Bad news. After reaching terms with the bank, they’ve gone back on their initial commitment. The first terms were not favorable, but if I held my nose, I could tolerate it.
The new terms are just abysmal. They’ve increased their fees to 2 points, are requiring all sorts of new documentation from the builder, and want [...]
Received a new appraisal yesterday. It’s better, but still short of what we needed to complete the project. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the lending process, here’s how it works:
Banks will loan you a certain amount of money based on the appraised value of your project. To keep it simple, let’s say [...]
Well, tomorrow is THE DAY. The bank’s appraiser will be coming by the house to do a walk-through. This will be the second appraisal of the current home and Live/Work Propoert. The number we need to hit is ambitious, BUT the new appraiser agrees that it’s valid to use duplexes as comparables.
The reason duplexes are [...]
(and how they can fix it)
Those of you following this website know that for over a year (17 months, but who’s counting?) I’ve been trying to get our ADU project off the ground. We’ve won some major battles (land use adjustments) suffered some small setbacks (NIMBY neighbors) and learned a lot about urban development.
A few [...]
Well, we’ve officially moved into the painful, “lose the frills” phase of the project. Because the cost of the project exceeds our lender requirements, we’ve started hacking and slashing to cut costs. A big portion of these costs? Windows.
Here’s how the math works out:
Removing 8 windows saves us a total of $2400 in costs, plus [...]
Check out what can happen when you’re committed to good design on a realistic budget ($51 per square foot!):
As part of my never-ending quest to find affordable housing options, I stumbled across this interesting article in the New York Times. Here’s a brief excerpt:
Mr. Flueckiger chose to build with industrial materials in homage to the [...]
In previous posts I’ve hinted at my dismay with the appraisal process. Well, I thought I’d take a moment and spell out a few details, hopefully so others will go into the process with their eyes wide open.
First, I’ll preface this post with my belief that there are plenty of ethical, professionals in the field [...]
We’re in a bit of a holding pattern right now - waiting on financing. I’ve been working with two different mortgage brokers. One broker is what I would call a traditional broker. He’s looking to finance our project much in the same way you would if you were creating an addition to your home.
The other [...]
I’ve been working with a new builder to develop a more accurate budget for the ADU project. One element of the design that accounts for a HUGE percentage of the overall cost is the kitchen. And, in the kitchen, one of the of the most expensive elements is the countertops.
We’re not building an elaborate kitchen [...]
If you had told me a year ago that I will spend over $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, I might not have even started this crazy endeavor. Early in the process it seemed as though financing would come much sooner, and that things like design fees, permits, etc. could be wrapped into the mortgage. Talk about [...]