u/Sup-My-Homie

Just looking for some advice on a piece of land i'm looking at. It's an urban mixed use infill lot, but due to the lots pretty narrow and long dimension, it is basically prohibitive to develop for its highest uses (larger story multi-family/mixed use) due to parking restrictions. However, i'm looking at it for a single family home and have confirmed it would work for my use case with the city (though there are some outstanding questions about how much it would cost to bring water to it). I have some questions about my experiences with the sellers agent though and wondering what people think about this:

First of all, he has been very slow/unresponsive at times to questions. At first I was inquiring myself, and now I have an agent who reached out who said the exact same thing - that he noticed the sellers agent seemed reluctant to talk and he had difficult getting a hold of them. At first, they did end up giving some basic info about the property after I asked multiple times, and shortly afterwards they let me know that it had gone under contract. I said ok thank you, please let me know if anything changes. Some time later I reached back out to ask if the property had sold and he said no, the deal fell through. Ok fine, they're busy, but I would still think they would follow up with an interested party. I then asked if he could provide any information about why the deal hadn't closed, and he said that due to the recent (though its been a few years the GIS still shows the old zoning) re-zone of the property, the buyer thought that they could build lot line to lot line because that was allowed under the old zoning, and that since there were now setbacks to the sides, he pulled out.

I am located a few hours away, so I booked a trip down to take a look at the lot. I found that the lot had been surveyed, and that the monuments were showing that the neighboring property, which is a new (1-2 years old) apartment building is encroaching onto the property (their fence, not the building). The encroachment is not huge (about a foot and a half), but it cuts into the lot on the already narrow dimension making the lot even skinnier, and amounts to about 5% of the total lot square footage.

Does the agent not have to disclose this information? The lot is still on the market and they are taking offers. Obviously anyone buying is going to find this out immediately in due diligence. I told them i'm out of state, and yet they gave no indication of an encroachment issue.

I am considering that the encroachment may actually be an opportunity for my situation, because there could be a much shorter, easier path to getting water onto the property through the neighbors lot. Depending on the circumstances of the encroachment (not sure if it affects the neighbors buildings setback requirements), i'm wondering if there is a deal to be made where easement for utility access to the other street he's neighboring (they are on a corner) can be traded in exchange for changing the property line and letting them keep the extra land.

Curious to hear peoples thoughts on this situation.

Sorry, i'm new to this and i'm struggling a bit to understand how the system works. The direct reciprocal exchange I get, though it seems logistically challenging (we have to coordinate to take vacations at the same time, for the same amount of time to swap homes right?). But how does one accumulate points for hosting in the home they are living in? You would have to offer your home to stay in only when you're not there right? So if i'm planning on taking a vacation, I would put my home up as available during that vacation, and if someone wanted it i'd accumulate points? It seemslike its mostly for people who are already traveling a lot so you can accumulate points hosting your home to then offset your own lodging expenses a bit?

We are thinking of moving to Salt Lake. We only live about 4 hours away currently in a small town, and have now been to the area over a dozen times for 3-4 days each time, so we are not going blind. The things we like:

1. It's easy to get around and everything seems to be 15 minutes from everything. Bike infrastructure appears to be getting put in, and we plan on continuing to share one car and get an e-bike so we can have a big enough range for us easily without a second car.
2. The variety of produce and groceries is excellent. We shop a lot at the asian, indian, and european markets down there. I know this is probably standard in most big cities, but coming from a small town this is awesome and there really are quite a few ethnic groceries.
3. It's beautiful. We currently live in the mountains, and I love the mountain backdrop to the city and not having to give up beautiful view to get more amenities.
4. It isnt far from the mountains. As we've gotten older, we don't need to be in the mountains everyday, but we do like to go hike regularly. We are currently pretty into nordic skiing, which I know there will be less of there, but that's ok.
5. There are a ton of climbing gyms. Our primary fitness mode is indoor climbing. I know some of these gyms are expensive, but we also participate in some of the other amenities they are starting to offer (the front has a pottery studio now?), so from our perspective they actually seem pretty reasonable for the amenities we'd use.
6. There's a good food scene. I have read lots of people complaining but this just hasnt been our experience. In the last several years we have traveled multiple times to: sf bay area, san diego, denver, and bozeman, and SLC beats them all easily in our opinion (especially bozeman and denver, those were some of the worst places to eat out i've ever been. San Diego does have good food but you often have to get on three highways to get to it). We don't need a new place everytime, and don't do high end - we just need the solid mid-range or affordable hole in the wall places and SLC has come through for us repeatedly there. We have half a dozen places we'd be content to eat at repeatedly forever.
7. Good coffee scene. We like coffee, and SLC seems to have a new place every few months for us to check out, and a handful of consistently great spots.
8. Rent isn't crazy. I know this one is controversial, and having been coming for around 10 years I do understand how SLC has blown up and rent prices skyrocketed (where didnt?). BUT - there seems to be a glut of new housing coming online and i've been seeing posts about big incentives to fill apartments right now. And comparative to CA, and Denver, it still seems pretty reasonable. We would just be looking for a 1 bedroom, and both working, and it seems like if you're in the 2-3k/month range there are lots of choices.
9. There is a lot to do. Movies, sports, shows, classes, SLC has plenty enough for us.

Major cons:

1. Obviously, we're concerned with air quality, but I am struggling to understand how bad it is vs. redditors doom and gloom. On all our trips, we have never encountered it that bad, but I also understand the nature of inversions and we may have just missed it. On the other hand, I have been researching and it appears the unhealthy aqi days have actually been on steady decline over the past decade. The air issue seems to be getting bad everywhere out west though. This summer were we live there were probably 6 weeks of unhealthy air due to washington and cali fires. We filter our indoor air. Coming from a place where you currently can't do shit if the air is bad outside because there are no indoor amenities, it seems like in SLC during inversions we could basically live like they do in Arizona and Nevada in the summer - conditioned space to conditioned space? Or is there something more i'm missing about how insidious and bad this is. We are also obviously concerned about the great salt lake drying issue, but i've spent a good amount of time on reddit and there have been a number of recent threads with very optimistic people in the know about this problem who think it will be solved when push comes to shove. I don't underestimate stupid politicians, but also this is a growing metro, and it appears to be a solveable problem.
2. Diversity. I hear people complaining about this one, and its obviously true, but in our case it feels relative. With the amount of asian markets and vietnamese restaurants, there is a lot more diversity than where we are.
3. Mormonism. We are currently in a very mormon area also, but they seem like fairly accepting people honestly and i've never had any friction with them. My understanding is that SLC is now minority mormon for the first time. We don't really drink, so we aren't impacted by whatever influence they have over alcohol, so i'm really don't think this will have a big affect on us.

What else should I be aware of thats bad about SLC?

Just curious if anyone has an opinion between these two companies. Organic is 6", Escape is 8" thick. We plan on using 2x pads with a velcro connector that we fold up and store next to the wall, so the 6" would be a little more compact and maybe a little easier to put up and down. We're older, so safety is obviously a concern, but also the plan is for a 7x10 adjustable, so even at a low angle we arent going to be that high up. I am a bit concerned about escape quality - I have a lot of experience with the company with holds, and I think they offer a fantastic value, but I read a few reviews of stitching issues, and i'm a bit suspicious how they manage to come in so much cheaper than the other homewall pad companies (if you add shipping, they end up quite a bit cheaper than anyone, though it does look like pads went up a bit the past few months). I have also had first hand experience with organic I know their stitching and fabric is absolutely bomber and have heard their foam is better.

Looking for some feedback on the badger trimmer belt. I am not a full time carpenter anymore, but having been in the trades for some years running occidentals (which i've long since sold off), I am really having trouble working without bags as I just feel really inefficient and like I keep misplacing everything. I also really like the way some of these newer designs hold hammers as I always hated hammer loops on the back wacking me as I walk around. On the other hand, I really feel allergic to the weight and size of full on pro carpenter set ups. I have enough personal projects coming up (two sets of stairs, a shed, a deck, and three overhangs, and then maybe a workshop in a year or two) that I feel like i'm willing to pony up for something that makes me more efficient and feels good to work with, and I have basically zeroed in on the badger trimmers. I'd say the main thing holding me back right now is the tape holder situation. I have gotten really used to the occidental tape holder in a specific spot above the bags (on my left despite being right handed), and don't like clipping my tape on. Anyone with similar concerns weigh in on what you did/if the trimmers are working out for you?

I don't see many reviews of these bags out there, but they have a 16-18 week lead time right now. The one reddit post I found on them mentioned huge lead time 7 months ago as well, so I guess there should be a decent amount out there in use? I've been on a huge deep dive to figure out how to deploy my tools and rethinking a tool belt since i'm no longer in the trades but still do quite a bit of miscellaneous construction for myself and may want to get into it on the side coming up. I'm about to pull the trigger on a tough built/cliptech system for the pouches but I feel like I want something slimmer but that can do more that is the main thing I clip to myself for basically anything i'm doing. The T2 Scout kind of stands out from the other major companies i've been looking at, and it also has a little bit of cool factor/style that I feel like will maybe soften the blow of wearing a tool belt lol? I've been thinking of ordering a badger or diamondback belt and using it with a mix of cliptech pouches to complement the T2 pouch depending on task.

I came upon an unfortunate situation in my area - a bolt chopper who left carnage at several local crags around me. Many of the bolts are in Wilderness and the removal left a range of situations - from hammered down hangers, to some threaded studs sticking out, to some partially damaged studs, to some cut studs. I am not looking to re-bolt or reuse the holes, but do not like that this has just been left like this. I'd like to patch these so it doesn't look like hell. I have patched holes before, so not looking for advice on epoxying, but I would like to hear recommendations on the easiest way to remove these given there are quite a few of them and power tools are prohibited and loud. Also, i've watched a fair amount of videos and think im fairly familiar with most of the options available, but most of these strategies are focused around bolt removal so that the drilled holes can be reused. I'm wondering if there are other, faster and less labor intensive strategies for removal if reusing the holes is not needed.

Wanting to build a tool trailer to haul with a ridgeline, which has a 5000lb tow capacity. I'm interested in maximizing space because i'd like to set it up primarily as my home mini-workshop with the option of starting a side handyman type business after I finish my house. The potential business would only operate within a 15 mile radius with flat terrain. I just am not clear how much weight a simple build out with your basic carpentry tools weighs.

Building a small shed gym and have access to free 2” carpet bonded closed cell foam. I know it would suck for weights, so I was thinking of building a lifting platform into it, but we do a lot of bodyweight and stretching/mobility work. My last gym had stall mats and I always found them unpleasant to work on, even with a thicker stretch or yoga mat.