Love the property / hate the house... Updated Post #138

[mvp]

[QUOTE=Tiffani B;8802662]
Been in your shoes with property shopping and passing on one after the other. It took us YEARS to find just the right place but I’m glad we held out. I would walk away. When you’re trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, it’s not the right property for you.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for posting that. I’m in the same spot as you and, kinda/sorta, the OP.

Hate the wait and the search. But each time I’m able to let go of a NQR property, I’m relieved afterwards.

It’s always alotta money when buying a farm. And you might not get a good ROI doing it. And then to do all that and have it be the wrong place?

OP, I’d be very careful about getting creative with your interpretation of land use code. In the last property I wanted to shoe-horn into being the right place for me, I would have had to do a bit of that. It’s a risk. Don’t make the financing or your enjoyment of the place depend on something that’s in violate of building code… unless you have a Plan B for when you are caught.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=danacat;8803454]

As for commercial status. Usually you have to form a business of some kind (limited partnership or other) and register it with the state as such. Then you have to keep books, complete tax returns, have a different type of insurance and on and on. A real headache just to ‘hire’ your MIL to sweep the barn. [/QUOTE]

I think the OP would have to read the code to figure out the threshold requirements for “commercial status.” Where I am (Oregon) land-use law is gung-ho on preserving open space. You need a pretty lucrative farm before you can build an “accessory dwelling” to house a farm worker on your EFU (Exclusive Farm Use) property. That might not be true where the OP is. But I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t want to have prove the kind of income from your private hobby farm that will let you qualify for a farm worker’s house.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=Kodidog763;8804578]
See… that is exactly the kind of thinking I need. I get stuck in black & white. If we go down the road of classifying the existing house as a guesthouse and they won’t approve the variance for a kitchen. There are no restrictions against a den with a well appointed wet bar. :)[/QUOTE]

Yabbut you need 220 electric for a stove (or a gas line). How will you justify that as part of a wetbar?

OP, if you do want to try to step around building codes, at least look into the consequences of getting caught. If the fines are huge or you end up on the county’s radar forever and afterwards as a scoff law, just know that going in.

Otherwise, I’d guess that you are probably right about the value of the property. Between great land and a big and good indoor, you are ahead of the game if you can afford to rebuild the house. At least you’ll get a greater return on the house than on any agricultural building you’d add. So if someone else already did that and put in a great arena that you otherwise wouldn’t build yourself, that would make me want to rebuild the house.

[Kodidog763]

[QUOTE=mvp;8810902]
Yabbut you need 220 electric for a stove (or a gas line). How will you justify that as part of a wetbar?

OP, if you do want to try to step around building codes, at least look into the consequences of getting caught. If the fines are huge or you end up on the county’s radar forever and afterwards as a scoff law, just know that going in.

Otherwise, I’d guess that you are probably right about the value of the property. Between great land and a big and good indoor, you are ahead of the game if you can afford to rebuild the house. At least you’ll get a greater return on the house than on any agricultural building you’d add. So if someone else already did that and put in a great arena that you otherwise wouldn’t build yourself, that would make me want to rebuild the house.[/QUOTE]

I think you might be talking about two separate issues. If we were to build a new house and asked the city to classify the existing house as a guest house, per city ordinance, the kitchen would need to be removed from existing house. We aren’t talking about building or remodeling something violating building codes. My husband is a licensed builder - he doesn’t violate building codes. We are talking about working with the restrictions of the city ordinance (not a city building code). That said, the city would have to approve the conversion plans for the existing house, so they would be aware of what we were doing. We aren’t trying to hide anything. Our first step would be to apply for a variance to keep the kitchen in the existing house. If that was denied, we’d shoot for getting the city to approve converting the kitchen to a den with a well appointed wet bar.

Most of this is most likely a moot point since the sellers went back to the other buyers. The other buyers are going through the house today to approve the fixes the seller did to their “as-is” house. lol

[js]

Does the MIL cook that much? Would be legal to take out the existing kitchen and replace with a table top convection oven and one of those table top convection burners (I’m not sure what they are called) a small fridge etc? Would that still be considered a kitchen?

[Velvet]

Any news?

[Kodidog763]

Haven’t heard anything from the seller. I’ll give it another day or two, and then follow-up with the seller if we haven’t heard from them.

[clanter]

Yabbut you need 220 electric for a stove (or a gas line). How will you justify that as part of a wetbar?

needed for the tankless water heater, got to wash those glasses otherwise the health department may get mad

[Sabino]

Was wondering about this and if you got it. Still hoping you do get it!!!

[Mosey_2003]

Hoping to hear they come crawling back and take a lower offer and you get it

[FalseImpression]

You mean the sellers can deal with several prospective buyers at the same time?
My DD and her husband just bought a house sitting on about 2 acres. They do not want the horses at home. But there was a lot of interest and several offers came in after one “open house” day. Theirs was the first! The seller accepted it, but the real estate agent kept telling them there were other offers. However, neither the agent or the seller were allowed to look at them until the negotiations were over with the first offer. If they had backed out, they would have opened the second offer.
Same thing happened when they sold their condo two weeks later. Several offers but you deal with the first one first and then go to the next one.
This is to prevent the wars that took place in Toronto and elsewhere.
Luckily, my DD and her husband were ready to jump on the property and it went their way!

[Kodidog763]

[QUOTE=FalseImpression;8814578]
You mean the sellers can deal with several prospective buyers at the same time?
My DD and her husband just bought a house sitting on about 2 acres. They do not want the horses at home. But there was a lot of interest and several offers came in after one “open house” day. Theirs was the first! The seller accepted it, but the real estate agent kept telling them there were other offers. However, neither the agent or the seller were allowed to look at them until the negotiations were over with the first offer. If they had backed out, they would have opened the second offer.
Same thing happened when they sold their condo two weeks later. Several offers but you deal with the first one first and then go to the next one.
This is to prevent the wars that took place in Toronto and elsewhere.
Luckily, my DD and her husband were ready to jump on the property and it went their way![/QUOTE]

This is FSBO so they can pretty much do anything they want.

On one hand I can’t blame them for wanting to get as much as they can from the property. On the other hand, we have helped them out a few times over the years… My DH has gone over to help when they needed quick repairs, after storms a few weeks ago, they asked him if he would go look to see if they had any storm damage, etc. Doesn’t mean they should sell to us for less than they could get from someone else, but I am a little bothered that they used us as leverage.

The latest update (I got this morning) is that the trees they lost in the storm a few weeks ago have just been cleaned up, so the buyers still need to go inspect to make sure that was done to their satisfaction.

Am I disappointed that it didn’t work out? Yes. Very. This is honestly the only property I have ever cried over. I’ll get over it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the right property is still out there, just waiting for us to find it.:sadsmile:

Thank you everyone for the good wishes on this place! :yes:

[Mosey_2003]

They still may flake, you never know

[fordtraktor]

[QUOTE=FalseImpression;8814578]
You mean the sellers can deal with several prospective buyers at the same time?
My DD and her husband just bought a house sitting on about 2 acres. They do not want the horses at home. But there was a lot of interest and several offers came in after one “open house” day. Theirs was the first! The seller accepted it, but the real estate agent kept telling them there were other offers. However, neither the agent or the seller were allowed to look at them until the negotiations were over with the first offer. If they had backed out, they would have opened the second offer.
Same thing happened when they sold their condo two weeks later. Several offers but you deal with the first one first and then go to the next one.
This is to prevent the wars that took place in Toronto and elsewhere.
Luckily, my DD and her husband were ready to jump on the property and it went their way![/QUOTE]

maybe this is a regional thing. When we bought in a very hot DC housing market, the sellers would often get half a dozen or more offers and they knew exactly what the terms were for each. They would select the best one.

Now if they’d already accepted an offer, they can’t just back out and accept another one that is a little better but I believe agents in many places have a duty to present any offer they receive until one is accepted. I am not a real estate expert though, so perhaps some of our realtors can shed light on this and whether it is everywhere now.

[Mosey_2003]

I’m sure it’s different between Canada (FalseImpression) and the US. Everything is :lol:

[FalseImpression]

I also thought sellers could look at all the offers (hence the wars in Toronto) and I was pleasantly surprised when I found out this was the way it worked!! My DD asked us to go to the open house with her on Saturday as her husband was out of town, but they had made an appointment to view it on the Sunday. Signed the offer Sunday night for their agent to present it first thing in the morning. However, the seller (85 yo widower) wanted his son present which could not happen
till 5:30! Meanwhile, there were still showing the house. They accepted their offer (full price and 45 days closing). Financial was in order and inspection went very well. Given the traffic on Saturday, I don t doubt there were other offers, but they were ready. They lost two before by not having all their ducks in a row! The house needs updating but otherwise in great condition!

[stb]

It’s not over 'till it’s over. Current contract could certainly fall through.

For what it’s worth, every time I’ve lost out on a badly wanted property it has turned out to be a blessing. so what seems to be a catastrophe can turn out to be a near miss. Hang in there.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=Kodidog763;8814723]

Am I disappointed that it didn’t work out? Yes. Very. This is honestly the only property I have ever cried over. I’ll get over it. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the right property is still out there, just waiting for us to find it.:sadsmile:

:[/QUOTE]

This will work out, when we were in the market we had looked at hundreds of properties, the two that put offer in on and we didn’t get one was next to an open field that now has a regional high school football stadium with all the lights and everything the other was one that was nice but just had several offers at the same time–later we found out people who we didn’t know at the time would become close friends

But the property we did buy, it came on the market at 9AM on a Wednesday, we viewed the property at 10:30AM that day, had contract in their agents office buy 1PM … it was being sold due to a divorce, the sellers took the offer… and well over 20 offers followed… so it was timing that worked in our favor

[Blume_Farm]

I was in a similar situation…perfect property, fantastic neighbors, crappy house. I decided you can’t change the land or pick your neighbors but the house can be fully changed. I’ve been here 10 years and LOVE it. I have over the years fixed up the kitchen, one bathroom, put in hardwood floors and am getting ready for a real master bedroom and bathroom (my current bathroom is so small you can’t sit on the toilet and close the door at the same time).

I will always covet my neighbors house:-) but now have an affection for mine as well.

[Kodidog763]

Hopefully the market around here picks up soon. Sadly it seems that most acreage properties in this area are just now recovering from the crash. A lot of people don’t have enough equity to even think about selling.

Currently there just isn’t much to choose from. I’ve been staring at the same 11 properties for months. :eek: