Two townhouses of Montgomery, alike in convenience- should they be marketed as such?

In My Humble Opinion
1

This is particularly a question for Dopers who are realtors or have experience in real estate development/investments, though all opinions are welcome.

My next door neighbors (who, in a proud American tradition, I don’t know) have just put their townhouse up for sale. It shares a wall with my own. Mine’s not for sale yet but I intend to once I make some repairs and improvements and put it up for sale this spring.

So, our neighborhood borders the Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park, a huge complex that includes the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (the largest/best endowed repertory theater in North America) and The Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts (where I walk my dogs- its grounds are a 30 second walk and the quite attractive museum itself about another minute’s walk.

Montgomery is one of the most affordable housing markets in the nation. This area of town is not the “IN” neighborhood but it’s solid middle class and holding firm (the WMBC Park assures that nothing will ever be built there and that there will always be some value), and the neighborhood bordering the Cultural Park is all townhouses and they average in the $100K range. However, being townhouses, none are particularly large (they average about 1200 to 1800 square feet with most, like mine, falling in the 1,500 area) and they have small back yards. They’re comfortable enough, especially for families without small kids (which most families in this are are- lots of divorcees/childless married couples/retirees/empty nesters/etc.), but they’re not large.

NOW, if you go a few miles into one of the nouveau riche neighborhoods you’ll find ticky tacky McMansions starting in the $300-$400 K range and going way up from there. (Ironically, one of the highest percentages of foreclosures in Montgomery is the above $500,000 market, because the homes aren’t that impressive and the pool to buy them is so small and so many of the owners were in mortgage up to their eyeballs.) The McMansion area is convenient to nothing really other than other ticky tacky McMansions, upscale strip malls, and Starbucks stores.*

But it occurs- someone with the money could buy both townhomes (mine and my neighbors), knock out a wall or two, join the back yards and by sacrificing a parking space or two (there are 2 parking spaces in the rear of each house) even make a decent sized swimming pool, and you’d have by far the largest house and largest pool in town that was in walking distance of the Shakespeare Festival and renovations and all it would cost less than an equal sized lawyer-foyer mansionette in Pleasant Valley Sunday Estates nearby (and while Pleasant Valley Sunday is only going to be an “in” neighborhood for a few years the Cultural Park is always going to be there). It could probably be done for well under $300,000 (that’s purchase, renovations, remodelling, everything), the price at which the Ticky Tacky Pleasant Valley Mansionettes start, and you’d have a really cool house unique in both size and location.)

Does this sound like something that should be marketed or not? It’s rare for two adjacent townhouses to come up for sale in this area and this street is among the closest to the Cultural Park. Or do you think it’s better just to let the two sell separately?

*There are currently just over 8500 Starbucks locations in the nation and just under 13,000 McDonalds locations. It is estimated that within a decade there will be more Starbucks stores in the U.S. than there will be McDonalds, and that by 2050 there will be more Starbucks stores on Earth than there are humans.

2

“Cool and unique” houses often have problems reselling. House purchases are made as often for cultural and social proximity reasons to be like kind status neighbors and specific schools as they are for shelter.

A person buying the house is going to be someone in a socio-economic strata who can afford a $ 300,000 house in your market, and doesn’t mind living next to people who may be a in substantially lower strata. This matters more in purchase decisions than you might think. What you are proposing is fine if you intend to live in it forever, otherwise you may be creating a difficult to sell residential white elephant.

3

Is there a homeowners association of any sort in this townhouse cluster? This sounds like something that would be turned down by an association right away, partly because of astro’s forward thinking and partly because HOAs are persnickety.

4

I’ve heard of people doing that with duplexes, but not townhouses. Our second-choice house in Pittsburgh was a duplex that had been converted to a single-family house.

5

I’ve always heard that it’s better to have the cheapest home in the neighborhood than the most expensive. I don’t think it would sell well with that concept.

StG

6

astro makes a good point. But don’t underestimate the conversion costs, either. You have probably two mirror-image townhouses, and you don’t want to end up with a Siamese twin. You’d have to take out a kitchen, a heating/cooling system, maybe a bathroom, you’d have to integrate two sets of plumbing, two sets of wiring, etc. All of that sounds like $100 grand to me – which is basically the amount extra you think two conjoined units are worth.

7

I would think you would NOT want to own the most expensive house in the neighborhood. To do comparables would be difficult and inaccurate. Plus if you can afford $300k would you want to live in a neighborhood of $100k houses? I think most people would not.

Also the wall between the units is very likely a load bearing wall, so you will need to deal structurally with that as well. It can be done, but again I would think twice about this deal if it was me.

8

No.

If you had a single family home that was converted into a duplex, and you wanted to convert it back, maybe. Still can be a major pain in the ass.

Side by side townhome? No.

Not worth the bother or expense of conversion, difficult to resell.

If it was in an absolutely fabulous location, you’d still be better off ripping both down, and starting over.

9

The reason we didn’t buy the converted duplex is that it had some temporary supports shoved in in the basement (probably to replace the wall between the units) that were holding up some sagging beams. We were rather nervous about the long-term stability of the house. It’s still on the market now, a year after they put it up for sale. IANAReal estate expert, but that’s longer than a typical house in the same neighborhood stays on the market.

10

Eh, it was a passing thought.

A better idea then might be to market it to somebody who wants side-by-side properties for investment or for their deranged wife and her keeper.

11

I can tell you who might be interested in an arrangement like what you’re describing - small businesses who could use them for offices. My work’s last office was an arrangement exactly like that - two terrace houses side by side with the walls knocked out of the middle.

Naturally I know precisely zip about the real estate dynamics of Montgomery, but it’s a thing I’ve noticed in a couple of different towns(/countries) that as a city starts growing the inner “townhouse” neighborhoods start getting too expensive for couples and families and start turning into doctors surgeries and lawyers offices and internet startups - mostly on the main roads to start off with, but then infiltrating the more residential parts.

Of course, if that’s not already going on in the neighborhood then - eh - forget it. But I wouldn’t have thought there was much of a cost involved in at least putting out feelers for your idea - isn’t it simply a matter of organising to list your house at the same estate agent as your neighbor? Then telling the agent (oops, sorry REALTOR ™ :slight_smile: ) to make sure they mention it to buyers in the 300k bracket as well as the 100k bracket?

12

I would presume there would be zoning Sampiro would have to take into account to be able to run a business out of one side.