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Safe as houses
Oct. 5th, 2024 08:17 pmFor several years we’ve been feeling cramped in our house: as [Bad username or unknown identity: “shalmestere”/] says, it would be plenty big enough for us if we didn’t have so many hobbies. And I make more money (after inflation) than I did when we bought our current house in 2001, so we could theoretically afford more. So we’ve been intermittently looking at houses for sale.
Last Friday we visited one in the posh neighborhood of Jamaica Estates: the word “estates” is presumably supposed to make it sound rich, but in fact the houses are large and mostly gorgeous and mostly out of our price range. This one has been reduced to under a million, so we thought we’d take a look.
It’s a brick colonial, slightly larger in ft2 than our current house, built into a hillside. The short driveway leads to a one-car garage underneath the house, with a doorway from the garage to the basement; the front door is one story above. The back yard starts with a slate patio (in good shape), then turns into woods that slope up from the house for something like eighty feet, adjacent to four other people’s back yards. Part of the basement is finished, with real-wood paneling and a fireplace (adjacent to the chimney, but bricked up so it doesn’t actually vent into the chimney). Less-finished parts of the basement include a half bath, laundry room, and a sort of workshop space, as well as the garage. The main floor has a living room (also with a not-quite-functional fireplace), dining room, enclosed sunroom, kitchen, half bath, and breakfast nook. The second floor has a full bath, master bedroom, and two small bedrooms. The attic is less finished than ours, with HVAC ducts in the middle, but could provide some storage space. It’s one of the smaller houses on the street, which I’ve always been told means you get more bang for your renovation buck. And it feels like a place we could be comfortable, eventually.
The former owner lived in the house for sixty years, but has moved into an old-folks’ home, and her kids are selling it. It’s had some recent work, like the roof in 2020, but the kitchen and bathrooms look 1980’s (albeit in fairly good condition). There’s peeling paint in many places, and ceiling water damage in a few (allegedly from before the 2020 roof repair). Would need a bunch of new appliances, and some renovation.
About that driveway: as mentioned, it’s set into a hillside, with brick retaining walls on both sides holding back the dirt. One side is slightly cracked and leaning; the other side is more badly cracked and seriously leaning, with an outstanding violation from the city that needs to be fixed before the house can legally be lived in. And I’m afraid it may be impossible to fix the retaining wall without replacing the brick steps to the front door, which themselves are in not-too-bad shape.
On the other side of the lot, there was a stone retaining wall between this property and the neighbor’s, but most of that retaining wall is completely gone, and the dirt is being held up by straw bales and plywood; again, there’s an outstanding violation from the city.
You would expect the straw bales and plywood would bother the neighbors on that side, but that house is unoccupied, with exposed insulation on all the exterior walls. Somebody tried to turn it into a four-flat apartment building, then ran out of money and left the building unfinished; the building permit expired in 2018. They’re trying to sell the lot and the unfinished apartment building for $2.6 million, and not getting any takers.
If we bought the brick house, we wouldn’t be able to move into it (and sell our current house) before doing tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of dollars worth of renovations, and for all that time we’d be paying two mortgages. And the property’s value will be affected by whatever eventually happens to the unfinished building next door.
A fair price to offer would be what it would be worth if renovated and legalized, minus what it would cost to renovate and legalize it. And we could probably afford that offer… but what if we couldn’t also afford all the renovations and repairs, while still living in our current house?
Of course, I’ve only described the problems I can see myself; a professional engineer/inspector would presumably see more.
I really hope somebody buys and fixes this house, but I don’t think we’re the ones to do it.
Last Friday we visited one in the posh neighborhood of Jamaica Estates: the word “estates” is presumably supposed to make it sound rich, but in fact the houses are large and mostly gorgeous and mostly out of our price range. This one has been reduced to under a million, so we thought we’d take a look.
It’s a brick colonial, slightly larger in ft2 than our current house, built into a hillside. The short driveway leads to a one-car garage underneath the house, with a doorway from the garage to the basement; the front door is one story above. The back yard starts with a slate patio (in good shape), then turns into woods that slope up from the house for something like eighty feet, adjacent to four other people’s back yards. Part of the basement is finished, with real-wood paneling and a fireplace (adjacent to the chimney, but bricked up so it doesn’t actually vent into the chimney). Less-finished parts of the basement include a half bath, laundry room, and a sort of workshop space, as well as the garage. The main floor has a living room (also with a not-quite-functional fireplace), dining room, enclosed sunroom, kitchen, half bath, and breakfast nook. The second floor has a full bath, master bedroom, and two small bedrooms. The attic is less finished than ours, with HVAC ducts in the middle, but could provide some storage space. It’s one of the smaller houses on the street, which I’ve always been told means you get more bang for your renovation buck. And it feels like a place we could be comfortable, eventually.
The former owner lived in the house for sixty years, but has moved into an old-folks’ home, and her kids are selling it. It’s had some recent work, like the roof in 2020, but the kitchen and bathrooms look 1980’s (albeit in fairly good condition). There’s peeling paint in many places, and ceiling water damage in a few (allegedly from before the 2020 roof repair). Would need a bunch of new appliances, and some renovation.
About that driveway: as mentioned, it’s set into a hillside, with brick retaining walls on both sides holding back the dirt. One side is slightly cracked and leaning; the other side is more badly cracked and seriously leaning, with an outstanding violation from the city that needs to be fixed before the house can legally be lived in. And I’m afraid it may be impossible to fix the retaining wall without replacing the brick steps to the front door, which themselves are in not-too-bad shape.
On the other side of the lot, there was a stone retaining wall between this property and the neighbor’s, but most of that retaining wall is completely gone, and the dirt is being held up by straw bales and plywood; again, there’s an outstanding violation from the city.
You would expect the straw bales and plywood would bother the neighbors on that side, but that house is unoccupied, with exposed insulation on all the exterior walls. Somebody tried to turn it into a four-flat apartment building, then ran out of money and left the building unfinished; the building permit expired in 2018. They’re trying to sell the lot and the unfinished apartment building for $2.6 million, and not getting any takers.
If we bought the brick house, we wouldn’t be able to move into it (and sell our current house) before doing tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of dollars worth of renovations, and for all that time we’d be paying two mortgages. And the property’s value will be affected by whatever eventually happens to the unfinished building next door.
A fair price to offer would be what it would be worth if renovated and legalized, minus what it would cost to renovate and legalize it. And we could probably afford that offer… but what if we couldn’t also afford all the renovations and repairs, while still living in our current house?
Of course, I’ve only described the problems I can see myself; a professional engineer/inspector would presumably see more.
I really hope somebody buys and fixes this house, but I don’t think we’re the ones to do it.
