A Fool And Their Money....

....are soon parted

A little background for those that don't live in Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona is a 'new' city. It was established about 100 years ago, but really didn't start to 'grow' until 1947. In the last 50 years it has grown into the 5th largest city in the United States.

Because it is so 'new' there isn't a lot of history or culture here. Most of the suburbs were created long after the concept of building a custom house fell out of fashion. Most of the 'burbs' here are considered 'ticky-tac' houses. Which are mass-produced developments, with each house having the same floor plan, with every 3rd house rotated 45 degrees so they all don't look the same.

Many of these developments are governed by Home Owner Associations (HOA) and not by cities or counties. Most of the houses are built with pretty unskilled labor and consist mostly of timber, particle board (thick cardboard) and stucco (sprayed on plaster). All the houses are required to look the same, with the same pre-approved paint scheme and window treatments.

So in order to preserve what little of the historic past we have, the City of Phoenix has designated some downtown neighborhoods and 'Historic'. These are homes that were built prior to World War II, that are what we consider today to be 'custom built'. That is to say each house is different with its own floor plan and design. My wife and I live in one of these neighborhoods called Encanto / Palmcroft.

So much for the background to the story.

One of the stipulations of living in an historic district is that you CAN'T CHANGE THE HOUSE! You have to leave the facade of the house intact to preserve the historic look and feel of the neighborhood. You can paint it any color you want and you can plant a gazillion shrubs in your yard, but you had better not replace the original windows or add an addition to the side of the building. That is a BIG no-no.

So it is always amusing when we spy one of the neon green notices (see above) pasted to the front of a house in our neighborhood. Let me explain what this means.

Someone, who considers themselves to be pretty smart, was able to get their hands on $200,000. This is what it would take to put a down payment on house in Encanto / Palmcroft that is below 1500 square feet. The prices here are still pretty high here because there are only so many of these houses available.

Their plan was to buy the house (which was probably in foreclosure), spend about $50,000 fixing it up so they could 'flip it' and sell it for $500,000, which is what a restored 1500 square foot house in Encanto / Palmcroft usually goes for.

Only problem is, they weren't as smart as they thought. Money is sort of like tequila, it makes you think you are smarter than you really are. Whoever this bozo was didn't understand or bother to look into the rules and regulations regarding historic neighborhoods in Phoenix. Take a look at the picture below to see just how much of a hole this moron has dug himself.



This is the house. It used to have a low block wall separating the front patio area from the lawn and garden. Mr. New Homeowner didn't like the old block wall, so out comes the jack hammer and down goes the wall. Two days later, the neon green sticker appears in the window. That was almost 2 months ago, and nothing has been done to the home since.

The corner that this new homeowner has painted himself into leaves him with two options:

Option A: He can go to the city with the original plans for the house (before he demolished it) and submit the architectural drawings for how he planned to modify the structure to show that the new structure would be in line with the original appearance of the home, plus pay a fine. Total cost would be around $15,000 and the process takes about 3 months. Even then, there is no guarantee that the city will approve the changes.

Option B: He can reassemble the wall to its original condition, thereby restoring the structure to its original appearance before he purchased it....and still pay a fine. In which case he would be right back where he started, three months gone and less the money for the rebuilding and the fine.

The end result of all this? This homeowner will most likely walk away from the house and abandon it, at which point it will go into foreclosure. We have seen this happen to several houses in our neighborhood after 'speculators' came in with a wallet full of cash and aspirations of making a quick buck by flipping a house.

So if anyone wants a really cute little fixer upper in a really nice neighborhood, close to downtown, the library, Chase Field and the Light Rail, it will probably be on the market, dirt cheap, in about 9 to 15 months.

To see what this darling little house looked like before the 'Moron Flipper' got his hands on it, click the blog title or click here. You can also just do a google map search of the address and look at it in street view, 1126 West Palm Lane, Phoenix, Arizona.