Now slap a new coat of paint on the old place and tack another 100K on to the asking price.
But reject any and all offers less than 50K over that!
Congrats Jim!
I did exactly this, when I bought our current home. The neighborhood we bought in has always been a sellers market and everything gets snapped up quick. In spite of the fact that I had remodeled 2 houses, I hired an inspector (he found nothing I hadn't caught, but it was a confidence builder) and made a no contingency offer (except financing) which helped seal the sale. We looked for 2 years before finding this house, which fortunately had not yet been listed (I beat the bushes and wrote a lot of letters to owners of houses I liked). However, this house was built in the 1920's and needed lots of TLC. I have replaced all the electrical, plumbing, heating system, windows, roofing, gutters, insulated, built a new addition with attached shop, yada, yada, yada. I dread the day we decide to downsize as I have the house in tip-top shape and am actually finding some time to do woodworking instead of remodeling.
ROFLOL! Fortunately, there is only a little bit of paint work to do in the 250 year old portion of the house and some minor touch ups here and there. There are only three things that need professional assistance; one involves ladder work I'm not interested in doing, one is to fix a minor issue with the sprinkler system that I ain't touchin' and the other is one outdoor faucet that has an issue that I have not been successful in fixing. Anything else is mostly little stuff and deep cleaning. And packing. I have to handle all of this because Professor Dr. SWMBO has a challenging teaching term and has to stay focused on that.
I don't think that my shop project will be quite so picturesque as the 'Hall of the Mountain King" nor quite as expansive. But it will be fun to do it from the ground up, nonetheless.
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Bob, we didn't skip inspections, but threw a bone of a "$2500 deductible" for anything inspections reveal. I don't think there will be much of anything with this place based on what I saw. But yes, inspection waiver is what lost us the first offer we placed on a property, despite our offer price being higher than the entity that won it. Very common right now.
Last edited by Jim Becker; 03-01-2021 at 10:38 AM.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Congrats Jim.
Once again perseverance pays off, and you will also be selling at a good time of the year, when the most people are looking.
Looking forward to seeing what the new shop will look like. Let me offer an early suggestion. Think of having a built in spot for a chain hoist, or HF winch to handle the occasional heavy item.
Rick Potter
DIY journeyman,
FWW wannabe.
AKA Village Idiot.
Glenn, I'll have all the research done well before we move including preliminary conversations with the Borough Zoning/Building folks so that when it's time to apply for the permit, there will hopefully be a smoother "dance". But yea..."stuff happens". LOL In the meantime, the property does have a two car garage that I can use "creatively" with my CNC, Festool stuff, hand tools and at least one of my benches. I guess I need to hone my skills at sharpening, pardon the expression. May have to spend some time with Mr Holcomb...
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
We are still feeling the effects of the 2008 housing crash. Prior to 2008, everybody and his brother were getting loans and building spec houses. The bigger the house, the more profit. Loans were passed out to builders and buyers with little or no qualifying. When the market crashed, lots of builders just walked away from partially finished houses. People realized that the value of their fully mortgaged house lost 40% in value in just a few months. The expectation that houses always appreciated turned out to not be the case. Lots of people just walked away from a mortgage they couldn't afford. Banks had so many delinquent loans, they didn't have the resources to foreclose. New home construction was very slow to nonexistent for the next 10 years. This has created a shortage of housing. With a shortage, the prices get driven up. Sometimes to crazy, unsustainable levels.
Now is a good time to sell but not a good time to buy in the same crazy market. We are also in the same situation. Both of our kids are grown and have their own homes. I'm heating and cooling 3 empty bedrooms. Downsizing is something we have considered but it's a lot of hassle. Maybe we'll think about it some more next year.
so what we all care about. how big can the shop be?
ROFLOL!
I will probably be shooting for 20x30 or 24x30, give or take. Some of that comes down to zoning and some to money and appearance. I'd certainly like larger, but this at least preserves about the same square footage as I have now for actual shop space; storage is what suffers a little since there will be no upstairs like presently, but if things go well and I can do a slightly taller wall, that will allow for vertical storage which is more efficient.
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The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Jim,
I totally get the appearance concerns. We actually would have preferred one larger building with two separate spaces for our workshops, but instead built 2 smaller buildings. That allowed the outbuildings to be more proportionate to our home, which is quite small.
Good luck with this transition. I look forward to following your build once you're ready to start the process.
Lisa