Page 7 of 10 FirstFirst ... 345678910 LastLast
Results 91 to 105 of 142

Thread: Real Estate is a Circus Right Now

  1. #91
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    2,474
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Woo-Hoo! We finally scored!!! But darn...I have to build a shop from the ground up. What a sad thing
    Feeling your pain, err, joy. So sorry to learn that you have to (get to) build a new shop. The entire Sawmill Creek community feels your joy.

    Hopefully you feel the same and I haven't crossed a line.

    Congrats!

  2. #92
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    New England
    Posts
    2,474
    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!

  3. #93
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    Woo-Hoo! We finally scored!!! Great home...actually originally custom built and quality that we are used to in a smaller 1800 sq ft package on a half acre. Near our daughter’s apartment and her work so it eases our transportation situation. But darn...I have to build a shop from the ground up. What a sad thing
    Congratulations. SMC search fails, but bookmark the VERY SAD 'Hall of the Mountain King' shop build thread. ...a place to start maybe? Sadly, of course.

  4. #94
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Wurster View Post
    I've been occasionally checking this thread and was happy to see this. Congrats, Jim. Where about is this place?
    D'town not far from the hospital and DelVal. I'll message you more privately.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  5. #95
    Congrats Jim!

  6. #96
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Madison, Wisconsin
    Posts
    489
    Quote Originally Posted by roger wiegand View Post
    The last two houses we participated in buying (our current one and our son's) we skipped the formal inspections and purchased "as-is" with no contingencies. In a tight market it seems to convey a huge advantage, I guess enough sellers have heard about or already been burned by the buyers from you-know-where who come up with long lists of absurd demands and requests for price reductions after the initial handshake.

    Having rebuilt a couple houses and having read and studied for a number of years (at the level of reading Fine Homebuilding and Journal of Light Construction) for years, plus some accumulated common sense, I find that I can do at least as well, and often better at evaluating a house than most of the certified "inspectors" that people are hiring. (There are really great inspectors out there, and it's worth finding one; too many though just go through their checklist and don't really think about the building) Even if you don't have confidence in your own ability, there's nothing to prevent you from bringing a pro with you when you go to do the walk-through of the house prior to offer. Yes, you'll pay a bit for ones that don't work out, but it can make you a more competitive bidder. I suppose it helps that I've always been looking for houses in need of sweat equity, not a turnkey perfect property. I would never ask the departing owner to do any repairs; that's a virtual guarantee of a "lowest bidder" quality job. Instead I adjust what I'm willing to pay based on the conditions I find.

    I also simply assume that common problems will exist-- lead paint in an older house, unless there's evidence or documentation of mitigation; radon, depending on your local soil conditions; termites somewhere, you just need to find them and how extensive they are. Most houses need upgrades in air sealing and insulation. Fortunately problems with plumbing, electrical, wet basements, leaky bathroom fixtures that have resulting rot, structural issues, and roof water problems are typically self-evident, so relatively easy to account for. In MA you need to have a certified working septic to sell a house, so that's a big item off the list.

    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.

  7. #97
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Zellers View Post
    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!
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Malcolm McLeod View Post
    Congratulations. SMC search fails, but bookmark the VERY SAD 'Hall of the Mountain King' shop build thread. ...a place to start maybe? Sadly, of course.
    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.

    ------

    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  8. #98
    Join Date
    Dec 2010
    Location
    South Coastal Massachusetts
    Posts
    6,824
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    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.
    Congratulations! Good luck with the sale.

  9. #99
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Upland CA
    Posts
    5,548
    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.

  10. #100
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    SoCal
    Posts
    22,494
    Blog Entries
    1
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Becker View Post
    But darn...I have to build a shop from the ground up. What a sad thing
    Not sure how slow molasses runs in Bucks County but, 6 weeks with the city permits became 9 months out here . . . and its warm !?! Congrats on the new shop build and . . . start NOW!!!
    "A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".


    – Samuel Butler

  11. #101
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    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...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  12. #102
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Location
    Hoschton, Georgia
    Posts
    116
    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.

  13. #103
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Location
    black river falls wisconsin
    Posts
    931
    so what we all care about. how big can the shop be?

  14. #104
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    SE PA - Central Bucks County
    Posts
    65,688
    Quote Originally Posted by eugene thomas View Post
    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.
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  15. #105
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Waterford, PA
    Posts
    1,225
    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

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •