I wouldn’t care about that gap. It’s not that hard to take stuff out of the microwave without spilling. Let the buyer worry about it.
In the photo labeled “Kitchen Cabinet Handles” it looks like the drawer front under the counter and the panel to the left of it (is that another drawer?) don’t like up. What is going on there?
^I noticed that too (and how the pattern of veining on the back splash doesn’t continue from the countertop in a different picture), but maybe we aren’t supposed to point out imperfections.
I should have taken the cabinet handle photo somewhere else! Yes, the drawers on the large tall pantry are slightly higher than the drawer fronts that are on the long cabinet run. The pantry is designed differently - those are the pantry drawers. I’ll take a photo along the long run of the regular cabinets - they are all lined up (thank goodness!).
For now, the microwave is going to stay flush. When I sell a house I usually write a 3-5 page long explanation of everything done in the house, all the hidden good stuff and I carefully point out things that are a challenge or an issue. In fact, I usually give this to a potential buyer that has just written an offer so they can be very educated on making their decision. As soon as we get a serious offer we are considering, I give the ‘disclosure’ to the buyers and they have to sign it as an attachment to the purchase contract. And one of the key clauses at the very top is “This house is 80 years old. It is not perfect and maintenance will be required on this home. There are no guarantees or warranties, excepting those that are specifically provided to the buyer”.
So, I will explain the microwave issue and let the buyer decide whether to pull the microwave out or keep it pushed in.
The view to the back is the small walkway at the back of the property that comes around from the side yard into the courtyard. The neighbor has kindly grown quite a thick layer of vines and ivy that is spilling over the top of the fence. This house has the really old style concrete fence planks in the back. We had to cut off all the vines and weeds on our side of the fence in order to get it cleaned up and painted. When I originally bought the house, you could not even walk through back there because it was so overgrown and choked with vegetation. We could never find the electrical panel or the gas meter until the entire yard was cleared out.
I promise I will try to take some more pictures today. We start building the deck today and my biggest issue is to try to keep the guys that are out in the mud working on the deck from traipsing through the staged house that I keep trying to clean
“I wouldn’t care about that gap. It’s not that hard to take stuff out of the microwave without spilling. Let the buyer worry about it.”
I would not worry about that either. In my decades of mw use, I have never spilled anything while taking it out of the mw. Typically, people are more careful with hot food. 
Gaps like that could be strategically closed off with a wood shim.
Goodness, the place looks awesome.
I’m wondering if folks here can offer some insight/suggestions. H and I have come into ownership of a large property. I’m not the least bit interested in working on it and would put it on the market immediately; my H is handy and wants to get as much as he can from the property. He’s interested in doing some repairs/upgrades–has the time now because he’s stepping away/semi-retiring from his business
Here’s a description of the property: 17 acres with two homes. One house is 40 years old (four bedrooms, two baths, and two-car garage) needs new windows, paint job, floors refinished, and could use a kitchen update (although appliances–stainless steel–are only 7 years old). Second home is 10 years old–is a pre-fab home. The original home (also a prefab) burned down in a fire (candles left burning) and that owner rebuilt and put up the pre-fab. It’s been a rental for the last 4 years. It has an open floor plan and 3 bedrooms/1 bath and no garage. The first home also has a barn, a swimming pool (that hasn’t been used in 8-10 years), and a large greenhouse (which can be removed). Septic systems in both homes passed inspection (necessary before selling anything in Massachusetts). Both homes share a driveway and are separated by an expanse of woods.
A good friend of mine, who is a real estate agent in our area, gave a broker’s opinion of value. She suggests selling the two properties separately. They were originally separate properties. For the larger property with the barn/pool/greenhouse, her estimate is $600K. For the other property it’s $420K. These properties are in a fairly sought-after community that has great schools. The median price of a home is $560K. Right now, there is limited inventory and no single-family home on the market for less than $400K (there are some condos for $300K).
She believes that if we spend $50K on upgrades in the main house, we can increase the value by almost $100K. For the second house, she suggested cosmetic improvements that might increase the value by $20-30K. She also thinks we should consider selling everything to a developer who could tear down the existing structures and probably be able to build three homes (our area requires 1.5 acres per home) on the land that’s available.
My questions: where do you put your money (aside from things that are necessary,e.g., new windows in the first home) to get the biggest bang for your effort? Kitchens and baths? Landscaping? Bring the pool back to life? To me, the whole thing is a nightmare and I just want it to go away. But, my H disagrees and I’m trying to be open minded about it all and recognize that it might be better to do some work to get a better outcome.
Are you going to have to re-subdivide? Or do they still have separate deeds?
I don’t know that I would put a lot of stock into an off-the-cuff estimate like that. If anything $50K sounds low - decent windows alone on a house that size can run $20K or more. What shape is the roof in? 40 years is about when the second roof wears out. Project creep on something like this could be deadly.
17 acres is a lot of land. Can you really only get 3 building lots out of it? Or if condos are allowed, a developer could put a 40B development in there and put in 20 or 30 condos. Selling it as land might actually get you the most money.
Would you be willing to PM me the town (I live in eastern MA, DW is a real estate agent)?
Pool - needs to be removed and filled. Addition of a pool has never been a profitable improvement (unless you are in AZ or some other place where such feature is desirable, and every house but yours has one). Landscaping has to be touched up minimally for a resale to bring up the curb appeal. It can be a huge money pit - those cool looking conifers and other plants cost a fortune. It is very easy to spend $50k on landscaping alone for such a large property.
http://www.hgtv.com/design/decorating/clean-and-organize/which-home-improvements-pay-off
I would very carefully research the zoning to see how subdividable the property is and not trust the realtors’ words without independent verification.
Yes, my first reaction would get rid of the pool. In MA the days of using that pool is numbered. However, to fill that pool legally is very expensive. To fill the pool legally means that the new buyer can build on the filled pools and it requires a permit.
Secondly, it is never a good idea to separate a property with an easement, meaning sharing the drive way. So you need some expert opinion as to how to sell the two houses separately, it became more difficult if the two houses are on one lot. Subdivision of a lot is not the business for a beginner.
Third, if you want to maximize the value by selling to a developer, you might have to have a long escrow, maybe one year maybe two years. Developers will not buy some thing that has not been properly mapped with big money. The way you describe the property it seems there are issues for subdividing. And selling to a developer is not for first time beginners either, you need highly skilled RE agent who deal with this kind of issues all the time. A single family house agent will not be able to handle this. Personally, my specialty is in that area, but I cannot help you because I am in CA. For example, we regularly receive documents in the form of a data book 3" think and a RFP that is 3 pages from institutional sellers who has 10’s of 100’s of acres to sell. Our listing proposal is 3 to 5 pages long.
There are other risks to sell to a developer that is out of the scope of this discussion.
This is not raw land - this area has already been developed, there are roads, utilities, etc already in place. And there are buildings on it already.
My W has sold parcels like this to a developer. It’s not hard. The developers offers what it is worth to him based on the land value, and sometimes that exceeds the value of selling it to someone who would live in the house. In some ways it’s easier - the developer won’t be doing any inspections, they don’t care if the roof leaks or if it has orange formica countertops from the 60’s, title V (septic) issues are generally not a problem because they are going to have to put a new system in anyway, there most likely won’t be mortgage contingencies, etc. The subdivision process if necessary is fairly well known and predictable, and it won’t hold up a closing because there is a lot of competition for a very small number of properties, so all that stuff will happen after the sale.
Maybe things are different in CA, but here selling a tear-down is nothing unusual or difficult.
nre
This is not a tear down situation, there are some values to the existing structure. However, a developer may choose to tear down, then if you just want to build on the existing foundation or expand from it that is one thing, OTOH if you want to re-configure the 17 acres for multifamily or subdivide for sfr that is different matter.
Right now, I am selling a lot of 11 acres that had 3 homes on it(no structure, only foundation), but the zoning allowed 148 units multifamily development. It is facing the ocean, so make it more difficult. If the seller wants the land to be valued for those three houses, then we have offers on hand, no questions asked. However, the value of that 148 units are far exceeding the value of three houses, so the difficulties.
To sell an existing single family lot that is already properly entitled with a tear down is not difficult at all.
I am not an expert on subdividing parcels.I Won’t touch it because it takes about 18 months here to get two separate parcel nbrs to sell title.
If it already is two parcel nbrs, and you can sell with the shared driveway then i would sell small house first. My opinion on the prefab is to check foundation and roof carefully. If in good shape do cosmetic cleanup and sell.
Then spend money on important work on the big house, especially kitchens and bath and opening up walls for great room concept. You will probably spend a lot more than you think (hello, look at me!!) And take at least 6 months if your husband is doing it.
^^ What CB has done in San Diego is basically rebuilt the house and BF’s situation is quite different. The two houses need update, but not tear apart. My take is that those two houses are on one parcel, it might be most beneficial to sell as two houses on one lot. Whether to update or not is matter of opinion, without looking at it with a local realtor we really can’t tell. The best way to find out is to call upon several realtors and get their inputs.
in CA, I LOVE to put my hands on such a project, sight unseen.
I’m not a realestate person at all but I did live in a small town in MA for about a decade and attended many town hall meetings. In our area subdividing and development was very difficult to get done. In general the township was opposed to growth. The house we used to own had and easement to 20 acres behind our property and now almost 20 years later no one has gotten the town to agree on residential development of this land. Make sure you have professionals that know what they are doing and know how long the process may take before you decide what to do.
Artlover: One person (a relative) bought three properties that adjoin one another. There are three deeds and three property tax bills. Person who bought it all (a relative) is walking away from it. Basically, there’s House #1–the larger house with 7 acres, House #2–the smaller house with 2 acres, and a wooded parcel of 8 acres (the land is partial wetland and probably unbuildable). The town zoning is 1.5 acres for each single-family home. No sewers or town water, except in the center of town (and that’s very recent).
There are only three multi-family developments in the town and each has a 40B (affordable housing) component–which was the only way that the various boards would approve the multifamily projects (all of this is governed by MA state law requiring towns to have a certain level of affordable housing). The realtor mentioned a developer because she thought there might be a possibility of another single-family building lot (depending on whether the land would perc.) We would definitely have to get an engineering firm involved to make those determinations.
NRE: Yes–we need solid estimates for windows and other repairs/updates for House #1. Roof is OK–new one was installed In 2001. There are existing plantings on the property surrounding House #1–it just needs to be cleaned up–which isn’t going to happen until the snow melts. I think we should definitely do away with the pool next to House #1. H and I think the next step is to get a house inspector to go over both existing houses and to make determinations from that point about how to go forward.
I find the entire situation difficult–it’s not something we want to undertake (at least I don’t). While fixing up/updating/renovating looks easy on HGTV, I have a feeling that it’s a losing proposition for almost everyone. I just want to fix up what we need to fix up, put it on the market, and walk away.
^^ Now it is clear that the houses can be sold separately, however, there is still the problem of shared driveway, there might be easement setup already.
Multi-family development is most likely require public sewer, not septic tank.
You need several estimates on repair/update cost. Its only money, nothing difficult, unless you want to do it yourself…
May I suggest starting a new thread to discuss the MA property?
Exhausted just isn’t the word anymore. 21 straight days of work, the guys are getting snippy and grumpy. My feet are killing me. As we get down to the wire I am doing most of the stuff down on my hands and knees getting every little spec of paint or whatever off of the floors to get them to be perfect for photos and the Broker Caravan. We are finding dust lodged in the crevices of the wall texture and everywhere from the floor sanding and other stuff
Had to go to the dump early this morning to get last load of mulch. Had to make a dash between rain storms and you would not believe how glamorous my truck is now after slogging through the main County dump.
I loaded some photos of rooms that are finished and ready for photographer. We have some key issues from the rain… cannot even begin to clean up and stage the courtyard (which has the wrong paint color on the concrete which I cannot stand, but cannot get it painted again before photos) and the patio above garage is still a disaster area with trash, tools and left over stuff. Mad dash tomorrow morning to get that cleaned up. All of it will probably end up in the back of the truck and parked down the street 10 minutes before the photographer shows up. But, cannot get the patio and stairs painted because of the rain. It looks really odd (see photo).
I’m an expert at directing photos away from eyesores or things we have not finished. So, we just won’t be taking any photos of that patio
Photos loaded
Just a reminder… I don’t think you can do this while still holding a full time job. I cannot imagine how anyone could do that, despite what you see on TV or read in the newspaper
The pics look great!
5 minutes with a picture editor and I can rid of that water heater for you… 
I totally agree. Just prep my mom’s condo for sale was a full time undertaking. In that I only act as a painting contractor and an appliance installer, other than that, everything else was just coordinating and get quotes and the condo is more less a move in condition.