Camp property found, now updates.

[ArlyA]

Yes, we are looking for a few acres out of town with or without a camp (house) on it. We hope to have a few trails on it. Here is one we looked at on 40 acres plus a partially built house on it. Looked to not have been worked on in 4 to 10 years and never lived in and construction was DIY mess in many, many ways. The lookout on the roof leaks like a sieve. They must have pulled a camper here to work from. I'll post photos as we look at other locations. We contracted the realtor and not heard back.

 

[D&D]

Curious, what is the “asking price” for something like that? Yesterday I looked at a 5 acre property, junk everywhere with an old 14 x 70 trailer. They had an appraisal on it for 345000

 

[ArlyA]

An appraisal is a guess. They wanted 190K for this property.

 

[MossRoad]

I often wonder what the backstory is on a property like that. Illness, death, finances, loss of motivation, etc... just curiosity.

A week after we bought our current home I was mowing the lawn.

Drove from north to south and looked at the 3 windows.
Drove from south to north and looked at the 3 windows.
On my third pass I got to thinking... there's only 2 windows in the house!

Ran up and looked in the mystery window. There was a 4' x 4' walled off shelf inside. I ran inside and it was behind a wall. Tore the paneling off. It was a walled off area 4' x 4' with a full shelf half way up. WEIRD!!! Half expected to find some skeleton in a rocking chair!

So, I removed that portion of wall and now it's a 16 sq ft closet in a bedroom.

So that's the kind of thing I'd like to know the backstory about.

 

[Eagle1]

I often wonder what the backstory is on a property like that. Illness, death, finances, loss of motivation, etc... just curiosity.

A week after we bought our current home I was mowing the lawn.

Drove from north to south and looked at the 3 windows.
Drove from south to north and looked at the 3 windows.
On my third pass I got to thinking... there's only 2 windows in the house!

Ran up and looked in the mystery window. There was a 4' x 4' walled off shelf inside. I ran inside and it was behind a wall. Tore the paneling off. It was a walled off area 4' x 4' with a full shelf half way up. WEIRD!!! Half expected to find some skeleton in a rocking chair!

So, I removed that portion of wall and now it's a 16 sq ft closet in a bedroom.

So that's the kind of thing I'd like to know the backstory about.

Well there was this spider........

 

[MossRoad]

 

[ArlyA]

The property I posted photos of, seems it the same owner for 30 or more years. I'd guess the folks building it died or became ill.

 

[MossRoad]

Yes, we are looking for a few acres out of town with or without a camp (house) on it. We hope to have a few trails on it. Here is one we looked at on 40 acres plus a partially built house on it. Looked to not have been worked on in 4 to 10 years and never lived in and construction was DIY mess in many, many ways. The lookout on the roof leaks like a sieve. They must have pulled a camper here to work from. I'll post photos as we look at other locations. We contracted the realtor and not heard back.
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We've been looking as well. It's either $500K + or anything under $200K is listed as a tear down.

 

[MossRoad]

The property I posted photos of, seems it the same owner for 30 or more years. I'd guess the folks building it died or became ill.

So you look at the bones and see if it's structurally salvageable within your means, how much time and/or effort you want to put into it, etc.

 

[paulsharvey]

I often wonder what the backstory is on a property like that. Illness, death, finances, loss of motivation, etc... just curiosity.

A week after we bought our current home I was mowing the lawn.

Drove from north to south and looked at the 3 windows.
Drove from south to north and looked at the 3 windows.
On my third pass I got to thinking... there's only 2 windows in the house!

Ran up and looked in the mystery window. There was a 4' x 4' walled off shelf inside. I ran inside and it was behind a wall. Tore the paneling off. It was a walled off area 4' x 4' with a full shelf half way up. WEIRD!!! Half expected to find some skeleton in a rocking chair!

So, I removed that portion of wall and now it's a 16 sq ft closet in a bedroom.

So that's the kind of thing I'd like to know the backstory about.

In 2007/08/09, in FLa, one of the causes was, a construction loan for greater than the finished value. You can easily spend $500k, building a $350k home, that can't be converted to a conventional loan. After some of this, they put halts on some bad construction loans. Don't know how many homes got canceled mid build, but it was a significant number.

Also, spec builders going bankrupt

 

[Runner]

I love it, but then, I'm a sucker for lookouts, widows walks, etc. Seems like it would be worth the money, even if you had to demo the house.

Is it in a location where there are building code/permit requirements? If so, I would be afraid of walking into a big mess trying to finish the place in a code compliant manner to get a certificate of occupancy.

If not, then you may just be able to use your own judgement to make sure it's safe and usable for you. It's still standing on it's own, so the structure can't be too bad....

 

[ArlyA]

The people who constructed this cabin made so many mistakes, we don't have the funds or patience for the repairs. The interior was only 20% dry-walled so most construction could be viewed. New doors were already gone from water damage from poor drip lines, on and on. Nice property, poor house.

 

[D&D]

An appraisal is a guess. They wanted 190K for this property.

A certified appraisal is more than a guess.

 

[Oaktree]

I often wonder what the backstory is on a property like that. Illness, death, finances, loss of motivation, etc... just curiosity.

The people who constructed this cabin made so many mistakes, we don't have the funds or patience for the repairs. The interior was only 20% dry-walled so most construction could be viewed. New doors were already gone from water damage from poor drip lines, on and on. Nice property, poor house.

My suspicion is that this was a DIY project, and they at some point realized they'd bitten off way more than they could chew and walked away from it. Odd, funky house...didn't look like the builder knew what they were doing.

 

[ArlyA]

Looking at another 30 acre property that stated "already has trails". We found "the trails" like this and unsafe to hike. Girdled trees and hanger after hanger. Anyone with a saw can do this job! What a mess! Let me add, I couldn't capture the mess this trail really was.

 

[MossRoad]

Many years ago I had the brilliant idea to girdle a few dozen locust trees with the intention of letting them die standing so all the leaves and small branches would die off, then cutting them down for firewood.

I didn't have any experience or knowledge of what happens when you start jostling a dead tree.... the upper branches tend to start falling on you as it starts falling over. Yikes! Lesson learned. Dead standing trees are dangerous.

 

[2manyrocks]

ArlyA and MossRoad, what you may be seeing in your local real estate markets is that only the less desirable properties with issues are for sale. People that have good properties don't want to sell because they've looked at the market and don't see anything they want or it would cost them so much more than what they already have. Your markets may vary from mine, but there's not much to choose from around me so what few homes are being built are being built on challenging lots.

One possible option is to treat the clean up of the mess as a liability to be subtracted from the land value in making any offer. Seller may not like it, but if that's the situation, that's the situation.

The guy clearing those trees might have lost interest in the project if he got barber chaired.

 

[MossRoad]

ArlyA and MossRoad, what you may be seeing in your local real estate markets is that only the less desirable properties with issues are for sale. ...

I don't know about the market ArlyA is searching, but around here, there is no shortage of desirable properties for sale. They are just very, very expensive.

The less desirable ones are still pretty expensive, too.

 

[ArlyA]

Here, I'd guess most of these camp property's have been owned by someone who thought "wouldn't it be great to own that! It would be easy to maintain and make trails or a build cabin on it!" Then they aged or became ill and want to recover there $$ since no kids want it.. We of course planning to see more.

 

[lsgreg]

Odd, funky house...didn't look like the builder knew what they were doing.

Yeah, that is what I purchased 11 years ago. Since then, we have replaced all wiring and plumbing, every inch of it. Structurally rebuilt/repaired all walls, replaced all drywall, siding, insulation, reroofed, replaced all windows, doors, and floors, and the list goes on. All done by my wife and I, with occasional hired labor.

All while living in it.

It worked for me, we're still married, we like living here, and we learned a lot. Financially, we never needed a mortgage to make it work, we were able to cash flow it all.

If you buy that sort of property, you need to attach no value to the structure. I bought my 10 acres with the house, a detached garage (neither permitted), a permitted and functional well and septic system, for the value of the empty land.

Our family thought we were crazy, and maybe we were. It worked, and no regrets.

It might be challenging to sell, when we eventually have to, due to lack of permits. Even with that consideration, it has allowed us to have much more than we would have otherwise.

I will never do it again.