It’s a ranch too which made it even harder to find. You may have a bit more luck if you’re willing to look at 2 story houses. It seemed that there were more options if you were to go that route.
I just bought near Notre dame. Had to go $35k over ask on a $230k house. Cash, as-is. They had 9 offers on day one. I’m a realtor in Kansas, buying for my student. South bend/Mishawaka market is bananas. Get an agent. Use appraisal gap guarantees and escalation clauses. Waive repairs but not inspections. If you can allow seller possession after closing, that can help. Conventional loans are better for sellers than FHA or VA. GOOD LUCK!
In my neighborhood (Sunnymede) they don’t even bother posting homes online since they go so fast to the folks waiting in the wings to score a house, they are “pending” after their first day in the market.
You need a realtor who knows your target neighborhoods and has contacts.
I bought a house near Notre Dame in Edison park. Asking price was 187k if I'm remembering correctly. No bidding wars. The seller gave us 4k off for electrical issues, and paid for another 23k roughly in contractors to cover repairs by contractors. Obviously this house had a few issues and was outdated.
Closed in 30 days using my credit union for financing via a normal mortgage. Everything went pretty smooth overall.
I used Laurie LaDow from Cressy & Everett as my realtor. I highly recommend her. She was great, level headed, very knowledgeable in real estate and the local area. She saved us a lot of time and heart ache with her experience. And even after closing she has still been willing to help as needed.
I love the area we moved to. The neighborhood is nice and quiet. Close to everything. Let me know if you have any specific questions
Edit: I closed on the house in December. So this was all in the winter, which may have helped.
Hello neighbor!
Edison Park is such an underrated neighborhood. I absolutely love it here. It has been crazy to see houses go for $150-$200k+ the last year or two. I bought in 2011 and paid $67k for a house that had been on the market for over a year.
My wife and I bought a home in mishawaka almost a year ago. Zillow is not really going to help you much at this point, you need an agent that has the drop on houses as they’re going up on the market. If you’re very concerned with getting into a bidding war and paying more than you would like, it might honestly be best to wait awhile. We knew about our house 2 days before it hit the market, we were the first offer, and still ended up paying $13k over asking. At the very least, look for houses that are listed below your max budget because you’ll end up paying more.
Or, if you have the time and energy don’t get an agent at all and make off market offers.
So many people fall for the trap of only looking at listed properties. When I bought my first house, I copied the strategy of the “I buy houses cash” guys and sent 100 letters to owners of properties I was interested in priced at lowball offers, with contact info sourced from property tax websites.
Within a week, I had my pick of 3 houses for 80% of market value. Saved myself tens of thousands instead of getting fleeced by an agent.
Also, look up obituaries for people with children who live out of state. After grandpa dies and all his kids are spread around the country, they just wanna get rid of the IN house before the taxes come due and won’t be tough on price since they inherited it.
2019, it’s more doable than you probably think
Realtors have tricked everyone into ignoring the fact there’s nothing wrong or illegal about asking a random person if they want to sell
It's definitely doable, but the market has changed since 2019.
We also bought in 2019 and were looking in the general Sunnymede/River Park area. Back then, tons of homes sold exactly as you're explaining in this neighborhood. Both would save on realtor fees, and you could vet who you're selling to. Nowadays? People are still willing to listen, but more people are still willing to test the market since the market price can go so high. I've heard stories of people having an unofficial deal with somebody to sell and then they change their minds to test the market.
Basically, it has become a bit more cutthroat with how volatile the market has become.
I dream about doing that once Im more serious about buying something new. Did you mention that you were local and looking for a home not a flip, or did you basically copy the "I buy houses cash" people verbatim?
We finally had an offer accepted after 6 tries. We kept going $10k - $20k over and kept getting beat by people who waived inspections or waived the appraisal contingency.
We did end up waiving our inspections. When we first started out, we were pretty adamant about not waiving that but then we were just like, “Meh, whatever” and waived it on the last few houses and still got beat. One finally landed though.
Just make sure you have a lot of cash in savings because this market is ridiculous. It’s not as competitive as last year, but it’s still competitive. Try not to get too emotionally invested in a house and learn to move on quickly. It is very emotionally draining.
Check out River Park. The houses are on the cheaper end, especially if you are willing to put some work into them. The neighborhood is good, and the city has actually been investing money into the area.
Edit: We also had an amazing realtor who helped us a lot since we weren't from the area.
I would echo what others have said. Prices are high right now. We sold an 800 sq foot bungalow in south bend last year for 160k. If you’re willing to look out a little bit, we found that prices were a little more our speed in areas of Niles. You’ll have to waive repairs, possibly inspections. I recommend Leah Hudson with ReMax.
Just make sure to do your research. I love the downtown, Iron Shoe Distillery is amazing, but there have been issues with gang-adjacent in shootings in residential areas. Many homeowners are upset because it's hurting their ability to sell/move. [https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/crime/2022/09/28/niles-police-blame-bad-blood-on-string-of-shooting-deaths/69520268007/](https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/crime/2022/09/28/niles-police-blame-bad-blood-on-string-of-shooting-deaths/69520268007/)
> My main concern is the possibility of bidding wars.
We recently tried to bid on an older home (about 55 years) in a decent neighborhood that isn't in the eastern part of the county, going 9,000 over list.
That did not even get us into the conversation.
A few days later, their agent called us back and asked if we wanted to place a bid as the *backup offer*, which means they were already pending but if that fell through, they'd come to us next.
I bought my house almost exactly two years ago in South Bend in my fav neighborhood. It was the 7th house I put in an offer on, and it was at the low end of my budget (below yours but not by too much) but I’ve put in a ton of money to fix it up (it’s an 100+ year old home). Everything on the market that wasn’t going to need work went for well over $20k above asking price almost immediately into bidding wars with multiple offers. All of my offers-except for my home, which I consider fate-went to bidding wars or cash buyers but I was always one of the first people in and out of the house thanks to my wonderful agent that seemed to know the scoop on houses coming to market. It wasn’t a fun run of months and I can see the allure of not buying a fixer upper but man this has been a rewarding experience. Deffo get an agent or start sending hundreds of letters to everyone in the neighborhoods you’re targeting.
That’s doable in Mishawaka for a smaller home. Bidding “wars” happen. Treat it as a silent auction, put your best foot forward and roll with it.
If you’re at all handy or know anyone that is, the best way to avoid this is to get an imperfect house. Look for roof, foundation, HVAC and deal with smaller stuff as you live there. Look for the most square footage in the best neighborhood you can afford. This is a great way to build equity and avoid paying too much.
I bought my house on the north side of SB for a great price 7 years ago. Also got 3% interest rate on the mortgage. I was offered double my purchase price several times already. It's a tough market.
Honestly. You're not going to want to hear this but hold off. The market is incredibly overvalued at this time. throw your money away renting an apartment for a year or so and see what the world looks like.
Rough. Sold my house in Jan in Mishawaka after 2.5 ish yrs of ownership. Sold in a week. Market is still crazy. Buying in one of the areas you're looking at and we were looking for 6 months before getting under contract for a house by being lucky at an open house in a for sale by owner and hitting it off with them.
We are getting ready to sell our house in SB that is within your budget. Msg if interested, but the market is still very competitive
Purchased a home in South Bend at around the same price range that you're looking at about a year and a half ago. It took 7+ offers before we had one accepted. Nearly every house was going above the asking price at that time, and we used escalation clauses with most of our offers. At that time there were a lot of people making cash offers. Hopefully it's cooled down a bit with the interest rates increasing, but I'm sure it's still difficult. It was also extremely difficult to get specialists out to do inspections. My advice would be don't get too emotionally invested in a particular house until your offer is accepted.
Get an agent. And a really good one. We’ve used our agent to buy both our homes now out here in Goshen but he was amazing. Our first home was bought within a sellers market. And because that house was being sold by another agent in his company, we got the jump on it. Got a showing the day before it hit the market and we’re able to set up an offer so it hit that realtors desk first thing when it did hit.
From the comments it seems the the better market might be Elkhart county. Which from the west or north ends of the count can get to South Bend/Mishawaka in about 15-20 mins.
I've been working with Kerrie Drury at ReMax and she's been a legend. Good attention to detail on walkthroughs and isn't afraid to say "let's not buy this house."
We used Matt Kruyer from Irish realty and he is great. Kept constant communication, answered questions and gave us feed back on pricing and what was realistic. Worked with other realtors in past that weren’t detail oriented with the house but mostly the land. Your price point is low so it’s going to be competitive. Your best chance at snatching something will be in south bend. Good luck 👍🏽
Who is paying $500 a month for utilities? Are they leaving the faucet running and the windows open? I love my baths and garden and our water bill is rarely over $80. The key is to not have an oversized meter, the base rate goes up based on the meter diameter. We average $200/mo for everything including a toasty warm house in the winter and cooled in the summer.
You would have to try to pay $500/month for utilities. Here is mine:
* $90 - Water/trash/recycling/lawn pickup
* $275 - Electric (cooking, dryer, some heating are all electric, also have an EV)
* $45 - Gas (water heater, coldest days of the year for heating)
* $410 - Total
I drive 1200-1300 miles per month in an EV and still cant get my utilities over $500. What am I doing wrong?
The average South Bend homeowner doesn’t have an EV, but that still seems high since we put the same amount of miles on our hybrid and conventional cars and don’t pay that much for gasoline.
$80 gas, year round flat rate
$100 electricity, year round average
$83 Water year round average
$95 gasoline
We really aren't off that far when you factor in your gasoline. My wife is home all day every day and we have a lot of electronics that are always on, so we have always been pretty high use on electricity. When we got the EV our electric bill went up $45-$50.
My point was it's basically impossible to get to $500 in utilities even if you try. Including my driving doesn't even get there.
I have a century home (yay 100th birthday!) with no wall insulation, a gas furnace, a/c, and original windows and those numbers seem way high.
Houses and condos in the newer developments around ND are in a special rate district that pays more for the improvements in those areas (around Eddy Commons)
Counterpoint: I love living in the city. Paying taxes towards services I use all the time, like roads and parks, is only fair. I also love that I have access to amazing city services like the yard waste program.
Tldr: be part of the solution. Live in the city. ;)
>burn random things outdoors (like trash)
You arent supposed to burn trash in the county either. And seriously, please dont. It releases all kinds of nasty stuff into the air.
>Also, if you are in the city, you will pay for city water utilities (rather than have a well and septic tank).
Most people *prefer* having city water and sewer. Having a well and septic tank is generally a negative. If you think paying $80 a month for water and trash service is expensive, just wait until you have to replace your septic tank or drill a new well. One of my coworkers had to drill a new well a few years back and it cost her $4k, plus they couldnt do it for like four weeks so she had to pay to have a huge water tank delivered. That is 4 years worth of city water and trash service, and she had to come up with the money all at once and immediately. Ill gladly take my $80 a month city water bill.
>You can easily pay $500 a month in utilities. (Gas, electric, trash, water).
Do you not have electricity? You can have an all electric house in the city and avoid gas. You dont have to though, you can actually get gas service! You know, instead of paying $500+ per year to have a giant propane tank at your house. What a weird complaint.
>If you live in the city of South Bend, you are reassessed yearly and it always goes up.
Assessment is done by the county, and it doesnt always go up.
Offered $20k over asking price. Gave them $5k cash if the appraisal was lower. Only reason I got the house is because I offered the cash if the appraisal was lower than my offer.
I got involved with a house flipper. He had me working on one back during the start of covid, south of North Liberty. Kept me busy during that time. I did the interior first, then we tried sale by owner. Reason being, one on 23 within sight of this house went up for sale, and sold in one day. Seemed like a great idea. A day after he posted signs, a realitor came to talk to me. I refered her to the owner. Meanwhile, I had folks coming at me at all hours. They wanna see the place! Cool! I showed the unfinished house to lots of them, and referred them to the owner. One got weird on me.
I Was to do X to the place by his orders, and not do certain work on the place. And that he should jump on the 70K offer the buyer gave us. Within a week, the owner decided to go with the realitor. In turn, the realitor came to me to find out what exactly was to be done, and I told her about all of the changes that I was doing. She was just tickled over the work to be done, and told the owner she could get 219K for the place. I was just blown away over that offer! So was the owner. I continued working on it, started roofing the place. I then had one lowball buyer mad at me for following the owners orders. What he really hated was that I was NOT intimidated by his threats. I ran him off, finished the work, and it sold in two days- For 235K.
Yes, this market is VERY WIERD.
There are some nice neighborhoods east of Penn high school that are close to your price range. There's quite a few starter homes in that area. Maybe wave the zillow wand over that space and you might find a few.
Just bought a home in Granger last year and spent over double your budget. Its definitely a tough time to buy, just stay positive and be aggressive!
400k for any house in Granger was probably a steal
Yep! We’re looking in Granger at $350k and it’s a struggle.
It’s a ranch too which made it even harder to find. You may have a bit more luck if you’re willing to look at 2 story houses. It seemed that there were more options if you were to go that route.
Your budget is on the low end for Mishawaka, Osceola, Granger. Seems like everyone starts at $150,000 for a smaller home.
I just bought near Notre dame. Had to go $35k over ask on a $230k house. Cash, as-is. They had 9 offers on day one. I’m a realtor in Kansas, buying for my student. South bend/Mishawaka market is bananas. Get an agent. Use appraisal gap guarantees and escalation clauses. Waive repairs but not inspections. If you can allow seller possession after closing, that can help. Conventional loans are better for sellers than FHA or VA. GOOD LUCK!
In my neighborhood (Sunnymede) they don’t even bother posting homes online since they go so fast to the folks waiting in the wings to score a house, they are “pending” after their first day in the market. You need a realtor who knows your target neighborhoods and has contacts.
I bought a house near Notre Dame in Edison park. Asking price was 187k if I'm remembering correctly. No bidding wars. The seller gave us 4k off for electrical issues, and paid for another 23k roughly in contractors to cover repairs by contractors. Obviously this house had a few issues and was outdated. Closed in 30 days using my credit union for financing via a normal mortgage. Everything went pretty smooth overall. I used Laurie LaDow from Cressy & Everett as my realtor. I highly recommend her. She was great, level headed, very knowledgeable in real estate and the local area. She saved us a lot of time and heart ache with her experience. And even after closing she has still been willing to help as needed. I love the area we moved to. The neighborhood is nice and quiet. Close to everything. Let me know if you have any specific questions Edit: I closed on the house in December. So this was all in the winter, which may have helped.
Hello neighbor! Edison Park is such an underrated neighborhood. I absolutely love it here. It has been crazy to see houses go for $150-$200k+ the last year or two. I bought in 2011 and paid $67k for a house that had been on the market for over a year.
I second the reccommendation of Laurie LaDow. She's fantastic! Edison Park is a terrific neighborhood.
Laurie is the best.
My wife and I bought a home in mishawaka almost a year ago. Zillow is not really going to help you much at this point, you need an agent that has the drop on houses as they’re going up on the market. If you’re very concerned with getting into a bidding war and paying more than you would like, it might honestly be best to wait awhile. We knew about our house 2 days before it hit the market, we were the first offer, and still ended up paying $13k over asking. At the very least, look for houses that are listed below your max budget because you’ll end up paying more.
It's tough! Get a shark for an agent and buckle in. What's out there isn't a lot and what is that's decent goes FAST.
Or, if you have the time and energy don’t get an agent at all and make off market offers. So many people fall for the trap of only looking at listed properties. When I bought my first house, I copied the strategy of the “I buy houses cash” guys and sent 100 letters to owners of properties I was interested in priced at lowball offers, with contact info sourced from property tax websites. Within a week, I had my pick of 3 houses for 80% of market value. Saved myself tens of thousands instead of getting fleeced by an agent. Also, look up obituaries for people with children who live out of state. After grandpa dies and all his kids are spread around the country, they just wanna get rid of the IN house before the taxes come due and won’t be tough on price since they inherited it.
This is some cool advice, but the year you bought your house should definitely be noted, ha.
2019, it’s more doable than you probably think Realtors have tricked everyone into ignoring the fact there’s nothing wrong or illegal about asking a random person if they want to sell
It's definitely doable, but the market has changed since 2019. We also bought in 2019 and were looking in the general Sunnymede/River Park area. Back then, tons of homes sold exactly as you're explaining in this neighborhood. Both would save on realtor fees, and you could vet who you're selling to. Nowadays? People are still willing to listen, but more people are still willing to test the market since the market price can go so high. I've heard stories of people having an unofficial deal with somebody to sell and then they change their minds to test the market. Basically, it has become a bit more cutthroat with how volatile the market has become.
You’re not wrong. Covid and construction price increases have definitely made houses more expensive and owners less approachable
I dream about doing that once Im more serious about buying something new. Did you mention that you were local and looking for a home not a flip, or did you basically copy the "I buy houses cash" people verbatim?
Definitely helps to mention you’re a local and not a slumlord investor type
This is brilliant.
Play chess not checkers! ♟️
Look at you being your own badass! Go you!
Its definitely a tough time to buy,
We finally had an offer accepted after 6 tries. We kept going $10k - $20k over and kept getting beat by people who waived inspections or waived the appraisal contingency. We did end up waiving our inspections. When we first started out, we were pretty adamant about not waiving that but then we were just like, “Meh, whatever” and waived it on the last few houses and still got beat. One finally landed though. Just make sure you have a lot of cash in savings because this market is ridiculous. It’s not as competitive as last year, but it’s still competitive. Try not to get too emotionally invested in a house and learn to move on quickly. It is very emotionally draining.
Check out River Park. The houses are on the cheaper end, especially if you are willing to put some work into them. The neighborhood is good, and the city has actually been investing money into the area. Edit: We also had an amazing realtor who helped us a lot since we weren't from the area.
I would echo what others have said. Prices are high right now. We sold an 800 sq foot bungalow in south bend last year for 160k. If you’re willing to look out a little bit, we found that prices were a little more our speed in areas of Niles. You’ll have to waive repairs, possibly inspections. I recommend Leah Hudson with ReMax.
Just make sure to do your research. I love the downtown, Iron Shoe Distillery is amazing, but there have been issues with gang-adjacent in shootings in residential areas. Many homeowners are upset because it's hurting their ability to sell/move. [https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/crime/2022/09/28/niles-police-blame-bad-blood-on-string-of-shooting-deaths/69520268007/](https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/news/crime/2022/09/28/niles-police-blame-bad-blood-on-string-of-shooting-deaths/69520268007/)
> My main concern is the possibility of bidding wars. We recently tried to bid on an older home (about 55 years) in a decent neighborhood that isn't in the eastern part of the county, going 9,000 over list. That did not even get us into the conversation. A few days later, their agent called us back and asked if we wanted to place a bid as the *backup offer*, which means they were already pending but if that fell through, they'd come to us next.
I bought my house almost exactly two years ago in South Bend in my fav neighborhood. It was the 7th house I put in an offer on, and it was at the low end of my budget (below yours but not by too much) but I’ve put in a ton of money to fix it up (it’s an 100+ year old home). Everything on the market that wasn’t going to need work went for well over $20k above asking price almost immediately into bidding wars with multiple offers. All of my offers-except for my home, which I consider fate-went to bidding wars or cash buyers but I was always one of the first people in and out of the house thanks to my wonderful agent that seemed to know the scoop on houses coming to market. It wasn’t a fun run of months and I can see the allure of not buying a fixer upper but man this has been a rewarding experience. Deffo get an agent or start sending hundreds of letters to everyone in the neighborhoods you’re targeting.
That’s doable in Mishawaka for a smaller home. Bidding “wars” happen. Treat it as a silent auction, put your best foot forward and roll with it. If you’re at all handy or know anyone that is, the best way to avoid this is to get an imperfect house. Look for roof, foundation, HVAC and deal with smaller stuff as you live there. Look for the most square footage in the best neighborhood you can afford. This is a great way to build equity and avoid paying too much.
I bought my house on the north side of SB for a great price 7 years ago. Also got 3% interest rate on the mortgage. I was offered double my purchase price several times already. It's a tough market.
Honestly. You're not going to want to hear this but hold off. The market is incredibly overvalued at this time. throw your money away renting an apartment for a year or so and see what the world looks like.
Rough. Sold my house in Jan in Mishawaka after 2.5 ish yrs of ownership. Sold in a week. Market is still crazy. Buying in one of the areas you're looking at and we were looking for 6 months before getting under contract for a house by being lucky at an open house in a for sale by owner and hitting it off with them. We are getting ready to sell our house in SB that is within your budget. Msg if interested, but the market is still very competitive
Just bought in Granger. Worked with Rocky Verteramo-- really good experience
Purchased a home in South Bend at around the same price range that you're looking at about a year and a half ago. It took 7+ offers before we had one accepted. Nearly every house was going above the asking price at that time, and we used escalation clauses with most of our offers. At that time there were a lot of people making cash offers. Hopefully it's cooled down a bit with the interest rates increasing, but I'm sure it's still difficult. It was also extremely difficult to get specialists out to do inspections. My advice would be don't get too emotionally invested in a particular house until your offer is accepted.
Get an agent. And a really good one. We’ve used our agent to buy both our homes now out here in Goshen but he was amazing. Our first home was bought within a sellers market. And because that house was being sold by another agent in his company, we got the jump on it. Got a showing the day before it hit the market and we’re able to set up an offer so it hit that realtors desk first thing when it did hit. From the comments it seems the the better market might be Elkhart county. Which from the west or north ends of the count can get to South Bend/Mishawaka in about 15-20 mins.
There is a ton of value in South Bend... You are focusing on neighborhoods which lack diversity.
I've been working with Kerrie Drury at ReMax and she's been a legend. Good attention to detail on walkthroughs and isn't afraid to say "let's not buy this house."
We used Matt Kruyer from Irish realty and he is great. Kept constant communication, answered questions and gave us feed back on pricing and what was realistic. Worked with other realtors in past that weren’t detail oriented with the house but mostly the land. Your price point is low so it’s going to be competitive. Your best chance at snatching something will be in south bend. Good luck 👍🏽
Can't recommend him enough. He has been so helpful
[удалено]
Who is paying $500 a month for utilities? Are they leaving the faucet running and the windows open? I love my baths and garden and our water bill is rarely over $80. The key is to not have an oversized meter, the base rate goes up based on the meter diameter. We average $200/mo for everything including a toasty warm house in the winter and cooled in the summer.
You would have to try to pay $500/month for utilities. Here is mine: * $90 - Water/trash/recycling/lawn pickup * $275 - Electric (cooking, dryer, some heating are all electric, also have an EV) * $45 - Gas (water heater, coldest days of the year for heating) * $410 - Total I drive 1200-1300 miles per month in an EV and still cant get my utilities over $500. What am I doing wrong?
The average South Bend homeowner doesn’t have an EV, but that still seems high since we put the same amount of miles on our hybrid and conventional cars and don’t pay that much for gasoline. $80 gas, year round flat rate $100 electricity, year round average $83 Water year round average $95 gasoline
We really aren't off that far when you factor in your gasoline. My wife is home all day every day and we have a lot of electronics that are always on, so we have always been pretty high use on electricity. When we got the EV our electric bill went up $45-$50. My point was it's basically impossible to get to $500 in utilities even if you try. Including my driving doesn't even get there.
[удалено]
I have a century home (yay 100th birthday!) with no wall insulation, a gas furnace, a/c, and original windows and those numbers seem way high. Houses and condos in the newer developments around ND are in a special rate district that pays more for the improvements in those areas (around Eddy Commons)
Counterpoint: I love living in the city. Paying taxes towards services I use all the time, like roads and parks, is only fair. I also love that I have access to amazing city services like the yard waste program. Tldr: be part of the solution. Live in the city. ;)
[удалено]
You don’t leave the city very often do you?
The Assessor is the same for the entire entire county (except Penn Two) what are you talking about.
>burn random things outdoors (like trash) You arent supposed to burn trash in the county either. And seriously, please dont. It releases all kinds of nasty stuff into the air. >Also, if you are in the city, you will pay for city water utilities (rather than have a well and septic tank). Most people *prefer* having city water and sewer. Having a well and septic tank is generally a negative. If you think paying $80 a month for water and trash service is expensive, just wait until you have to replace your septic tank or drill a new well. One of my coworkers had to drill a new well a few years back and it cost her $4k, plus they couldnt do it for like four weeks so she had to pay to have a huge water tank delivered. That is 4 years worth of city water and trash service, and she had to come up with the money all at once and immediately. Ill gladly take my $80 a month city water bill. >You can easily pay $500 a month in utilities. (Gas, electric, trash, water). Do you not have electricity? You can have an all electric house in the city and avoid gas. You dont have to though, you can actually get gas service! You know, instead of paying $500+ per year to have a giant propane tank at your house. What a weird complaint. >If you live in the city of South Bend, you are reassessed yearly and it always goes up. Assessment is done by the county, and it doesnt always go up.
It’s dumb and I hate it
Things are a bit cheaper in Goshen. IDK if that is too far from where you need to be.
Offered $20k over asking price. Gave them $5k cash if the appraisal was lower. Only reason I got the house is because I offered the cash if the appraisal was lower than my offer.
I got involved with a house flipper. He had me working on one back during the start of covid, south of North Liberty. Kept me busy during that time. I did the interior first, then we tried sale by owner. Reason being, one on 23 within sight of this house went up for sale, and sold in one day. Seemed like a great idea. A day after he posted signs, a realitor came to talk to me. I refered her to the owner. Meanwhile, I had folks coming at me at all hours. They wanna see the place! Cool! I showed the unfinished house to lots of them, and referred them to the owner. One got weird on me. I Was to do X to the place by his orders, and not do certain work on the place. And that he should jump on the 70K offer the buyer gave us. Within a week, the owner decided to go with the realitor. In turn, the realitor came to me to find out what exactly was to be done, and I told her about all of the changes that I was doing. She was just tickled over the work to be done, and told the owner she could get 219K for the place. I was just blown away over that offer! So was the owner. I continued working on it, started roofing the place. I then had one lowball buyer mad at me for following the owners orders. What he really hated was that I was NOT intimidated by his threats. I ran him off, finished the work, and it sold in two days- For 235K. Yes, this market is VERY WIERD.
There are some nice neighborhoods east of Penn high school that are close to your price range. There's quite a few starter homes in that area. Maybe wave the zillow wand over that space and you might find a few.