Weird thought but convert the garage to living space and build a garage in the back yard?
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COVID and the housing market
- Thread starter mimico_polak
- Start date
Possible. Wife beat it out of me already lol. I’m sure there’s a few considerations to be had there.
@mimico_polak If you decide to scale back on budget for this project, I would double up the kids and change the fireplace block. It would make a huge difference in the feel of your house and cost would be relatively low. You'd be stuck with a column and cost could get crazy depending on kitchen plans but it seems to be a reasonable middle ground. If you decide to add more space in the future, hopefully crazy covid prices have died down a little.
My 1400 SF shop was a man cave but I always had friends wanting me to store their stuff for cheap or nothing. The marina wants $500 to store your boat but I get $100. You expect to access it anytime you want and have a key to the shop. I'm working, trying to make a buck and you distract me, wanting to chat.
For me I had three bikes, a power boat, canoe, convertible etc. A ride meant a 25-30 minute drive to the shop, ten minutes of Oriental fire drill, and then light the fires. Returning home was the same in reverse.
I bought cheap during a recession and did well selling it. Although I sometimes miss it, having to make do with a single car garage has made me more efficient with projects. An uncle was a carpenter / cabinet maker and had a three car garage. When he built it the rule of thumb was to be able to swing a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood in any direction. I only dream now.
If I have a shop/storage building, unless it is >10K sq ft, it will be for me (and maybe family) only. I have no interest in random people in there at random times.
Before I met my wife, I was contemplating buying an industrial building with a drive up ramp. Basically build some rooms on the slab to live in and the remainder is the "garage". If you want to expand the house, no real issues with size/shape of room, just add it and you don't need to worry about water intrusion. Obviously a municipality would not have appreciated my use so the key is to keep them from looking.
Is this a case of if you can't extort the city you extort the home buyer?Someone I know is involved in this and now they are priced out and it messed up selling their current house +_+
Would-be homebuyers blindsided in Elora after developer terminates contracts
Dozens of would-be homebuyers who invested in a housing development in Elora say they’ve been blindsided after their agreements have been terminated.kitchener.ctvnews.ca
Reddit posted about this too, this is fraud!!!
Re george's friend. I can better understand a sales condition based on the seller finding a suitable new home. The domino effect may have more than one victim.
More a case of the developers always win. They got to borrow money interest free, if the market dropped, they had locked in sales. If the market went up, they had some easy outs to increase profit. I've seen developments collapse before because they couldn't obtain favorable finance terms from their lender (who coincidentally was owned by the same person as the development company). As for a buyer trying to protect themselves, 1500 signed up to buy 10 townhouses in kitchener. You sign what they give you or move on, they will find 10 people that will sign anything no matter how slanted it is.
Sadly buyer beware. These rules are there to protect the buyer from developers that are not getting the job done. Instead developers are using them to cancel sales agreements. House sold for YYY, as they are getting built they are now worth 1.5 or 2x YYY. So instead of completing them they let them time out (maybe even just stop building, drag it out), original buyer gets deposit back, developer now sells them for the new market value. Rinse and repeat.
If interest on deposit were tied in some way to house appreciation, it would be more fair to buyers. Not perfect but at least you get back 100K instead of your original 50K so getting in isn't a complete impossibility and developer shares the pain of the cancelled contract. As it is now, other than reputational risk there is little downside (and the vast majority get reported as the name of the project corporation not the recognizable umbrella or controlling family name).
It's not hard to induce delays in a project that look up and up(tell contractor to prioritize another site instead of telling them to avoid this site).
Make it illegal and then someone "accidentally" tips over a heater. Closings set back several years or however long it takes to get the buyers to sign off.
I would want something for my money. I want the right to exchange my down payment for the lot. Sadly the lot values are too high and banks don't like to mortgage land.
In the Elora mess, the lots were not serviced yet. An un-serviced lot in a subdivision is worth almost nothing. An acquaintance wanted to buy a serviced lot in a subdivision where houses were selling for 1.x. Developer said sure, 200K less than the finished 5000+ sq ft house as they wanted all their profit from the lot. If you really piss them off, they route services in a way that makes tie-in cost prohibitive or impossible.
AFAIK they have to give the money back plus "interest", which will be nothing of course. There is no real penalty for the developer.
This is not the first time it has happened and will not be the last.
This is not the first time it has happened and will not be the last.
Typically you can't live in an industrial unit. The exception is a watchman.
My first rented unit had an illegal apartment that the previous tenant built. I sneaked up there when it was vacant and it was pretty nice except for not having windows. There was a skylight.
It made my unit illegal as the entrance was what should have been by rear man door. Fire codes do not consider a roll up door an escape.
The apartment was eventually rented to a family and I got to hear their disputes as there was only one layer of drywall closing off the stairs.
One day she justifiably let lose on him verbally at the top of the stairs. "You go out drinking with your friends, play hockey, are never home, don't play with the kids. I'm cooped up here all day, never see daylight. There's no shopping or playgrounds. The kids are hyper etc etc etc." When she stopped to get her breath back his response was "So what's your problem?" I expected to hear a thud and the sound of a body falling down a flight of stairs.
They are required to pay interest at 2% below the bank rate. So zero for more than the last decade.
The really rich buy the lot they want, where they want and hire the custom builder they want. The simply rich may not get the builder they want as some custom builders have exited the market rather than lower their standards to those of the green as grass new custom builders that sub out to the lowest bidders.
Few people have the expertise to be their own general contractor.
There are some builders near Barrie that install an engraved stone in the garage wall with their company (and family) name. I like that dedication. You don't want your name permanently on display if you are building disposable crap.
I think this change would really change our house for the positive. It would really open up the main living area, and frankly make the house feel 'complete'. I think I could fit work like that within 30k or so, especially if I can re-use some of the boxes / cabinets.
The addition is a nice to have, not a necessity in any way shape or form. My cousin asked me point blank...'you sure the MIL is going to live with you much longer? You think she'll leave or be alive in 5 years?'
There's so much that can be done, but deciding on what's the most important, and gets us the largest bang for the buck is priority financially.
The upside is your projects are mostly modular. You have projects a,b and c planned and you can reasonably do any or all of them without the others.
The only problem is the multiple project messes....but hard to avoid. Ideally I'd like to get it all done in one shot...however...$$$
Sadly we have to be realistic.
My A-H BIL conned his 90 year old mother into replacing her roof with a metal one with a 50 year guarantee. He thought he could manipulate the will when she passed away and get the house. It didn't work. All he did was blow a fortune in legal fees on top of the renovations that are being ripped out now that the house is sold.
She had a good heart but the ghosts of WWII haunted her.
I don't need a 50 year roof. Some people don't buy green bananas.
That said, if it makes someone happy and content plus has future value, it's worth considering.
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