Anyone here ever buy unit next door & combine into a single home?

[jtbuko]

We bought our small suburban townhome at the top of the market, and have felt stuck here since shortly after we bought it. We expect to remain upside down for the foreseeable future. We like the location (8 miles from DH work, 2 blocks from school, walk to lots of cool places), but we lust for more space.

We are in the process of paying down our non mortgage debt and fixing up our place to make it more and more live-able. We have finally reached the point where we are able to chip away steadily at both of those things and still live pretty comfortably (shop at the farmers market, buy the good beer, visit family far away, afford a CSA, pay for preschool & activities, etc.) on one income.

The former owners of the place next door walked away two years ago and it has been vacant ever since. (The other side was vacant for over a year (on the market for two), and was recently successfully flipped.) All the units are similar to ours, and currently assessed at just over 1/3 what we paid for ours. The unit we'd want to buy is not officially on the market, just abandoned. Tax records do not show a sale since the former neighbors bought it at the top of the market in 2006. 

The latest plan I have dreamed up is to buy the unit next door, use the main floor to house my grandmother in law and connect the units by adding doors (we'd have to go through the thick brick walls that separate the units) upstairs and also refencing the two back yards as one.

My husband thinks the physical changes would be doable, but I don't know where to start hunting down info on the logistics of if we could legally combine units, and how we'd find out who owns the unit (which I assume is in the process of foreclosure).

Anyone BTDT? Or just have advice on how/ where to research whether this is a possibility?

[spedteacher30]

I don't know, but my brother and SIL bought an apartment that is two units that were combined into one. The layout is a little strange with a couple of long narrow hallways between zones, but you can't really tell that it was once two separate spaces.

that's not really helpful, beyond telling you that it is possible, but may be more expensive than you realize.

[CatsCradle]

Not sure where you are, but depending on how property taxes are figured in your county, you may have to pay two separate property taxes, and given that these townhouses may be sitting on separate parcels (lots) it may be more expensive than paying property taxes on one parcel (of the similar size).  I don't know.  Were the townhouses bought outright by the owners from a developer or is there still some kind of managing organization? Sometimes in developments, there are owner's associations.  You can start there if that exists.  Otherwise, you may want to check on how the municipality tallies property taxes and other property revenue.

We live in a cooperative apartment building and combining units is very common here.  We may want to consider that some day if an apartment on either side of us becomes available, but the problem we face is that we'll be paying two separate maintenances under the co-op's rules.  (our maintenance includes stuff like property taxes, upkeep, super, water, heat, etc.).  We already pay a fairly high maintanence on our one unit.  To have the burden of two maintenances would be a little much.  It might be worth it for us to just find a bigger place, even though we like our building.