Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff The journey of the cabin to a real house

This story begins in 2018.

In January 2018, I was getting ready to start life as a home owner again after selling my house in the Bay Area in September 2014 and moving to the PNW to work for a specific company. When I lived in the Bay Area, I lived in a 2005 built HOA. There are 10 houses on each street in the HOA. One of the houses on each street was set-aside as low-income housing. I bought my house in November 2008 during the housing crisis. The house originally sold in September 2005 for $410K. I bought the house 38 months later for $207K. The house was only lived in for 18 months of those 38 months, and was practically brand-new still. The house next door to me was the designated LI house on my street. The owner only paid $98K in September 2005.

In January 2018, I Googled "low income housing Tacoma." A news article came-up about a brand-new neighborhood being built in Tacoma for families making $72K or less. The premise of the neighborhood was to be working-class, the house had to kept a minimum of 5 years before it could be sold, and there wa a cap of 3% annal equity the house could sell for. I called the Builder and was scheduled for an interview. Turns out, I was the first interested party to this new venture.

The interview went well, I discussed why I wanted to be a homeowner, and discussed that in my Bay Area neighborhood, there was one houses for LI families. That is how I found this builder as I knew such programs existed. I discussed how I was the HOA President in my neighborhood for five years. The builder was impressessed with my story and the HOA President experience and offered me the opportunity to purchase in this neighborhood, and the be the HOA President for this new neighborhood. I picked-out my lot and put down $500 in earnest money.

The builder was brand new. It was basically a group of good-hearted Tacoma residents who saw the need for such a neighborhood with affordable housing. The idea was to build 72 green, energy-efficient homes on a preserve that the Tacoma School District sold for this purpose as the District was not going to use the land. The land was heavily forested and only 30% of the land was going to be developed for the homes.

Because these people had never done this type of venture before, they had a learning curve to learn how to get this neighborhood built: permits, construction education, etc.


To be continued...

I checked-in with the builder every six to eight weeks. Most of the time, there really was no update. Later in the Fall of 2018, the builder said they were going to start clearing lots and get the street ready for the first phase. The lot clearing would start in February 2019.

It wasn't actually until April 2019 that the lots were cleared and a gravel road was put in. In May 2019, the foundation for model home #1 was poured. A few weeks later the foundation for model #2 was poured.

The foundations remained that way until late summer / early fall of 2019, when the framing started. In early March 2020, there was tour scheduled for perspective home buyers. The homes were only in the rough-in stage. Just the inside walls were in. Then COVID hit. The project stopped for several months.

I had always driven by the neighborhood every few weeks to check on progress. I once saw a countertop vendor's truck outside of one of the models, so I knew that the models were nearing completion.


Model 1



Model 2


(Rocksus checking things out).


To be continued...

Around Thanksgiving 2020, I got a tour of the finished models. I was over the moon excited waiting for my turn to have my house built. I was in the second phase because the lot I chose was in the back of the property.

Initially, when I first stated talking to the builder, the homes were to be $245K. Then when the framing got started, the metal roofs went away to lower the cost of the home, the cost was going to now be $285K. When I took that model tour at Thanksgiving 2020, I was informed the houses would now be $315K due to the cost of lumber due to COVID.

I didn't care, i just wanted to have a house. I started planning how the inside of the house would look: measuring rooms and windows, adding cabinets to the laundry room which were not included in the price of the home...I would have to do that on my own. I wanted to get it done as close to escrow closing as possible by having various vendors scheduled for the various installations.

I even picked the exterior colors of the house. The colors had to be Sherwin-Williams. I picked these colors:




Representation of where the colors would go:




Things were moving along nicely the Thanksgiving of 2020. The county had just approved the lot sizes and I was given my street address. In February 2021, I "went into contract." The house was supposed to start construction in June 2021 and be completed by November 2021. The neighborhood's construction was to shift in high-gear very soon.

I kept planning for the house, including starting the yard layout (grass area, trees, walkways). I was getting quote for window plantation shutters, pricing out the washer and dryer...getting my ducks in a row.

On April 21, 2021, 1:55 PDT, I received the following email:



To be continued....

The appointment to discuss what the builder had to say was going to be the next day. Different scenarios of what the convesation would be filled my head. I figured the price of the home would be the discussion and I was ok with that discussion. Another thought was the my house construction was going to be delayed.

I met with Veronica via phone at the appointed time. Veronica was the builder's liason between the builder and perspective homeowners. Veronica is the person I called in January 2018 and she was at the first meeting when I met with the builder, and she was also the contact for the builder that I would get updates from.

Veronica ripped the band-aid off immediately.


I expected a conversation like this at least a year ago - not now that the models were built. I asked if I could buy my lot since its a corner lot at the outer edge of the back of the property, and develop the lot myself. (Stage 3 of the six stages of Grief: Bargaining) I was told no, that the entire property was going to be sold in whole. I asked what was going to happen to the models, and I was told, "we don't know."

Amy was the Real Estate agent for the builder who contacted me to make arrangements to have the earnest money returned. Amy also put me in touch with a Real Estate agent named Joe.


To be continued...

I reached-out to Joe the same day. He was expecting my call and gave condolences for the project not happening and added my name to the Tacoma MLS database and I would receive emails for new listings. The problem was, I did not know what I was qualified for.

The loan agent that builder that I was working with continued to work with me outside of the project. She did another credit pull since she hadn't done one since 2019 and it turned out that I was qualified for a max of $350K. So even if the neighborhood did move forward, I would no longer have qualified for it.

The issue with only being able to purchase a $350K home in Tacoma in 2021 presented challenges. Had this been 2017, I would have been able to afford a nice home. But, prices rose nearly 40% in the time I was waiting for the neighborhood to be built.

In 2021, at $350K I would only be able to purchase a home with some issues.

Tacoma was built in the 1890s and a few of those homes were still around. More homes from the 1900s were around, but the bulk of the homes were built in the 1910s and 1920s. Any house I would purchase would be at least 100 years old.

This presented concens that I have with lead, asbestos and as I found out, foundation issues.

Having watched every episode of This Old House since 2009, I was familiar with updating homes and the first thing that is done after demolition is to address the foundation. None of the house flippers in Tacoma were addressing foundation issues - at least not in my price range. It turned out that I needed to spend $450K to have a home that was free of lead, asbestos, or foundation issues.


To be continued...

I probably viewed 30 homes from April 23rd 2021 to Memorial Weekend 2021.

One home during this time frame which I viewed was super nice, the flip was done tastefully. The issue with that house, and I kid you not, if a marble was placed onto the middle of the livingroom floor, the marble would roll the left. The floor was leaning to the left! How could anyone think that was ok to sell a house like that?!?

On Friday, May 28th, 2021, a MLS listing came through where the house was just listed. There was an open house of this house the next day from 10am to noon on Saturday the 29th.

Saturday May 29th 2021 was a holiday weekend AND it was super nice, warm and sunny that day. You know what that means - nobody was out looking at houses. I was the first one at the open house. I had to check-in, register an email address, and complete a COVID checklist.

Whenever I went inside a home, I knew immediately if it was a yes or no. Up to this point, all of the homes were nos because either the floor would bounce as it was walked acrossed, or there was something I didn't like about the house. But this house on this Memorial Weekend was super nice. It was a flip, the floor felt good, everything was in order. It was 2 bedroom, 1 bath. The bathroom had a pedistal sink and no storage. In fact, not much storage at all throughout the house. But I liked the house. It was in a good neighborhood and had a nice fenced backyard for Rocksus.

Joe the Realtor was not with me, he had another commitment that day. I called Joe and told him I wanted to put an offer in on this house. It was my first attempt at putting an offer in. The house was $339K. Interesting thing about this house is that the house was owned by RedFin the online Real Estate company. Apparently RedFin and Zillow both started a side business of purchasing homes, renovating them quickly, and making some profit. RedFin purchased this house in March 2021, made improvements and put it back on market in 90 days. The good thing about this house is that RedFin purchased an inspection report in March 2021. Pretty much everything needing addressing was addressed by RedFin on the report, except for two things: The electric box had aluminum wiring and the bath and kitchen vented into the attic. Aluminum electrical wiring was a concern, but having the bathroom and kichen vent into the attic was a bigger concern...mold.

Joe wrote an offer for $339K + $6K escalation plus I wanted the bathroom and kitchen to be vented through the roof.

Needless-to-say that my offer was not accepted, but it was next inline to be accepted as a "backup offer." Joe thought it was because of the request to vent the bathroom and kitchen through the roof. At $339K, the monthly payments would have eaten up all of my budget for housing and I couldn't afford to have the issue addressed. After I lost acceptance on the house, I learned there was a program where up to $35K could be borrowed to make immediate repairs on a home purchase and that loan clause would be added into the contract. The loan agent told me about this program after the fact.

Disappointed, but not undetermined, I began the seach all over again.


To be continued...

I'm enjoying your story so far Rick!

Thanks.

In the next week I only viewed three houses. When I first started looking on April 23rd, the prices of home were about $18K less than my maximum pre-qualified amount.

One of those three houses that I viewed was super small. Another 2 bedroom, 1 bath. The back of the property abutted a strip mall on Pacific Av. The house was on a hill and the strip mall was far below. The property was looking down onto the roofs of the strip mall. The house was nice and property was nice. The yard literally had a white picket fence front yard, and very large tree in the corner of the lot near the sidewalk. It was doable and the price was oddly low...$315K. The house also came with a home warranty. I put an offer in.

I figured I could plant bamboo along the back of the yard to hide the strip mall and Pacific Av.

One thing about that house was that it was at 82nd Street. The van for the Tacoma vanpool I was in at the time was parked at the Tacoma Dome and 82nd St was 6 miles away. When I lived in Tacoma, I lived a S 4th and Broadway. I was only 1.9 miles from the van. Plus Rocksus' dog sitter was in the apartment building at S 4th and Broadway, which meant I would have to drive 10-ish miles every morning before I could get to the van, and the same in the afternoon to pick-up Rocksus, but in reverse.

The house had three offers. I escalated my offer $18K...so $315K + 18K for $333K.

The thing about these transactions, the decision of which offer to accept was decided usually in a day or two. Joe called and said another offer was accepted and not mine. This was June 8th, 2021.

On June 8th, 2021, after placing an offer on two homes in the price range I was pre-qualified for not getting either one, I started the search AGAIN. This time, every house listed on the MSL on that day was above $350K - every one! I was now priced out of the Tacoma market and I was pissed, devistated, and was feeling this whole house-buying venture was hopeless. There was no where else to look.

To be continued...

This meant that the entire Pudget Sound was out of my price range, I thought. "Fine! I'll move to Spokane." I've never been to Spokane. Mostly all ll I knew about Spokane was that it was 3+ hours east of Seattle.

I began looking on Zillow.com at Spokane listings. The prices was much more affordable...between $290K and $320K - definitely in my price range.

I was looking around the Zillow site and imagining living in Spokane. I knew that if I were to move to Spokanel I could easily transfer to a building that my company owns. and work there But did I want to do that type of work in Spokane? Plus, Spokane is conservative. Yeah...I know.

I began thinking about life in Spokane. If I wanted to travel internationally or even domestically for that matter, I would have to fly out of Seattle and I would most likely have to get a hotel room the night before the flight. I tried telling myself that it was the only option. After awhile, I thought about going back to the Bay Area. After living in the Pacific Northwest for five years, I'd grown accustomed to the all of the trees, the plethora of trees. When I did visit the Bay Area during the past five years, I noticed how barren and treeless the Bay Area is. It looked very deserty, even though when I lived in the Bay Area, I thought it was beautiful. I now viewed the area as barren and I would miss the PNW trees. Then it occured to me, Spokane was the same as the Bay Area, because Spokane is literally high desert chapparel. The Spokane idea lasted about an hour.

Then it occured to me, there was the Olympic Peninsula. I had completely forgotten about it. In my mind, there was Seattle, then water, then China, with nothing in between.



In my defense, I am not a native Washingtonian.


To be continued...