What follows is a summary of my conversation with Chris Elsey about his company's interest in our property.
They sent out multiple inquiries, mainly to owners of more "distressed" housing. We received one because our building is zoned favorably
He asked what our asking price is and I told him that we would be ok with the current appraised value which is $222,510 ($94,500 land; $128,010 building)
Our property is on the high end of what they can afford, especially because of the extensive demolition that would be involved.
Ideally they would need multiple lots or one large lot before they could move forward with their plans.
They are wanting to have something built for the next leasing season beginning August 2009.
Chris' response was lukewarm, at best. He said they'll think about it and let us know if they're interested. I'm guessing that we have less than 50% chance of selling to them because our location is less than ideal in several ways.
Our lot, being a standard 50x150, isn't really their ideal size and so they would probably need the lot to the west.
The house to the west is, in my opinion, in very good shape considering many rentals in the neighborhood.
This same house is bordered on the west by an existing apartment building which is an unlikely candidate for demolition.
Large demolition costs involved in removing our building
If we really want to sell then we would probably have to drastically lower our asking price because our building will be costly to remove and they are not interested in renovating it into apartments. The last figure I have for what we owe on our new property is $161,079 as of November 4. Since that time we have sent approximately $37,000 more from the CD that matured on November 1. So now we owe about $125,000.
Some questions to ponder....
If Elsey's response was lukewarm, and I'll assume that they have adequate funding, is there any chance another developer will be more interested? Should we sell to Vintage Faith Church at a bargain price and work out a joint-use agreement with them until we are ready to move? What would it take to sell and move in the next year, both monetarily and logistically? What are our immediate needs (and associated expenses) for transitioning to our new property -- connecting to the sewer? making office space? hiring an architect to help with a site plan? ???
My conversation with Chris was fairly short, but contact me if you have any questions.
Anyone can add comments (see below), but contact Rhonna if you would like to contribute posts. Let the conversation continue...
