Does This Make Sense?
I want to purchase a multi family to convert to condo units. The process here in NH takes several months. You have to give existing tenants 9 months to get out. What I'm thinking is to buy a multi and start the paperwork. Collect rent in the meantime and find single family to rehab while I'm waiting. Does this sound like a decent strategy? Also, my last rehab was done cash. I need to borrow some money to avoid downtime and have multiple projects going. I've been researching the lenders area. Anyone have any recommendations? Any good/bad experiences with any of these lenders?
Make sure you have enough to carry the property for a few months longer than you anticipate it will take if you have to do evictions, permitting problems, etc. Other than that, sounds OK.
dave,
Usually the worst first move to make is to alert inspectors that something "may" not be right and you need them to take a look at it. Ive made this mistake twice and never made it again. To answer your question of what to do next, its time to deal with this new inspector who now has to do his job. Your at their whim. Try to be as nice and straight forward as you can. Good luck.
gobriango,
Thanks for the reply. I have tried on several occasions to be congenial, nice, and straightforward with this inspector. I have reiterated to him that my entire intention is to have the job done and to have it done right according to code. I can't seem to get him to sway off his original stand at all.
Do you feel that I would get anywhere if I went to the building office and asked to speak with a supervisor for the inspectors? In no way would I be confrontational and would not have any bad words to say about the original inspector but I don't know what else to do without just complying with this new inspector's opinion to rip out the foundation and block wall which will be very costly.
Dave
[addsig]
Would it satisfy him if you dug down on both sides to the bottom of the footing so he can see the depth and width of the footing. I am afraid going to his superior may make things worse down the road if you make him look bad which it might even doif you are a nice guy.
This is where you lay a 100 dollar bill on the ground and ask him "is the footing is up to code now?" Im kidding, im kidding. I just had a little mix up with the county on my footings being poured. my contractor said he had verbal permission to pour the footings (which he did from one inspector) so he poured it and the other inspector just happened to drive by and ask why the permit card was not signed off. long story short, at one point they were talking about having me get some kind of a xray machine to look into the footings and make sure they were poured to code. I didnt have to do this because I got it straightened out, but you may want to ask if you can dig around it and have it xrayed and looked at by an engineer. this is not really cheap, but probably a lot cheaper than tearing it all down. good luck, you are at the countys mercy.
2 things - if it was me it would be time to talk to either another inspector at the building dept IN PERSON, not over the phone, or the manager in charge.
The other thing is nobody works in a job forever, in a month he may be gone. Unfortunately it could be 10 years also.
What about bringing in an engineer and having him verify everything is safe......take letter in hand to inspector.....as Rehab said, face to face and see if that will resolve the situation.
If that doesnt work then it seems it would be a matter of rattling chains at the building department.
Everyone has a boss.......its just a matter of how high up the chain you have to go in order to get the correct response.
NC
I'm confused.
I thought if it was EXISTING, they couldn't make you change it. I've even been told that in my county, if someone didn't pull a permit and was caught, that the inspector couldn't make them rip out and redo what had already been done, because there was no way to prove that it wasn't existing.
Is CA just different from small-town Florida? Or has someone given me really bad info?
Sounds like really bad info. Lots of houses have surveys and documents, appraisals based on sq footage and such on file with the county, so proving the house has been added on to, doesn't seem very hard to do.
Look, you've let this get way out of hand. The addition was permitted in 1964! You don't have to *prove* anything.
I'm all in favor of talking to inspectors in the field. But if you get a bad answer you have to go downtown.
It's time for you to sit down with someone in the inspections department and present your case, i.e. the addition was built in 1964 under permit. You've recently excavated and satisfied yourself of continuous footing for additional work you wish to do. You are now ready to pull your permit. Your question is: What do you have to do now to get your permit?
You must put the onus on them.
Thanks to everyone for the advice given. I went to the Building & Safety building and spoke with a senior inspector who stated that if I had an architect do a visual and compose a letter stating the foundation has continuous footing and the block wall is proper then the county would accept that and issue the permit for the building of the bedroom. The senior inspector said that hiring the architect would be considerably cheaper than getting an engineering firm involved.
I contacted an architect the same day from the list provided by the senior inspector and scheduled a visual to be done next week. The architect said he would charge me $500.00 and this included the drafting of the letter to the county.
Once again, thanks to everyone of you who continue to give of yourselves to help other fellow investors.
Dave
_________________
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." (Thomas A. Edison)[ Edited by dealfinder on Date 12/02/2004 ]
dealfinder,
glad to see you got your problem solved. now its time to hammer away at that $500 for the architects visual and the letter. sounds about $300 too high. i know in the scheme of things $300 is no biggie but seeing how well you handled the situation so far, it would be great to see you go all the way. good luck.
Good job, and thanks for the update.
All the people who think no permits are not a big deal read between the lines on this thread and think again.
$500 could be considered cheap. Nobody selling a house to one of us should get away with avoiding the permits because we will end up paying for it. Make the seller get it done, or make them discount for it and discount heavily maybe 3 times what you think it will cost.
I agree with gobriango about that price. I've gotten structural engineers to look at a slab or a beam for a couple hunderd bucks, and write a letter.
It's probably too late, but next time, go down the yellow pages and call several engineers. I prefer engineers over architects.
Has no one ever pulled the plans and permits list for a house before they buy? That should be standard. If plans/permit history not readily available I include a clause at closing that says seller has to pay for any work that was done that was unpermitted