The house construction is on hold. Really long story...
We fixed up the old house and put it on the market using Redfin, the new whizbang discount real estate agency. Saving the litany of complaints for those truly interested, suffice it to say that those people couldn't sell air conditioners to Arizona. The house sat and sat with no attention (at least none that I heard about).
A month into it, 3 weeks ago Monday, we went with our friend Diane to take over the listing. She's great. We got immediate attention, but the vacant lot next door has scared off multiple potential buyers. As much assurance, colloquial and legal, as I can promise, it's still a risky proposition. We have to wait for 'the right buyer' and we'll be rolling around in money.
No we won't. Reality set in and we're not going to be able to pay off the lot with our profit on the house. Truth be told, the $40k I put into repairs earned me nothing. At the current price, we'll still owe something like $75k on the lot, and anything else people require of the price just adds to our debt.
That said, it's important to note that our architect-built house is now very far from our reach. The custom build process would push us way out of our budget, potentially into a worse spot than the one that forced us to consider the process in the first place.
Our decision now is heavily in the court of Timberland Homes. They build modular homes, where they take your order (marginally customizing their existing floor plans) and build the house on their own lot. When the house is 75% done, they cut it up, load it on trailers, and drop it on your foundation with a crane. Despite the yawn prompted by their literature, they actually do some pretty cool work. Additionally, they're extremely flexible with their floorplans. The examples they have can be reconfigured to face our view, and there are tons of options that will cost/save money at every decision. We're excited, the difference in cost between this and the custom design is about $200k.
Stay tuned on this. It all seems too good to be true, and we're not going to press with the Timberland people until we have an offer in the financing stage for the old house. There's still a possibility that I scrap the whole deal and sell the house + the lot to some developer and we move into a nice house somewhere else.
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3 comments:
WOW-- At the beginning of the blog, it occurred to me to suggest a "pre-built" house, but thought that was too uncool and conventional for the West Coast-- Glad to see you are wise enough to recognize the value of the idea---Not because I thought of it, too- but 'cause it is practical-- -- you are not marrying the house-- as Granny would say--If you hate it in 5 or 10 years-- then-- move on!! even sooner if you want-- The future is not in our hands, anyway-- so--do your best-- never, never rest-- 'til your good is better, and your better, best!!
Lovesha-- Mommy
...please where can I buy a unicorn?
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