All Forum Posts by: Charlie Hampton

@Troy Sheets I'm sure that's not far off. I am currently battling with someone living in a utility-less shed!

I wish that law was enacted in Jersey as of a week ago. My life would be a little easier at the moment...

Welcome @Tim Dastis

I also graduated from Rowan, but in Dec. 2010.

@Dion DePaoli That is funny!

So I have a 6 acre lot under contract to close this Friday, and I get a call from my realtor on Saturday regarding the title search. Apparently there are 8 people who have claim to this land and they have all sorts of liens against it as well as other things. My realtor says that the addresses of these people are not the listed ones for those who have claim to this land so it could just be a common name mix up.

This is all being worked out before closing (or there will certainly be no closing). What surprised me the most was that the title search report was 253 pages long! The longest I had seen prior to this was around 20 pages.

Therefore I pose the question out of curiousity, what is the longest report that you have seen?

The first property that I ever owned was a teardown/rebuild which I still currently live in. I bought the property for $20k from the bank and tore down the existing house to rebuild. The lot is considered undersized now (need 1.5 acres to build, lot was only .75 at the time) but I was grandfathered in because I was replacing an existing structure. The only criteria was that I could not have a larger footprint than already existed. You have to make sure that you price demo/removal of old house into your offer plus a little extra incase you have to cap a well, abandon an old septic, cut off existing public utilities, etc... I actually ended up buying the lot next door to this house (1 acre) at an undersized property auction for $500 because it was only good to a bordering property. I cleared the property (overgrown/wooded) and found a foundation with what was left of a collapsed house but because they already joined this property with mine I could no longer rebuild. I would advise doing your due diligence before making any offers on a tear down.

I agree with @Larry Roberts with sending a very low offer. If they cannot pay taxes chances are they know what will happen if they do not unload the land. I have 6 acres under contract right now that had back taxes owed. The owners inherited it and didn't pay the taxes for two years. They were asking $80k and I offered $15k plus paying the $5k lien and they accepted without a counter. You can always go higher, but never lower....

Is the heater and ductwork in the attic? It could be the condensate drain line from the AC coil.

My first home (which I still live in) was a modular and I love it. I paid $20k for an acre of land, $20k for foundation, $45k for the house delivered and set. I only had them set the boxes and finish the roof, I tied in all plumbing and finished the siding on the ends etc. I was $115k in when I got my CO for this house. The other costs were septic, well, finishing the basement, appliances, permits, etc... The house appraised for $225k last month when I applied for a line of credit. I love modular homes because they are easy in my opinion. I am working on a land deal right now that I can subdivide and drop two modulars on. Here is a pic, nothing fancy but its 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2400 sq ft. I finished the basement into its own apartment with a kitchenette that I rent to a friend for 3/4 of my mortgage.

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BTW, had I not sold the house I was planning on sticking a section 8 tenant in there for him to deal with.