LvgonaDream
01-13-2005, 10:46 AM
Self education, ya gotta love it! Actually that's how I've accomplished everything in my life, so when we finally settled an almost 5 year old dispute with a mortgage servicer last August, I started studying on how to sell this old house.
As you could imagine, not knowing from one day to the next over the past 5 years if we still owned it or not (see http://www.MSFraud.org if you are not familiar with the term "mortgage servicing fraud") we put NO money into it - except for a new furnance 2 years ago.
Its an older home - deed says "pre-1950s", but we can date it back further than that. It's been added on to several times and modernized, i.e., main switch box instead of fuses, new electrical, new plumbing, city water/sewer. We put in a door wall and large deck.
Its structually sound, even tho it is on a Michigan basement with a cement floor, drain and cold cellar, the house has not budged, the roof lines are perfectly straight. About 7 years ago we refi'ed thinking to add on - it's a 1 1/2 story and we thought to make it a full 2 story. We had 3 builders come in and give quotes. They said that the roof over the 1 story portion was so well constructed that they would not touch it (used some fancy term I can't remember and mind you this is over the original part of the home dating back pre-1900). The kitchen and garage are part of one of the newer additions - oh about 20 years ago. The garage was initially added on as a family room, so it's all insulated, paneled with double hung windows. Someone came in and converted that to a garage - cement floor with a drain. We converted it to living space (out of necessity as mom-in-law needed a place to live). Problem there is, whoever turned it into a garage took out all of the duct work for heat, so it's not "liveable square footage". So it's 1250 sf or 1600 sf with the garage space.
Here's the questions. This place needs a new roof - complete tear off, as there is a leak from the kitchen/garage addition not being sealed in properly. When last inspected 2 years ago with quotes, there were 3 sheets of plywood that needed to be replaced. The kitchen needs updating. All of the floors need covering - either tile or carpeting. 2 exterior doors, 2 storm doors, 3 interior doors and of course paint throughout - altho the bathroom (there's only 1) has been completely redone including new floor and subfloor. Outside, it's old aluminium which is still in good shape so could just be repainted. There's a 30 by 30 barn, in good shape, but needs a new roof. There's electric to the barn with a complete cement floor.
So that's all of the improvements it needs.
We settled our MSF claim in our favor, so we're sitting pretty with a good amount of equity. It was valued at low end $170,000, high end $190,000 by Coldwell Banker 2 years ago. It sits on 1.3+ acres that is splitable into 2 to 4 parcels. The village we are in allows manufactured homes and I believe they still allow mobiles. There are sewer taps still available, but the beauty is after those run out, then they allow septics - which would be more cost effective in developing the back of the property. Property has a hill which starts at the front and slopes to the back - you don't want to run that much pipe and then you'd need a pump to get it to the street, so septic would be better. A smart investor would more than double his $$ even if he just split it in half.
Okay, I digress (prone to that).
Personally, I'd like to sell it as a fixer-upper for $150,000. Hubby says, wait and fix it ourselves. Me: I don't want to take the time, money and effort. Problem is all of the "I buy fixer upper" and "sell your house for cash" sites want to strip us of our equity and buy it for what we owe. We're not in foreclosure, behind in our payments or taxes, so how dumb would that be? I thought we'd put it FSBO for $160,000 with $10,000 cash back at closing for remodeling. Hubby says "No" that it would flag it and people would try to get us down even more.
What's my hurry? I guess I'm at my midlife crisis - almost 50. I've had a dream since 10 years old of running a resort. I'd really like to get on with that. Found a few nice places for sale, I know they come on the market all the time, but I do medical transcription at home and sit in this chair for 6 to 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and am also anxious to get out of this chair.
Should we fix it up? I estimate about $10,000 cost of repairs. Should we try selling as a fixer-upper, exponding on the land development aspect? What to do, what to do ...
As you could imagine, not knowing from one day to the next over the past 5 years if we still owned it or not (see http://www.MSFraud.org if you are not familiar with the term "mortgage servicing fraud") we put NO money into it - except for a new furnance 2 years ago.
Its an older home - deed says "pre-1950s", but we can date it back further than that. It's been added on to several times and modernized, i.e., main switch box instead of fuses, new electrical, new plumbing, city water/sewer. We put in a door wall and large deck.
Its structually sound, even tho it is on a Michigan basement with a cement floor, drain and cold cellar, the house has not budged, the roof lines are perfectly straight. About 7 years ago we refi'ed thinking to add on - it's a 1 1/2 story and we thought to make it a full 2 story. We had 3 builders come in and give quotes. They said that the roof over the 1 story portion was so well constructed that they would not touch it (used some fancy term I can't remember and mind you this is over the original part of the home dating back pre-1900). The kitchen and garage are part of one of the newer additions - oh about 20 years ago. The garage was initially added on as a family room, so it's all insulated, paneled with double hung windows. Someone came in and converted that to a garage - cement floor with a drain. We converted it to living space (out of necessity as mom-in-law needed a place to live). Problem there is, whoever turned it into a garage took out all of the duct work for heat, so it's not "liveable square footage". So it's 1250 sf or 1600 sf with the garage space.
Here's the questions. This place needs a new roof - complete tear off, as there is a leak from the kitchen/garage addition not being sealed in properly. When last inspected 2 years ago with quotes, there were 3 sheets of plywood that needed to be replaced. The kitchen needs updating. All of the floors need covering - either tile or carpeting. 2 exterior doors, 2 storm doors, 3 interior doors and of course paint throughout - altho the bathroom (there's only 1) has been completely redone including new floor and subfloor. Outside, it's old aluminium which is still in good shape so could just be repainted. There's a 30 by 30 barn, in good shape, but needs a new roof. There's electric to the barn with a complete cement floor.
So that's all of the improvements it needs.
We settled our MSF claim in our favor, so we're sitting pretty with a good amount of equity. It was valued at low end $170,000, high end $190,000 by Coldwell Banker 2 years ago. It sits on 1.3+ acres that is splitable into 2 to 4 parcels. The village we are in allows manufactured homes and I believe they still allow mobiles. There are sewer taps still available, but the beauty is after those run out, then they allow septics - which would be more cost effective in developing the back of the property. Property has a hill which starts at the front and slopes to the back - you don't want to run that much pipe and then you'd need a pump to get it to the street, so septic would be better. A smart investor would more than double his $$ even if he just split it in half.
Okay, I digress (prone to that).
Personally, I'd like to sell it as a fixer-upper for $150,000. Hubby says, wait and fix it ourselves. Me: I don't want to take the time, money and effort. Problem is all of the "I buy fixer upper" and "sell your house for cash" sites want to strip us of our equity and buy it for what we owe. We're not in foreclosure, behind in our payments or taxes, so how dumb would that be? I thought we'd put it FSBO for $160,000 with $10,000 cash back at closing for remodeling. Hubby says "No" that it would flag it and people would try to get us down even more.
What's my hurry? I guess I'm at my midlife crisis - almost 50. I've had a dream since 10 years old of running a resort. I'd really like to get on with that. Found a few nice places for sale, I know they come on the market all the time, but I do medical transcription at home and sit in this chair for 6 to 10 hours a day, 7 days a week and am also anxious to get out of this chair.
Should we fix it up? I estimate about $10,000 cost of repairs. Should we try selling as a fixer-upper, exponding on the land development aspect? What to do, what to do ...