Looking for a House in the Tulsa Area

[heironymouspasparagus]

Too few houses in Johanssen which make the odds pretty slim you would ever have adjacent properties for sale at the same time.  MC and I have been looking for something bigger and put in an offer on one we felt was over-improved for the area.  Needless to say, we are still looking.  There is one which just took a price cut to $120K which is very cheap for that 'hood but they've done some funky interior improvements and it backs up directly to a school which is an issue for some folk.

Johansen is actually only comprised of 25th Place and 24th St. between Sheridan and Memorial which makes comparable sales a real biznitch in determining the "true" value of a property in there since the immediate housing areas to the north and south are generally more tract type homes on 8000-9000 square foot lots.  It's a very neat and unusual neighborhood for sure.  I wish we could have bought the one house for what it should be worth, but I'm not obligated to pay too much for a property when the previous owner over-improved it.

We are putting an offer in on a house in Wedgewood, which is another unique area with more custom builts on larger lots rather than tract housing.  If that goes through, we will be looking to rent out our Mid-Century Lortondale house in the near future if anyone knows of someone looking for a nice house to rent in mid-town.

Don't have to wait for that...if find one for sale, there are two (one on each side) and sometimes one behind that could be approached to see if they were interested in selling.  Make your own destiny.  $120 k in any other part of town would be insanely low, but that one is so close to some mediocre neighborhoods, it won't really go too much higher, proportionally.  Get the 120k, gut it and redo it yourself.  Sheet rock is cheap.  Is it still for sale?  May have to go look at it.

It is a very interesting neighborhood that I would like to get into, if could buy the two or three lot thing.  The houses are all over the map from very modest, small places (one with tan/brown brick that backs up to what used to be Whitney Jr High).  Probably no more than 1000 sq ft.  Others are over 3,000 ft.  Many of them were owner built.  I had many friends live there when in school.  The area just north - 21st to 23rd - has houses that have been selling from 80k to 120 k for over 15 years.  Haven't moved a notch.  Family friend sold one for 100k in 1995 that was for sale last summer for 100k.  Houses aren't run down, it's just a declining area...not far south Tulsa, or Broken Arrow, or Owasso.

Wedgwood...north of 21st, just east of the Sears compound Wedgwood??  And you think Johansson Acres is overpriced??  I had friends that lived there, too...one was to big to fit in the car (very small car so couldn't get more than 5 or 6 inside the Beetle), so when we went anywhere as a group, he would ride on the front like a hood ornament....  Wedgwood is nice enough area - there are some good houses there.  Growing up, it was always the Ranch Acres Wannabe neighborhood....but smaller and less expensive.  And great because we could park at friends and walk to the fair!!

Not sure how you are using the phrase "tract housing", but no, not like Levittown, but certainly the mid century ranch (sprawling stone), with some throwbacks to post WWII almost ranch...brick half way up with siding up to roof line.  Custom in the way that you bought from a selection of plans the builder had, and most were not built quite "on spec"....since everything they built sold by the time they were complete.

You are in one of the most unique areas of town from that time....I spent a lot of time riding a bicycle through that part of town, and always thought it would be very cool to have a flat roof house. 

[Conan71]

Don't have to wait for that...if find one for sale, there are two (one on each side) and sometimes one behind that could be approached to see if they were interested in selling.  Make your own destiny.  $120 k in any other part of town would be insanely low, but that one is so close to some mediocre neighborhoods, it won't really go too much higher, proportionally.  Get the 120k, gut it and redo it yourself.  Sheet rock is cheap.  Is it still for sale?  May have to go look at it.

It is a very interesting neighborhood that I would like to get into, if could buy the two or three lot thing.  The houses are all over the map from very modest, small places (one with tan/brown brick that backs up to what used to be Whitney Jr High).  Probably no more than 1000 sq ft.  Others are over 3,000 ft.  Many of them were owner built.  I had many friends live there when in school.  The area just north - 21st to 23rd - has houses that have been selling from 80k to 120 k for over 15 years.  Haven't moved a notch.  Family friend sold one for 100k in 1995 that was for sale last summer for 100k.  Houses aren't run down, it's just a declining area...not far south Tulsa, or Broken Arrow, or Owasso.

Wedgwood...north of 21st, just east of the Sears compound Wedgwood??  And you think Johansson Acres is overpriced??  I had friends that lived there, too...one was to big to fit in the car (very small car so couldn't get more than 5 or 6 inside the Beetle), so when we went anywhere as a group, he would ride on the front like a hood ornament....  Wedgwood is nice enough area - there are some good houses there.  Growing up, it was always the Ranch Acres Wannabe neighborhood....but smaller and less expensive.  And great because we could park at friends and walk to the fair!!

Not sure how you are using the phrase "tract housing", but no, not like Levittown, but certainly the mid century ranch (sprawling stone), with some throwbacks to post WWII almost ranch...brick half way up with siding up to roof line.  Custom in the way that you bought from a selection of plans the builder had, and most were not built quite "on spec"....since everything they built sold by the time they were complete.

You are in one of the most unique areas of town from that time....I spent a lot of time riding a bicycle through that part of town, and always thought it would be very cool to have a flat roof house. 

Johanssen isn't over-priced, but it's hard to really establish steady values since homes don't sell often there.  Realtors only use comp sales in the last six months to form a CMA, I'm not sure how far back an appraiser will go for realistic comps.  The house we put an offer in on is over-priced, about $110/ft. when the historical trend the last two years has been $70-$80/ft.  We offered $87/ft, they countered at $107.  We figured there was no point in trying to negotiate further.  You have to figure what the additional land is worth to you as well as out-buildings.  This one had about a 600 square foot cinder block shop that was in below average condition.  It's not my fault they are in it to the tune of $125 to $130/ft.   This was a 1600 foot house and they had done really nice updates thinking this was the house they would be in through retirement.

I was trying to think what other neighborhood was similar to Wedgewood and you are right Ranch Acres is similar type homes.  And yes, it's the one just east of Sears/Target/Reasors at 21st & Yale.  Someone else put in an offer last night as well so we will see how that shakes out.

When I say tract homes, more like the 1200 to 1800 foot homes that were built on spec or off a limited set of floor plan choices where a buyer could pick certain amenities or colors if they had pre-sold a house.  I like how the streets meander around in Wedgewood, rather than being on a NSEW grid.

And yes, I'm still riding a bicycle all over the place in that area