Real estate General topic

[paulsharvey]

Had an interview many years ago, as a superintendent for a small-medium sized, scatter lot home builder. Go to the interview in Daytona, with like 12 people, and they say "walk us step by step, through an entire home, from after your handed a permit to turning keys". Thats a tall order; but i know what I'm doing and start, step by step, walking through each phase. I get to drywall after MEPs, and go "wait, i forgot insulation". Anyways, I'm talking to my project manager after the interview and tell him, laughing, "I forgot insulation". He says "that's not funny, we did that once". I asked, well, what did you do? "What do you mean, we forgot to insulate, and by the time we realized it would be too much work/money to demo drywall and insulate. So, there is a home, built by Centex somewhere in Palm Coast, FLa, where the owner is looking at a $600/month power bill, scratching his head....

 

[paulsharvey]

Point being, if that is two bad examples that I personally know of, With inspections. Now, think what would be going on without any permits or inspections.

 

[ultrarunner]

There are regions with no permit requirements or maybe only a perc test for septic…

I know California ex-pats in heaven after having to pay $400 tree removal permit for a back yard planted walnut tree or permit to replace a toilet.

They move to acerage and anything AG is no permit or simply no permit though I realize this is not the norm…

My brothers 1850 homestead has a metal squeeze barn permit and that’s it… nothing on file for the 1850 Barn the 1910 Farm House, the 1930’s electrical, etc…

I’d live there in a heartbeat…

 

[grsthegreat]

There are regions with no permit requirements or maybe only a perc test for septic…

I know California ex-pats in heaven after having to pay $400 tree removal permit for a back yard planted walnut tree or permit to replace a toilet.

They move to acerage and anything AG is no permit or simply no permit though I realize this is not the norm…

My brothers 1850 homestead has a metal squeeze barn permit and that’s it… nothing on file for the 1850 Barn the 1910 Farm House, the 1930’s electrical, etc…

I’d live there in a heartbeat…

Wash state is just as bad. I had a friend fined because he installed a sprinkler valve himself…..without a permit.

I mean really…a sprinkler valve.

 

[paulsharvey]

I'm mean I think maybe a healthy midground, your tax "homestead", should be exempt from any permitting, On your property. IE, not easements, ROWs, ect. Maybe I could even see, 25 ft front/10/10/10 setbacks, and everything in that area permit exempt. You have 7 properties, fine, your Homestead property is exempt; permits required on the no exempt. But, you do something real dumb, it's you dealing with the consequences.

I say setbacks, because if you are 6" off the property line, your problem can become the neighboring properties problem. Anything from footers encroaching, a pipe leak damaging neighbors home, your deck collapsing, ect.

 

[ultrarunner]

Wash state is just as bad. I had a friend fined because he installed a sprinkler valve himself…..without a permit.

I mean really…a sprinkler valve.

I pinned my future hopes to Washington State but over the last 20 years I doubt it’s sustainable for me… the laws continue to punish property owners and housing providers and the jump in property tax is the writing on the wall… for me anyway.

The climate and natural beauty is a perfect fit… the economic reality is what bites.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

We're in the process of buying a rural property with an older 1800 sqft home after 35 years in the suburbs in a 2700 sqft home + partially finished basement on .3 acres. It's been quite an eye opener since our current home was our first so we're very inexperienced with the process.

What I can't get my head around is insurance. Our current house is insured for about $400k which is pretty close to replacement value. We're paying $540k for the new property. The land itself is worth about $320k and $220k for the house. I was speechless when our insurance agent originally quoted us for $625k insured value. The truth is even if the house were a total loss I could have a new (and much, much nicer) one built for for about $350k. We finally agreed to insure for $540k and the premium is still cheaper than on our current house. It makes no sense to me. Why would a company want to insure a house for almost $200k more than replacement value? It seems like they're setting themselves up for an unscrupulous owner with bic lighter to get himself a shiny new home with top of the line construction and fixtures.

It's like the polar opposite of hard to insure places like Florida and California. They want to give me more insurance than I need for a lower price than I'm currently paying. It's bizarre.

 

[WinterDeere]

...our insurance agent...

I've always treated moving as the perfect time to find a new insurer. I'm usually about fed up with the existing one by then, always playing the game of raising rates each year with no claims, and then magically lowering them when I call threatening to move.

If your old agent is quoting you a stupid level of insurance beyond what you require, why are you even considering staying with them? Unless you're married to them, I see no reason to hand them money for something you don't need.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

We get quotes from other insurers every few years and our current one is competitive. And they aren't dictating the level of coverage, just quoting what they think we need. I have no idea what the mortgage company requires but having coverage up to the buying price should satisfy them. Once our current house sells we'll be paying off this new place and will drop the insurance to something more reasonable.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

We're still waiting for the appraisal that the mortgage company ordered. That'll be interesting. We've been looking at places in a 4 county area and prices vary wildly. Of course the quality of the houses and and land vary wildly too. Our buyer's agent really struggled to find comps because there's so much variation in rural properties. It's pretty much impossible to find a comp that is really comparable. It's nothing like getting comps in a suburban neighborhood of similar houses. The only way I could back into a price was to ask myself "what would this house sell for on a postage stamp sized lot" then add the value of raw acreage in the area. I don't know if that's a valid way of doing it or not.