Real Estate Roulette

[Sharkey]

As several people have asked how the search for a new home is going, here's some additional info on that front.

Mostly, nothing is happening, other than I watch the adverts like a hawk and a couple of the less lazy realtors are sending me some listings to look at. Most of these I can write off without seeing them in person. Properties in incorporated areas, adjacent to highways, too small of lots, subdivisions, gated communities and stuff just too far out of my price range.

Here's some copy-and-paste from emails to friends in Waldport who are helping me look:

(The MLS numbers can be looked up on this web site, just enter the 7 digit number and you can view photos, maps, prices, etc.)

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April 8, 2006:

Spent all day Wednesday looking around Florence south of the river. Drove all the way to the east shore of Siltcoos Lake, it's big! Tiny roads and even tinier towns. Ada Crossing, anyone? At one point, the road goes through the yard of a house on the lake, like two feet from the side of the house and between it and the garage! Nothing really for sale, but a nice drive. Makes me want lakefront property.

Found one place for sale on Canary Road I didn't know about. 12 acres, a septic in need of replacement, spring water, outbuildings and a horse arena, no house. $585k. Yeah, right.

Cleawox Lake was a bust. The neighborhood was crowded and dumpy, and you'd have to love two-stroke engines with expansion chamber exhaust to live there.

Stopped into office to see if Dan (realtor) was in to ask him about the $585 property (didn't know the price at that point). He was out so I talked to Janellen (realtor), a pleasant young woman who owns 20 horses (about 19 too many). Gave her my interests and let her know that I wasn't too impressed with the service that the brokerage had provided so far. She said that Dan and the other established agents didn't bother much with properties less than $500k anymore, and that she would work for me to find something. I've actually gotten a few listings from her, so maybe I've finally found someone hungry enough to want my money.

Drove around Mercer lake before heading back to the big smoke. Too tired, you know the rest.

Need to make some phone calls. I know someone who has 40 acres on the north shore of Siltcoos that were subdivided but Lane County wouldn't let him do anything with them. Apparently measure 37 now allows him to sell and develop them. Might be something in it for me...

More later (assuming that I don't burn out my brain driving).

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April 13, 2006:

Trip to Florence yesterday. Here's a copy-and-paste from a message to Janellen (realtor), who seems to be on-the-job at looking for a place for me.

MLS 6915824 / TL614 North Fork RD
5 acres, river view, bare land
Great view of the river from this site, but not a lot of level ground, and basically zero privacy from the large house overlooking the lot. Would be a stunning place for a big house backed into the hill facing the view.

MLS 6916664 / TL302 Dahlin RD
6 acres, lake view, bare land
OMG!!! Million dollar views! Three-hundred-and-sixty-degrees of eye candy from Enchanted Valley all the way to the ocean. Pity the rest of the place is such a dump. This property begs for an owner who will build a showpiece home on the top of the ridge that can take advantage of all that view, then completely landscape and restore the tortured soil. As it stands now, the homesite and immediate area is a scarified clear cut that's been attacked by a bulldozer and left to scab over. I need a place that's a little more sheltering than a wind-swept ridge top and more nurturing with some trees and comfortable privacy. After viewing the County tax maps, I wouldn't mind going back and seeing what the arm that connects to the lake looks like.

Otherwise, I drove all around the north shore of Mercer Lake and the Sutton and Buck Lake areas. Oh, and I repaired the transmitter at the radio station while I was in town. I'll probably be back next week to have a look around the Tahkenitch area. 16 days until I close.

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April 15, 2006

Thursday I talked with Jim, a communications guy whom I've known for years. He has 40+ acres on Siltcoos Lake that he bought in the 1970's. The whole story is too long to relate, but he divided it up into lots, then the county screwed with him on zoning and the state stepped in and downzoned the area. Now he's using measure 37 to fight back in court.

The 5 acre parcels have water and electricity, but are very steep and only suitable for daylight basement construction. They also have CC&R's and Jim says "there's no way to move onto one of the them in a Housebus". He understands my lifestyle. There's a 14 acre parcel to the south that has no use restrictions, but he can't sell that one until his appeal comes out the other end of the court system.

I asked him if he knew of any places of any sort that I could rent/lease while I looked for property to buy and he told me that he does have one lot at the end of the road with power and water that I could squat down on for a time. I asked about pasture and he said we'd have to go talk to his neighbor who has something like 100 acres on the peninsula jutting out into the lake. Jim says there is pasture on his property and even an old cabin. Maybe I can rent that?

I'll be going back over Wednesday to meet up with Jim (he also has a house on the shore of the lake below the properties) and do a tour of the lots. Nothing may come of this, but it's more feelers and leads out there, more chances of the word going into the right ear.

I haven't given up on Yachats/Waldport, it's just that I've had little one-day openings to go to Florence, and I've had some work for the radio station there, so it made sense to check out the area. I've also finally gotten the suspension/wheels/tires issues with my car sorted out (well, almost, I need to buy new tires), so I at least can drive over there without feeling like the left front wheel is going to fall off. The repairs to the steering column have made the horrible clunking that I experienced on gravel roads disappear, so I can better explore the back roads.

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I got interrupted before I had a chance to send this yesterday morning. Just before noon, I got a call from Dale (realtor) in Florence, Jim gave him my name. We talked for a while and I told him what I was looking for, area, etc. In the afternoon, he sent me 14 listings to look at. I had seen them all, which includes some that I've sent you reviews and listings of. I mailed him back with a critique of each property, complete with my reviews of the ones I'd seen. His response was to send another 13 listings. Wow, a real estate agent who actually tries to sell properties! I'll be staying in close contact with this guy! He also brought up capital gains, and asked what I was going to do to avoid them. Turns out he has an associate who is one of the leading experts in CG law, and he's going to ask about my specific situation. Could be good on more than one front.

I have to go to Florence tomorrow (Monday), as the radio station got hit by lightning again. I was also planning on being over there Wednesday, so I may have a lot of opportunity to cruise and peruse. I'll let you now what/if I find anything interesting.

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April 15, 2006
Reviews of listings sent to me by Dale:

MLS 6916462 / 89581 HWY 101
House, yard, shop building
I was actually pretty excited about this listing when it was first brought to my attention by my Portland realtor (the one who sold my Eugene property). Then I found out that it was adjacent to Highway 101, and that killed the deal right there. I won't consider any property that has continuous traffic noise, which leaves out anything within earshot of 101, 126, etc. My major dissatisfaction with my Eugene property is/was traffic noise. I have ~very~ sensitive hearing.

MLS 6021191 / 5455 Sunny Acres Rd.
3BR premanufactured home on 5 acres
The owner of the radio station just bought the 33 acres that surround this property. I will be involved in the development of a new broadcast transmitting facility on the acreage. This property suffers from the traffic noise problem in a big way (for me, anyway).

MLS 6021209 / 88893 TWIN LAKES CT,
MLS 6916660 / 88452 COLLARD LAKE RD,
MLS 6018642 / 5270 FISK ST,
MLS 6916674 / 85380 GLENADA RD
These don't meet my minimum lot size. I might be willing to look at the Glenada property, if only to see what $300k buys.

MLS 6916650 / 6895 Canary RD
"Horse Property", house, shop, barn, 5 acres
I did a drive-by on this property on April 5th. My impression from the street was that it was crowded onto a hillside with several other residences and that privacy was going to be an issue. If you are familiar with this property and tell me that I need to take a closer look, I'm open to a tour.

MLS 6916456 / 85315 Hemlock ST
Lot size too small, a bit too grand of a house for my purposes.

MLS 6915650 / 4884 N Loftus
Another property that I had very high hopes for. The neighborhood is a bit dumpy (who am I to talk), but the stake through the heart was hearing all of the two-stroke dirt bikes and ATV's on the dune at Honeyman. Traffic noise of a different sort, I've written Cleawox Lake off the list.

MLS 6916771 / 87282 Hadsall Creek RD
MLS 6916501 / 8361 DUNCAN ISLAND RD
Mapelton is "out of the zone" (2-6 miles inland)

MLS 6916615 / 16092 Hwy 36
Deadwood is out of the zone, and you have to like the sound of helicopters buzzing you all summer looking for pot farms.

MLS 6916655 /11525 E Mapleton Rd
Out of the zone. Didn't I see a canoe tied to the stairs of this place when I came over right after New Years?

MLS 6916676 / 9540 North Fork
I did a drive-by of this property April 5th. My SOP impression from the road was that it was a bit far from town, perhaps kind of dark in the winter, and probably had a too small flat area for the homesite. The plat map seems to indicate that half of the property is very steep (north side of road). There is a bit too much house, and the price is a bit over my head. I would tour this house to get a better impression, but I'd not get my own hopes up about it. Have you actually seen this property?

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So, you can see that I've been putting some time into finding a place, but it seems the proper place hasn't come up yet. Got to keep looking. 13 days remaining.

[Stillphil]

Wow, doncha hate time pressure when something big is at stake? Of course, with some folks if there isn't a deadline they will never be motivated to do anything.

So you're looking for a place to build or buy a house? No more housebuses for you, eh? Guess it comes to 'bout everyone, eventually.

Best of luck in your search!

Phil

[Sharkey]

No more housebuses for you, eh? Guess it comes to 'bout everyone, eventually

No, wrong. Purchasing a place with a house on it has two purposes. One is to have a habitable dwelling to use as a guest house. No one is ever going to come visit me if they have to sleep in a tent out in the winter rain.

The second reason is that a house pretty much insures that the utilities are all installed and working, and there is a occupancy permit on the property. I am considering bare ground if the perfect place comes along, but I'm not all that keen on having to do all the development myself, dealing with the county on zoning, getting permits and inspections, etc. An existing house means that I move my bus and Housetruck in and get right to the business of not living in the city. No inspectors, neighbors or law enforcement can come along and give me any flak about "you can't live in a vehicle here", because I can point at the house and tell them I live inside it, not the bus/truck.

I'm actually much more interested in any shop, barn, or enclosed agricultural buildings on the property I purchase. I'm damned tired of working on my car and other projects in the dirt, dropping small parts under the car and never finding them in the gravel, getting rained on, and freezing my ass off 6-8 months of the year. Time for an insulated, enclosed, heated shop building. If I find the right property and it doesn't have a shop, then I'll build one.

When it's all said and done, though, I'll still be living in the Housetruck until the Crown is far enough along, at which point I'll move over into it. Housetrucking has always been the right thing for me, and I'm not changing that this late in life.

[Forgottenhighway]

Sharkey,
Why don't you consider moving to the beautiful eastern Oregon desert ? plenty of space, CHEAPER, so quiet you think you've gone deaf..are you tied to Eugene for work reasons ?

Cheers, Pat

[Sharkey]

Pat;

I'm tied to Eugene out of habit more than anything else, I think. That and the fact that I owned this place and wasn't finding anyone willing to buy it for what I thought it was worth. I tried selling in 1994, and the real estate agents I talked to all wanted to make a fast buck and move on to the next client, not caring how I came out in the deal. One even told me that he was low-balling the price to a developer friend so that he could re-sell it later after it was subdivided!

Tried selling again in 1998 to one of the most wealthy (and evil) developers in the area who owned and was planning on developing the two acres next door. He was offended at my asking price of $298k and cussed me out on the phone. I hung up on him and upped my asking price another $10k.

Last year, after they began building the McMansion next door, I knew the time had come to get out, no matter how much (or little) I sold for. Fortunately, the owner of the new house recognized the value of the land (with the help of a competing buyer) and took the bait, leaving me off the hook. All that is detailed in another thread here.

AE. Oregon? Yeah, I'm kind of partial to that high desert thing. I grew up spending very weekend that I could at my grandparents place in the Mojave desert. I understand the arid climate, and love the open spaces and absolute quiet. I've spent a weekend each year camping in John Day and it brings back a lot of memories. I actually own 5 acres near Apple Valley, California, although I have no desire to live on that particular property.

The thing is, I have a very strong connection to the ocean, one which I want to explore fully. I want fresh air directly off the Pacific. I want the moderating influence of all that salt water on the temperatures. I've had my fill of freezing and overly hot weather. While it's not a problem over the Cascades, I'm fed up with grey, cloudy winter days filled with pollution from the temperature inversion, and I've begun to develop mild allergies to all the pollen here. All this and there are way too damned many people here who are becoming more rude. The traffic, while tame compared to some places, is getting worse every day.

I have no delusions that I will be able to completely disconnect myself from the Eugene metro area, so living within a reasonable driving distance is necessary. This is where anyone living between Salem and the California border has to come for affordable building materials, medical and professional services, automotive parts and repairs, cultural events, and all the rest.

[maddog80]

Sharkey,

Just found your site a few weeks and had to read the bus conversion and ev pusher sagas from start to finish. Excellent!

I will be just as interested in your property search as I am looking for similar attributes - private, quiet and no zoning. When my lease is up next March I'm going to move into an old RV and modify it underway while I look for property. I want raw land off grid since it should be the cheapest. (Planning solar/wind, compost or septic, rainwater catchment or well if I have to.) Throw up a metal building, build a small apartment inside and have all the shop space I can handle. (You have probably guessed that there is no Mrs. maddog... ) Clearly lack of zoning, codes and covenants etc. is important.

I am partial to the mountains so I'll be looking in CO, MT, ID, UT, NM, WY and AZ. (Alaska is my first choice and I don't mind the cold but the winter darkness is too much.)

So please keep us updated on your search. I've learned a lot from your other activities so I'm sure I'll pick up a lot from your real estate search.

Thanks,

maddog80

[Sharkey]

Hi maddog, welcome to the forum. About all you will learn from my experiences is what doesn't work. So far, realtors are in the 'doesn't work' column. Half a step up from lawyers as far as I can tell.

Today's news is that I went back to the coast, and it was such a beautiful day that I spent almost four hours of it on a remote beach not looking for property.

The property owned by "Jim" probably isn't going to pan out, it's all pretty steep, fairly dark, not much privacy, and has use restrictions.

While I was talking with Jim, he mentioned the old homestead up past the end of the road, mentioned it several times in fact. That there was 300 acres owned by two brothers who inherited it, and that they don't live there, no one does. The property is on a peninsula that juts out into the lake. There are pastures, orchards, and apparently a cabin or two. The brothers live nearby, but only use the property for the occasional camping outing a couple of times a year.

I asked Jim in an off-the-wall manner if he thought that the brothers would be interested in renting me a place to park the truck and bus for a couple of years, assuming that I didn't find a place to buy. He didn't know, but said he'd approach the bros and see if they had any interest.

I'm almost afraid to even think about it, it's too good to be true. This property has over a mile of private lake frontage. Living there would be a lot of work, there's no electricity (make my own), water comes from a spring, I'd have to improvise shelter for my tools and such. The payoff would be absolute privacy ten minutes from town with a huge bass lake for my front yard.

Renting this, or another place would allow me to experience the area firsthand, and let me defer purchase of a new property perhaps until I have the entire purchase amound of my property plus the interest on the note I'm carrying. Maybe that would be enough to find a place to buy?

I'm not particularly religious, although I believe in faith. If any of you wants to pray for this to come true for me, I'm not going to complain. There's kind of a strange magic energy building around this lake and the area there. Reminds me of Prakash's private valley which I visited in 1988. Miracles happen, maybe one will happen to me this time.

[Griff]

Hi maddog, welcome to the forum. About all you will learn from my experiences is what doesn't work. . .

What more could we ask for but to know beforehand what DOESN'T work, so we can rule that stuff out right off!

While I was talking with Jim, he mentioned the old homestead up past the end of the road. . .

Sounds like a really sweet piece of real estate, the kind ya dream about having (i.e. some day when I'm independently wealthy ).

I'm not particularly religious, although I believe in faith. If any of you wants to pray for this to come true for me, I'm not going to complain. . .

My family has added you to our prayer list. Sometimes the answers aren't what we expect, but they are always what is best for us and our lives.

[maddog80]

Sharkey,

I hope that they respond positively for that rental. It sounds perfect for your current situation. You might want to present yourself as an asset i.e. a caretaker/game warden for their valuable but under used property. Of course your footprint will be light and you will leave the property better for your presence.

In my opinion, we are just past the peak values for real estate in this cycle. Your money may go further in a couple of years. That's why I'm going to take a couple of years looking for land that I like but no one else wants. (=cheap).

Good luck with it.

maddog80

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

A few years ago I bought 50 acers woods in Caribou Maine for $25,900.00 It's a nice piec of land for that money.

[Sharkey]

Had to make my third trip this week to work on the radio station, so at the end of the day, I decided to have a walk around part of the property that Jim is supposed to be helping me rent. -=OMG!!!=- A lot of the place is a mess because of recent logging, in fact, there are piles of logs and debris all over the place, and it will be a while before it heals over, but the areas that weren't logged are fantastic!

Walked in from a ridge top trail so that I could get a view. One tree that the loggers left is a huge cedar that must have stood above the rest of the forest. High in the branches is a weathered tree house. I was a bit short on time to do any exploring there, but imaging spending calm summer nights up in the branches with a full view of the lake illuminated by a full moon!!!

One side path lead to a small beach directly at the point of the peninsula. There were rustic campsites, a BBQ grille, some plastic milk crates stacked up as shelves in an alcove of trees, all the markings of a seasonal fishing camp:



Hiking back up the hill to the homesite (more on that later), I took an easterly road that seemed to lead along the south end of the property, along the shore of the lake. I eventually came to a large meadow with another beach with the remnants of a dock. A rustic fishing shack was under construction. This site was on the eastern side of the property, but not all the way. The tax maps show that there is a private cove to the east of this site, but I didn't have time to explore that.





It was getting towards early evening, and I still had to walk out of the property and drive 65 miles home, so I quickened the pace back to the main road.

The old homesite was splendid. The original house had been demolished and the debris burned, but the orchard and some of the ornamental shrubbery remained, as did the large, open meadow. A six or eight bay agricultural shed is in good repair, with some on-site sawn lumber stacked in stickers, an ancient Caterpillar tractor, fence T-posts and barbed wire, and other materials neatly stacked under the cover. Part of the building is enclosed, but I made no attempt to see inside. The hedgerows around the site are littered with useable material, like a large poly water tank that could be righted and used as a water supply.



The logging had come close to this site, but had also opened up the southern view to the lake. It would be a magnificent place to set up a solar power array. This site is everything I ever hoped to find in a property, large or small. It makes my heart ache to think of it sitting disused while I lay awake at night trying to figure out what I am going to do for a place to live in seven days. I want to call Jim and yell into the phone: "Have you called these guys yet??? What did they say???"

The quiet, privacy and lake views are amazing. If by some chance I did get to rent a place here, I don't know if I could ever leave.

[Dudley]

What a spot! Good luck with your dealings with them. I will cross my fingers and toes for you.

[Griff]

That place looks FANTASTIC! I sure do hope everything comes together for you to be able to move there! (I love seeing good things happen for people.) Maybe you could sweeten the deal by offering to clean up some of the logging mess if you are able and have the means to. Some of the knock-downs / leftovers could be used for firewood, etc.

[Sharkey]

Oxygen, I need oxygen! I can barely breathe....

Jim called back this afternoon and said that the owner of the property I described above is interested!!! I don't know any more than that at this point, but he didn't say 'no', and he wants to meet up and find out more.

I've been feeling pressure build up over the last few weeks. For the last few days, I could hardly stand it, I felt like desperation could overtake me without even trying.

This morning, I called the buyer of my property to arrange signing the closing documents, possession, and rent-back. He said that they want to close tomorrow, but that they had no plans to do anything with my place right away and that I could stay here for the foreseeable future, paying rent month-to-month until I find a new place to live.

After that, I went out and sat quietly in the yard, feeling the grass under me and the sun on my face. Suddenly, it seemed like I could come out of this alright.

Then Jim called. Now it feels like all the energy that I put into searching has yielded a result, and the pressure of not knowing what I was going to do is giving way to an amazing opportunity that I could only imagine in my wildest fantasies. 300 acres of privacy with a lake view thrown in for good measure! Looks like I will have to buy a boat!!!

There is still a lot to figure out. I have to meet the property owner, find out where on the land he will allow me to set up, whether or not the building on the old homesite will be available for me to use, how much (if any) rent he wants, etc. If the energy continues to flow, I could be running in a state of grace for a long time to come.

I have to stick around the city this week, as I'm covering for two engineer friends who are in Las Vegas at a convention (I'm responsible for keeping 11 radio stations on the air right now), but I'll be going back over next Wednesday to meet with Jim and probably tour more of the property. The eastern part I haven't seen apparently had a sawmill on it at one time, and the properties adjacent to the place, which are owned by other parties, don't have a road, they have to use the lake and a boat for access.

More photos as I take them....

[Stillphil]

Sharkey,
All fingers crossed for you! Best of luck.

Stillphil