Buying Property and Building Your Own Home - Tips, Tricks, Advice

[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by giogiom3

Exactly the thread I was looking for, thank u. Ur help is much appreciated

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Finished and moved in I presume DETRoadster ?

Yep! All moved in. We moved over the 4th of July weekend. Closed on the sale of our old house in Seattle 3 weeks ago.

Oh, did I mention that we F'ing threw in the towel and just bought a house?

3 years in and we STILL dont have permits. We spent the last 12 months dicking around with trying to get a deviation approval to deal with this nightmare of a driveway that the city wants widened to 20 feet wide, plus a retaining wall, on a 20' wide easement. It's like the concept of basic math escapes them. 20' of paved driveway plus 2 feet of retaining wall, plus excavation layback on the hillside doesnt all fit on a 20 foot easement.

So a year ago the city planner told us to file a request to deviate from the code that requires the 20 feet. That entailed a year of research, environmental impact study, civil engineering, a "traffic study" where we paid an engineer to log traffic on the existing driveway which amounted to the neighbor going to and from work, a plan for speed limit and other safety signage, vehicle turn outs, etc. All to prove that 2 houses could be safely served by a 1 lane driveway. We had a real estate attorney involved, 160 hours of billable architect hours, we had neighbors write letters in support, we have examples of other projects around the city where this was allowed.

All so the city could simply reject what they told us to do on the basis of "not being in the public interest." These officials arent elected and arent accountable to anyone. They are clearly just F'ing with us now. The lawyer says that unfortunately we have no recourse. The city finally came back and said they "would consider alternate plans that are put forth" but they refuse to engage and tell us what those might be. It's up to us to guess at what they might find acceptable and "in the public interest" and just keep submitting over and over. These guys are crafty. Because they said they would consider alternatives they aren't telling us "You cant build", which would be illegal.

Our architect and builder have both sworn off ever doing another project in this city due to the hurdles and mismanagement. Our lawyer suspects the city officials are "on the take" as developers are throwing up houses right and left, but who could ever prove that.

So that's it, we just gave up. We now have a very expensive private park.

[dreamingat30fps]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Yep! All moved in. We moved over the 4th of July weekend. Closed on the sale of our old house in Seattle 3 weeks ago.

Oh, did I mention that we F'ing threw in the towel and just bought a house?

3 years in and we STILL dont have permits. We spent the last 12 months dicking around with trying to get a deviation approval to deal with this nightmare of a driveway that the city wants widened to 20 feet wide, plus a retaining wall, on a 20' wide easement. It's like the concept of basic math escapes them. 20' of paved driveway plus 2 feet of retaining wall, plus excavation layback on the hillside doesnt all fit on a 20 foot easement.

So a year ago the city planner told us to file a request to deviate from the code that requires the 20 feet. That entailed a year of research, environmental impact study, civil engineering, a "traffic study" where we paid an engineer to log traffic on the existing driveway which amounted to the neighbor going to and from work, a plan for speed limit and other safety signage, vehicle turn outs, etc. All to prove that 2 houses could be safely served by a 1 lane driveway. We had a real estate attorney involved, 160 hours of billable architect hours, we had neighbors write letters in support, we have examples of other projects around the city where this was allowed.

All so the city could simply reject what they told us to do on the basis of "not being in the public interest." These officials arent elected and arent accountable to anyone. They are clearly just F'ing with us now. The lawyer says that unfortunately we have no recourse. The city finally came back and said they "would consider alternate plans that are put forth" but they refuse to engage and tell us what those might be. It's up to us to guess at what they might find acceptable and "in the public interest" and just keep submitting over and over. These guys are crafty. Because they said they would consider alternatives they aren't telling us "You cant build", which would be illegal.

Our architect and builder have both sworn off ever doing another project in this city due to the hurdles and mismanagement. Our lawyer suspects the city officials are "on the take" as developers are throwing up houses right and left, but who could ever prove that.

So that's it, we just gave up. We now have a very expensive private park.

What a fucking nightmare! Glad you at least have a house.

My friend who bought some property in NC maybe a year after we bought our home has made some real progress finally. We went to go see the property a couple weeks ago and basically house is up. I think wiring is pretty much done all they have to do now is the actual finishing inside. Drywall, floors, kitchen, baths etc. So it's probably been like 2 years from the time he bought the land to now. Most of his delays are just building issues. I believe he's basically managing it himself and doing a lot of stuff himself also.

Yeah... don't see myself ever building anything. I think if I was you I would be looking for the worst possible thing I could do with that land to piss the city off.

[spazzyfry123]

Originally Posted by DETRoadster

Yep! All moved in. We moved over the 4th of July weekend. Closed on the sale of our old house in Seattle 3 weeks ago.

Oh, did I mention that we F'ing threw in the towel and just bought a house?

3 years in and we STILL dont have permits. We spent the last 12 months dicking around with trying to get a deviation approval to deal with this nightmare of a driveway that the city wants widened to 20 feet wide, plus a retaining wall, on a 20' wide easement. It's like the concept of basic math escapes them. 20' of paved driveway plus 2 feet of retaining wall, plus excavation layback on the hillside doesnt all fit on a 20 foot easement.

So a year ago the city planner told us to file a request to deviate from the code that requires the 20 feet. That entailed a year of research, environmental impact study, civil engineering, a "traffic study" where we paid an engineer to log traffic on the existing driveway which amounted to the neighbor going to and from work, a plan for speed limit and other safety signage, vehicle turn outs, etc. All to prove that 2 houses could be safely served by a 1 lane driveway. We had a real estate attorney involved, 160 hours of billable architect hours, we had neighbors write letters in support, we have examples of other projects around the city where this was allowed.

All so the city could simply reject what they told us to do on the basis of "not being in the public interest." These officials arent elected and arent accountable to anyone. They are clearly just F'ing with us now. The lawyer says that unfortunately we have no recourse. The city finally came back and said they "would consider alternate plans that are put forth" but they refuse to engage and tell us what those might be. It's up to us to guess at what they might find acceptable and "in the public interest" and just keep submitting over and over. These guys are crafty. Because they said they would consider alternatives they aren't telling us "You cant build", which would be illegal.

Our architect and builder have both sworn off ever doing another project in this city due to the hurdles and mismanagement. Our lawyer suspects the city officials are "on the take" as developers are throwing up houses right and left, but who could ever prove that.

So that's it, we just gave up. We now have a very expensive private park.

Holy smokes! That’s unreal. I can’t imagine what it’s like for such a large financial commitment to come up with no fruit. No recourse whatsoever? What are your options for the property at this point? Not sure if it is tongue-in-cheek for the “private park” comments, but I can’t see how anyone could build on it at this point.

Sorry bud! I’d be infuriated - as I imagine you are.

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by dreamingat30fps

I think if I was you I would be looking for the worst possible thing I could do with that land to piss the city off.

Oh we joke about it all the time. Motocross track, dog park, RV lot for Seattle's legions of drug addicted motorhome dwellers, off-season boat storage, etc. The problem is the neighbors are awesome and have become good friends. So finding something that pisses the city off without negatively impacting the neighbors is tough.

[DETRoadster]

Originally Posted by spazzyfry123

Holy smokes! That’s unreal. I can’t imagine what it’s like for such a large financial commitment to come up with no fruit. No recourse whatsoever? What are your options for the property at this point? Not sure if it is tongue-in-cheek for the “private park” comments, but I can’t see how anyone could build on it at this point.

Sorry bud! I’d be infuriated - as I imagine you are.

Thanks. It's pretty disheartening. We've invested s lot of time, energy, and money into this. The plan is to slow-roll the permitting as cheaply as possible. Try to get some sort of official response to a plan for the driveway. Then with that in hand, we put the property up for sale and hope a developer bites on it, on account of the hard stuff being done.

Now we just need to figure out how to move the tiny cabin we built up there to the new house!