Thursday, March 13, 2008

Reader Sightings – 947 SE Miller, Sellwood

A reader sent in this comment about a house for sale in Sellwood.

“I rent in Sellwood and pass this place on my daily dog walk to the Sellwood Park. It's listed at $375K, but i'm pretty sure the brochure I picked the other day had a reduced price of $360K-ish. That's not an outrageous price for this area (I mean it is, but relative to other listing prices nowadays), but I'm wondering if this is a case of two properties built on one lot. You can't tell from the pics on the listing, but I'm telling you - this is the world's priciest trailer. It lists 1544 sq ft, but that's including a 600 sq ft unfinished basement. It has an identical twin to the left, and I'm pretty sure it's no coincidence there's no front picture on the listing - it looks crammed in there.

According to Portland Maps, it was bought for 100K back in '98, 291K in 2005 (gotta be some regret there) to the current owner, who is also the realtor. I know Sellwood is a "hot" area and all, but come on! This seems like a case of an owner desperate to unload a regrettable purchase at an inflated price.”

The lot is only 2500 sq ft, so it's possible the lot was split at some point and two shotgun style houses built on the one lot. MLS #8021021

Have you seen a house for sale you're curious about? Send me a note and I'll post it.

11 comments:

oregone said...

Weird. Portlandmaps says that both 947 and 943 (the other half of the lot) were built in 1910. That can't be right.

Anonymous said...

If you don't believe that they weren't subdivided recently, look at the Google street view or drive by - they're old houses.

I'll try to link to the street view here but you may have to click right arrow on Miller a few times to get to the house views.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=947+SE+Miller+St,+portland+or&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.160552,81.474609&ie=UTF8&ll=45.470078,-122.655981&spn=0.007163,0.019891&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.466475,-122.656017&cbp=1,359.6563883756216,,0,5

Anonymous said...

The link takes me right to it.

Anonymous said...

Here's an intersting one close to the one on Miller: 8036 SE 7th Ave Portland OR 97202

Sold in June of 07 for $284K. I remember this house from when it was on the market last year - I think they were trying to sell it for $299K. Has a very strange layout. Only 2BR 1BA with the Master BR taking up pretty much the whole top floor. The other thing that I recall about it was that it was completely surrounded by trees (too close).

Anyway, I saw it listed on CraigsList a few weeks back for something like $420K(!) and it didn't look like they had done all that much to it (well, they removed the trees that were too close to it before). For example, they probably could have at least split up that master BR in two - but it didn't look like they did. But at this point I can't find it listed on CL anymore... And Zillow doesn't show any sales since the one last year.

PDX Outsider said...

anonymous 8:14, you're right, i hadn't checked the neighbor house,but it looks like they were both built around the same time. i haven't seen too many houses like that, but i'm not that familiar with sellwood.

PDX Outsider said...

skeptictank, that other must not have sold recently, i also don't see any recent records for it.

Anonymous said...

They are trying to rent it out as well..

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/apa/605678068.html

Anonymous said...

Dude's on crack. Ain't nobody gonna pay $375 for a shotgun shack. The rent sounds high as well. But even at $1500 using the old GRM stand-by of 160, it pencils out only for $240.

PDX Outsider said...

exactly, according to my calculations it would cost $85k up front and $1950 a month, or just rent it for $1500.

yet another data point that shows that at the moment renting is the better bet than buying.

Anonymous said...

Here's the url for 8036 SE 7th, not $420K, $450K.

http://www.forsalebyowner.com/listing/VCYTG?AID=6272983&PID=1654472

Anonymous said...

dparker: Ah, it's a FSBO. Now it says they're asking $439,900 - it does look like the did some work to it, but still going from $284K to $440K?! And it only has 2 BRs and 1BA! The pic there makes it look a lot bigger than it is.