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One of the reasons we chose to purchase a home with property is because we saw the land having a value far beyond a monetary value.
We live 5 minutes from downtown Atlanta at best. Our neighborhood is considered the trendiest in the city, however, it is also an area that only a few years ago was not (and frankly is still not) considered the safest place to live. Less than 10 years ago all homes were considered to be worth less than $100,000. Considerably less, even though they are all situated on good sized.
One day I decided that our property was worth 2.5 million dollars (we have two lots, side by side) I know that sounds crazy, I just made it up...but then I decided why COULDN'T it be worth that much? How can we make it worth so much, (I think of something like that amount of money being 'invaluable'). So I then I began to visualize what could make my home worth 2.5 million dollars...
NO BILLS. That's right, no bills would contribute. No electrical bills. No gas bill. Nada. That would save many hundreds of dollars per month. So we'd have to generate our own electric via solar. Then we'd have to collect our own water and purify it for ourselves. Because we don't need pure water for our food, we could collect grey water and rain water.
No bills also means no grocery bill. We could grow everything. There is certainly enough space. We have double the space the folks at [HYPERLINK@www.pathtofreedom.com] have, and they eat very well off of their own land. Goats for cheese, chickens for eggs. Maybe some day.
Medicines - not all, but many of our own medications could be made from growing herbs. Next year we are going to try to go on native honey to see if that makes a difference with allergies. If so, we'll raise native bees.
My mind doesn't stop. I am always thinking of new ways that we can make this work. Our home is under renovation now, and the renovator was able to make a new glassed in stairwell a greenhouse too. It will be efficient and also run off of the home's services. We've found ways to make sure it doesn't tax the systems too much by being an energy hog. It also collects water and will eventually collect solar.
girlgroupgirl: My home is "worth" about $180,000 based on my taxes and the selling price of surrounding properties. It is a 100 yr old two story neoclassic structure on nearly 3 acres of property. A few years ago I retired, and at that time I was nearly debt free and I owned my home. However, even though I have good credit, I was recently denied a "home improvement" loan because my home has been scammed.
I paid a contractor some $35,000 for essential repairs. He pretended to do the work. He said he needed up front money for materials. He said he was saving me money because he worked with just himself and his girlfriend (they got married during the "work" on my house). Also he claimed to be a gulf war vet. He was working for a "reputable contractor", but he would do this as a side job, because he especially liked doing "restoration" work. Had a lot of experience working on old houses, he said.
He gutted room after room, leaving piles of trash every where. the electrical system he was supposed to install is a total sham. There were 5 bathrooms when I bought the house, now there is barely one that works. After trashding my place, including tearing shingles off the roof, creating a massive leaks. I wont go into further detail, but today my home is worth $0.00. I can't get a loan to even make my home fit to live in, because my equity is based on the forclosure value of my home. In its present condition, that is $0.00.
I don't mean to just be telling a sad tale. I hope to post an alert. In my State, there are more incompetent people in the construction business than there are compent workers. This is part of the fallout of federal money made available for hurricane damage.
First off, Gloria that is just terrible that happened to you. I hope that the person that did that to you is held responsible. Have you contacted the county/state attorney's office to see if he can be prosecuted? Or how about the local tv news channel in your area? They love to get involved in cases like that.
GGG, I enjoyed your post and think what you're doing is very admirable. The ability to grow your own food or make your own medicine is unfortunately valued pretty low these days because you can go get those things pretty cheaply from Walmart or another megamart. But getting those things cheaply from Walmart is based on cheap fuel prices to ship them from a long ways away. How much longer that will be true is open to debate but I personally don't believe it will be much longer.
My house is a nice brand new suburban house but I don't feel it's worth as much as we paid for it. We wanted something with land, a garden, barns but couldn't find it around here. Later I found 12 acres close to the house pretty reasonable and I'm doing many of the things you describe there. I've got a large vegetable garden (which I'm vainly trying to keep alive in the drought), herb gardens, berries and fruit trees planted.
I have no electricity there except a small solar panel and batteries that will run a few lights. I have county water but run through a patchwork of leaky plumbing to get it to the garden. My only heat there is a stone fireplace I built and a small portable propane heater. My green house is a shed with a collapsed roof that I tore off and covered with plastic.
My baby chicks (see pic) have been living in my suburban garage but have just moved out to the farm. Hopefully goats and horses will follow in a few years.
The thing that amazes me about doing this is how many things you have to learn. As a society we're so specialized that people (myself included) have forgotten a lot of the basic things everyone used to know. How plants grow and reproduce, how to preserve food, how to most efficently do work without benefit of gasoline. I've learned more in the last year than in the 15 years before that.
Anyway, my point is, to me the 12 acres is worth way more to me than the house and the amounts I paid definetly don't reflect that.
Jeff
GGG, what an admirable attitude! When my sis and I were house hunting last spring, we made a list of important things we wanted, and were able to get them with diligence. We have a creek, a spring and spring house, a nasty old barn, a root cellar, a veggie garden spot and a so-so house on 19 acres, and NO mortgage. To me, that makes it VERY valuable, far more than what we paid for it.
Of course it will still take several years of outside and inside work to be what we want it to be, but the basics are here. Most of the 19 acres is just a steep hillside that was timbered a few years ago, but eventually we will have a wood lot as trees mature again. Just need a mule to get them off the mountain, LOL.
Yes, it takes a LOT of learning/re-learning old skills and new skills.
GGG, I like the way you value things. My house is funky and has lots of small rooms. Anything meant to be impermanent lasts forever and can't be torn down. Anything basic and structural is falling apart! We bought this house within walking distance of downtown in 1990. It has supposedly doubled in value. It already had fruit trees and two kitchens. The yards had been used to work on cars and to cut and store wood. The house came with 2 wood stoves, one we still use, the other we replaced with a more efficient stove 2 years ago. Anyway, after a lot of horse manure, compost,digging, and so forth we have a beautiful, shaggy garden that I can see from my studio when I paint. It is priceless and a constant source of inspiration...not to mention healthy exercise. It isn't a farm but we practice water harvesting and composting. My husband puts up apricots, cherries, plums and currants. I grow and dry herbs. Gloria, sorry to hear what happened to you. Hope things start to look up.
What I meant to say was, The $ value of your home is not necessarily its value to you. The $ value of my 180,000$ home is $0.00. Because equity is the amount a lender can get out of your home if he has to forclose. But its value to me is priceless. It is my home. My lifetime investment. My sanctuary. Some one recently said to me, Why don't you just move down to ... a federal ly funded housing project for the elderly and disabled. I was surprised how angry I got. In spite of every thing, I am not leaving my home. My gardens, My animals.
jkehl: Yes I have filed charges with the State attorney General's office.
This type of assault is called, "Theft by deception". But, so far the couple is still at large, scamming other people, no doubt.
gloria125 - I'm assuming you are "elderly" so your state might have "elder abuse" statutes that be used against the scammer in addition to whatever recourse you have. I hope these people are caught very soon, have the money to pay you back and have to serve out their sentence in one of your broken bathrooms! A jail cell is too good for them.
I may be "elderly" but no one would believe it because I am always shoveling, chainsawing, or bush axing around here. Yesterday I loaded 30 cement blocks onto a truck, while the "elderly gentleman" said wait, wait, you can pay this kid to do the work. I don't have the money to pay the kid, but thanks to working out on my treadmill, and pilates machine, and some 25 years as a "dirt" archeologist, I am still pretty strong. I wonder if they would call it "elder abuse" if a drop kicked that guy who worked on my house and hog tied him!
He had a beer belly, and claimed he needed a knee operation so he couldnt finish the work he started. Nothing wrong with my knees.
Just be aware that once your hair turns gray and it looks like you have retirement money, you are twice as vulnerable as a younger home owner to scammers. Just beware, and I hope we get some decent laws in hurricane areas to stop these people who pretend to be legitimate construction workers. This is what happened to me. It is much worse along the coast.
Gloria, I think you are so cool for getting out there and doing your own thing! I do not plan to get "elderly" I plan to grow older like you, with grace, security and get it done. I'm sorry you got taken with your renovations. It has happened here, we had some done at first which where not so good. Because we couldn't afford to do much more, we did much by ourselves. I learned building codes, and researched proper ways of building etc. Now I have a fantastic renovator. Every inspection along the way has passed with flying colors, we decide together the most efficient way to do things while meeting or exceeding all building codes. Everything is researched and then we also consult with others on our ideas.
Gloria, unfortunately you were scammed because the fellow could read you. If you were willing to fork over $35,000 for essentially nothing, he was well aware that you were an easy target. I'm sure I don't need to tell you now, but he did not need all that money to get started. If he was a good business man, he would have had some start up funds, and probably asked you for a minimum, providing you with a signed contract, showing you a business number and his insurance number - providing you with a full receipt for your down payment and an itemized bill of what you paid for. I know several people who have said they have had estimates on work "per square foot". That is unacceptable. You should be given a cost analysis of each item on the job after the contractor has accepted bids from services he contracts out for: HVAC, plum, electric here, and then his costs, and his percentage. We also got a write up of things like how many square feet of tile the contractor was planning on purchasing (So we could add more if we wanted) and a list of things we were responsible for paying for outside of the scope of work (we had our own cupboards and had them refinished. They will install, but we had to dismantle and re-assemble and pay for all refinish and transportation of such) Mine gave me a margin for extra "surprises" and has told me every step of the way what is and what is not included in that bill. I'm sure you are well aware of all this now, but these things are essential.
Before this fellow I did have another excellent guy too. He couldn't handle this big of a job, but is great for smaller projects. So honest guys are out there. They often can't afford to advertise but they are there!
It can be a big fat plastic hassle, but doing your homework before contracting work out can save you money in the long run!
ggg: I was essentially assistant to a state architect for some 15 years as curator of a 150 year old house here, and I worked on a day to day basis with restoration carpenters on that job. I am not naive. I also have several years of cabinet-making under my belt. You are saying you have taken all the precautions so it could not happen to you, and that it would not have happened to me if I had been better prepared. That I was an "easy target". This is simply not true. I did every thing you list. There were estimates, receipts, and contracts for everything that he did. He just decided one day he was leaving, and he left. Left his ladders and tools, so that I believed he was going to finish up. He never came back. A scammer is a professional thief. No one is safe from them, no matter how well prepared you think you are.
This is a mistake to think the person who is the object of the theft is to blame. I brought up this topic because people working on their houses need to be aware of what is happening in that domain. If you have a reliable contractor, you are lucky. Let me know 5 years from now if you still feel the same way!
I am absolutely not blaming you, and this entire subject is not really what this thread is about. However, I am saying that your actions were not wise.
You need to be prepared. You were PARTLY prepared. I am absolutely blaming the thief for stealing, but I am also saying it is not the wisest thing to pay someone up front for work that is not complete. You then have no leverage to get the work finished. For someone who had worked professionally in the field, I think that even his asking might have struck you as odd. You antied up the cash, he figured when it was time to check out he had an easy escape.
Sorry, but slime don't stop and think about your situtation, they just take advantage of it.
I am not trying to be mean or condescending. Just observant.
Hey, Gloria and GGG. I've had all sorts of interesting experiences with "contractors". One, who was actually really good as it ended up, sent a helper, a young Cambodian man, to check out the roof of the garage we were trying to either fix or tear down. The young man fell right through the roof! He was o.k. but fairly shook up. Naturally, we had it torn down. Another "contractor" started a roofing job for us and suddenly left town in the middle of the job with half our roof up. I mean, like, No roof on half the house! We went across the street to a neighbor who had lots of loutish, grown sons at home, made them a cash offer and got the roof up that day! It is still o.k. after 22 years. These guys were not licensed, bonded or probably even roofers. Go figure! (But, let me also say it didn't cost anywhere near $30,000.) This is off the subject so will probably not keep up with this thread. I'm just saying that not every situation can be planned out in advance.
