We sold our old house in Illinois to a developer, but when they remove the entire house we call it a tear down instead of a flip. It’s been over a year and he’s still building. I can understand why he had no issue giving us a six month post-possession (rent free). One old neighbor loves it and the other hates it.
It’s listed at 350% of what he paid us. But in character for the neighborhood, which our house was not.
You’re right–we were all wondering if the buyer would put in a ton of money to fix the existing house or just tear it down. Most of us suspects the latter and the owner just confirmed. I’m sure he can make some profit, but no way it will be anything like what your IL buyer is trying to get.
Fortunately, the new owner likes the fence that H has been putting up as his major retirement project, between our home and the new buyer. It involved H deconstructing and reconstructing the redwood fence and patching ALL the holes.
@HImom , does your house have any kind of view? If it does, you might want to learn how to protect it so you don’t end up like Coralbrook’s previous owners.
No–our house is on a level lot, but we are VERY close to the ocean and folks walk over to a surf spot from our neighborhood. There is no view of the ocean or the mountain.
Most of the homes in the area are one story and I think he’d overbuild (and have a hard time selling) if he makes it too upscale and expensive. The neighborhood is modest–60 year old tract homes, with a few newer ones and some renovating here and there.
@HImom I know it’s Hawaii…and costs are high…but he paid $1 million for,the house, well,really the lot. He presumably wants to make some money on his New building there. Doesn’t sound like a “modest” price. Will his interior be high end?..considering he is going to need to ask well over $1 million for the new property?
I have no idea what he’s going to do. Sadly, there are a lot of lots in the area that are teardown a that go for high 6 figures. That is one of the reasons so many of our young people permanently relocate away from HI.
The house next to my relative was ought as a teardown – for $2mm! They tore down the whole place and removed the swimming pool and put up a huge rock wall.
7 figures in HI often doesn’t mean a luxury home–it does mean a nicer area but sadly the homes are nothing like @Coralbrook’s lovely creations.
We use a term when someone tears down the house and builds new - Spec Building. It is usually someone with a contractor’s license and deep pockets, and a lot of patience for the permit process. Unfortunately I am bleeding into that territory and I doubt that I will ever do this again. It just takes a long time and you have to have enough reserves to be able to survive a whole year without any income - which I am finding out in a very painful way. Not something you want to do while your D is still in college with high tuition and room/board costs 
Yesterday we had to set two really large beams in the ceiling of the main floor that hold up the little balcony area in the master bedroom. I am now learning why people just build boxes and why a top floor deck and balcony really cost a lot of money. A ton of structural cost and I am going to have to pay for some serious ‘waterproofing’ of that balcony and deck because they are over living areas below. I’m guessing I am currently running about $25,000 over my estimated budget when we get done.
The beam is a huge versalam 3 1/2" wide, 14" tall and 26 ft long!! I think it weighed close to 350 lbs and it took 6 guys to get it picked up from yard, weave it through the outside studs and lift it up above 10’ walls to set it.
I loaded some photos
Also, the flooring guys are starting to get ready. They stopped by to sand a patch of the existing floors to make sure that we purchase the right wood this time!! They popped up a couple of samples and they are going to take them to the wholesale place and do a chemical test to make sure we match. I’m hoping to start the patching, sanding and refinish of the existing floor first week of September.
We have a serious design issue with the kitchen flooring. My goal was to have the oak floors run north/south all the way through the house, down the hallway to the back of the addition. The living and dining room floors have the planks running north / south. Unfortunately, the wood sub floor of the kitchen has the sub floor planks running north south. What this means is that the oak flooring has to be laid perpendicular to the sub floor. They cannot be laid down the same direction as the sub floor.
So, if you were standing in the living room / dining room looking through to the back of the house the oak floor would suddenly be going east/west in the kitchen area. I think it is going to look horrible and really break up the continuity of the flooring. But, the alternative is to tear up a perfectly good original subfloor and have to lay new 3/4" expensive plywood sub floor to allow for the flooring to be laid north/south. It’s a real dilemna
Yesterday the two agents that sold me the Liberace House and this project stopped by. I was surprised to see them. They just took a listing of an ‘original’ house that they say the view is superior to this one and is in a slightly better location. The listing is not going to come out for another month but they wanted to hand it to me on a plate. I think it may be a divorce situation and/or heir situation where the Seller is having a hard time getting the occupant out of the house so they would prefer to sell it without having to do Open Houses or showings.
I am so excited that I am finally getting the pocket listings from local agents. That is a big step in my business… to be able to make offers on houses without competing with other flippers. But, I had to turn down the offer because I don’t have the cash to try to buy another house right now. I am totally maxed out and may have to go out with my hat in hand again to finish this project.
They did say that they talk up this property to buyers that come through a current listing that they have which is priced higher over on the bayside of Point Loma.
Also, there are two properties that just came out on the market with a ‘Coming Soon’ listing. The listings show the blueprint plans and are putting the property up for sale before completion so that the buyer can ‘select their own finishes’. I am going to watch those very carefully to see if the strategy works. Historically I haven’t seen it work because buyers just cannot envision the completed house when they are just walking around inside a bunch of framed walls.
Ok…regarding that kitchen floor…would it be nice to do some sort of inlaid border or a different laying pattern? We saw a house with exactly the same issue…NS vs EW.in the smaller room, they did a border and about 2 inches in from the oak border edge they also did a really neat mahogany border of about 2 inches. Then laid the oak the wY it needed to be. Looked like it was supposed to be that way!
Great idea. I could incorporate the gorgeous dark walnut flooring that I’m laying upstairs and it could emphasize the unique room with the vaulting. However, the cost to do a special design may be higher than tearing up the subfloor and laying new subfloor. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a business and I have to restrain myself !
We solved this problem by using a different kind of wood in the kitchen. It’s much lighter than the wood in the other rooms, and looks completely different (bamboo vs. oak) so the different direction is not an issue.
Maybe something like these floors
http://www.houzz.com/photos/590402/Hampden-Dining-Room-traditional-dining-room-dc-metro
This one is over the top - notice that this hallway is for shoe storage?
http://www.houzz.com/photos/20429960/PROGENE-Collection-traditional-hall-los-angeles
http://www.houzz.com/photos/1373570/Brick-Arch-mediterranean-hall-other-metro
A mix of tile and wood floor
http://www.houzz.com/photos/193136/Crisp-Architects-traditional-kitchen-new-york
OR… I could lay some ceramic tile that looks like wood - that is very popular now. But, that would definitely be a total contrast and break up the flow.
What’s the cost of changing the direction of the subfloor? Under $2,000?
Yes,mCB…sort of like the first link you provided…except the one I saw actually had lighter color main flooring. Looked great!
Cost would be about $75 to tear out existing subfloor, $50 to haul to dump for recycling and $250 new materials and lay down new subfloor. So, about $400
Sounds like a no brainer. For $400 fix it. It will look the right way. You will regret it if you don’t!
^That!
I dislike it when beautiful homes with wood floors don’t have it all going the same way and there’s an obvious transition piece.
Looking back at the floor plans it doesn’t look like there’s a logical space for even some kind of rectangular transition. So I agree with the fix.
My vote would be to fix the subfloor. The border is very pretty but I lprefer the continuous flow of your original vision.