Falcon67
Well-known member
And not feeling at all foolish.
Premise - if the financing appears, we may move to a new house. I still have to fix the old one for resale, but I'm getting tired of working on it anyway and she's tired of waiting for me to get 'er done. The Big downside - I will lose my nice shop/garage for a time until I can rebuild. The houses are under 10 years old and are modern is all respects to construction. We can carry the note on both houses no problem. These two houses are very nearly the same asking price and you can throw a rock between the yards...but....
House A - small, 13xx sq/ft. Nice, looker, standard equipment 3br/2bt/2 car. Smaller than our house so we'd have to wean stuff as we moved in which is not a bad thing because we're both pack rats. Cheaper to heat/cool I imagine and is all electric. Move in ready with some very minor cosmetic work. May be able to muscle seller to pay some or all closing, we'll see. If so, that would leave $ for at least a shop foundation, maybe 8-10 crooked 2x4s or more. It's on the main street of the subdivision, so lots of kids and people out and about, which we like. Not a lot of traffic. We know a lot of folks in there and the joke is that you'd think the deed restrictions require you own a golf cart or mule for putting around.
Detractors - washer/dryer and water heater in garage taking up space in garage. PITA to do laundry like that. I'll fill the garage to the rafters anyway with my **** until I can build a shop, so it's kinda whatever. No name builder AC/heat unit, but it's small and can't eat much power. Back yard has drainage issues, probably $1K+ worth of dirt work to fix. Could do site prep for shop at the same time though. Shop - have to be in back and it's a small lot. Very small - smallest in the entire neighborhood. Access would be through the side yard. Clearance from house to fence is good, plenty of room for car on a trailer. Not any "aesthetic" issues as neighbor has driveway on that side with land buffer, but I'd still be moving stuff across the yard over a curbing. Would not really care for another driveway over there. An L shaped shop 32x20 with a 12x16 short leg would fill half the back yard.
House B - 16xx sq/ft on culdesac. Kind of isolated from the main flow of the neighborhood. Nice front, landscaping, trees, etc. 3br/2bt/2 car with separate laundry room leaving lotsa space in the garage for my junk. Also all electric. Understated elegance is the curb appearance. Has small water well. Marked way down because...
Detractors - VA Repo and all that mess that a repo entails. It's offered AS IS, meaning zero allowance for repairs, closing etc. I'm not a vet so no financing help either. Builder grade Goodman AC unit about 10 yrs old. The house is total TRASH on the inside. Every wall needs paint, all carpet HAS to be replaced and the living room has this tile in it that is just flat ugly. Some giant DIY project gone all wrong. That repair can wait under a giant throw rug LOL. Kitchen is OK for some reason, guess they left that alone. Also, house is sandwiched between two other empty properties owned out of state. It fills the existing lot, so you almost have to have one of the side lots to get any extra space. Have contacted the owner and they may be willing to sell one. BUT - all extra cash would be consumed with closing, repairs and buying the land leaving exactly zero for any beginning shop work. However, there would be this nice 62x120 space for one in the future. There is no space behind the house for a shop as they set it deep in the lot.
We're leaning toward the small one but I dunno. Once you clean up the big one and add a side lot it'd be worth maybe $20K more than asking so it would be a good investment. But a replacement shop would be 3-5 years out easy depending on old house sale proceeds. And it costs more to operate of course. The small one could have a shop - assuming no problem with a zero lot build variance and the old house selling for something - by this time next fall. And we could get right in it and leave the old house open for me to finish.
Pretty much given that the old house would have to sell for some premium over the existing note for me to finish out a shop in a manner befitting this forum
so I'd have to fix up the old house good. Waddaya think....
Premise - if the financing appears, we may move to a new house. I still have to fix the old one for resale, but I'm getting tired of working on it anyway and she's tired of waiting for me to get 'er done. The Big downside - I will lose my nice shop/garage for a time until I can rebuild. The houses are under 10 years old and are modern is all respects to construction. We can carry the note on both houses no problem. These two houses are very nearly the same asking price and you can throw a rock between the yards...but....
House A - small, 13xx sq/ft. Nice, looker, standard equipment 3br/2bt/2 car. Smaller than our house so we'd have to wean stuff as we moved in which is not a bad thing because we're both pack rats. Cheaper to heat/cool I imagine and is all electric. Move in ready with some very minor cosmetic work. May be able to muscle seller to pay some or all closing, we'll see. If so, that would leave $ for at least a shop foundation, maybe 8-10 crooked 2x4s or more. It's on the main street of the subdivision, so lots of kids and people out and about, which we like. Not a lot of traffic. We know a lot of folks in there and the joke is that you'd think the deed restrictions require you own a golf cart or mule for putting around.
Detractors - washer/dryer and water heater in garage taking up space in garage. PITA to do laundry like that. I'll fill the garage to the rafters anyway with my **** until I can build a shop, so it's kinda whatever. No name builder AC/heat unit, but it's small and can't eat much power. Back yard has drainage issues, probably $1K+ worth of dirt work to fix. Could do site prep for shop at the same time though. Shop - have to be in back and it's a small lot. Very small - smallest in the entire neighborhood. Access would be through the side yard. Clearance from house to fence is good, plenty of room for car on a trailer. Not any "aesthetic" issues as neighbor has driveway on that side with land buffer, but I'd still be moving stuff across the yard over a curbing. Would not really care for another driveway over there. An L shaped shop 32x20 with a 12x16 short leg would fill half the back yard.
House B - 16xx sq/ft on culdesac. Kind of isolated from the main flow of the neighborhood. Nice front, landscaping, trees, etc. 3br/2bt/2 car with separate laundry room leaving lotsa space in the garage for my junk. Also all electric. Understated elegance is the curb appearance. Has small water well. Marked way down because...
Detractors - VA Repo and all that mess that a repo entails. It's offered AS IS, meaning zero allowance for repairs, closing etc. I'm not a vet so no financing help either. Builder grade Goodman AC unit about 10 yrs old. The house is total TRASH on the inside. Every wall needs paint, all carpet HAS to be replaced and the living room has this tile in it that is just flat ugly. Some giant DIY project gone all wrong. That repair can wait under a giant throw rug LOL. Kitchen is OK for some reason, guess they left that alone. Also, house is sandwiched between two other empty properties owned out of state. It fills the existing lot, so you almost have to have one of the side lots to get any extra space. Have contacted the owner and they may be willing to sell one. BUT - all extra cash would be consumed with closing, repairs and buying the land leaving exactly zero for any beginning shop work. However, there would be this nice 62x120 space for one in the future. There is no space behind the house for a shop as they set it deep in the lot.
We're leaning toward the small one but I dunno. Once you clean up the big one and add a side lot it'd be worth maybe $20K more than asking so it would be a good investment. But a replacement shop would be 3-5 years out easy depending on old house sale proceeds. And it costs more to operate of course. The small one could have a shop - assuming no problem with a zero lot build variance and the old house selling for something - by this time next fall. And we could get right in it and leave the old house open for me to finish.
Pretty much given that the old house would have to sell for some premium over the existing note for me to finish out a shop in a manner befitting this forum
so I'd have to fix up the old house good. Waddaya think....
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