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You probably already know this but if you finish the basement you won't get all of that money back out of it when you sell. If you can do it yourself you might make a few bucks but otherwise you would lose money on the deal. Also I live in a covenant community - almost impossible not to nowadays - and have no problem with my display. But in fairness I don't generate as much traffic as you and the community is not gated. Bottom line I wouldn't rule someplace out because of an HOA. I'd check the covenants beforehand though and maybe ask some prospective neighbors. Otherwise I fear you might limit yourself quite a bit.
Last edited on Thursday January 24th, 2008 11:31 pm by Ken Knighton
I vote not crazy. When we were looking 2 years ago this was a large part of my criteria. Then when I found where we wanted to build we built off the main road rather than the country road against the advice of the builder and realtor... Once i cleared out the rest of the trees by the road it made for prime LOR viewing...
So you are not crazy, I just hope it all works out for you...
____________________ Chris
Quiet Corner Christmas
30k lights, 64 channels of LOR, Sychronized to music... Looking to double for 2008...
I was just at a clients home tonight and the first thing I said when he answered the door was you have a great christmas display house. He laughed. If you decide to build I will send you my spread sheet I use to run the cost to build for customers. But I am sure prices are way different there. I build homes for customers for 75 dollars a sqft. or cost plus 15 a sqft. Even for me with the market I can buy a new house cheaper than I could build it for myself right now.
____________________ Richard Bowen
LOR 48 Channels
You are not crazy Richard When I first moved to Atlanta 18 years ago we were looking for a house that had a good basement for a workshop and my office. The realtors thought we were crazy because we always looked a the basement first. After all if that didn't work for us then the rest of the house did not make any difference. We bought a big two story house, but one of the things I missed was putting lights on the roof because of a very steep slope. When I bought a smaller house 9 years ago one of my criteria was for a roof that I could get up on and outline the whole house in lights. I got my choice and it has been great. Now I'm moving to LOR and getting ready to take things to another level of decorating. Everyone has different criteria for picking a house and you must follow your head and heart.
Doy ou know if your HOA is changing the access rules because of resident complaints about your display?
J.D.
Our community was suppose to be a Gated Community from the start. I was one of the first houses in th neighborhood and there was not a gate yet. A gate was built after I lived here for about a year. The gate was removed about a year later because a new neighborhood was going in that had to be accessed by a road that was after our Gate.
A new gate was suppose to be built where our neighborhood starts but there was a slight problem because somehow the city owned about 20' of land we needed where the gate was suppose to be built.
Most people in the neighborhood wanted the gate but we keep waiting on the city to give us approval since they owned a small sliver of land where the gate needed to go. So for about 3 years we did not have a gate at all and a lot of neighbors did not like this.
During this time with no Gate, I started my Christmas Display in 2006. About 4 months ago the HOA finally got permission to install a Gate from the city. The Gate is about done now (it was not working for the 2007 show which was nice so people could still get in). Now that we have a gate again, a vote was taken of when it would be closed. Most of the people voted that it be closed 24/7 INCLUDING the entire month of December and they fully knew that by doing this it would not allow people to see my Christmas Display. I will not get into all the details but I talked to them about the display and we even talked about the $10,000 that was raised for Make-A-Wish before the vote.
Many of the people that wanted it closed 24/7 wanted it to be open for December so people could see the Christmas Light display, we just did not have enough votes.
So in answer to your questions, No a rule was not changed because of my Display. Since the gate was finally going to be installed and finished, it was a vote on what hours the new gate would be closed.
Man, I feel for you with your investment money-wise and time involved. But moving, wow! I'm sure I'll enjoy this new hobby, but moving to another house, ripping the kids from the schools, etc., I doubt I'd be able to go that route. At least you have neighbors that are on your side and tried to support your display. I'm really worried about my neighbors. So much so, I plan to visit the closest five houses in November and offer to install a lighted fence along the edge of their yard where it meets the street (nothing fancy, just two or three wood posts and a strand of lights between them - we don't have curbs or street lights). This will hopefully keep visiting vehicles from trying to pull off the road into their yards.
J.D. wrote: Man, I feel for you with your investment money-wise and time involved. But moving, wow! I'm sure I'll enjoy this new hobby, but moving to another house, ripping the kids from the schools, etc.,
If I was going to move, it would be best to do it in the next year or so. I have two Children, one just turned 4 and one is almost 1 year old so right now would be the best time to do it before they start any school.
hey rich theres a house right up the road from me if you want to move in! HAHA, nah the houses around here wouldnt be big enough to handle all the lights you have in your display, and i doubt you want to truck everything up to PA HAHA, Hope you find a nice house or property to build one. I would make sure you meet the neighbors to make sure they wont complain and be like some of the peoples neighbors around here.
Just bought it in November. One story hip roof, on the corner. The yard is 400' on the front, and 275' on the side. I am not getting any younger and the one story is perfect. I found lights are easier to hang lower to the ground.
RichardH wrote: snowlovergeorgia wrote: I personally would go thru the pain and end up happy in the end and move to a better location and have an easier mortgage payment.
You are probably right.
I just know that I could get more if I finish a few projects like finishing the basement and doing some other things. Just not looking forward to doing a bunch of home improvements on a house and then move.
Richard, no, you're not nuts. My husband and I plan to sell and move once our son goes to College and buying the perfect Christmas house is the major topic of conversation.
As to finising your basement, I can tell you from experience (I've been a licensed real estate agent for 18 years) statistically speaking, you probably won't get all your money out. Finished basements are a nice selling point though. Without knowing the rest of the interior layout of your home (do you have a good sized family or hobby room, large bedrooms, etc.), its hard to say exactly how much, percentage wise, you'll recapture or increase your overall sales price. If you were to do the bare minimum and do the install yourself (walls, floor covering, drop ceiling) you might break even or a little better. But if you go all out, I can honestly say, at least in the Chicago area, the seller usually loses money. One thing that does increase value, every single time, upgraded kitchens and baths..
Last edited on Friday January 25th, 2008 02:11 am by Carrie Sansing
It is ironic this post came up this week. I’ve been looking for a larger home for the past few years, with a pretty specific set of criteria. It has to be in a particular school district, 4-5 bedrooms, minimum 3 car garage, large back yard, etc.. This partuclar area is virtually completely built-out so there are no new home alternatives. And the speculator-driven run up in home prices made the situation even more difficult. When a suitable home came on the market, it was snapped up within a few days. Now that prices are starting to come down and the market has slowed, I’m able to take my time and find just the right home. Yhis past weekend, my realtor found a house that looked like it might be 'the one'. We really liked the house – beautiful remodeled kitchen and bathrooms, nice yard, pool, etc. It met all of my criteria. But in the back of my mind, I was trying to envision how I would decorate this house. The house is on a cul-de-sac and it sits at somewhat of an angle relative to the street. So despite everything else, I had to reject this house based on the fact that it wasn’t ‘Christmas light-worthy’. While my girlfriend thinks I’m borderline insane, in the back of her mind she knows I did the right thing. She just recalls of all the smiles and compliments we received this past Christmas from those who enjoyed our display.
So now I have a few new home criteria right up at the top of the list:
Can’t be in a gated community – I don’t want to limit access to my display to just the neighbors or those I invite.
Front yard needs to be wide with the house set back a good distance from the street. I’d like to have a 20 foot mega-tree in the future, and I feel it shouldn’t be too close to the spectators.
I think you should move up here to Riverton and buy the house across the street from me! I live in a cul-de-sac and with any luck, we can run all of the neighbors out of here with our light shows!
RichardH wrote: The last 2 years, builders starting building like crazy in this area because everything was going up and they were hoping they could make some quick cash. They built way to many houses and a lot of them have been vacant for about year and they keep dropping the prices. Usually you save some money if you build yourself but with the housing market right now, it is cheaper to buy a pre-built house in this area.
The bad thing about rapidly rising prices in an area is there is a lot of money to be made when property values are on the upswing. Everybody and their brother want to get in on it too and build houses. Before you know it you end up with oversupply. Then add to it a handful of years ago interest rates were very low, everyone got extremely sweet interest rates and then a few years later the fed raises the rate and nobody wants to move because moving and getting new loan costs a lot more even if you were moving downward to a smaller house. The run away housing market ruined itself by causing a very good reason to stay put in the house you are in but also develop an oversupply at the same time.
In our area downward movements in sales prices are occurring and once a downward shift happens there is a momentum to it and it will continue sliding. Problem is the house you want to buy might be cheaper, but at the same time you might not get as much as you think trying to sell your house in today's market.
And hey you got a very pretty house now for Christmas lights... I hope the next one is pretty too.
The housing market is still doing well in Utah. It's one of the strongest markets in the Country right now. However, it will come to an end. My dad is in the mortgage industry and they don't expect this market to be nearly this strong in a year from now.
caimakale wrote: The housing market is still doing well in Utah. It's one of the strongest markets in the Country right now. However, it will come to an end. My dad is in the mortgage industry and they don't expect this market to be nearly this strong in a year from now.
It is a buyers market right now in Utah. Some people are loosing their shirts. My friend just bought a home last week that was the market for over 1 year. He bought it from a lady who built 4 homes in the neighborhood to try and make some money. She started the houses pretty high and had to kept coming down and is ending up selling them for pretty much what it cost her or a little less. With all the intrest she had to pay on the homes, she ended up doing pretty bad.
The Mortage industry is not as bad because you get a cut on every loan you can get for the bank. Not as much risk of building houses and trying to get a profit.
RichardH wrote: caimakale wrote: The housing market is still doing well in Utah. It's one of the strongest markets in the Country right now. However, it will come to an end. My dad is in the mortgage industry and they don't expect this market to be nearly this strong in a year from now.
It is a buyers market right now in Utah. Some people are loosing their shirts. My friend just bought a home last week that was the market for over 1 year. He bought it from a lady who built 4 homes in the neighborhood to try and make some money. She started the houses pretty high and had to kept coming down and is ending up selling them for pretty much what it cost her or a little less. With all the intrest she had to pay on the homes, she ended up doing pretty bad.
The Mortage industry is not as bad because you get a cut on every loan you can get for the bank. Not as much risk of building houses and trying to get a profit.
I assume these were houses that exceeded the $350,000 price mark? While there has been a slow down, it seems to affect those who built really expensive homes. Houses around me aren't selling as fast as they were before, but they are still selling without sitting for months and months, and only a handful of people are getting less than asking price. Do I think this will sustain? Absolutely not, but for the time being, it seems to be doing much better than markets where people are taking a six figure loss on the sell of their homes.
New construction has come to a grinding halt. I know because I am in the business where I use tons of contractors. For years it was hard finding a decent GC because they were making their money building houses. Now they are lining up, begging for work. Unfortunately for them, the few that stuck with me during the housing boom will get the steady stream of income that I will provide, while the ones who abandonded me get nothing.
Last edited on Friday January 25th, 2008 06:19 am by caimakale
