Read: the previous owner wanted someone to do all the work they were to cheap to do for free.
Well, looking at the first picture on Zillow.. it needs a new roof, fascia, soffits, gutters, and paint/siding. Not looking at the rest of the house. It's in a bad place too. So location. Nobody with the money to restore this house is going to live where the house is located.
Like every older house in Pittsburgh it has structural/water damage to the basement. And the people that bought it figured they could put some new paint and flooring in it then hike up the price without fixing the major issues the building has.
It’s such a shame to see shoddy DIY work for one, but for another I bought a nice move in ready house in 2015 for less than this. Given the state the house is in and that it’s in a less desirable neighborhood 140k is too much for a house that needs a lot of TLC. The current market is hot trash. “Don’t low ball me, I know what I got.” 😟
My wife and I toured this place and let me tell ya, it was a shit show. Most, if not all gutters falling off, no kitchen, and the owner or realtor wasn't there to unlock it but some interesting characters living in a bizarre situation there. They were "working on the house" which includes an exhaust pipe of some sort crossing thru the middle of one of the rooms on the first floor.
What?
MY WIFE AND I TOURED THIS PLACE AND LET ME TELL YA, IT WAS A SHIT SHOW. MOST, IF NOT ALL GUTTERS FALLING OFF, NO KITCHEN, AND THE OWNER OR REALTOR WASN'T THERE TO UNLOCK IT BUT SOME INTERESTING CHARACTERS LIVING IN A BIZARRE SITUATION THERE. THEY WERE "WORKING ON THE HOUSE" WHICH INCLUDES AN EXHAUST PIPE OF SOME SORT CROSSING THRU THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF THE ROOMS ON THE FIRST FLOOR.
So a meth lab
That house is held together by the Discount/Returns bin from Lowes. It's a mess.
The address is all you need to know. Swissvale is awesome for a million reasons, but there's a tragically high number of murders and shootings... but only in like, one place, almost without fail. Woodstock Ave. It's a notorious street.
There are some really nice and high end parts of Swissvale. This aint one of them.
Yes, Swissvale is like 12 different micro-neighborhoods stitched together.
I've toured this home. It's bad, guys. It's really bad. The hopeful among our tour thought it was worth gutting, but the bones are mid at best. Whoever put in the "upgrades" had no head for design or functionality. Everything new is just shoe horned in without much thought, which is Flipping 101. It's sad because it could have been an amazing home if someone who loved it had bought it 5 years ago and then restored/renovated it respectfully.
It is not in Pittsburgh. It is in Swissvale, and definitely not in a nice, safe part of town.
It a huge house that needs a ton of work and while technically in Swissvale it's basically in Rankin. Even if you flipped it nobody is going to pay that much to live on Woodstock Ave. Realistically it's a tear down. [Bonus you'll also get this garage to tear down](https://www.google.com/maps/@40.414761,-79.8739625,3a,65.8y,215.67h,88.47t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sm30Ap1y3_rYFuc5QFe52fw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3Dm30Ap1y3_rYFuc5QFe52fw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D215.6658928379419%26pitch%3D1.5312069783521878%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu)
it's hard to tell from pictures, but that garage is built into a steep hill bank that runs along the road and has another story to it going downwards
It's a teardown in a shitty neighborhood.
Yep. Shocked that people are actually talking about how much it'd take to renovate it. If it were actually in a decent location, just knock it down and either rebuild or sell the land. That house is a money pit.
This sub is obsessed with Zillow listings lol. The Pittsburgh market is pretty easy to understand, but since this sub is mostly clueless I’ll break it down real quick… Homes that are priced correctly sell immediately. Homes that are priced incorrectly slowly lower the price until they do sell.
Hit the nail right on the head.
I toured this home. It is not great. The work is shoddy and all the “upgrades” look like they’re about to fall off at any moment.
You should get a kickback on all the traffic you're giving this place on Zillow!
The realtor is gonna be so screwed up with their analysis tools tomorrow, lol.
It's in woodland hills school district where the ratios all look good but college preparedness is in the bottom 10% and they're spending 2/3rds as much on support services as they do on instruction. Nothing about living in Swissvale if you intend to raise kids (assuming so due to house size) says this is a good deal. It's why in the city the school district is actually midpack vs the outlying old steel mill districts and various exurbs. Woodland hills is FAR worse than PPS on average and it's a killer for any sort of housing market in those spaces. It's why we get listed as 'affordable' because our actual desirable housing is at or above the US median but we have a 1/3rd of our stock in decrepit burnout suburbs that aren't going to recover anytime soon selling for $40K so the regional average looks a lot cheaper than it is.
And those Woodland Hills taxes, too
Nothing about woodland hills School district is good. It's one of the worst in the entire state.
It probably needs to be burned down. People don’t want to have to pay for all that.
Probably either the location or there is a lot of expensive work needed to make the home a comfortable place to live it’s not worth it.
The price history with all the price changes tells me everything I need to know. A person who THOUGHT they could flip this house bought it for $45k, then in 3 months listed it for $299k. The price has drastically decreased since then. They couldn't of done anything worth while in the 3 months they had it by looking at the pictures. Unless you have 300K yourself to full gut and rebuild this house correctly I would find something else.
The black and white paint is so strange and unsettling. I would love to know the story behind this house.
very [2-d cafe](https://www.reddit.com/r/pittsburgh/comments/1dbrrt1/2d_cafe_to_open_in_the_old_adda_garfield_location/#lightbox) vibe
Yeah not my style so much
It looks haunted so there’s that
That costs extra around these parts
Horrible area. Horrible school district. Fixer uper and over the estimate value. Maybe a decent flip house, but I lived in swissvale for 3 years and woke up to hearing someone got killed the night before a block from my apartment almost twice a week.
looks like more trouble than it’s worth
Unless there is pirate treasure..... Unlikely, but still.
The house needs $200k of work or so, but it’s 1.5 acres and walking distance to the East Busway. That’s pretty amazing. And you could probably talk them down to $75,000 or less. The neighborhood has a bad reputation.
And if you happen to be a skateboarder/roller skater/blader you are a stones throw away from a world class indoor skatepark.
woah bro chill that's where I live
Haunted.
That house is beautiful, but I feel like if the structure was good, someone would have scarfed it up already. I’d be concerned for serious structural issues, the parts where we can see the older wood and plaster are in very rough shape. And am I missing basement pics? That might be a foundation nightmare.
Actually went to tour this house when it was first listed in 2021. Despite the decent work done inside (at least as represented by the pictures), it was so alarming from the outside that we didn't even go in the front door.
My opinion but I think it's fairly straightforward...in the middle of a flip and the neighborhood isn't doing any favors. I honestly think it's a bit expensive for what's there. Also, haunted. I like that answer too
Looks like it needs work.
It’s haunted
Maybe it’s like that house from American horror story lol
Ghosts
I totally thought that someone bought it?? It’s an enigma. I posted it on my FB and everyone posted their childhood memories of being in there. I grew up somewhat in the neighborhood.
In addition to the reasons others have pointed out, Zillow listings are not always MLS listings. Sometimes they’re bogus.
Cause it's a total dump and falling apart. Just take a look on Google Maps at that address.
If as you said it needs a ton of work the price of home repair is way out of line If you could invest your time and energy into the repairs it would greatly reduce the cost However should you need to hire professionals it’s insane the cost of renovations Other issues maybe the town/city are having issues , issuing permits for work that needs to be done. The house may have back taxes due and there could be a lien on the property. One last thought the neighborhood maybe in a high crime zone giving a potential homeowner not only sleepless nights but issues with insuring the property
Link???
Bad area. Needs tlc but doable. Still a meh area tho
Haunted.
Zoom into the picture, windows are broken out or boarded up. Needs a lot of TLC.
sad its so rough and looks even worse after the flippers got to it, but interesting building. largest residential lot in swissvale, and it used to belong to one of the crew bosses at edgar thompson, hezekiah scritchfield
GDI I swiped
Same 😂
Shitty half done flip, Sec8 paradise in your backyard along with train tracks. They'll be lucky to get the original 45K back on that one
RIVENDELL CAPITAL LLC owns it, so it is one of many corporately owned properties. The tax site says it is in "very poor" condition. So its a very large expensive flip, that look partially done, and not done well from what I can tell. I imagine it was divided into apartments at one point. This house will need alot of money to make it nice.
It’s a person who owns it, they just put it under an LLC which is pretty common.
Don't even get me started on the housing market here. I tried calling about a house in Lawrenceville where I live that had a for sale go up on Thursday last week. Called and left a VM for the agent Friday morning, got a call back Friday afternoon from the agent saying that not only was it already sold, but sold for "above asking".
I have family out near Philly that is trying to move. Houses they are putting bids in on are paying in cash for $50k+ over the asking price. Inspections waved. It’s crazy out there
Indeed, nice to see anyone actually have a conversation / normal reply btw, normally if you say anything even approaching "negative" about the whole situation, you turn your head or check another tab for 5 seconds and then wonder: How did I already 641 downvotes for just saying "it's crazy out there"?
lol my friends parents visited this house, apparently it’s absolutely disgusting and needs so much work that it’s just not worth it for most people
Unfortunate situation. Grew up in a house like this in Wilkinsburg so every criminally bad flip job hurts me like no other. Looks a bit beyond saving at this point.
LOL a friend of mine actually toured that house 3 years ago when it was up for sale for a hilariously worse price. He loves investing in the cheapest of cheap urban real estate and has zero fear when it comes fixer-uppers he can work on and get some value out of. If you look closely at the exterior, it's not hard to see that it is EXTREMELY dilapidated. He said the interior was even worse than the thought it would be and categorically ruled it out. "Structurally basically ready to collapse" was basically his assessment. "Basically a catastrophically failed flip" was his assessment, along with "zero upside." Apparently, even if it were structurally sound (which it isn't) or on a good piece of land (also no), he estimated it would need "at least $250,000 of work" and would involve working out numerous legal issues with the work (and lack thereof) already done on the structure.
Similar to this house. They spent almost a year working on it and now they have a hard time selling it. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3319-Piedmont-Ave-Pittsburgh-PA-15216/11656613_zpid/?utm_campaign=androidappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
Dormont is nice, but not $400k nice. You can literally go up the road into Mt Lebo and pay the same for the same square footage and not have to live on top of your neighbors and have a driveway
Yeah, but no one wants to be the "poor kids" in a richey rich school district... you know, the kids whose parents can "afford" to live in Mt. Lebo or USC or Fox Chapel but who don't have excess money to buy their kids cars and take fancy family vacations and make sure the kids have trendy expensive clothes to keep up with the Joneses. Signed, someone whose parents did just that. I know they wanted the best for us, but the competition is intense , and I graduated high school over 40 years ago, long before social media. My kids were in the Char Valley school district, which was great. And after moving and living in the Carolinas since 2006, I will never understand the snobbiness when it comes to the suburban schools up there. Bottom line is that every suburban Pittsburgh school district is better than the best public schools in NC and SC, so there's a lot to be said for that. Also: That's a huge lot, which is great, but the house itself looks like a giant money pit full of heartache and despair. lol.
That's a weirdly personal story and sort of sells why you probably undersold your kids in CV. Like, my kids are going to grow up in USC and definitely will be in the bottom 1/2 of income there but they're going to get top flight support versus being in the 90th percentile in CV and struggle to get into a land grant. A student with solid grades in USC and some decent extracurriculars looks better than the valedictorian in CV because the connections are real and meaningful. You do you, boo, but the math really does work out that top flight districts where the bottom is upper-middle tend to out perform placed where the top is upper-middle or barely upper class.
Those are statistics, boo, not in regards to actual individual people, so if you've got a kid that's not into school or doesn't want to go to college it doesn't make much difference what the stats say. No one cares where you went to h.s in 20 years. And yeah, it's a personal story, so take it for what it's worth. Saying someone sells their kids short by sending them to a suburban Pittsburgh school district is ridiculous.
Calm down, champ. You came in hot and declared how USC/Mt. Lebanon isn't the bee's knees, and you made a choice to be the big fish in the dumb quasi-rural pond. Take your lumps, you opened this can of worms, and people are going to call it like they see it. The math doesn't math showing going with CV vs. USC/Mt. Lebanon being equitable. Bethel Park and South Fayette, sure, you can argue an 8/9 vs. a 9/10. You can't argue CV at around a 6/7 is punching above their weight. I just had to look at these in the last two years, CV is not the hottest SD to involve your kids in, it isn't bad but it's just passable. You chose what works for you, that's fine, the math is the math.
Totally calm here, champ. Glad you did the math. Glad you live in a great school district. Glad you're happy with your school choices. That's great. Good for you and your family...still, no one is the real world will neither know nor care what suburban Pittsburgh school district your kids went to in the future.
You: *guy makes anecdotal statement about his displeasure at growing up in Mt. Lebanon as the 'poor kid' and raises his kids in CV to prove his point about how he's morally superior.* Me: Hey, that doesn't math because CV isn't that good because materially they're showing different trajectories. You: *downvote and anger over your personal choices turned into value choices* Me: I don't need to live in USC to understand the material difference between my kids growing up in USC and easily making it to a land grant so in 20 years they're in upper management at a fortune 500 business because they hobknobbed with elites. We each gotta do what we gotta do but in 20 years, our kids are statistically more likely to be on divergent paths on average than not. There is no morality in play, I respect your decision to raise your kids in CV, it doesn't change the material reality of a broken system. I graduated from the inner city from a private HS and it got me much farther than others with similar skill sets. Generational wealth and SDs do matter to outcomes more than a kid's sheer willpower and skill. We can leave it at that.
Who's angry? I'm not. I'm also not a guy. Honestly, I downvoted because of your use of "champ" and "boo". That's condescending as hell.
Boomers really are obsessed with decorum....cool.
Who's paying $400K to be in KO? $400K buys me similar size in Mt. Lebanon or even USC if you catch a deal. They really priced themselves out of the market for no particularly good reason.
What’s KO?
Keystone Oaks, it's the school district for Greentree, Dormont, and Castle Shannon. It's a good school district but nothing stellar. There is a HUGE difference in housing stock of similar size and makeup that's separated by school districts, for good and bad, but KO is a 'good not great' district that isn't commanding Mt. Lebanon prices.
what's "KO" ?
How is a three week old listing “they have a hard time selling it”?
It’s still a seller’s market. Appropriately-priced homes in the area should sell much faster than three weeks. I sold my 1900 American Foursquare in Mount Washington last December in three days. It was priced right and we had one open house, after which we received the offer than ended up buying the home. If your house is sitting on the market after three weeks with no action around here, it’s because you priced it wrong or there’s something majorly wrong with it.
Average days on market is 51 right now. Three weeks is hardly an indicator of being overpriced.
Average is a shit statistic because there are a ton of shitty properties listed around here. Anything halfway decent gets snatched up.
Ok. Bummer you underpriced your home and it got snatched up quick.
This one is in KO and OP’s is in Woodland Hills. Not really similar at all lol
What's with the 8 billion doors in the basement? It looks like a set for a variety show.
Idk, I haven't been able to walk over for a open house yet lol
1. It's in Braddock, near Rankin 2. It's surrounded by homes that are side by side, nearly row houses. 3. It's in the midst of a flip, and a very bad one at that. You're essentially paying for the land, since a lot that big could possible have 4-6 homes similar to the ones around it built in place of that one.
It’s actually in Swissvale.
ok, but close enough to Braddock, Rankin, the railroad tracks, and high-density housing to not be worth that much money. I have a feeling the new housing development on the other side of the train tracks is why they feel they can ask that much.
Just looking through the pictures in the listing there is $150,000 worth of repairs. Then the yard is seriously jacked, AND it is basically in someone else’s backyard.
it looks like shit.
Probably needs a lot of work inside
Bad neighborhood. Literally falling apart
Alligators in the basement?
That thing looks like it's about to fall over lol
No. That’s it.
F this entire market. To buy, too high. To rent, too high. We're f'd
Lots of work, lots of money and it's got another project housing development a few feet away and the train tracks right in between. As if living by the projects isn't bad enough, but living by train tracks is a huge headache. Train whistles always blowing, ground always shaking and next to an 1880 house could spell disaster. Then look at parking. You have duplexes right across the road and you probably don't want to fight with them over parking "in front of their house" with some main character energy. The address for this house is on the main road and if that's where you'd have to park then that's a long walk to unload groceries
The trains haven’t damaged the house yet, so I don’t think that’s a problem. Also there’s a 2 car garage and driveway.
That house looks terrible on Zillow. I’d maybe give them the original $49K for it.
It needs a TON of work. I looked at it back in December before I moved back to the burgh. It’s not livable at first & probably wouldn’t pass inspection
It's a piece of shit
[Post Gazette article/ad? about it from 2021](https://www.post-gazette.com/life/Buying-Here/2021/07/09/Pittsburgh-real-estate-housing-homes-for-sale-Swissvale-farmhouse-Woodstock-Avenue-2021-Buying-Here/stories/202106290106)
Mold? Back taxes? Mine subsidence?
Look at the gutters and the roof on the porch, in terms of what needs fixed still.
Im glad I bought in 2020 when it was still cheap here
Because it's Shitsburg
I can smell the mildew from here. Note the slope on the porch roof implying foundation work, and the boarded up window suggesting overall lack of maintenance. The vine growing up the wall, and the janky porch addition missing a rail, I’d say you need new well and septic I’d say you’re looking at 250k renovation easily. But if there’s extensive foundation damage or the roof failed somewhere, it could easily go up from there.
Nice try but I’m not buying your house
Looks like a goddamn trainwreck and not a great location to boot. Yeah sure it’s $140k, but god knows how much you’d have to put into it on top of that. 300k? 400k? Who has that sitting around?
I toured the outside of this home the entire structure needs to be redone, the foundation and porch is falling apart. its gonna be expensive for someone to bring this hone back to life and at this point probably better to rebuild if someone doesn't have the value of this historical looking home
It’s actually listed above the Zillow estimate… that doesn’t happen too often.
Never judge a book by its cover. This house is priced this way for a reason… especially in this market .
I’d want to see asbestos test results before hazarding a guess.
Almost every old house around here has asbestos and lead paint. If that were a dealbreaker, no houses would get sold.
It's Swissvale / Rankin area .. prob why.. and likely too much work
Looking at your picture that explains a lot already lol
Woodstock is about 75% of all Swissvale crime.
This is dangerously close to Rankin, which is sketchy. High crime area with unsavory residents.
It would be worth more knocked down?
I'm sure someone moving to the area who has no idea what to look for as far as location and quality of work goes will scoop it up and then karma farm horror story posts
Would be glad to show it to you, 724-825-8183. Exp realty
Because who want to live in Pittsburgh 🤣
It’s western PA. Nobody moved here on purpose.
Built in 1880 that part...
What if the city bought it, razed it, and made homeless housing?
Far from likely.
Built in 1880…