- The conditions of the 2 buildings, including roofing, heat/ac, plumbing, lead based paint and asbestos, and many other items that are covered during a general inspection.
- The well. Currently it is not supplying potable water, which is a requirement for a certificate of occupancy (CO). We will either need to drill a new well or extend the existing one. There are other aspects of the current well permit that need to be investigated as well.
- Septic system. Since the location does not have access to city water/sewer, those service will be provided by well and septic. We want to ensure those systems are fully functional and adequate for our planned usage.
- The soil. We want to make sure the soil is adequate to build on in future years.
- The current Annexation Agreement. The current agreement required the existing ownership group to connect to city water/sewer services by 2005. The Town has agreed to modify the Agreement so that no one has to connect to city water/sewer until they build a new building on site that is greater than 2,000 square feet. This is a very important document and we want to gain as much confidence as possible that the new Agreement will be favorable towards our purposes. We have had conversations already with the Town Council and the Town's Development Planning group that makes recommendations to the Council. They want the property to be back in use, as it has sat dormant and unattended now for a long period of time. Therefore they are working to lift previous Town restrictions that have precluded anyone from purchasing this property (it has been on the market for at least 2 years).
- Architectural and Interior Design. We want to ensure that we can make the buildings both usable and aesthetically acceptable, on the inside and outside. Further, we want to consider well in advance what kind of layout would be best for future expansion. For instance, if we wanted to expand the current parking lot, how should we best do this in light of a future Sanctuary location? Same thing goes for where the well and septic systems are located on the property.
Other items we will be investigating:
- Cost estimates. One of the downsides of purchasing property at distressed prices is that the premises is usually distressed to some degree. Our situation is no different, though at first glance there does not seem to be any major structural issues or damage to the buildings. However we will want to account for all the costs involved. There are 2 main categories of costs:
2. Closing/Administrative Costs. This includes other costs associated with the actual purchase of the property. Closing costs are always part of any real estate transaction, but we also have our own legal fees and fees associated with working with the Town. Some of the more common closing costs include title insurance costs (which protects both the owners and the bank from liens or ownership issues from years past), loan origination fees, and prepaid items such as property insurance. These costs are a little easier to identify and plan for when compared with the property costs, but in both cases we want to be detailed in our cost analysis.
Your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and concerns are most welcome and appreciated. Please respond to any of these postings, or you can email the church through our main website.
