2 Kitchens

[joeduncan]

I have heard through the grapevine that 2 kitchens are not allowed... the home owners bought the house with the 2nd kitchen already there and are unaware if the kitchen is permitted...the underwriter wants an addendum stating the "kitchen is allowable and permitted".... although we are unsure if its permitted i want to know if the kitchen is allowable... thanks.

 

[TC]

You might want to search the archives, I am sure we covered this topic ad nauseum about 6 months ago. You don't state where the kitchen is located, basement, 2nd floor, first floor. A red flag goes up if a lender is loaning on a single family dwelling and sees two kitchens in the floor plan, they may think the buyer is looking for a single family rate on a 2 family dwelling. Where I grew up in a heavily Italian area, your house was worth less if you DIDN'T have a kitchen in the basement. Prior to AC, all cooking in the summer was done in the basement.

Check with your underwriter, I am sure they want to verify that the dwelling is a single family.

TC

 

[Rob Bodkin]

Joe,

While some places might "outlaw" 2 kitchens, I can't speak for So. Cal., they are in and of themselves not "illegal" here in Redmond or in Seattle as far as I know.

What you are probably up against is an underwriter who see's 2 kitchens in a home and assumes duplex. A lot of lenders shy away from funky or non permitted multi-family possibilities. The lender is looking for you to give them some cover.

I would first look at the use of the home. Is it single family or a single family that has become something more?

I would investigate the zoning and see if an additional unit is allowed.

We have a 2nd kitchen in the basement, helpful for holiday cooking and the occasional poker party, but we do not rent the basement out. I think the lender is probably wanting to ensure that the stated use is the most likely.

Good Luck.

 

[Scott Kibler]

"Summer" kitchens located in a basement are very common in my market.

 

[Jungle Boy]

Originally posted by TC@Jan 12 2004, 10:29 PM
Where I grew up in a heavily Italian area,

TC

I'm not assuming that you're Italian. But if I did, then you first name is TONY.

OF course, your initials would then be AC.

 

[TC]

Two things I forgot to mention:

I appraised a property that had 2 full kitchens on the first floor. The owner was a Rabbi and the 2nd kitchen was strictly kosher, I think I called the 2nd one a "gourmet kitchen" to please the UW.

A builder of a townhouse community was Italian and he put a full kitchen in the basement of each and every home he built. Must be in the genes.

No, not Italian, but sure love their food.

TC

 

[George Hatch]

I'm located in your market area, and I can tell you that if it has permits as a kitchen it's probably okay. If there aren't any permits for that it probably isn't okay. Maybe a better question is why does it have more than one kitchen? If the reason is to have an unpermitted conversion to multi-family, that's going to represent some problems.

I killed an appraisal on a proposed home in Escondido because they were trying to build a duplex on an SFR lot. They were using a floorplan with two sides that basically mirrored each other. After completion of construction all that would have been needed was to seal a couple doors and install the kitchen in the "Laundry Room" (plumbing and gas already stubbed in). Nice house, too, with 2 separate 2-car garages facing a courtyard.

I caught 3/lot property in Chula Vista a couple months back with the same thing; unpermitted 2nd kitchen that allowed the living room and adjacent bedroom/bath to be converted to another apartment - they didn't even bother with sealing the connecting doors. No permits, no credit, no extra occupancy, no extra rent.

More than likely there is no permit and the extra kitchen needs to come out. Estimate cost to cure of $2,000 and be done with it. Don't sign off on it being okay unless the borrower can provide permits (which I doubt). Lastly, check with the city.

 

[Carnivore]

I had this same problem recently.

My subject had a finished walk out basement with a full kitchen, LR, 2 BR and full bath.

Underwriter ask is this typical. yes, I said it was in an addendum.

Then the UW ask me why my comps dont have full kitchens in there basements.

My response was simple and I failed to explain it properly in the original report.

The subject kitchen consisted of a built in sink and dishwasher(wet bar). All the comps had wet bars.

The subjects fridge(free standing), apartment stove(free standing) and microwave(counter top) were all personal property and not included in the final opinion of value.

In effect the subject was identical to the comps.

I learned a lesson from that about not explaining to a level of the average reader.

 

[airphoto]

And, Andrew ..

You must stipulate that the average reader failed to complete the fourth grade ..

 

[Charlotte Dixon]

Just had one of those, a sale:

Dwelling plus a 2 car garage that was converted to a living unit containing a kitchen, bath, living/bedroom. According to our zoning code, 2 living units are not allowed and having the kitchen constitutes a living unit. Zoning guy told me kitchen had to be removed for property to comply with zoning. So that's how I wrote it.

End of story: I saw where the property settled, as it appeared in the mutli list. I called the Century 21 agent, who's ink had not yet dried on her license, and asked had someone forgot to call for a final inspection on that property because of the zoning violation, or exactly what happened.

She said "Oh, we got another appraisal and he was a really good appraiser. He didn't say anything about a zoning violation. Your appraisal was ridiculous".
:blink:
We really try to do the right thing, don't we? But there's always that Skippy out there. My head is really getting sore banging it up against a brick wall