Comments on: Alone home: Minneapolis adds 250 houses to its vacant properties list in only six months

By: helenforu

helenforu — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:29:59 +0000

Now a days it has been a problem of loan givers. And thats why everyone is thinking about the investment they do.
Loan givers are changing hands and so no one dares to. Thats the reason all the homes left without getting sold.

By: mollypriesmeyer

mollypriesmeyer — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:31:41 +0000

I fantasize about that every day, too, Robin, seeing as how I took out a second mortgage at the wrong time to redo a kitchen (that never happened), and am now under water in my home and paying the mortgage by myself, which was also never part of the plan. I would hate to leave this place: I've put so much work into it, and I love my neighborhood. But I might not have a choice.

By: robinmarty

robinmarty — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:35:07 +0000

I think that's what they are planning for Columbia Heights, too (which I'm really close to). Which is strange since I thought Columbia Heights was more rental anyway.

I must admit I have a fantasy of renting my place out and buying a new cheap house. We bought at the absolute worse time, and try to remind ourselves that the house only loses value if you sell it, But buying your first house is like having your first relationship — you move too fast, there's tons of flaws the longer you are there, and no matter how badly you want out you always are going to be stuck there too long.

Learning experience, I guess…

By: mollypriesmeyer

mollypriesmeyer — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:33:03 +0000

Thanks for the great info, Connie. That paints a clearer pictures of the difficulty these neighborhoods with condemned homes face.

Just to clarify, this is a list of the city's homes that are registered as vacant, and includes some (nearly 60 percent) that have are both vacant and condemned.

By: wabbit

wabbit — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:24:24 +0000

Saint Paul has a new policy in light of the number of foreclosures. They are making an initial inspection of registered vacant houses and allowing those that are in compliance to continue on the market as is, which accounts for about half. There is a second category that requires any buyer to be able to get them into compliance, and the city has low cost loan programs to help with that. Only the very worst are subject to the old rules, namely that they have to be fully in compliance before they are even listed.

The old policy, while a bit draconian, was done to prevent flipping of trashed houses by unscrupulous people. This was far more of a problem than you might think. Since so much good housing stock was temporarily winding up on the vacant building registry, they decided to separate them.

By: ranty

ranty — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:00:29 +0000

Nope, I haven't heard of anything like that. You can sell a home as-is, but single-family and duplexes must have a Truth in Sale of Housing inspection prior to being placed on the market. Any buyer who chooses to purchase such a home needs to sign an acceptance of responsibility with respect to “required repair/replace” items on that report. They then have 90 days from acquisition to complete those repairs.

In the case of a condemned property, it's a bit more of a pain. The buyer must post a (refundable) $2k bond with the city and then complete all orders listed on the city's “code compliance” form. They have six months to complete the work and obtain a certificate of occupancy. (So the big difference aside from the $2k is that you can still move in to a property with outstanding TISH items, but not with outstanding code compliance orders, unless you specifically lobby the city and receive special permission… which has been done in at least a few cases.)

As for my opinion – I think that any ordinance which required sellers to fix everything up before selling would be a disaster. It's simply not possible – what if the owner dies and you have an estate-sale situation? What if it's corporate owned? I can't see it working. Also, there are currently loads and loads of properties for sale in St. Paul which are labeled “as-is” and/or boarded up… so if there's a rule about sellers having to fix up a place before selling it must be pretty darn new.

By: robinmarty

robinmarty — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:40:46 +0000

ranty, do you know if Mpls is planning on doing anything like st paul where you have to do an inspection and fix all the issues with a house before you put it on the market, and, if so, how that might affect things here?

By: ranty

ranty — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:35:41 +0000

Yes indeed, the number of vacant homes these days has become overwhelming, and their impact on neighbors is often distressingly negative. I would stop short at calling them all “abandoned” though, particularly as many are currently for sale or will be at some point in the future. Also, it is important to note that the city's condemnation policy allows for perfectly good (condition-wise) homes to be placed upon that list. A home can be condemned by the city for something as little as having the utilities shut off, or perhaps for being boarded. (And a home may be boarded in order to keep illegal occupancy from ocurring – even while there is nothing else particularly wrong with the building.) Contrary to what the word might seem to imply, condemnation in Minneapolis does NOT mean the building needs to be demolished.

By: helenforu

helenforu — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

By: mollypriesmeyer

mollypriesmeyer — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I fantasize about that every day, too, Robin, seeing as how I took out a second mortgage at the wrong time to redo a kitchen (that never happened), and am now under water in my home and paying the mortgage by myself, which was also never part of the plan. I would hate to leave this place: I’ve put so much work into it, and I love my neighborhood. But I might not have a choice.