I Dropped a Bomb on You

We met with our realtor last night to go over the marketing plan for selling our house (more on that later). I told him about the situation with the building line. He was totally and very visibly bummed, in part because I made it pretty clear this may well be a show stopper.

The situation has gotten a lot worse sounding since we first uncovered it. It turns out there is really no way around it other than to get a variance, which requires, among other things, the approval of the Neighborhood Association, which means it has to go before the neighbors themselves. We don't yet know the details of how this would be done, but any way you slice it I get the impression it could take a while. With our close date two weeks away this is turning out the be a major problem.

What we've been doing the past few days is trying to see what all of the scenarios are. Who really has to approve it, what is the best way (and best order) for getting all that done, how long will it really take, etc. Lots of questions that people don't have good, concrete answers for.

We have learned that the building commission was aware of the existing violation (the current deck is over the line), and it is documented. They believe, but aren't sure (I am not making this up) they contacted the owner some time ago, but they never heard any more about it and for whatever reason never followed up. Of course, now we've put it up on the radar screen again. One guy said that line is important for being able to get pond maintenance equipment in without disturbing the structure. He sounded like he could be someone who might fight it if we try to get a variance. Yikes!

Meanwhile we've gone back to the builder to see if he can work something up that will allow us to have a (smaller) screened porch without needing to go over this line. I am not a fan of this idea, but I think it's at least worth looking at to see if it could somehow be workable. We expect to hear back on that Friday.

So, it's really not looking good at the moment. I can't in good conscience close on this house knowing it is currently in violation of building code, with any doubts about being able to get the variance we'd require to move forward. All of that will take time to sort through.

Poor Chris (our realtor). He's going to dig in and see what he can do to help. And maybe he can, so there is some hope. He said we can ask for (and probably would get) one extension on the close date, but anything more than about three weeks wouldn't happen. That might buy us some time. I have my doubts if that would be enough. Because it's a short sale there's a relative lack of flexibility in what we can do, and communication is very difficult because of their bank's involvement (meaning they are very sloooooow).

This has really taken the wind out of our sails. We keep trying to pack and move forward with everything in case it does get worked out, but it's hard to keep skepticism from taking over.

Maybe the smaller plan will be acceptable. Maybe Chris can work some type of miracle. Maybe, as we continue to probe and talk to people we'll come up with some other angle.

Meanwhile we've started looking at listings again...