<p>Here is the stats about population</p>
<p>Marin County land 520sq mile, population 260K
San Mateo County land 450sq mile, population 750K
Contra Costa County land 719sq mile, population 1,050K</p>
<p>Apparently Marin is more anti-development than all the other counties.</p>
<p>Stats from wikipedia.</p>
<p>Absolutely Marin is anti development. That is why the place is breathtaking.
A monstrosity is being built in Corte Madera. Some big development. Echhhh</p>
<p>Most of the population in Marin lives somewhat near hwy 101. </p>
<p>West Marin? Near the ocean? You cant build near the ocean. We have a national park. State parks. You cant build… Echhh again. :)</p>
<p>CB, what did the county say? I thought you were to replace that garage anyway, earlier didn’t you ask for pre-feb garage prices?</p>
<p>We are at the last stage of closing our flipping house. It was not easy and full of surprises. First, as discussed earlier, there is a sewer ordinance in town which I was not aware until after the house was in contract. I had to scramble to get it videoed and worked on quotes to get it repaired. That will cost me 7000$ at the end. Second, since the bank did not have disclosure when i bought the house, title search discovered a building violation lien on the property which i had to clear before closing. Today, after removed the non-permitted patio cover i finally can get the clearance. However, just found the clerk is taking a day off and don’t know if she is coming back tomorrow!<br>
Life is full of surprises.</p>
<p>art - I hope things work out for you. Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Same to you CB… Happy Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>co_mom, thanks.</p>
<p>MORE surprises, I kept calling my broker why the buyer did not sign contingency release. It turned out that “Bank Loan Approval” has some condition issues that need to be cleared. I was furious to my broker who did not give me the whole story, he called a week ago that the bank loan sailed through… So it goes, now what? Why they did not sign the contract extension also?</p>
<p>I told the broker that if they do not sign the extension tonight, I am pulling the plug. No more wasted time.</p>
<p>I am checking in to let you know that I have been so exhausted, too exhausted to keep up my frequent updates. We are going to be taking our photos tomorrow and will be up for sale on Friday.</p>
<p>I have made the decision to sell the house with the derelict garage ‘as is’. The City came back (still not officially) and said they would be willing to have me pull a ‘maintenance and repair’ permit which gives me 3 years to try to shore up the garage. Otherwise, I have to build a new garage if I demolish and remove the derelict building. My opinion is that the garage is not salveageable and cannot be ‘maintained and repaired’. My guess is that I will throw $2,000-$3,000 at it, the City will come out for an interim inspection and realize that there is no way to ‘repair’ this thing. Money and time down the drain.</p>
<p>I hired two professional appraisers to give me a desk appraisal on asking price ‘with garage’ versus asking price with ‘no garage, derelict building as is’. There is not enough difference in the pricing to allow me to build a new garage. In addition my listing agent has met with several of the local real estate agents and these types of buildings are common in the neighborhood, so they don’t feel it will be so terrible to list with the derelict garage.</p>
<p>In the end, after getting bids for new foundation at $5,000 (which will be needed for wood garage or pre-fab garage), it actually appears that the steel garage kits are more expensive than building ourselves on top of that foundation. A 20’ x 20’ (minimum allowed by City) Two Car garage kit is averaging about $6,000 to $6,500 after shipping and other costs. Still needs to be installed. Also, they have a 4 week lead time. That’s 4 weeks before it will even show up. Does not include the garage door which runs about $1,000 installed.</p>
<p>We built a beautiful ‘original overhang’ and I’m just crossing my fingers that we don’t get in trouble for that. Just finishing a massive landscape effort. I’ll keep you all updated when I finalize all the numbers (way over budget). But the good news is that my agent is insisting that we are going to get a higher price than we anticipated. Maybe it will all wash out !</p>
<p>As soon as we get our professional photos, I’ll put them on our project photo page.</p>
<p>Coralbrook, thanka for the update. Good luck.</p>
<p>Cb, that will be a black Friday special. ^^</p>
<p>Where can you get a garage door installed for $1000? Does it include opener?</p>
<p>Well, one thing this thread has shown is that flipping is absolutely not for the faint of heart. Much more difficult and complicated than the shows would have you believe!</p>
<p>Garage Door:</p>
<p>Garage Door (standard white metal roll up) $550 with discount
Garage Door Opener $200
Labor to Install about $300 (one day X 2 guys)</p>
<p>This depends on the fact that the correct braces are included in the building of the garage before the garage door shows up</p>
<p>I’ve never had to install a brand new garage door with opener so I could be way off</p>
<p>To followup on the garage estimates.</p>
<p>Steel pre-fab garage building, shipped and installed with one side door, opening for garage door and one window, no electric, but conduit ready for electric $6,500 + Install $1,500 + Foundation $5,000 + Garage Door $1,000 = $14,000</p>
<p>Built garage, installed with one side door, opening for garage door and one window, no electric is Foundation $5,000 + Materials $2,000 + Roof Trusses $800, Roofing Installed $2,200 +Labor $2,700 + Garage Door $1,000 = $13,700</p>
<p>^^ My neighbor offered me a used steel garage door for next to nothing, but it is about 16" too narrow… Oh well.</p>
<p>I have not seen a derelict building(the garage) next to a “new” home being sold. Cannot think why the appraiser think the price difference is only 15K? As a buyer, why should I buy a home with a derelict garage?</p>
<p>If there is no electric in the garage, how do you install an opener? I know the electric will open another can of worms, but that is one evil you can do without.</p>
<p>Ahh, yes. You have a point. Would not be able to install a garage door opener. Good catch. I obviously did not think that through very well :)</p>
<p>So, my thinking is that you, cb, should reconsider the date to put the project on the market, at least wait until the town made a definitive decision about it. In your disclosure, you cannot disclose some thing that is semi-official and needs to be amended later on. Of course, if this is still a hot market for sellers, you can do anything and there will be buyers. But I cannot think of any thing positive on a semi-torned down garage next to a beautiful garden and a “newly” renovated sfr.</p>
<p>As to my project, now the buyer wants me to finish the sewer repair… so is the delay on closing</p>
<p>As to the appraisers, since YOU are paying for their opinion, your inferences do dictate their thoughts. Appraisal is an art, it is not totally science. Afterall, its your skin on the line, not theirs.</p>
<p>400 acres of developable land in Marin County, Ca. must be worth a zillion dollars. </p>
<p>If I could scrape together $1000 for a deposit on this 400 acres in Gilchrist County, Fl., I’d buy it in a snap: [Spring</a> for sale is a legacy of a long-ago love affair | Tampa Bay Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/spring-for-sale-is-a-legacy-of-a-long-ago-love-affair/2154590]Spring”>Spring for sale is a legacy of a long-ago love affair)</p>
<p>Lizard, that is a beautiful place. I hope those springs are preserved.</p>
<p>I got the professional photos back and we are going to strategically list the house on the MLS tonight. If we list tonight, buyers who get automatic generated emails will look at the listing tomorrow morning, hopefully with a day off work and ability to drive the property. We’re going to have an informal Open House tomorrow afternoon (signs and door open) and an official Open House on Sunday.</p>
<p>The garage issue is probably going to have to be addressed. We could have a potential issue with bank loans. If an appraiser includes the garage ‘safety’ issue in their report the banks will find out. However, I have rarely seen an appraiser call out a safety issue, but they may take a picture of it and make some kind of ‘note’ about it in the appraisal. Then the bank underwriters will deny the loan. We have reviewed the issue with several lenders and the mortgage brokers or loan officers think that it will stop a loan. We don’t want to get into escrow and have a loan issue at the last minute.</p>
<p>So, we are going back to the appraisers and asking if they would note the garage on their reports. We are still in decision mode. We are going to see what happens over the weekend and have honest discussions with anyone that is interested in the property. Ideally I could quickly try to build a garage while under contract.</p>
<p>The professional photographer photographs did not load well to Flickr. They come out really small. But I loaded them to the Flickr account. If you haven’t seen the original condition, start at the bottom.</p>
<p>Photos are up!!!</p>