3,800sf Former Church Building W/large Basement Studio Apartment In Sw Minnesota

$ 25000.00

Description

Beautiful old church on 1/4 acre corner lot in small southwestern Minnesota town of Madison (pop 1,551). Was used as church until late 2010. If you want to start your own church simply change the sign out front, open the doors the Sunday after you buy it and file for tax exemption at your earliest convenience. No permits or anything else required. They left everything! 29 oak pews (24 of the unique curved-style pictured and 5 straight bench-style, or be patient and sell them on Craigslist one at a time for $100-$250 each), 97 hymnals (if you don’t need them they could be sold on Amazon for $10 a piece maybe, all in good shape), very large and sturdy “In Remembrance” table on the raised pulpit and two solid oak “king” chairs, baptismal, banners, candle holders, large Bible (rough shape) with ornate table-top stand and more. Also comes with a nice Conn brand organ (it has four white keys snapped off near where the black keys start, easily replaced and still plays nice now) and in the basement there’s an old Sohmer & Co. upright piano (badly out of tune and has several dead keys, but still repairable or scrap it for the 1,000lbs or so of metal inside, I can’t even budge it away from the wall). The sanctuary also features roughly 1,500sq ft of hardwood flooring (maple I think, but not sure) and must have been refinished not too long before the church closed, still a nice shine! It is “stadium-style” seating and the floor slopes toward the pulpit at about the same grade as most movie theaters. Open a coffee shop or bookstore and get a screen and projector and play movies for your customers. There are some outlets up front and a 1/4 inch mic plug in on the floor going to the ceiling mounted speaker directly above for musical applications and the 20ft high dome-like ceiling gives great accoustics. In the back of the sactuary the floor is level where two roll-down wooden doors are located. Remove the pews in that overflow area and build a wall between the doors and you’ll have two storage units to rent out with heat and electric for maybe $75 per month each or use it for selling refreshments or keep the doors down and the inside open for some other use. The old pastor’s office next to the pulpit could be used for storage or other ideas as well, maybe AV equipment storage or soundproof the walls for a recording area. Two nice large stained glass windows (no pictures or images, just colored panes, both look the same) and another sky-blue and purpleish colored half window above the front double-doors. There is NO parking or driveway to speak of. I just park in the back yard on the grass, but you can make a lot or driveway with alley access. Again, no permits needed in Madison (within reason, they’d say). There is NO balcony in this building and NO bell in the tower. Though the tower is very cool, like a three level tree fort with ladders and hatches going to the top and access to the outside. Watch sunsets from the most unique perspective in town or just do Monty Python re-enactments with your friends from the notched, castle-like top . Or if you want to make a serious music studio out of it aside from the pulpit “stage” and pastor office “recording room” ideas, you could gut out the tower and have that “When The Levee Breaks” elevator shaft effect anytime you need. Antique store, bookstore, storage, coffee shop, art studio, a second apartment over the existing basement one, video arcade, metaphysical healing center, your imagination is your only limit. The basement apartment is really a finished church basement with a shower added to one bathroom. I’m single so I just left it a large open studio, but there is a storage room that could be a bedroom and in the living area there are three square pillars running the length of the room and you could use two of them to frame in another bedroom. There are two bathrooms, formerly men’s and women’s. I added the shower to the women’s because it was bigger and nicer. The men’s is unchanged, but usable (electric water heater located in there too) So theoretically, it COULD be a TWO bedroom TWO bath apartment with some work. You’ll want to update the electric eventually (old 50 amp fuse service in building). There are far too few outlets downstairs. I’m getting by with extension cords and power strips, but that’s hardly safe or practical. The kitchen is like “Kitchenland”. Twice the size of anywhere I’ve ever lived. No upper cabinets, all lowers, but very many of them in a nice white pine, almost zebra-like woodgrain pattern with chrome saucer knobs. The fridge is new, although the smaller 7.5 cu ft model. Has old electric Monarch six burner stove from the fifties. Left oven needs new element, rest works, even the clock! Also there’s an extra counter-top mounted two burner hot plate. Maybe you love to cook, I don’t. The building has two high efficiency gas furnaces, but they are older models, both installed Feb ’94. Upstairs one needs $738.50 control module replacement. I don’t heat the upstairs because I’m not using it and there’s no plumbing up there and it stays around 50-55 degrees right now anyway. Downstairs one working fine. They are both Lennox Pulse 21 furnaces, 80,000 down, 100,000 up. Other repairs needed that I can think of besides furnace and updating electric, roof hatch on tower has one rotted board next to it and can be replaced from inside. Not serious, but does leak in heavy rain and has stained the ceiling tiles down below. Shingles are fine and have life left. Outside was painted last summer before I bought it, but could use another coat. Looks good from the sidewalk. Inside could use paint. Not bad looking in most areas, but far from a fresh coat. Property is being sold AS-IS, WHERE IS, no warranties expressed or implied. What you see is what you get. Clear marketable title. Ask all questions and do all due dilligence PRIOR to bidding. Out of country bidders or those with a 5 or lower, please e-mail first. Have Abstract of Title in hand going back to 1881 before the church was even on the lot. That’s $900 worth of paperwork right there. If you want specific measurements of anything or more pictures or have questions that are not able to be answered in the ad you can e-mail n_hartmann@hotmail.com or call 612-655-6361 and leave a message. Sorry, I don’t answer numbers I don’t recognize. Tired of using my minutes so someone can pitch their political candidate to me or ask me why I haven’t enrolled in their school that I simply asked for some information about over a year ago. I’m being real with you, you be real too and don’t waste my time. The tax value on the property is $16,300. I have set my reserve far enough below that to help accomodate the repairs I mentioned, but keep in mind there are already valuable “extras” included to help offset that. I am not a desparate seller, just seeing how the bidding goes and if it’s good I’ll pack up and move on. I just like trying new things. I may accept partial trades of cash and a classic car or cash and a late model car/truck. Anything is better than the high mileage junker I’ve got now so you can hit me with your ideas on that. I am NOT interested in contract for deeds at this time. I reserve the right to end the auction early for partial trade buyers or if I sell it locally. Thanks for looking and good luck if you decide to bid. Winning bidder to pay 10% down within 3 business days with bank transfer or certified funds by mail. Balence to be paid within two weeks at the latest (Feb 29th) in person by cash, money order, certified check or vehicle trade with value agreed upon by both parties (must have clear title in hand and lien release if you had a loan on it). Closing/deed transfer will take place at the courthouse in town just three blocks away and shouldn’t even take an hour, and then to the municipal building to get the utilities in your name. The cost to the buyer for deed transfer is about $350. No liens on property. Taxes paid to date and are $353.18 for the year non-homestead. Tax assessment for recent street repairs and utility work included in that yearly figure.