@bunsenburner: Your comment about the 2% excise tax reminded me that when we sold our Big House we had a lot of annoying taxes and fees that we had to pay to various governments – local, state, etc. – because they all wanted a piece of the action. Of course it added up to way more than I thought it should.
When we bought our house, it was WITHOUT appliances, for which I was grateful, as I didn’t want the avacado ahd harvest gold appliances to remain in our home. I’ve seen houses sold with and without appliances. If they aren’t brand new, I’d prefer not to buy someone else’s problems. If I were buying something that was $1M +, i’d expect it to come with decent, new appliances.
In California where Flip or Flip is filmed, these are the closing costs:
Buying agent commission 2 1/2%
Escrow agent fee - variable depending on sale price average $800-$1200
Title insurance for buyer (unless they were smart and got a binder to transfer to new owner within 12 months which I do and I suspect they do also
Natural Hazard Report
Water Certification charge
Prorated property taxes
Transfer taxes which are a govt tax
Usually the nbrs they quote are lower than i would expect
I have 3 large sliding glass doors with no curtains or blinds or decals - never had anyone walk into them (only birds trying to fly through them).
I don’t think it will be a problem.
One agent came through today to preview for clients and two showings scheduled this evening.
No offers yet and no followup calls to my agent.
We have very large sliding glass doors in our home and my folks have very large glass sliding doors in theirs. Many others in HI have large glass sliding doors, as we have lovely scenery and it helps with ventilation year round. Only one person I know ever ran into a sliding door–it was at a resort and she had to have emergency dental assistance. I haven’t even had birds flying into most of our glass–probably the dust helps birds to realize that flying into it is not a good idea.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you CB–your home is truly LOVELY! I’m sure the lucky buyers will be delighted by all the care you have lavished on it.
No one has ever walked though the sliders here either. But…we have had visiting dogs who ran through the slider screen doors…more than once…
The glass doors in my house really are a problem. My dad walked into them as did a guest at a party. Right now I have ugly, cheap looking decals on them.
There are some decals at Amazon.com which are static cling (so they aren’t supposed to leave residue on your window. Some are of butterflies, some are of flowers. Haven’t used any of them, but I believe the trick is to put them around eye level so even the absent-minded among us will see them and realize that there’s something between them and where they want to go instead of them trying to get through it. At parties, with guests, at night, and in low lighting, I think it’s more of a problem. We tend to keep our drapes closed a good portion of the time, and our doors have wooden frames that are pretty visible, so those things help.
This site seems to have some nice looking static clings (I have no personal experience–I put up free clings I get from our kids U & PBKappa, who keeps trying to get me to donate).
BUDGET UPDATE
Definitely my most expensive project ever. But, I have to remember that we added 800sf to the house including a bedroom, bathroom and staircase.
TOTAL SPENT TO DATE: $141,000
Approximate Cost for 800sf conversion = $45,000 (counting bathtub and all the stuff for the bathroom, flooring and lighting). That is an average of $56.25/square foot. I think that is really decent considering the average cost quoted in this area for new construction cost is $200/square foot. Granted, this space already had a footing, stud walls, exterior stucco and technically, a roof.
Landscape is at $16,500 and creeping up because I still have to add a deck in back outside the French Door
Kitchen Total (even after paying for dishwasher panel and $175 for guy to install the panel) was only $13,250! Just floors me that landscaping can be so much higher than a nice kitchen
Flooring - includes new white oak floors upstairs, refinish all wood floors, staircase flooring, all trim pieces and laminate downstairs (does not include bathroom tile cost) was $12,460 for an average of about $5.90 square foot installed. This includes some complex install for about 22 stairs.
Plumbing = $6,000
Electrical = $7,000
I don’t remember what you paid for this house. You can PM me if you don’t want it here!
Zillow shows it sold in mid June for $702K.
It is inevitable… only 2 out of 4 kitchen appliances made it without any major dings or scratches! The dishwasher has been an entire saga. But, as I was cleaning oven for photos last week I noticed a new scratch on one door handle and a ‘ding’ in another handle. Dang it… it is just impossible to avoid
I loaded some pictures of all kinds of details we are working on, including the floor and island panel water damage.
Just did another review of the competition. There are only 4 homes with a minimum of 4 bedrooms priced under my asking price!!!
Udall - bad location
Leroy - we all looked at it
Wawona - horrible location, on Nimitz
Goldsmith - new listing but it is only being offered through Homesearch auction so I know the price is a ‘teaser’ to drive up action at the auction
Agent just received two more phone calls for showings tomorrow
The house is amazing. I wish I were close enough to check it out in person.
The last minute challenges must be so frustrating. Have you considered adding baseboard on the damaged panel? I think it could look intentional, and would keep the panel from further damage when the floors are washed.
Yes, baseboard is our magic answer!! We just cannot put it on the island yet until the flooring repairs are complete. Hopefully those flooring repairs will happen this week but unfortunately it is going to be a days long process between sanding, stain, sealant, polyurethane.
So you had two showings tonight? And two more tomorrow? Do you know if any of those showings are the two interested parties from Sunday’s open house?
I keep checking in expecting to read that you have received an offer. This is very exciting.
I don’t think these are the same people who came twice… unless they have contacted a real estate agent to come in for more showings. Both the people who came Sunday evening were not represented by agents, they were alone. The requested showings are through agents.
Interestingly, my agent received one call from an interested buyer solely from seeing it on Realtor.com. This person is not represented by an agent and has asked her to show the house. I cannot imagine who looks at Realtor.com out of the blue, without having any agent, and says “Oh, I’ll just call that agent of the $1 million house”. Probably some kind of whacko - hopefully she schedules the showing when we are all there working.
Maybe you should ask your floor guy to stain, finish, coat, etc some extra pieces of flooring and leave them for the new owner. In case they have a future mishap and can’t match your custom driftwood stain.