Markola
Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Last night we had a couple over for dinner, whom we are just getting to know, and who updated us on the house they bought recently. It’s a big, 1903 virtual mansion with 3 floors and a carriage house with an apartment. I would describe the area of our city that it’s in as, ahem, an “emerging market”. As they told us the story, I got a pit in my stomach, which has only grown worse. Both are previously divorced and have teenage kids from those marriages, so they are just recovered from all of that economic fallout. My guess is, knowing what they do, they probably earn $200K-$250K or so.
The house is handsome and was in the half million dollar range. They bought it sight unseen, contingent on inspection, because when they learned of it, there was already one other offer. They couldn’t even get inside it until their offer was accepted. They sold a perfectly nice four square home in two days and took on a new, larger mortgage.
They bought the house to live in and to rent out both the carriage house and also the third floor. The third floor is not yet built out as a rental unit, so they’ll have to put in a kitchenette. The carriage house has turned out to be such a mechanical disaster that it will cost $300K to restore. They learned they can’t even turn the lower half of the carriage house into a garage, because the historic district requires a certain setback from the alley for parking, which the structure doesn’t meet. So there’s no garage, and lots of masonry work needed to even have a proper driveway from the street side to the back.
Despite the marketing photos, the kitchen is cheaply done, with lots of replacements needed. The newer furnace turns out to be a brand with severe problems such that they haven’t yet found a plumber who will service it. And on and on.
I fear our new friends have set themselves up for financial disaster and I can’t help but look at them as two movie characters who are dead but don’t know it. What they have done is none of my business, so all I could do as they talked was say “Wow!” a lot, and “It’s a beautiful house. Good luck!” I also can’t express my concerns to any other real life friends without risking relationships. I can’t do a single thing but be concerned for them.
The house is handsome and was in the half million dollar range. They bought it sight unseen, contingent on inspection, because when they learned of it, there was already one other offer. They couldn’t even get inside it until their offer was accepted. They sold a perfectly nice four square home in two days and took on a new, larger mortgage.
They bought the house to live in and to rent out both the carriage house and also the third floor. The third floor is not yet built out as a rental unit, so they’ll have to put in a kitchenette. The carriage house has turned out to be such a mechanical disaster that it will cost $300K to restore. They learned they can’t even turn the lower half of the carriage house into a garage, because the historic district requires a certain setback from the alley for parking, which the structure doesn’t meet. So there’s no garage, and lots of masonry work needed to even have a proper driveway from the street side to the back.
Despite the marketing photos, the kitchen is cheaply done, with lots of replacements needed. The newer furnace turns out to be a brand with severe problems such that they haven’t yet found a plumber who will service it. And on and on.
I fear our new friends have set themselves up for financial disaster and I can’t help but look at them as two movie characters who are dead but don’t know it. What they have done is none of my business, so all I could do as they talked was say “Wow!” a lot, and “It’s a beautiful house. Good luck!” I also can’t express my concerns to any other real life friends without risking relationships. I can’t do a single thing but be concerned for them.
