Ran back and forth between the two projects today. Had a small team finishing everything up at the sale house and then I had to run over to the remodel project to have a meeting with the owners (read… pick up the weekly check so I can scrounge money to pay the guys. They haven’t been paid all week and I feel bad about it)
I made my flooring guy come back and start all over with the walnut floors. There was some kind of strange streaking showing up when the sun hit the floors. He buffed and applied a whole other coat on the floors. Buyer is now getting 2 coats of extra finish on the floors. But, I paid him so much I wanted a good job
My stucco guy is AWOL and he is supposed to come fix some small cracks and touchup the stucco. Painters are AWOL until Monday so I ran around touching up as much as I could without a roller or a sprayer.
I decided I need to have them pay through me for several reasons. My carpenter prefers to stay in payroll as much as possible because he is trying to build up social security for his future (rather than under the table) and it is really important to me that they are covered by workman’s comp insurance, which I have for them. I don’t want anyone liable for the cost of a workplace injury, especially me.
And, I prepare a full accounting for them of all the money spent on the Home Depot runs. Sometimes I have to buy things out of my own pocket. But for Home Depot, they gave my carpenter a large prepaid card to use for the daily runs. But I have to run off and get specialty stuff. The owners would not know what to buy and I know where to go.
No, I have not started my search for the next project. There will probably be a lag between projects this time.
But, next week I will send out emails to several agents that have contacted me to let them know I have cash available now and will be looking for my next project. I see two properties in Pt Loma in the MLS that are interesting, but I haven’t gone out to look at them yet.
CB, I will definitely post “the other side’s perspective” on inspections. We already had 2 done. I will post my report after we get this house inspected. We are not typical buyers though, because we know a lot about houses and are quite handy. Only major structural damage or something that requires a significant % of the price to mitigate will make us bail out after the inspection.
“What were the issues that caused you to cancel the prior contract??”
We were not under contract. In this market, buyers have to pre-inspect and wave inspection contingency with the offer. We pre-inspected and decided to bail out by not making an offer. The reason we did this is the gawdawful siding I mentioned earlier in the thread. The sellers stated that they remediated all issues 2 years ago, but we found the exact same issues. Either the sellers lied (or had no clue that some big stuff was not fixed by their contractors), or these issues would constantly creep up… In either case, it was not a good idea to proceed with the offer. The house sold on the offer date, but now I see that it sold for less than ask. The people who made the offer made it contingent on inspection, so I guess the discount was to fix the minor stuff like broken windows etc. our inspector found.
Saw this Hollywood style home in the open house section of the paper and had to share: http://www.sdlookup.com/MLS-160057369-1535_Loring_St_San_Diego_CA_92109 It was listed last year at $4,975,000. Pulled and relisted at $4,250,000. A bargain LOL! And looks like the pool has underwater windows so you can keep dolphins or put on diving shows or something.
And the garage fits your limo. The blue mosaic in the staircase reminds me of a set of stairs I once saw in a Carnival ship. I like the wine room - different from any cellar seen, for sure. And I always enjoy a good infinity pool.
I will post my report after we get this house inspected. We are not typical buyers though, because we know a lot about houses and are quite handy. Only major structural damage or something that requires a significant % of the price to mitigate will make us bail out after the inspection.