Office flip is a FLOP

  • 1hawghunter
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 699
    January 16, 2007 at 11:00 pm #1252993

    The wife and I bought a small house to turn into an office building. Got a great deal on it. Started gutting it out over the weekend and discovered serious issues. Okay, no problem, we just need to replace the east wall and the flooring in 3/4 of the building, tear off the roof and put a new one on. Better have the city look at it to make sure we are on the right track.
    City guy shows up today and takes a look. The floor joists are too small for comercial building and the footings are not deep enough. Now we have to tear down the whole building and start from scratch.

    The good news is there are no issues with going to the GTG this weekend.

    gjk1970
    Annandale Mn.
    Posts: 1260
    January 16, 2007 at 11:04 pm #523681

    Well that is too bad to hear, wish it could have went the way the plans were thought up… Lifes full of these type of lessons.!!!!
    Good luck with your new planning…

    1hawghunter
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 699
    January 16, 2007 at 11:15 pm #523691

    I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason. This must have happen in order for me to go fishing.

    shayla
    Posts: 1399
    January 17, 2007 at 1:51 am #523784

    Sorry to hear that, but it sounds like the property might be more valuable without that building on it! Good Luck at the GTG!

    broncosguy
    Blaine, MN
    Posts: 2106
    January 17, 2007 at 2:05 am #523791

    nope, we are all set for the GTG.

    bgrotte
    Rogers, MN
    Posts: 330
    January 17, 2007 at 2:12 am #523798

    Well at least you can design it the way you want it! I hope everything works out for you and your wife!

    impalapower
    Madison, WI
    Posts: 939
    January 17, 2007 at 3:55 am #523841

    Quote:

    sounds like the property might be more valuable without that building on it!

    Sounds true. Have the fire dept burn it down for practice and you’ll save some money on the teardown.

    1hawghunter
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 699
    January 17, 2007 at 4:10 am #523852

    I’d love to have it torched but there are several tall red pines around the building. Got the site for less than 1/2 of the asking price so things will still work out.

    impalapower
    Madison, WI
    Posts: 939
    January 17, 2007 at 1:47 pm #523970

    Well none the less, maybe there are some windows doors and studs that people want and they could tear some of it out. You know there is always someone looking for freebies.

    farmboy1
    Mantorville, MN
    Posts: 3668
    January 17, 2007 at 3:03 pm #523996

    Hawghunter,

    I have worked in commercial construction my whole life, and this is a new one to me. How can they tell how deep the footings are? Did they dig down and verify them? How can a City guy say how big the roof joists need to be without a structural engineer verifying the size, snow load, bearing capacity, etc.

    And an existing building should be grandfathered in, meaning it does not meet current code, but it did when it was built, and they cannot make you change it. Now if you are doing major remodel, they may make you upgrade a few things, but a complete tear down sounds a little harsh.

    I guess it all sounds a little funny to me, but there is problably more to the story then you relayed in this message. If you have any questions, PM me, I can maybe give you some advise beased on my experience.

    Sorry to ramble. Hope everything works out for you.

    Brent

    broncosguy
    Blaine, MN
    Posts: 2106
    January 17, 2007 at 3:30 pm #524011

    is it safe to assume we are going to hear about this all weekend. . j/k does not matter I do not think there is much tht could ruin this weekend. that stinks to hear as I know we were talking about that when we were planning the GTG housing and such.

    Broncs

    1hawghunter
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 699
    January 17, 2007 at 4:23 pm #524035

    The problem we have is that the building has been a residentail unit and now I am converting it to commercial. Differant codes apply. Time is against us as we need this project completed by the end of March so I can move my office in. Getting everyone organized to minimize down time is the key. I have 18 years in construction so can do alot of the work myself. Just need to get the OKAY from the city in order to proceed. Hope to have everything green lighted before I leave for Hunter’s.

    caincando1
    Dodge Center, MN/Alma,WI
    Posts: 302
    January 17, 2007 at 6:25 pm #524099

    Quote:

    The problem we have is that the building has been a residentail unit and now I am converting it to commercial. Differant codes apply. Time is against us as we need this project completed by the end of March so I can move my office in. Getting everyone organized to minimize down time is the key. I have 18 years in construction so can do alot of the work myself. Just need to get the OKAY from the city in order to proceed. Hope to have everything green lighted before I leave for Hunter’s.

    Rezoning explains a lot. Best of luck.

    1hawghunter
    Grand Rapids, MN
    Posts: 699
    January 17, 2007 at 9:02 pm #524225

    Had to make a plot plan to include all tree locations and identify which ones we were going to remove. Now the city development and zoning guys will review it this afternoon and tell me if I can go ahead or not. They sure like making a guy jump through a bunch of hoops.

    farmboy1
    Mantorville, MN
    Posts: 3668
    January 17, 2007 at 11:43 pm #524330

    Those cities love their “Green space”

    Sorry to hear about the problems. Hope it all goes well for you

Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.