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This house is part of Avondale east historic district. So ALL renovation must be looked at through that lens. You'd think it would take 100k to do good job and meet historic requirements.

The title was in long court battle (to get clear title-rumor was the house was won in card game 60+-years ago) I heard- so maybe lots of heirs made the price go to this point?

there is still one back building falling down in back this building looks like it was built upon property line so probably will have to be surveyed. My bet it will have to be torn down. I think there is alley access?

Edited by trymahjong
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I finally asked a realtor friend about this house---he said there is no kitchen. He went on to say it's hard to get a loan from a bank  on house with no kitchen.  He  thought $200,000.00 would be needed to remodel house.

 

COH had labeled another back building as hazardous  someone  sent out demo crew to tear down that small shed  and replace side fence.

 

COH put a pink tag on gate that requires owner and or legal rep to appear Feb 19 in Houston.-- Owner contacted Avondale Civic and claimed the house had been in their family since 1905 plus asked for information on realtors.---- The Civic association was under the impression Avondale wasn't developed until 1907-- hmmmm

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  • 3 months later...

The house is back on the market. I saw it today, and all I can say is that it is a dump. Any historic features are either structurally unsound, or falling apart. This isn't a renovation as much as a rebuilding the 'ship of Theseus'

Anyone who puts in an offer pulls out, and they are refusing to sell at a reasonable price. The city needs to deal with this blight or its owners.

 

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If a house is "demolished by neglect" in a historic district, exactly what can be built on the land? Faux-historic townhomes? An exact replica? A shotgun shack?

 

That's not how historic districts function really. Mostly they are designed to help protect buildings in an area from further demise and demolition (that's of course if they are kept up well). Yes when you build something new it does have to respect the rest of the neighborhood, but it doesn't have to be a certain style unless its a deed restriction of the neighborhood (but you don't need to be a historic neighborhood for that). 

 

Like I said, it's mostly to protect what's already there.

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The person who posted that this house is "not that historic" needs to do some homework. HCAD lists many hundreds of century old or older houses as having been built in 1945. It is HCAD's default build date for "old" houses. If you actually knew anything about architecture you would have been able to pick out the the early 20th century elements like the divided light windows, convex window sash, hipped roof and pier and beam foundation. Pier and beam foundations mostly went away after WWII in favor of slab foundations, which was a really dumb idea for Houston's gumbo soil that shrinks and swells according to the rainfall. The other tip off that this is a historic house is that this very same house is featured in a circa 1915 builder's prospectus that I own. By deduction, a house that shows up in a 1915 publication had to have been constructed prior to 1915 = 100 years old. Maybe not old by New England or European standards, but definitely by Houston standards. AND I have been all through this house. Structurally unsound, no way. Not even close. There is work to be done and the flat roofed section at the rear has caused water leaks. I dont suppose anyone remembers what Avondale was like in the 80's or 90's, but there were many abandoned houses that were eventually rehabbed.

Edited by McHistory
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  • 1 month later...

The current owner ( bought last year from family of guy who lived there 50 years) has petitioned to receive variance and tear down the house.

 

That's a shame but not necessarily the new owner's shame. It took years of neglect for the structure to get to the condition it is in now. Hopefully, the new owner of the property will build something that is attractive and in keeping with the character of the original building.

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Once you give variance for "neglected" houses in protected districts to be torn down because "of the state" of their condition, it seems a slippery slope and soon many  neglected homes seem to be put forward. . . . . . . . 

 

I would like to be optomistic about the new owner but he is in the business of "flipping houses"

 

Yes it did  take years of neglect for the house to get in the shape it is in.  My goodness this house is 110 years old despite how HCAD has it registered. . . . . . . . all of that was  explained to the new owner before purchase plus there was emphasis  on the fact that  quite a bit of money would be neccessary to restore it as it was in a protected historical district. The current owner assured everyone that he intended to move into the house and restore it little by little. The question of  "shame"  hmmmmmmmmmmmmm haven't decided.

 

 

Edited by trymahjong
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"arguing that the owner should be forced. . . . . . "

 

No. . . . . . . . arguing that after the original owner and the original realtor (also a restorer of 100 year old houses) very carefully laid out the condition of this house (leaking roof, cracked foundation etc)  the probable cost of renovations to this particular house-- plus the house was in an historic district  then finally  a few  tips into how many hoops the historic commission was likely to make anyone renovating this house jump through . . . . . . . . .  what ever-- this purchaser had full disclosure------what was he thinking?  I've seen this house-- I've seen worse that were brought back--------all you need is money. Cruel but true.

I guess he didn't have enough.

 

Probably this guy thought he could do a few things and flip it for more money and it didn't work out that way and now wants to try to get his money back by building townhomes on spec.

 

wonder why he didn't just resell earlier--when he understood he couldn't flip it for the profit he wanted-- just sell back then when the market was different and try to just make back his money. 

 

This house was in the first historic designation-- Avondale East. Getting any neighborhood designated " historic" is a huge undertaking. Avondale took on that "undertaking" twice!

Once a neighborhood gets that designation to protect the 100+ year  old houses within that area-- Everyone has the expectation that => they will be protected.  When you see one taken out--in your mind you see another taken out then another then . . . . . . you get the picture.

 

 

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Piling on:

 

Nobody forced the current seller to buy that house in the first place.  The people in that neighborhood made a conscious decision to impose restrictions that might make some things uneconomical (not that anyone gets a dollar for dollar payback on renovations most of the time anyway) in the interest of preserving things with a value that isn't easily expressed in dollars and cents.

 

So the current seller made some bad assumptions in assessing costs.  That's called a "poor investment choice."  Why on earth should the neighbors be required to subsidize a flipper's bad gambles?

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I didn't know the current owner had second thoughts on his original intent to restore the house. Yes, it would have been noble of him if he sold it to someone who was able and willing to follow through with the restoration.

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  • 2 months later...
  • The title was changed to Anybody Been Inside 204 Stratford St.
  • The title was changed to Home At 204 Stratford St.

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