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I don't think either are unreasonable however, you need a licensed contractor to give the opinion on the wall, and I personally, I would want a survey in addition to checking County code about the garage. Surveys are never a waste of money.
they will be able to talk to u about walls and building a garage. The second part is the zoning thing, speak to the county or city in which the house address is in jurisdiction of.
If you go with a local architect, they most likely will know the zoning laws.
I found a house I really like and considering making an offer, except I have two concerns. First, it has no garage and I want to make sure there would be potential for building one in the future (i.e., that there is enough space on the lot to meet zoning regulations etc.). Second, there is an interior wall that causes some serious layout issues for me in the living room / kitchen. I don't believe it's load-bearing and could be removed fairly easily, but don't know for sure and I don't want to end up spending tons of money having roof trusses reengineered, etc. just to have it removed without some ugly header visible (And it would have to be removed for me to consider living in this home)
Is it unreasonable for me to include in an offer that these two issues can be addressed to my satisfaction? If my home inspector tells me no go on the garage or that the wall is load bearing and would likely require x amount of money to remove, I'd like to be able to walk away from the contract. One wall normally wouldn't be a deal-breaker, but this house is already at the top of my budget (when including construction of a garage), so I'd like to avoid other high costs. Or are these things I should have answered before even making an offer?
Truthfully I would tell you to figure that out. I am not gonna spend my time and resources to do research for you. You want to know something about the property if you plan on changes once you buy you go to city hall, hire a architect or engineer to answer for you.
Last edited by Electrician4you; 11-02-2013 at 10:27 PM..
Truthfully I would tell you to figure that out. I am not gonna spend my time and resources to do research for you. You want to know something about the property if you plan on changes once you buy you go to city hall, hire a architect or engineer to answer for you.
Exactly.
If I am the seller, I am offering you my home as it is.
If you want it with those specifications, finding out if they are possible is on YOU.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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When we sold our house a couple of months ago, we had one guy who was interested but wanted to expand the master bedroom. He was concerned that there wouldn't be enough space on that side of the lot. He told our Realtor he was interested and was going to the town hall to figure out the setback. It ended up that there wouldn't be enough space, so he did not make an offer.
I'm sure if another offer came in during that time frame, our Realtor would have informed him. So that's one way to go.
Yes, you should do the research on whether the garage is feasible. Why not walk through the house with an engineer or architect and have him or her take a look at that wall. You might also find out a ballpark figure for costs.
Trying to write a contingency like you want could tie you and the buyer up for a week or so while they, or you, figure things out.
A number of years ago we did have a serious looker come through trying with an engineer to figure out how to make our garage bigger. Apparently this was not feasible, because nothing came of it. But the prospective buyer visited about 3 times total.
I would find out the code and the local rules on that specific street. My husband wanted to add a garage but it had to be X feet from the street and X feet from the neighbor's property line. And while a contractor we hired initially said it could be put in, it would violate the existing rules for that community.
Also if it's an HOA, you will have to get it approved and find out what their restrictions are on size, color style etc. You can actually do all this work without putting in an offer to ensure greater success of it coming to pass. I would that the legwork first.
In my market I wouldn't accept either of those contingencies, assuming of course it isn't a property that has lingered on the market for an extended period of time. If it has been listed for a while I would accept both contingencies and likely allow you 5 business days (give or take) to get your answers and remove the contingencies.
When we sold our house we got three offers the first day it was on the market. One of the offers was a cash buyer ( or said he was) who had such questions and wanted to bring a contractor in before he made a specific offer. With the other two offers ( one for the asking price) ready to go, he lost out. We accepted the offer for the full asking price-on day 2 that the house was on the market.
I don't see the questions as unreasonable. With the wall, if it looks like it does not go with the house chances are it may have been added in at a later date. One of the homes that the hospital owns had a wall to devide the living room into two sections. It was added on later. We had the wall removed. What I am getting at is that the owners may know if it was added in or not. Does not hurt to ask that question. As far as the garage it will depend on the local codes and required set backs. How big is the lot? In our area you can find this out on line. If you know where the property line is you can figure out if you can build the garage based on the size of the lot and the required set backs. Foe example, in my area we can build 5 feet away from any property line on the sides of the house.
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