I have a workshop in a retail/residential building in what is currently a very trendy and "gentrifying" neighborhood on the corner of a busy intersection.
The owners have a nice valuable piece of property. But sitting on it is an old (four storey) masonry building with massive cracks in the masonry, buckling concrete pad, with no end of plumbing problems, electrical problems, and the floors and walls degrading, etc.
I believe they wanted to sell the property when, recently, property rates hit their peak.[1]
But they were determined to sell it as a piece of valuable land plus a revenue generating building, where the buyers (again, speculation) were looking at it as land value *minus* demolition cost... and then rebuilding.
So the building on the property could be viewed as negative value if it is as derelict as that one.
[1] because they replaced the back door knob! And put a coat of ugly paint around the first floor externals and doors.
I thought "unimproved" meant no electric grid tie in and no water/sewage hookups. I might be wrong, but aren't you implying it is "no permanent building"?
Well for me I was excited when I saw that NYW is going to do router table. I need to get my VCR or TIVO or something because I am going to buy a router soon and I will enjoy this a lot.
I saw my first show that I actually planned to watch last weekend. Was disappointed its only 1/2 hour. Im in detroit area but i guess its 1/2 hour everywhere.
Now THAT is a plan! A good friend of mine did the same as he built his home over a 3-4 year period. You could then use the DW as a shop building! My BIL lived in a 30 foot Prowler that he bought for 3k, while we spent 2 years building out a barn on his organic farm.
I'd like to point out in your example that your DW was used, the house was new. Had your DW been new in '99 or the home constructed in '95, the numbers would be quite different. Also, had you done the same example in many other areas of the US, the home would have doubled, or possibly even tripled in value from 1999 to 2005.
If my DW had been new in 2000 (the same year he built his house and I bought the land), my value would be about the same as it is now, and I would have been able to purchase a new DW for only slightly more than I paid for the 5 year old one. Mobile homes (or as they are now called by zoning and appraisals, manufactured homes) are built to HUD codes (have been for almost 20 years now) and there are many out there that you wouldn't even know were manufactured homes.
Those areas that would have doubled or tripled in value in 6 short years are very few and far between, and if you read my original response one more time, I said I moved 50 miles out from an area so that I can have cheap housing and that the savings of having that cheap housing more than offsets the commute costs (my commute costs is less than 10% of the savings in monthly bills and taxes, in fact, the savings in taxes alone pays for my commute). By living where it is cheap to live, I can afford things that my coworkers cannot because I have more money left over after the mortgage, insurance, and taxes, yet I have just as comfortable of home to live in.
Greg G mused: >Perhaps I'm jaded due to the poor quality of new construction here. >I think it's just a case of Atlanta having been a boom housing market, >and it attracted a lot of carpetbagging, s**nk developers like Ryland. >
Hey Greg, if you think that your descriptions of Mcmansions are just restricted to them or to your area, think again. Sadly, this greedy mentality has permeated every area, including here in the northeast - codes notwithstanding.
Our house was built in the late 70's, and you described it almost to a "T" in your description of problems. They even used cinder block for the basement when it had been outlawed here for home construction by code some 20 years earlier due to its problem of disintegrating from the wet ground. (And they didn't even have the decency to put sealer on the outside of the block) The building inspectors inspected just the first house in the development to be built, and signed off on all the other 'to be built' houses - leaving the builder to do anything he wanted. There isn't much of anything I can find in this house that was built properly or to code, including the electric and plumbing systems, the undersized floor joists, the phenomenal warpage in the walls, the floors that move up and down when you walk, every copper pipe joint springing leaks, improper heating system design, ect, ect, ect. The fact that a house today can get a certificate of occupancy is a testament to how much a builder can bribe the local officials. But when a homeowner fixes something and tries to get it inspected....
One of the largest builders in NJ is well known for building really nice looking houses/condo's/etc., but after people move in and discover what a peice of total crap it is, they are very often willing to take a huge financial hit by selling out immediately and moving. He hires all non-english speaking laborers for pennies on the doller and is presently worth billions. This seems to be the norm, not the exception here. And unfortunately, most all builders here are trying to compete with these scam artists and so can not afford to do things "right" lest they go broke. (At least that's their story)
Oh, lovely. Glad (!) to know it has spread throughout the entire US.
I lived in Mullica Hill, NJ for a while a few years ago, but it was in a farmhouse built over 120 years ago. Didn't notice any of the aforementioned greed-fest developments at the time, but I'm sure things are changing. I know Indianapolis was covered with them, and Metro Chicago, well... what can I say...
Seems to me that this phenomenon is directly attributable to the utter gullibility of the American Public. Just what the heck are they teaching in schools, and what knowledge are parents handing down to their children? Heck if I know... But I get the distinct impression that this lack of discernment has allowed the bile of greed to contaminate our political/economic institutions as well as home construction. For instance, why are banks loaning money on these sorry things when are supposed to be protecting their investments? Collusion and Avarice, why else?
We continue to reap the rewards of our own ignorant hubris by sidestepping real issues/solutions/knowledge and resorting to finger pointing, bandwagon jumping, and polarized rhetoric that has permeated every aspect of life. Even on the wreck, where I come for respite from such things, there are constant political jabs and OT flame wars about Liberals vs. NeoCons - US vs Them. Hey, in this world, as it's always been, it's every man for himself, and this crap ain't helping anyone but the Barons who continue to profit, laughing all the while at the rubes who allow it to happen.
Even though I haven't been involved in a car accident in almost 20 years/1.5 million miles, and avidly practice defensive driving, I have to pay ever increasing amounts for LEGALLY MANDATED car insurance to compensate for those who feel the need to eat, talk on the phone, and dig around on the floorboards for the French Fries that were dropped while hurling down the highway at 70mph in their 12mpg SUV. In an impromptu survey while I was driving in downtown Atlanta Tuesday afternoon, I noted that over 80% of the drivers on these crowded, narrow city streets were yakking on cell-phones, paying little to no attention to what was transpiring around them.
It's a pseudo-socialist ponzi scheme. And I'm damned sick of being ask - nay, REQUIRED - to foot the bill for these moronic masses of asses.
Sorry about that, I just plodded through 22 threads of such nonsense, and just had to vent somewhere. It ended up being here...
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.