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Why in the world would you blow grandmas money on a new house. She is 76 by the time everything is finished she may be 78 years old. She will need someone to maintain the yard and flowerbeds, she may even need help just to keep the place clean. Add property tax, insurance, and upkeep and she is broke. Move her into a nice apartment or rental condo. Sell everything and she can have a nice life without worry.
Why in the world would you blow grandmas money on a new house. She is 76 by the time everything is finished she may be 78 years old. She will need someone to maintain the yard and flowerbeds, she may even need help just to keep the place clean. Add property tax, insurance, and upkeep and she is broke. Move her into a nice apartment or rental condo. Sell everything and she can have a nice life without worry.
She already owns a house. There should not be a huge difference in upkeep, looking at two different houses on the same lot.
As for property taxes, a few hundred dollars a year should not bust anyone. I own a 2400sq ft house and my taxes on it are $600 a year.
Move into a rental and then your dealing with crack-addict neighbors upstairs and the meth-heads nextdoor.
She already owns a house. There should not be a huge difference in upkeep, looking at two different houses on the same lot.
As for property taxes, a few hundred dollars a year should not bust anyone. I own a 2400sq ft house and my taxes on it are $600 a year.
Move into a rental and then your dealing with crack-addict neighbors upstairs and the meth-heads nextdoor.
Wouldn’t property tax be area specific? So your 2400 sqft @ 600 a year or my 2900 sqft @ 10k a year aren’t really relevant. I’d also suggest not all renters are crackheads or meth addicts
More info always helps...
Validate all with grandma (especially costs / over-runs, features, time-frame, future financial / care needs...)
Definitely. She has final say in what happens and I think she's leaning towards the rebuild route. Hence why I am asking others to poke holes in this plan.
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Originally Posted by txfriend
Why in the world would you blow grandmas money on a new house. She is 76 by the time everything is finished she may be 78 years old. She will need someone to maintain the yard and flowerbeds, she may even need help just to keep the place clean. Add property tax, insurance, and upkeep and she is broke. Move her into a nice apartment or rental condo. Sell everything and she can have a nice life without worry.
There are not any apartments nearby where she lives. There are two "retirement" type of independent living apartments but she WILL NOT go there. We tried already and she is adamant about being in a single family home with her own yard. She hires landscapers as a part of our existing budget. That including snow removal are all accounted for. Also, we are planning on building a modular home which if you're familiar has a much faster production timeline. They quoted us 4 months but we are assuming 6-8 months as a conservative estimate. Grandma's gotta move somewhere! If we could, we would keep her in her current home so that's why we are weighing all possible options. Grandma is her own person though and does not want to be in an apartment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lowexpectations
Wouldn’t property tax be area specific? So your 2400 sqft @ 600 a year or my 2900 sqft @ 10k a year aren’t really relevant. I’d also suggest not all renters are crackheads or meth addicts
Luckily her taxes are currently less than $6K a year with all 3 lots and the home. I am expecting them to rise to around $8k or so if she rebuilds.
grandma has opinons and investment in this decision - probably knows what she wants, I suggest doing it as possible / reasonably.
Grandma is happy in current location
grandma has some available resources (not much, but enough to build)
Grandma can enjoy a new home for maybe 20+ more yrs (Worth the trouble)
Other options possible.
I would keep the lots segregated as possible (more options for future income)
Since Mobile Home is not allowed... Find a 'package deal' with a 'turn-key' builder (They are corporations who build on your lot (for far cheaper than a custom builder)) You can specify options / stuff you will do / add yourself.
Give grandma lots of input and options
Keep project on schedule.
Consider a family member (with some assets) offering a 'Life Estate' (Rather than a reverse mortgage... $$$$ and bank / lender ALWAYS wins Big-time)
Steps...
find out what is allowed (HOA / local codes / zoning / flood plains - FEMA / lot size and access / replacement dwellings)
Verify if your county offers tax rebates for ADA equipped homes (ours does)
Get turn-key estimates (dismantle, removal of existing and completion and time frame of replacement)
Get referrals
Solicit more complex options (if viable) /... i.e. individual contractors for each process
Validate all with grandma (especially costs / over-runs, features, time-frame, future financial / care needs...)
Thank you. I will definitely keep the bolded above in mind! I haven't heard of a life estate before but my uncle does have a bit of money that can help her in times of need so this might be a possibility for us.
We have priced out and sourced contractors for the rebuild a little while ago. That was before my grandfather fell very ill so we are just now picking this back up.
Yes, there are cities where they have decided to have insanely high taxes.
I would have hoped that nobody was foolish enough to retire in such a high tax city.
Or maybe, wait for this... people may have different desires/wants from retirement than you do OMG
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Good luck with that.
To suggest that every renter is a crackhead would suggest that the OP's grandmother is one. I did not say that.
But if you rent an apartment in a complex, there is a reasonable probability that someone in that complex is.
As a tenant, you have no say over who rents above you, or next to you.
You did suggest she would have two druggies right next to her though. Upstairs and next door I’m pretty sure I got that right. I could buy a house and have drug dealers all around me and iI wouldn’t have any day over it either
1) you said"high end" modular ran $180-200k. What about a mid-level? Around here one can get a simple 24x42' modular for about $80-100k...3 br 1-2 ba. Your area might be higher, but does she HAVE to go to the top end home?
2) I see no mention of mortgage..she could possibly get a mid level at $148k, put half down, finance rest and if $900/m Is extra, she should be able to easily afford a mortgage payment on $75k. She could take a 30yr fixed, if she passes, the family who buys out other inheritors would pay off the balance or refinance themselves.
Or the mortgage insurance would pay it off.
With taxes, hazard insurance and payment rolled into one, she'd have a single housing payment, for tear down included, instead of at least 2 (taxes+ hazard)
And, if absolutely necessary, she could do as others mentioned...divide the 3 lots into 2, sell one, IF worst comes to worst.
Right now is a hot time in the RE market,so a decent lake side lot should help.
I would investigate further in modular options, tear down and install the modular.
1) you said"high end" modular ran $180-200k. What about a mid-level? Around here one can get a simple 24x42' modular for about $80-100k...3 br 1-2 ba. Your area might be higher, but does she HAVE to go to the top end home?
2) I see no mention of mortgage..she could possibly get a mid level at $148k, put half down, finance rest and if $900/m Is extra, she should be able to easily afford a mortgage payment on $75k. She could take a 30yr fixed, if she passes, the family who buys out other inheritors would pay off the balance or refinance themselves.
Or the mortgage insurance would pay it off.
With taxes, hazard insurance and payment rolled into one, she'd have a single housing payment, for tear down included, instead of at least 2 (taxes+ hazard)
And, if absolutely necessary, she could do as others mentioned...divide the 3 lots into 2, sell one, IF worst comes to worst.
Right now is a hot time in the RE market,so a decent lake side lot should help.
I would investigate further in modular options, tear down and install the modular.
Best
Hi Galaxy! Appreciate the response!
1) I didn't mean it was a high end modular vs a low/mid grade. I meant it was an extremely conservative estimate with significant overages and some padding based on inflation. Our actual quote for the modular home came back at $132K for everything. I padded that cost for additional "unknowns" or extra features my grandma may want which doesn't come standard. I also think inflation will significantly increase the costs.
2) I didn't think it would make sense to get a mortgage off the bat. She would still have plenty of savings so why pay interest right away? She doesn't currently spend all of her income so I don't anticipate dipping into savings for a couple of years which will give it more time to grow. If she did ever needed the liquidity we could open a HELOC and use that, or as I said a reverse mortgage. Thoughts on this?
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