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A 10 unit in Sedona, AZ

January 28th, 2007 by Kenric

Last week I received an email about a 10 unit apartment that had been converted into condos in Sedona, AZ.  The sales flyer showed pictures of granite counters and travertine floors and new wood floors and carpeting.  The asking price was $1.4 million.  There were 6 - 1 bedroom 1 bath units and 4 - 2 bedroom 2 bath units ranging from 700-900sf.  In Sedona, $140,000 for a condo is a really good price.  So, my friend and I hopped in the car and drove 2 hours up to Sedona to take a look.

Apparently the owners who bought it last year and converted the units to condos and that’s all they did.   The one unit that was shown in the pictures with the granite and travertine was horribly done.  Everything would have to be torn out and redone.  It was a little misleading that only one of the units was “redone” and all the other units were in various stages.  Some had no carpeting, junk everywhere.  Many units were untouched and had 70’s green carpet and decor.  Sadly, the “redone” unit needed more work than the others because we’d have to demo the new stuff.

While we were there, we met some other investors who were looking at the property also.  They came to the same conclusion that we did.  $1.4 million was way too much for this property.  By our estimates the place needed about $300,000 of work.

All was not lost however, we were able to look at other properties while we were out there and we may make an offer on another multi in the next few days.  I’ll post about that when it goes through or dies.

Speaking of Sedona, check out this vacation rental house that I rented for a weekend.  I found it odd that there are no pictures of the front of the house.  But, I’m sure it will look fine based on it’s asking price of $1.6M.

One thing I found out is that you can negotiate vacation rental rates.  I called the vacation rental PM company and made an offer.  They called the owner who countered, I re-countered, and she rejected my counter.  That was it, on to the next house.  It was interesting because I never knew you could do that.  Put that in the back of your mind for your next vacation!

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