Duplex on my street (that we wanted to buy, but couldn’t get an offer together in time). Flipper tore out this lovely cobbled driveway, and paved it and the backyard. For car parking.
The nextdoor greens won’t object to this loss of heritage and permeability, but really, neither do I, because we should all be able to do what we want with our own property.
@Kevin lots of bad aesthetic decisions being made by the flippers on my street rn. But one SFH getting a backyard townhouse, that's kind of exciting to see.
@bikepedantic My father was talking about putting in a town house on his SFH lot and I was all like
@bikepedantic sure but just keep all of the rain water and oil from running across the property line, also the heat.
@bikepedantic I’m so anti flipping houses. And maybe I need to learn more about the process, but it seems to just benefit the wealthy while making homes worse (especially in this case) and less affordable.
@sofio @bikepedantic in defense of the practice, most homebuyers want to buy something move-in ready, while a large number of sellers are not in a position to leave their homes in that condition. Flippers solve this mismatch, modernizing older inventory. Sure, some operators are better than others, but inherently it is a necessary function in the housing market. Worth mentioning that most banks won't allow up-front renovations as part of a mortgage, & the value is determined by home inspection.
@Will @bikepedantic that is a good point. I think I’m just soured by the two homes that were perfectly normal in my neighborhood being rebuilt into massive single person homes. Just seems like a waste of space, but that’s specific to my neighborhood and zoning, not the practice. Thanks for clarifying!
@sofio @Will @bikepedantic We wouldn’t count the new house as flipping here. Flipping usually involves cosmetic (and sketchy) renovations with a short turn around. Sometimes owners will ‘live’ there to avoid Canadian capital gains taxing. Speculative house builders will take longer, plan/approve, and build the monster house. Our policies and zoning have promoted this little —> HUGE SFD redevelopment.
@sofio @bikepedantic It's a mixed bag. Lots of people don't have the money to live somewhere else while their home is being renovated, and don't want to live in a place that's under construction - so for those folks, being able to move into a newly renovated place is great.
House flippers sometimes do a shitty job, but then again so do homeowners who want to sell but are told by their realtor to fix stuff up before putting it on the market.
@sofio @bikepedantic 10-15 years ago I'd absolutely look at fixer-uppers because I had the time and ability to repair/replace things (and it was my preference, because I could do it right).
3 years ago was a completely different story, because moving with kids is a nightmare, as is trying to fix stuff while they're getting into trouble.
@sofio The ideal would be that single family home gets turned into, say, 4-6 units (or 12 units if big lot) with a 4-6 story apartment building. But there's decent chance that is illegal under current zoning in that area.
At least part of the problem is that it's not legal for developers to do the right thing. In my neighborhood every rehab is same structure size, so yeah it'll end up more expensive. If they could build lots more smaller units, they'd be cheaper.
@bikepedantic there is an argument that all parking should be on permeable pavement, though. Wouldn't be a hard lift.
(Export it to roads and do what they do in Europe: bike lanes smooth, travel lanes cobbled, slows the eff out of the cars)
@bikepedantic whyyyyyyyyyy