Flip This House #5

Parent Cafe
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Other Flips in Neighborhood

Sometimes I drive around and look at the other flips in the neighborhood. Remember the small dark house on Adair that I was contemplating?? I backed out because I was worried about trying to get permits and the City might determine the mid century design was ‘historical’. A competitor (with deep pockets) bought it and spent a long time going through the permit process. They pretty much tore it down and are building a 3 story contemporary house to capture the views. I don’t think there will be much yard left at all.

But the interesting thing is that the building inspector (same inspector) has issued a stop work order. There was a huge tree in front yard that had pushed up the public sidewalk. Builder tore down the tree but I guess the roots tore up the sidewalk and they have to go through a giant City process to get the City to fix the sidewalk before they can continue their work. Oh lordy… I’d be pulling my hair out

There are 2 others that are still in the process of construction that have been recently listed for sale ‘Coming Soon’. They have pictures of the approved plans with descriptions such as ‘Choose your own Fixtures’. I am watching carefully and they are not selling. Buyers probably cannot get past the mess of construction. I don’t think we can go that route to try to sell this project.

I loaded some pictures of the house they are building on Adair

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The address was 4410 Adair 92107 to see the Google street view of the ‘before’

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Wow. Giant $$ flipper pockets meet giant City process… with predictable results.

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Wow, CB, sure glad you dodged an expensive bullet with Adair! Who knows how long it will take until they are able to go back to working on the house!?!?!

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Agree that buyers don’t like to see at and can’t see past construction mess. It is hard to imagine how the finished house will look like while staring at a bunch of sticks. In my experience buying new construction in a small development, hardly any buyers get impressed with 2x4s and plywood as we were, but as soon as the houses are mostly finished, they begin to get buyers’ attention.

“Choose your own fixtures” is a known trick. Been there. Go ahead, pick your fixtures… but here is my construction budget. When the buyers start shopping for fixtures, they quickly realize that the budget will buy them 1/4 of what they want. Pay out of pocket for any upgrades or buy really cheap budget stuff… Or BYOF - bring your own fixtures to be installed.

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On my 2nd flip that I purchased at foreclosure auction, I actually had a buyer come in (my agent brought her) and it was purchased before completion. But, it wasn’t sticks and plywood, it was just under renovation. I made the big mistake of telling her she could select whatever tile she wanted for the bathtub surround and I would purchase and install it. Next thing I know… she’s specifying some crazy tile that was extremely expensive. It looked like it was gold plated or something. Learned my lesson fast… I need to give a $$/sq ft budget :slight_smile:

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On the North Park flip I just backed out my appliances and fixtures from the budget, reduced the sale price, and she bought everything herself and had it delivered to the project. Of course she managed to buy some crazy euro stuff that didn’t fit the plumbing, etc!!! Can’t win :slight_smile:

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Sometimes new owners can do well for,themselves in terms of light fixtures. DH works in the business, and we ditched what the builder would have put in, and got some mighty nice (and expensive) fixtures at a very low cost. But I know ours was a unique situation!

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Roof trusses were delivered this morning and first 2 are already set. Its very exciting.

Meanwhile I have been helping my contractor friend’s daughter buy her first home in Pt Loma. Their offer was accepted yesterday and my carpenter, her father and I crawled through the whole place for an inspection today.

Address 1515 Chatsworth 92107

It’s a great buy that only needs cosmetic work but also needs a new roof and new windows

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Stylish Murphy bed!

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How nice of you to take the time to give your contractor friend’s daughter your input on the house, cb!

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Yes, I know that most other parts of the nation would laugh at the price for the Grandma house. This is one of the houses that is in good condition, but it is completely outdated. They fall through the cracks in this neighborhood. Buyers want Turn Key with everything updated. Investors want horrible distressed houses at low prices. There are no buyers in between.

After inspection of this house, the bones are excellent. But the house has been on the market for 3 weeks (a lifetime in this neighborhood) because buyers cannot see past the fact that it needs a new roof, exterior painting and new windows. All of that can be had for $15,000 if you work hard at it. It also is on a frontage road along a busy street which lowers the value. But we double checked it at different times of the day and there is no traffic noise in the house, only out in front standing at the curb.

It was listed at $925,000, then dropped to $890,000 last week. I knew what the sellers wanted, so the young couple made an offer. After it went pending, the listing agent (who happens to be the same listing agents that brought me Nipoma and my current project) dropped price again in MLS. I should not reveal what their final accepted offer was.

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PROGRESS UPDATE

We are moving at a fast pace.

The patio doors are installed on the top floor. I love love love the Nano / Accordion doors on the top deck. I hate hate hate how the views are getting chopped up as the walls are getting closed in.

We have started drywall on main floor addition. Suddenly the rooms are getting dark and a lot smaller :slight_smile: We have set the bathtub and finished the plumbing for bathtub and shower and are putting in the Denshield (waterproof board) to get ready for tile around the bathtub. I have to call for an inspection when the drywall is hung and then we will finish the taping and texture. I expect it will be done by Thursday next week.

New garage door is installed as I work towards trying to get the bottom and main floors completely secure so that I can move those @#$#Q^%$& 45 boxes of kitchen cabinets out of the kitchen because we are going to start laying floor on Monday. Those dang boxes have been in the way of everything we are trying to do. There are still spots on the kitchen ceiling that haven’t been painted because the roller handle didn’t reach far enough over the boxes. I thought I was doing really good having the cabinets delivered and ready, who would have known it would turn into a nightmare?? Normally we have a garage to store them but the garage was wide open so it wasn’t secure from theft.

Roof trusses have arrived!!! Now we can go to town and finish the top floor for inspection. I cannot call for inspection until roof trusses are installed and blocked in and the plywood has been installed on the roof. The guys invented a ladder and pulley system and pulled some up to the roof already and the first portion of the roof is set. I think they will all be set by the end of the day tomorrow.

I loaded pictures

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It just keeps getting better and better! If the rooms weren’t getting a bit darker, how could you put in fabulous lights?

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I am in love with the accordion doors!!! Great choice.

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With the installation of roof trusses, maybe more neighbors will contact the City about their diminishing view!

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Those accordion doors are fabulous. With the dumbwaiter, accordion doors, cool gate and all the other special touches you’re including, this house is going to be spectacular.

Although some people will always complain about something, I’d think the neighbors would breathe a sigh of relief seeing the moderate pitch to the roof. If I were a neighbor, I’d also appreciate that the new roof’s pitch is compatible with the existing structure, for a harmonious aesthetic.

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Oh my. This is all fabulous.

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Yesterday, as the guys were installing the first long roof truss, they were up on ladders standing another 6-8 ft above the floor. They started telling me all about how they could see forever… inland for miles, etc.They kept insisting that I should have put a roof deck on the house. I panicked thinking I had made a big $$$$ mistake by not adding a roof deck. I have another 4 ft of height allowance that I could have used for a roof deck.

However, there are at least 3 roof decks on the surrounding homes and I have only seen people on the deck once in the last 7 months… on July 4th with guests. Granted, I am not around at night or on Sunday afternoons. But, the amount of use for the cost does not seem to warrant a roof deck. Buyers think they are sexy, but I just don’t think they are that functional. Who wants to try to carry drinks and food up skinny steep spiral stairs to a deck where it’s really windy?

Anyway, as the guys started adding lumber to the roof I was just waiting for the City height police to start screaming down the alley with sirens, or a bunch of phone calls to start :slight_smile: Pretty sure the neighbors are watching carefully and are worried that something else is going up on the back of the house!

In the end, I climbed up to the top of the ladder. To my eyes I cannot see any further than existing view or see anything more interesting than the view we have from the top floor. So, I think the decision was a good one.

I just aborted another idea we had for the master bathroom. My agent was insisting that I should put in a Steam Shower in the master bathroom. I kind of had it in the back of my mind. So I discussed it with a contractor friend who came over. He has installed steam showers in high end homes in Del Mar and Rancho Santa Fe. He started to explain all the issues and how costly they are. First I have to buy a big steam generation unit which has to be mounted somewhere. Ooops, I really don’t have any space. I would have to build a bench in shower and put unit under the bench. By code we have to have an access panel to the back of the unit, similar to a jacuzzi. This means there would be a big access panel in the little sitting area wall behind the shower. Cost $1,500

Then we have to install a 220 outlet under the shower area. My building inspector has warned us that we are getting to the max of our 200w new main panel because of the code requirements for the electric car charger we installed in the garage. The steam unit is not on the plans, which might be another issue. We would have to run 220 ($400) up to shower which a long run of expensive wire and might max out the panel.

Then we have to buy all the little vents and controller for the shower $400. I have an issue that there is a pocket door on one end of the shower so we cannot install any plumbing in there. I think that kind of defeats the purpose if there aren’t little steam vents coming out of one wall. And, my friend told me that you have to do special sloping on the ceiling of the shower so that cold water condensation drops don’t come down onto the person in the shower.

And, finally, to have a fully enclosed steam shower I will have to drop my vaulted ceiling to a flat low ceiling or pay a huge amount of money for special custom glass walls and door going up to the slope that are fully sealed - I know that will add another $1,000

After discussing this with my agent she immediately said -Abort the Mission!! thank goodness

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Steam shower?! Felt like I had those for free this summer in Wisconsin with the 90+% humidity days. I wouldn’t use one in my bathroom - are there special health benefits??