There are several factors regarding an additional unit.
Floor Area Ratio - the limit in this zoning area is 55% square footage allowed to the lot size. That would be 5,550 square feet so they have about another 1,000 sq ft allowed on the lot
This neighborhood is not zoned multi family. This means that you cannot build another full separate dwelling unit with a separate address on the property. BUT, you could build a casita, granny flat, whatever, I think
There would be an issue about whether that would be allowed to have a kitchen or a full bathroom. I have not researched it
There is definitely plenty of room for a large pool and a fancy outdoor area… but there is the issue that there is not easy access to that back yard from the house. I mentioned to my agent that it is a huge drawback in selling the property… you have to access yard through the middle bedroom/office or go out front door and around through side gate to get to the yard. This doesn’t lend itself to a young family who wants to keep eyes on the kids in the back yard. But I wasn’t about to move the kitchen to facing the back yard and miss those stunning views!
Make sure you all look at the photos. I had a chance to see the sunset from the kitchen sink and it is all coming together to my vision (well, mostly). In my opinion I nailed it on the location of the kitchen sink!!
“I like the strategy of using the higher price privately to agents but not using that price (yet) to go on the market.”
as the wife of a RE broker in Calif I caution you against thinking this info will NOT get out to the market.
Its not realistic these days, regardless of what your RE agent says.
People WILL talk , WILL forward the Price to others and you MAY end up having to drop the price.
I’d stick to your guns and price it where you need it to be.
jmho.
I don’t know anything about RE so I don’t know if this is a real thing or not but on one of the house tv show they had a “brokers open” an asked all the agents to write what they thought the house would actually sell for in the current market on their business card and the one that guessed the closest would get some kind of prize. They compared all the agents estimates to come up with a listing price.
You are very correct. The entire neighborhood will know the original asking price. Not fooling ourselves. But at least it won’t be official in the MLS. I’m just going to go with her idea of’testing the market’. She knows how long and hard I’ve worked on this and she is adamant that she wants to get every dollar she can for me.
We have used the Broker Caravan pricing game also. In the past the guesses haven’t been too far off from where we priced it. Haven’t done it for several years.
Right now the next steps are:
Monday- she will attend the Point Loma Pacific Sothebys (she is officially from Coronado office) and “pitch” the upcoming listing. No pictures or anything but price will probably get out there. I made it clear that noone can see house until Thursday because flooring getting coats of poly Monday through Wednesday and I really want the agents to see top floor views
We expect that some agents will probably stop by on Thursday because that is Caravan day in Pt Loma and they will be out driving properties
Photos on Thursday evening. We’re thinking maybe twilight photos because sunset views are really nice
Email with photos sent Friday evening probably. I need to be ready for possible showings (without railings ready possibly) Thanksgiving week.
If no interest from local agents then we have to stage week after Thanksgiving and do photos towards end of the week. On MLS with full listing and new price around Nov 27 or 28. Once again, horrible time to go to market:)
Oh well, as I tell the guys a lot when things aren’t as perfect as I wish. “It is what it is”
Put up a bit of pale yellow. Very pale. Room looked like an easter egg against green blue vanity
Navy blue against vanity looked like a nautical theme. It was somewhat sophisticated looking but too much of a gamble
Put vanity up against stark white wall and it just doesnt look right because vanity top just blended into wall and it highlighted the faint stupid orangy brown streaks in the marble top
Put vanity against another sample with the mirror and it looked just right.
Painting powder room just went to bottom of priority list because it’s not one of our target photos for Thursday. So we are just going to have to wait. We’ll probably get it all painted and I’ll hate it and we will have to start all over again:)
They are on a 3 way switch. Switch at top and bottom of stairs. We had this discussion during Liberace house flip. If they were on a sensor they would go off every time a pet goes up or down the stairs. But, if buyers want a sensor it can be changed out really easy
Well, I may have hit a snag on the brilliant idea to do some photos on Thursday. I just walked the house to make a list of every issue to be addressed.
Ooops…my eye just caught that we have a big gaping hole in cabinet above refrigerator where the doors were damaged. The replacements haven’t arrived. Frantic call to Lowe’s to follow up on their arrival. My guy who I have worked with for 7 years and performs miracles “Is no longer working here” OMG!!! I took the damaged doors to his desk. I don’t even have those to stick back up for photos.
Of course the young woman had no idea what I was talking about. Usually when Ron ordered replacements for me he would call the sales rep and just “get it done” at no cost. Replacements for damaged stuff don’t usually go into the system as an order. She cannot find anything in the system. She is going to have to call the rep directly and, of course, he doesn’t work on weekends. I probably will not know what is going on until Monday
Never a dull moment!#
And did I mention that flooring was scheduled to start on Thursday? I called several times to remind him. Thursday comes and he is still on another job. He promises Friday. Friday 10am I call him and he says that he’s putting a final coat on another house and he’ll be right over at 11 to start.
3pm comes and I call and he’s practically crying because owner wanted more things done and he couldn’t leave. Saturday for sure. Well, its 12:30pm here and he still hasn’t shown up.
This is a big issue because glass railing guy coming Monday and we have to walk on floor to get to those top decks. And shower glass guy coming Wednesday. He is holding up a lot of stuff. I arranged everything (tile finish, painting, baseboards, deck finish, railings, lighting, door installation, etc around giving him 6 days to do floors and stairs, Thursday through Tuesday. Everything is falling apart because of this one delay
There is no hope that we will have the basement cleared of all the÷;&=#; stuff crammed in there while we are still working
And, because all that stuff is down there we cannot even begin to drywall, paint or whatever to make it look nice
Same with backyard. Its still a work zone but at least most of the roofing stuff will be gone after this weekend. We cannot even start fences and yard mulching for a couple more weeks. This won’t impact prelim photos or final photos (because we have no intention of shots of back of house) but it will impact buyers walking through
However, we know that buyers either love a house or hate it by the time they get to a back yard so I’m not really worried about it. Let’s just hope they get up to the top floor and see views before inspecting back yard!
I may have mentioned this before but there are really good views from back yard also (at an angle) because it is raised up from alley and driveway. After fence is installed, there is full privacy from anyone walking or driving down alley but you see views over the fence line from the yard. Haven’t checked if there are views sitting down in yard because I haven’t squatted around in the dirt.
I do a lot of squatting at chair height checking for window placement, deck rail height, etc. In fact, I was spending a lot of time analyzing deck rail height and then was told “they have to be 42” period". I know they have to be minimum 42" high for safety but I was mistaken that they could possibly be higher if I want. I wanted to make sure the top rails didn’t impact water horizon views while seated inside house.
Wrong! I’m told it has to be 42" because the rail has to hit at waistline for avg adult. Any lower and someone can fall over. Any higher and they could break the glass without being stopped at their waist. OK, that was a bunch of wasted view analysis! Lucky I learned that millionth tidbit of information before we finished the stucco posts or we would have to be cutting them apart!
Always tricky when you have a “guy” who leaves. For a kitchen picture, could you fill the space above the refrigerator with a few cascading plants just to disguise the opening? Or considering the season, a fall cornucopia that just spills over the edge? It wouldn’t be an official MLS picture; just a teaser for the agents.
Deeeeeeeep breaths, cb. IIRC, there is always a wild ride right before the pictures get taken. This will be a really tough few days, but you will get through it. And this house is going to sell for top dollar.
I know that I always start writing something up saying that we’ve got a ‘big problem’. But this one is big and it’s a problem. The roofers finally finished the New concrete tile on the top floor addition. Then they started putting on the old tile on the original roof where we had to pull off the tile. This turned into it’s own issue because it turns out we have two different piles of old original tile. OF COURSE… the original tile that has been stacked up on the top floor and moved around 3 times now turns out that it is the old part of the roof that did not get the power wash. These tiles are mossy and dirty and a different color. The tiles that are down in the backyard are the power washed ones. They started putting on the convenient ones (and the ones that I desperately need to get off the deck so we can finish work) and they absolutely did not match the other tiles on the front of the house. Do these guys notice this??? Of course not. I have to get out in the front yard and start yelling at them to stop and pay attention. Now 2 guys have to spend another couple of hours schlepping the tiles in the backyard up the ladder just so they can get the front portion of roof done. But they didn’t even finish. They have to come back after their regular jobs on Monday and Tuesday and try to finish.
But that’s not the big problem…
If you are walking up to the house below at the front walkway you do not notice too much of an issue. BUT, if you are at the parking area / lookout you see a HUGE difference. It is a freaking disaster. Top floor has dark grey tile and bottom floor has reddish brown tile. They are like two different houses.
At this point we are going to have to take the Thursday photos and hope for the best. But in the long run we are now going to have to gently and carefully get up on that concrete tile and PAINT IT! I cannot believe this is happening. I have to make the choice to paint the top floor roof reddish brown or the larger original roof a greyish brown tone. Honestly the greyish brown of the new roof is much more stunning. I always hated the red tones in the original roof. But there is a lot more square footage of the old tile.
My roofer says it is going to be a nightmare because he is really worried that spraying paint everywhere on the roof is going to get on the new stucco, but even worse, blow all over the neighbors. It’s going to take an army of guys holding plastic and plywood to contain the paint spray.
