More Questions with a Dash of Answers

So I headed over to the City Council meeting last night, of which none of the council members actually attended.

The short and sweet of it is that this particular meeting was not to discuss building height, but rather to discuss how to make buildings between 40 feet and 60 feet blend in with existing architecture. The Community Development Leader was there to take suggestions on how to make existing buildings not feel overwhelmed by larger, bulky, 5 story condos. Amazingly enough, between all the grumbling and malcontent, a couple of good ideas were given. Most notable was the requirement to bring all new power-lines subterranean and encourage existing systems to do the same. Another suggestion was to require that multi-unit residences put all parking underground. This is not so much to keep cars off the street—thought that is a major consideration—but rather to keep properties from being demolished solely for the purpose of parking. Other considerations tossed around by the attendees involved building set backs, fascia design, color and window criteria, etc.

The important sentence above is the one that goes “between 40 and 60 feet”. In other words, this tasty bit of legislation does not apply to homes being built or remodeled that are less than 40 feet in height, or more succinctly, me. It does prevent me from building a 10-story condo, and I’m still pretty steamed about the methods employed to swipe this development opportunity from the residents of this particular neighborhood, all because of a Bremerton City Council member who happens to live in this particular neighborhood. Grr!

However, none of this is the exciting news. Nay, the exciting news came in the form of a 5-minute conversation I had with my neighbor at the end of the meeting, where-in he told me that a house directly behind me, and without my beautiful view, has just gone on the market for $429,000. (see picture below) This house is in better shape than mine, is brick, and slightly larger. However, their overall lot size is smaller than mine, and their view is of Downtown Bremerton and only in the winter when the leaves are off the trees, where as I get Mount Rainier if the sky is clear and I always have waterfront views and views of the Manette Bridge.

This has birthed a whole new way of thinking. The short question is: how much can we sell our house for as-is? The gradient of this leads to how little can we spend to maximize our potential profits if pre-sale improvements are required? Talking with the developer to the immediate north of me, his project is still a solid two years from breaking ground. If Lilah and I were to start our full-retsore project in April , and it takes a full year for us to complete, that could still potentially keep us in our house for another year before we could realize the beginnings of an (albeit dramatic) increase in value that his project will bring. It could take as long as FIVE years to fully realize the million dollar value that this neighborhood will command. Do we stay and wait? Do we sell now to an investor for some immediate profits that are none-the-less a good deal less than that five year mark?

These are some questions I don’t have the answer to, and our intent to add children to the equation doesn’t simplify it one bit. I do have a real estate agent from our church coming over on Friday to discuss some of these questions with me. I need to make a quick decision as to our intent because my Construction loan is in limbo and we need to finalize or back out.

Click HERE to follow to the MLS for the property behind me. If the picture has disappeared, it means the house has sold… Yet another portion of the equation. They’re asking $429k, but it remains to be seen how much they will actually get.

Ah, the drama!