ODD home design and possible modifications

[javadog]

All of it is doable, if there's something about the house (price, location, lot, etc.) that makes you want to buy it.

You'll never get all of your money back on remodeling but life isn't solely a question of money.

The brick can be saved and re-used, you can often still find the same brick years later, etc.

I'd offer more specifics but it's too early in the process for that.

[mepstein]

I would buy more of a fixer upper and make it yours. When you buy a nicely finished home and then renovate a bunch of stuff, you are paying for everything 2X. Might as well buy something cheap, make it the way you like it while you are still in the appt and then move when it's ready. You might build in some equity if you are able to buy the fixer upper at the right price.

[RWebb]

if near Houston, the critical thing is will it flood

and flood zones are WAy out of date

dunno if remodeling will add to your taxes - they do that here so watch out

[RWebb]

some Interior mods will drive the taxes up here

my point is that he needs to figure out things for his property tax district ...

[masraum]

It's all a moot point now. We made an offer 17% less than what the seller was asking. The counter offer was 3% less. The seller's realtor told our realtor that they had previously refused an offer that was exactly half as low as ours. THere's no way we were even going to negotiate up that high. Our offer wasn't made based on the oddities of the design. Our offer was made based on obvious things that needed to be fixed, like a completely rotten door on the garage, obvious foundation issues in the garage as well as fairly apparent foundation issues in the house, deferred maintenance, possible roof issues (stain on the ceiling of one of the upstairs bedrooms), etc.... The house has been for sale for 1 year. In the first 6 months, the prices was adjusted quite a bit. It hasn't moved since last July. The guy is living in it and, I suspect, has no major reason to leave. The sad part is that it's just going to continue to deteriorate while he lives there.

I figure this is just the universe keeping us out of a lot of trouble. There was another similar house that we'd looked at previously. It is much better, but still needs a lot of TLC. It had gone under contract before when we were considering making an offer. It then came back on the market. When this one fell through, the missus asked about that one, but it's back under contract again.

I think we're just meant to stay put for now. We'll sign another lease and check again next time, maybe starting a little earlier.

Thanks for all of the thoughts.

[javadog]

I would not make an offer on any house that has foundation issues.

[KFC911]

Whew!

I love "the blues" but only in music and moderation

[masraum]

Originally Posted by KC911

Whew!

I love "the blues" but only in music and moderation

Hahahah

[masraum]

Originally Posted by javadog

I would not make an offer on any house that has foundation issues.

Why not? Our last home had foundation issues. We had them fixed, and it wasn't even that expensive. Before we bought, we'd have gotten a thorough estimate on the foundation. Before we sold our last home, we had some foundation issues fixed by a company that did a great job at great price. We'd have had them come out to inspect and provide a thorough estimate.

[wdfifteen]

The drink cart come with the house?
My priorities on a house are kitchen, garage, bathroom, and drink cart. I hate a badly designed kitchen. That one isn't great, but it seems to have space. The narrow stove is a big minus. The bathroom is awful, and I don't see any Tangueray on the drink cart.
I'm voting with the guys who say run!

Edit: I think you dodged a bullet.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

Why not? Our last home had foundation issues. We had them fixed, and it wasn't even that expensive. Before we bought, we'd have gotten a thorough estimate on the foundation. Before we sold our last home, we had some foundation issues fixed by a company that did a great job at great price. We'd have had them come out to inspect and provide a thorough estimate.

Foundation damage has many causes including:

Bad soil conditions.
Bad drainage and site preparation, grading, etc.
Lousy builder
Lousy design and construction

When you fix the damage to the foundation, it doesn't mean the underlying cause has been fixed. Depending on what that is, it may come back. In some cases, there's no practical fix.

The foundation issues cause other issues in the structure of the house. Those can sometimes be difficult or costly to fix correctly.

Houses are notorious for being built without complete engineering and design, as most commercial buildings receive. Many residential builders take shortcuts and do things they shouldn't. That's because most houses are built on spec, not to a fixed price and a custom design. Build a house right and you might (well, you probably will) price yourself out of the market because you'll have a much higher price than the guy next door and buyers are usually not sophisticated enough to pay more for better quality.

Not trying to bust anybody's balls, it just is what it is. An experienced contractor will see things you and your house inspector will miss.

All that to say, there are plenty of houses out there. Pick one that is sited properly on good soil and don't go asking for problems.

[abisel]

Have you thought of building a new house?

Find a place to build, get a construction note from the bank, pick out the house drawings, buy the lot/acreage, hire a general contractor (or do it yourself), dole out the cash as things get done. Then you can get the house you want (3 car attached garage with a lift and pit) and possibly have maybe 15% (or more) equity in the house once it is finished. Then you convert the construction note to a conventional, FHA, VA or whatever.

A friend of mine did this many years ago and had 20% equity right off the bat. It just depends on what each sub-contractor wants to charge for their work. And maybe you could do some of the work yourself? Depends on what home inspectors will allow.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by javadog

Foundation damage has many causes including:

Bad soil conditions.
Bad drainage and site preparation, grading, etc.
Lousy builder
Lousy design and construction

When you fix the damage to the foundation, it doesn't mean the underlying cause has been fixed. Depending on what that is, it may come back. In some cases, there's no practical fix.

The foundation issues cause other issues in the structure of the house. Those can sometimes be difficult or costly to fix correctly.

Houses are notorious for being built without complete engineering and design, as most commercial buildings receive. Many residential builders take shortcuts and do things they shouldn't. That's because most houses are built on spec, not to a fixed price and a custom design. Build a house right and you might (well, you probably will) price yourself out of the market because you'll have a much higher price than the guy next door and buyers are usually not sophisticated enough to pay more for better quality.

Not trying to bust anybody's balls, it just is what it is. An experienced contractor will see things you and your house inspector will miss.

All that to say, there are plenty of houses out there. Pick one that is sited properly on good soil and don't go asking for problems.

Interesting. In this area, I think the soil is almost always crap. I suspect that unless it's overbuilt you're going to have a problem eventually, whether that takes 40-50 years (our last home) or 30-40 (this one) it's eventually going to happen.

I've wondered before, "could you build it so that's never a problem?" and decided that I'm sure that you could, but that most folks would probably balk at a bunch of extra cost.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by abisel

Have you thought of building a new house?

Find a place to build, get a construction note from the bank, pick out the house drawings, buy the lot/acreage, hire a general contractor (or do it yourself), dole out the cash as things get done. Then you can get the house you want (3 car attached garage with a lift and pit) and possibly have maybe 15% (or more) equity in the house once it is finished. Then you convert the construction note to a conventional, FHA, VA or whatever.

A friend of mine did this many years ago and had 20% equity right off the bat. It just depends on what each sub-contractor wants to charge for their work. And maybe you could do some of the work yourself? Depends on what home inspectors will allow.

I've always thought that building yourself ended up costing more and being a huge hassle. We'd love to build ourselves.

In this particular case, we were thinking "short term". Find a place that needs some work (not necessarily tons or major) buy it cheap-ish (because most folks seem to want turn-key in the latest style) do as much of the work ourselves as possible and leave (or be prepared to) in 4-6 years with some equity.

[john70t]

Rebuilding a fixer-upper and moving every five years will drain you eventually.

It better be dirt cheap in a good area to go through all that.
Then there is the hidden reason it hasn't always been bought.

[masraum]

We definitely don't plan to do it every five years. It is in a very good area. The reason that it hasn't sold is because the guy is waiting for a Barnum fool. The guy wants too much money for the house that he's letting rot and will probably never get what he wants for it.

He's foreign (which isn't a problem), but I think it means that he doesn't understand what most folks expect our want from a house purchase.

It reminds me of one of those guys that has a classic car rioting in his yard but wants fully restored retail money for it. Then after years, he lets it go for a fraction of what he was asking.

As stated, bullet dodged.

[abisel]

Do some web searching on being your own general contractor. If you have some business skills, you can do it. It will take a lot of your time and effort, but will pay off in the long run. Check it out. And I bet the wife would like it too. You may find that shopping for HVAC, appliances, bath fixtures, lighting, flooring, paint, electrical, plumbing, drywall, etc. etc. can be fun because you can shop for the best prices and best sub-contractors. Building the shell of the house is one cost, but finishing the inside is another cost.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

Interesting. In this area, I think the soil is almost always crap. I suspect that unless it's overbuilt you're going to have a problem eventually, whether that takes 40-50 years (our last home) or 30-40 (this one) it's eventually going to happen.

I've wondered before, "could you build it so that's never a problem?" and decided that I'm sure that you could, but that most folks would probably balk at a bunch of extra cost.

First, you pick a building site that can be contoured to drain properly. Then you get the soil tested and if there are any unsuitable soils present, you remove them and replace them with engineered fill that you bring in from offsite. Place that in shallow lifts and compact each one, then you test the compaction. Then you have an engineer design an appropriate foundation and off you go. That’s typical for any normal commercial construction, the fact that they don’t do much of it in residential construction is why people have so many problems. There’s a reason they say the foundation is the most important part of a building.

[stomachmonkey]

Sorry but that place has no written all over it for me.

[javadog]

Around here you can buy an existing house for half of what it would cost to build a new one.