Wouldn't mind at all.

They didn't murder their neighbors.........

But all those police lights blinking in your eyes and bedroom at night...ugh!!!

__________________

M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
.
“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

Where I live, I already have that too.

City police, county sheriff deputies.....both very active in my neighborhood. Especially after nightfall. Do I live in the ideal place? No, but I've owned this home 23 years.

When my kid was at home, he was the reason for the light show in our neighborhood!

Now, it's a dark cul-de-sac, where city-sickies drop off their terminally-ill cats and dogs and the neighbors and I have to call the Humane Society to have them come and pick them up...I'm installing a motion-controlled 4-camera HD security system on my place to see if we can catch some of these cretins and let the HS go "medieval" on their human a55es.

__________________

M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
.
“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

House can't be taken down, it's an historic district. The first post-apt owners planned to demolish it and was hours away from a bulldozer before the city stopped them.
My suspicion is that the most recent flipper let it go back to bank because he finally confirmed what I told him within days of his purchase, that due to a city sewer easement, there isn't enough room to build a garage behind the house. The house will sell at a substantial discount due to lack of a garage, and his profit margin went down the toilet.

I'll grant that rich people will rarely mug you. The crimes of the rich typically involve $$$$$.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I was just razzing you and SRJ on the crime end of things...but let me ask...how far from reality am I when it comes to asking the city and getting it in WRITING before you even pull penny number 1 out of your pocket for this type of project?

Like you said, it seems the everyone jumped into this house assuming that you could just take hammer, nail and saw and rip away...

Wasn't there any lawyers involved to advise them on historical designations, covenants, set-backs (more the city's doing than anything else, but even common sense would dictate knowing where you leave a roof overhang dangling and related items near property lines and such...).

This place seems to be cursed, or at least a money-sucking black hole for idiots with too much cash (How the hell do we find anyone like that right now with the economy the shape it's in? ).

I suppose P.T. Barnum was right...suckers are born every minute. Banks seem to be the ones finding them the best, lately...

__________________

M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
.
“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

Don't know why so many people went in with such ignorance. Part of the reason is that it's the only property on the block whose deed includes the land over the top of the city sewer. I think this lead the current owner to assume that piece of land was buildable property. A simple look down the 'alley' or a conversation with me prior to purchase would have disabused him of that notion.
I went to an auction of a house down the street a few weeks ago. The house had once been three units but was empty. The purchaser planned to live in one and rent the others. A conversation with the purchaser's mother just before bidding started revealed that the bidder had done no investigation to determine whether the house still had multi-family status from the city. Yet she was willing to bid whatever necessary to buy the house, and she did.
She should have closed by now and I've seen no action on the property so I'm suspecting that deal went south and the bidder lost her 10% deposit.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

There is often a way around those rules. In my town, any owner in the historic district who is denied a demolition permit can then put the property up for sale. If the property doesn't sell within a year, then the owner can demolish the supposedly historic building. The trick might be trying to prove to the town that the owner made a good faith effort to sell the property.

The other problem is that with $200+k put into renovations, including a new foundation, someone would be nuts to demolish it. What needs to happen is that someone who wants to live in it and accepts its limitations, needs to buy it for a reasonable price in its existing condition.
The best possible purchaser was a guy who was looking at it last year. He was willing to pay the price and had a reasonable plan to finish the downstairs quickly, live in it, then finish the upstairs as a second apartment which would help pay his mortgage. He had vision and skills. I was even willing to testify at a city hearing that having two units in the house would improve the street over a single family, but he couldn't take the risk of purchase without a prior decision by the city to give a variance.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

People just getting into stuff without doing the slightest bit of research doesn't surprise me, because I see it all the time.

They don't understand you have to do your homework before buying a property to make sure what you want to do will work. The guy who bought it without knowing about the sewer easement was a moron. You can look that stuff up in 10 minutes down city hall and that should be the part of your due diligence on any deal.

I think a lot of them watch flip this house and just go off half cocked.

Foreclosure auctions are dangerious to dumb buyers because they can get slammed with other liens if they neglect to do a title search. I know someone who had to pay $30k to satisfy a lein on a house that he just had to have and didn't do any HW. When he won he had two choices, walk away from his $50k deposit or pay the $30k. Thats just one of the neat problems the amature buyer can get stuck with.

When I see something that comes up for sale that looks interesting I'll do my HW on it even before I put in an offer. If its a screaming deal like the last building lot I bought I'll get it under contract before doing any HW on it, contingent on what I need it for.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Got a match?

Already brought it up......

Urban renewal and all.

I like to sell to a guy like that......as a long as one of my contingencies is that it stays on the market, for a sooner close. Last home I sold I did exactly that.......funny, he dropped all his contingencies the next day.....

Careful with that last line or you'll get an infraction

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

It depends. In my area the historic district has some very wealthy people living in it. For example one is an attorney that worked closely with the Bush administration.

We have looked at stuff in that area of town and it would simply be to costly to fight the court battle for an unkown outcome. They can and would tie you up for years and your margin would be eaten up by legal fees. In working class areas you can usualy push things through for pretty reasonable legal fee's, so concentrate on them. Someone who is making $40k a year with a family cannot afford to fight a court battle to the tune of $20k, to keep the neighbors house from getting turned into condo's, but an attorney making mid seven figures most certainly would.

__________________
2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200