Integer Homes

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My least favourite lot has been sitting on the market for years

Here is another noteworthy infill ‘opportunity’, emphasis on the quotation marks. This lot has been gathering dust on the mls based on two factors. Most obvious, the ludicrous valuation. Second, the hideous overhead hazard issue. Nobody will want to buy this and take on the liability that is built into it. Even worse is the liability is on the neighbouring side. That creates another problem in dealing with someone who may or may not be cooperative, yet cooperation is imperative to resolving the problem. Solving the hazard isn’t a value add for the builder it is more like a large cash transfer to the adjacent property in the form of necessary improvements. There could be a price that this makes sense to consider, but that price is way less than the seller would want to hear.

This slanty block wall is ready to fall over, but when a builder wants to cut a 9 ft hole immediately beside it (actually under it is most likely) this becomes a profoundly dangerous problem. What the solution appears to be is to remove the wall and regrade the side yard lower to the neighbors house. Then put in the new house basement walls. Then rebuild a very expensive retaining wall while an 8 ft access corridor exists between the houses and fill in both sides. How do you build a retaining wall against newly disturbed soil that is way deeper than the base of the wall would be? And then fence and landscape the area from the new retaining wall back to the existing house. Let’s throw out a number to do this $30k-$40, more? Given the pitfalls and headaches with this process, the time and effort involved, most builders will pass on this site and find a better lot elsewhere. Will this land ever sell?